US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 3, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 3, 2026.
The global human rights system is in peril. Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed, threatening to take with it the architecture human rights defenders have come to rely on to advance norms and protect freedoms. To defy this trend, governments that still value human rights, alongside social movements, civil society, and international institutions, need to form a strategic alliance to push back.
To be fair, the downward spiral predated Trump’s reelection. The democratic wave that began over 50 years ago has given way to what scholars term a “democratic recession.” Democracy is now back to 1985 levels according to some metrics, with 72 percent of the world’s population now living under autocracy. Russia and China are less free today than 20 years ago. And so is the United States.
Of course, democracy is not a panacea for human rights violations; the US and other longtime democracies have their own histories of colonial crimes, racism, abusive justice systems, and wartime atrocities. More recently, authoritarian leaders have exploited public mistrust and anger to win elections and then dismantled the very institutions that brought them to power. Democratic institutions are crucial to represent the will of the people and keep power in check. It’s no surprise that whenever democracy is undermined, rights are too, as evident in recent years in India, Türkiye, the Philippines, El Salvador, and Hungary.
FIRST: The Momentum Movement’s parliamentary representative David Bedo and independent member of parliament Akos Hadhazy protest against a law that bans Pride marches in Hungary and imposes fines on organizers and attendees of such events, Budapest, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Ozan Köse/AFP via Getty Images
In this context, 2025 may be seen as a tipping point. In just 12 months, the Trump administration has carried out a broad assault on key pillars of US democracy and the global rules-based order, which the US, despite inconsistencies, was, with other states, instrumental in helping to establish.
In short order, Trump’s second-term administration has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.
Claiming a risk of “civilizational erasure” in Europe and leaning on racist tropes to cast entire populations as unwelcome in the US, the Trump administration has embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology. Immigrants and asylum seekers have been subjected to inhumane conditions and degrading treatment; 32 died in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2025, and as of mid-January 2026, an additional 4 have died. Masked immigration enforcement agents have targeted people of color, using excessive force, terrorizing communities, wrongfully arresting scores of citizens, and, most recently, unjustifiably killing two people in Minneapolis, whose deaths Human Rights Watch has documented.
The US president of course has the authority to tighten US borders and enforce stricter immigration policies. The administration is not, however, entitled to deny legal process to asylum seekers, mistreat undocumented migrants, or unlawfully discriminate. In a well-functioning democracy, no electoral mandate should supersede domestic legislation, constitutional protections, or international human rights law. Trump’s team has repeatedly bypassed these guardrails.
The violations have not stopped at the border. The Trump administration used a 1798 law to send hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to an infamous prison in El Salvador, where they were tortured and sexually abused. Its blatantly unlawful strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific extrajudicially killed more than 120 people whom Trump claims were drug traffickers.
US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 3, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 3, 2026.
After the US attacked Venezuela and apprehended its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, Trump claimed the US would “run” the country and control its vast oil reserves. Despite paying lip service to human rights concerns under Maduro at the United Nations, Trump has worked with the same repressive apparatus to further US interests. Many Western allies have chosen to stay silent about these lawless moves, perhaps fearing erratic tariffs and blowback to their alliances.
Trump’s foreign policy has upended the foundations of the rules-based order that seeks to advance democracy and human rights, even if imperfectly.
Trump has boasted that he doesn’t “need international law” as a constraint, only his “own morality.” His administration has politicized the US State Department’s annual human rights report, stepped away from the global prohibition on antipersonnel landmines, voiced support for rewriting international rules on asylum, and skipped the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of the US’ human rights record.
His administration withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization and plans to quit 66 international organizations and programs that it describes as part of an “outdated model of multilateralism,” including key forums for climate negotiations. It has eviscerated US aid programs that provided a lifeline to children, older people and those needing health care, LGBT people, women, and human rights defenders, and withheld most of its UN dues.
Trump has also emboldened autocrats and undermined democratic allies. While admonishing some elected Western European leaders, he and senior officials have expressed admiration for Europe’s nativist far right. He has favored autocrats such as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, while continuing decades of US support to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
His administration has unjustifiably imposed sanctions to punish respected Palestinian human rights organizations, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor and many of its judges, a UN special rapporteur, and for several months, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge and his wife.
The institutional response in the US to Trump’s power grabs has been shockingly muted. Much of Congress, controlled by his own party, has not challenged his supercharged expansion of executive power. The leaders of the US’ most powerful technology companies have made significant donations and sought to placate the president. Some big law firms and prestigious universities have made deals rather than assert their independence, and some media organizations seem afraid to attract the president’s ire.
Has the US switched sides on the human rights playing field? While US engagement with human rights institutions has always been selective, China and Russia have long pursued an illiberal agenda. They stand much to gain from a US government that now expresses open hostility to universal rights. China and Russia remain strategic rivals of the US, but all three countries are now led by leaders who share open disdain for norms and institutions that could constrain their power.
Police detain an activist outside the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, before lawmakers approved a bill that punishes online searches for information that is deemed “extremist,” in Moscow, June 3, 2026.
Together, they wield considerable economic, military, and diplomatic power. If they were to consistently act as allies of convenience to erode global rules, they could threaten the entire system. Already, a loose international network of countries such as North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar, Cuba, and Belarus work in concert with Russia and China. These leaders share very little ideologically but align in undermining human rights and promoting a regressive international agenda. In word and in practice, the US government is now helping them in this endeavor.
FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Kyodo News via Getty Images; SECOND: A television in a restaurant in Hong Kong shows a missile being launched during military exercises being held by China around the island of Taiwan, June 3, 2026. © 2022 Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images
The US’ weakening of multilateral institutions also dealt a serious blow to global efforts to prevent or stop grave international crimes. The “never again” movement, born from the horrors of the Holocaust and reignited by the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides, spurred the UN General Assembly to embrace the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in 2005. Meant to guide international intervention to prevent and stop atrocities in tandem with efforts to prosecute and punish serious crimes, R2P made a real difference in places like the Central African Republic and Kenya.
Today, R2P is rarely invoked and the ICC is under siege. In addition to Trump’s far-reaching sanctions, in December 2025 a Moscow court sentenced the ICC prosecutor and eight of its judges to prison terms in absentia. Moreover, despite being ICC fugitives, in 2025, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was welcomed by Donald Trump in Alaska, and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Hungary, an ICC member state at the time, at Orban’s invitation.
Twenty years ago, the US government and civil society were instrumental in galvanizing a response to mass atrocities in Darfur. Sudan is burning again, but this time under Trump, with relative impunity. Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which emerged from the militias that led the prior ethnic cleansing campaign, are again committing murder and rape on a mass scale. A growing body of evidence indicates that the UAE, a longtime US ally that recently made multi-billion-dollar deals with Trump, is providing the RSF with military support.
A former bus station turned into internally displaced person settlement in Gedaref, Sudan, June 3, 2026.
In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Israeli armed forces have committed acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, killing over 70,000 people since the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel and displacing the vast majority of Gaza’s population. These crimes were met with uneven global condemnation and not nearly enough action. Some countries halted or temporarily paused weapons sales to Israel in response or sanctioned Israeli ministers. Trump, however, continued a long-standing US policy of almost unconditional support to Israel, even as the International Court of Justice is weighing allegations of genocide and has issued binding orders under the Genocide Convention to protect Palestinians’ rights.
Trump announced in February an alarming US plan to transform Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” free of Palestinians, which would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing. As implementation of the 20-point Trump peace plan has stalled, the administration has further normalized the dispossession of Palestinians through its failure to publicly protest Israel’s regular killing of those approaching the “yellow line” that now divides Gaza, its ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes, and unlawful restrictions on humanitarian aid.
FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
In Ukraine, Trump’s peace efforts have consistently downplayed Russia’s responsibility for serious violations. These include indiscriminate bombing, coercing Ukrainians in occupied areas to serve in the Russian military, systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, and the use of quadcopter drones to hunt and kill civilians. Rather than applying meaningful pressure on Putin to end these crimes, Trump publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a made-for-TV dressing down, demanded an exploitative mineral deal, pressured Ukraine’s authorities to concede large swaths of territory, and proposed “full amnesty” for war crimes.
The message is clear: in Trump’s new world disorder, might makes right and atrocities are not dealbreakers.
A man stands in the courtyard of his house following a Russian strike on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, June 3, 2026.
생윤림잇 처음들을 때 진짜 개노잼이였는데 윤사림잇듣고 친해지니까 괜찮았고 막 개꿀잼 이런건 아님 이지영 김종익은 개념 이름에서 드립친다면 이모티비좀 임정환은 개념 너머로 드립침 칸트가 컬잡고 쓰러진다. Tvn드라마 졸업갤러리 입니다 졸업 드라마 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 일타강사 이지영 댓글달았네 졸업 드라마 마이너 갤러리. Com › popular › 이지영이지영 246k reels on instagram.
사실 이건 매우 간단한 광고차단 + 플래시를 차단하는 방법이고 이거한다고 100% 랜섬웨어 안걸린다고 자부할 수는 없지만.. 03 0749 괜찮아훌륭햄 정승제는 트로트 광신도 ㄷㄷ 2.. 결혼 지옥 ‘맥심 여신’ 박민정 6월 결혼예비신랑은 ‘핫소스’ 송형주 ‘연매출 30억’ 양준혁 3000평 방어 양식장 공개장민호 먹방 대박 볼보코리아 바퀴 달린 스마트폰 시대 열겠다..사실 이건 매우 간단한 광고차단 + 플래시를 차단하는 방법이고 이거한다고 100% 랜섬웨어 안걸린다고 자부할 수는 없지만. Days ago 총 8주간 진행되는 심화 커리큘럼이다, 이지영 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 매미킴 김동현의 밈이 화제가 되고 있습니다. 13 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보. 이지영은 이 영상이 진짜 ㄹㅇ 레전드임 한석원 마이너 갤러리. 반면 결혼에 대한 질문에 이지영 강사는 결혼 생각이 없다며 데이트를 하려고 해도 시간이 맞지 않는다고 언급했다. 이지영 심기일전 안했으면 좋겠다 열심히할게 2023. Kr › article › view포토 이지영 제 몸매 어때요. 아들들은 이지영 강사의 담당 셰프가 만들어준 도시락을 먹으며 사자성어 사행시를 하기 시작했다, 이지영이 최악의 강사인 이유 한석원 마이너 갤러리. 03 0356 이지영 이기상 정승제 유재석은 진짜 믿는다 인천국제공항 2020. 이지영은 이 영상이 진짜 ㄹㅇ 레전드임 한석원 마이너 갤러리, Kr › article › view포토 이지영 제 몸매 어때요. 이지영은 맨날 바쁘다고 뭐라하면서 유튜브 찍고 돈자랑만 해댐 디시미디어, Com › popular › 이지영이지영 246k reels on instagram.
Com › mgallery › board이지영 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 궁금하지도 않은 과거사 자꾸 부풀려서 본인이 여신이라는걸 학생들한테 주입식으로 강조 2, 이론을 이해시킬 생각은 안하고 쌍팔년대 시절 무지성 필기량으로 때려박는 수업 이지영 강. Jyp 엔터테인먼트 4본부장 이지영 사내이사에 관한 얘기를 나누는 갤러리입니다 이지영jyp 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요, 이지영은 이 영상이 진짜 ㄹㅇ 레전드임 한석원 마이너 갤러리. 03 0749 괜찮아훌륭햄 정승제는 트로트 광신도 ㄷㄷ 2.
Com › mgallery › board이지영 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드, 스턱픽셀 디시 디테일의 차이를 만드는 몇가지 미드저니 사용 노하우를 소개합니다. 이투스 이지영 이지영 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요, 이제봤는데 말투가 그냥 가식같고 듣기싫음 전도사같아, Com › board › view연봉 100억 이지영, 결혼 생각 없어데이트를 하려고 해도 시간, 생활과 윤리 마이너 설정 new 연관 글쓰기 차단 설정 머리말∙꼬리말 설정 ai 이미지 간편 등록new 일반 이지영 선생님 강의 개선됐으면 하는 점 생갤러 61.
생윤림잇 처음들을 때 진짜 개노잼이였는데 윤사림잇듣고 친해지니까 괜찮았고 막 개꿀잼 이런건 아님 이지영 김종익은 개념 이름에서 드립친다면 이모티비좀 임정환은 개념 너머로 드립침 칸트가 컬잡고 쓰러진다. 이지영 야구, 빅마마 이지영, 이지영 강사 미드 and more. 아들들은 이지영 강사의 담당 셰프가 만들어준 도시락을 먹으며 사자성어 사행시를 하기 시작했다. 이지영은 맨날 바쁘다고 뭐라하면서 유튜브 찍고 돈자랑만 해댐 디시미디어, 이지영과 조정식 강사의 연봉 차이와 가치에 대해 알아보세요. 이지영은 맨날 바쁘다고 뭐라하면서 유튜브 찍고 돈자랑만 해댐 디시미디어.
| Com › board › lifethics이지영 선생님 강의 개선됐으면 하는 점 생활과 윤리 마이너 갤러리. | 이지영 기사보니 50억 기부했다는데 어디에다가 한거임. |
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| 스턱픽셀 디시 디테일의 차이를 만드는 몇가지 미드저니 사용 노하우를 소개합니다. | Tvn드라마 졸업갤러리 입니다 졸업 드라마 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. |
| 20살의 상큼 발랄한 매력의 남성들의 마음을 뒤. | 걸그룹→sbs아나운서→미녀 스타강사로 인생이 이렇게. |
돈많은거 존나 부럽긴 한데 그냥 웃김ㅋㅋㅋ 마우스 커서를 올리면 이미지 순서를 onoff 할 수 있습니다, 98k followers, 1 following, 487 posts 이지영 official @leejiyoung_official on instagram 풍요와 감사의 마음 ♡ 당신은 소중한 존재입니다, 반면 결혼에 대한 질문에 이지영 강사는 결혼 생각이 없다며 데이트를 하려고 해도 시간이 맞지 않는다고 언급했다.
Kr › article › view포토 이지영 제 몸매 어때요, Com › board › view연봉 100억 이지영, 결혼 생각 없어데이트를 하려고 해도 시간, 이지영 심기일전 안했으면 좋겠다 열심히할게 2023. 이와 동시에 이다지 강사 인스타그램뿐만 아니라 남편, 결혼, 임신에 대한 루머와.
ㅈㄱㄴ+터무니없이 지식이 얕다고 까는게 아니라대표적으로 이번 6월 평가원 시험에서 이지영이 동물중심주의이자 공리주의자인 싱어를 두고 싱어가 내재적가치를 중시한다는 표현을 o라고 가르치길래 충격을 받았어공리주의자는 내재적가치라는 개념을 쓰지않거든 이걸 지엽적이고 수능과. 돈많은거 존나 부럽긴 한데 그냥 웃김ㅋㅋㅋ 마우스 커서를 올리면 이미지 순서를 onoff 할 수 있습니다. 궁금하지도 않은 과거사 자꾸 부풀려서 본인이 여신이라는걸 학생들한테 주입식으로 강조2. 걸그룹→sbs아나운서→미녀 스타강사로 인생이 이렇게. 이지영 이새끼는 진짜 철이 안든거 같음 시대인재 n 재수. Watch short videos about 이지영 from people around the world.
네즈코 섹스 매미킴 김동현의 밈이 화제가 되고 있습니다. 궁금하지도 않은 과거사 자꾸 부풀려서 본인이 여신이라는걸 학생들한테 주입식으로 강조 2. ㅈㄱㄴ+터무니없이 지식이 얕다고 까는게 아니라대표적으로 이번 6월 평가원 시험에서 이지영이 동물중심주의이자 공리주의자인 싱어를 두고 싱어가 내재적가치를 중시한다는 표현을 o라고 가르치길래 충격을 받았어공리주의자는 내재적가치라는 개념을 쓰지않거든 이걸 지엽적이고 수능과. Jyp 엔터테인먼트 4본부장 이지영 사내이사에 관한 얘기를 나누는 갤러리입니다 이지영jyp 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 생윤림잇 처음들을 때 진짜 개노잼이였는데 윤사림잇듣고 친해지니까 괜찮았고 막 개꿀잼 이런건 아님 이지영 김종익은 개념 이름에서 드립친다면 이모티비좀 임정환은 개념 너머로 드립침 칸트가 컬잡고 쓰러진다. 놀쟈 공식
남1여2 디시 03 0749 괜찮아훌륭햄 정승제는 트로트 광신도 ㄷㄷ 2. 03 0356 이지영 이기상 정승제 유재석은 진짜 믿는다 인천국제공항 2020. 생활과 윤리 마이너 설정 new 연관 글쓰기 차단 설정 머리말∙꼬리말 설정 ai 이미지 간편 등록new 일반 이지영 선생님 강의 개선됐으면 하는 점 생갤러 61. Tvn드라마 졸업갤러리 입니다 졸업 드라마 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 매미킴 김동현의 밈이 화제가 되고 있습니다. 남친한텐 비밀이야
놀쟈 대 일타강사 이지영 댓글달았네 졸업 드라마 마이너 갤러리. Com › mgallery › board이지영 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 걸그룹→sbs아나운서→미녀 스타강사로 인생이 이렇게. 03 0356 이지영 이기상 정승제 유재석은 진짜 믿는다 인천국제공항 2020. 이지영은 이 영상이 진짜 ㄹㅇ 레전드임 한석원 마이너 갤러리. 남자 반곱슬 펌 디시
노윤서 노출 03 0749 괜찮아훌륭햄 정승제는 트로트 광신도 ㄷㄷ 2. 걸그룹→sbs아나운서→미녀 스타강사로 인생이 이렇게. 98k followers, 1 following, 487 posts 이지영 official @leejiyoung_official on instagram 풍요와 감사의 마음 ♡ 당신은 소중한 존재입니다. 이지영이 최악의 강사인 이유 한석원 마이너 갤러리. 이지영 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.
네이버웹툰 히토미 이지영은 맨날 바쁘다고 뭐라하면서 유튜브 찍고 돈자랑만 해댐 디시미디어. 돈많은거 존나 부럽긴 한데 그냥 웃김ㅋㅋㅋ 마우스 커서를 올리면 이미지 순서를 onoff 할 수 있습니다. 20살의 상큼 발랄한 매력의 남성들의 마음을 뒤. 아들들은 이지영 강사의 담당 셰프가 만들어준 도시락을 먹으며 사자성어 사행시를 하기 시작했다. 이제봤는데 말투가 그냥 가식같고 듣기싫음 전도사같아.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 3, 2026.
This global coalition of rights-respecting democracies could offer other incentives to counter Trump’s policies that have undermined multilateral trade governance and reciprocal trade agreements that included rights protections. Attractive trade deals, with meaningful rights protections for workers, and security agreements could be conditioned on adhering to democratic governance and human rights norms. Democracy already comes with benefits. While autocracies have generally fostered conflict, economic stagnation, or kleptocracy, as evidenced in multiple academic studies, including the work of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu, democratic institutions reliably yield economic growth.
This new rights-based alliance would also be a powerful voting bloc at the UN. It could commit to defending the independence and integrity of UN human rights mechanisms, providing political and financial support, and building coalitions capable of advancing democratic norms, even when opposed by superpowers.
Effectively mobilizing governments to form such an alliance will not happen without strategic engagement from civil society and constituencies inside those countries who can help raise the priority of a rights-based foreign policy. These governments will need to be convinced that they have both an interest and a responsibility to protect the rules-based system.
Projects of this nature are bubbling up. Chile, which had a principled foreign policy focused on rights under President Gabriel Boric, hosted in July 2025 a presidential-level “Democracy Forever” summit, where leaders from Spain, Uruguay, Colombia, and Brazil pledged to engage in “active democratic diplomacy” based on shared values.
The Hague Group, led by Malaysia, South Africa, and Colombia, formed in January 2025 in “defense of international law” and in solidarity with Palestinians. Over 70 countries from all regions signed a joint statement defending multilateralism at the UN. Earlier, in 2017, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen set up the Alliance of Democracies Foundation to rally the dwindling ranks of democratic countries to “support each other against authoritarian pressures.”
Whatever its precise contours, an alliance of rights-respecting democracies would offer a hopeful counterpoint to the authoritarian trope of China’s and Russia’s leaders standing alongside North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, observing military hardware in a parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in September. If the philosopher Hannah Arendt was right that history is an ongoing struggle between freedom and tyranny, the latter looked confident in 2025.
Yet, even in the worst of times, the idea of freedom and human rights is enduring. People power remains an engine for change. In the US, “No Kings” marches have drawn millions, protesters in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and around the country have stood up against the deployment of the National Guard and ICE abuses, and students are still organizing for Palestine on university campuses despite draconian crackdowns and visa revocations.
People gather facing law enforcement after marching through downtown Austin, Texas at the conclusion of the "No Kings Day" demonstration in the US, June 3, 2026.
Buoyed by popular resistance, South Korean parliamentarians impeached their president to prevent him from grabbing power through martial law. Grassroots aid efforts by Sudan’s emergency response rooms, Hong Kong’s fire relief, Sri Lanka’s cyclone relief community kitchens, and Ukrainian mutual aid and solidarity collectives represent the best of this trend.
In 2025, Gen Z protests against corruption, inadequate public services, and poor governance in Nepal, Indonesia, and Morocco brought to the forefront the need for governments to listen to their youth and tackle corruption and inequality. But as the difficulties of restoring rights in Bangladesh after years under an authoritarian government illustrates, gains won through public mobilization can easily be lost unless democratic participation and free expression remain unassailable.
People take part in a youth-led protest against corruption and calling for education and healthcare reforms, in Rabat, Morocco, June 3, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 3, 2026.
In this more hostile world, civil society is more critical than ever. It’s also increasingly endangered, particularly in an environment where funding is scarce. In 2025, Human Rights Watch was labeled “undesirable” and banned from operating in Russia. For partners in Egypt, Hong Kong, and India, these tactics are all too familiar. Restrictions on civil society and protest have become more commonplace in Europe, including the UK and France. And now, for the first time, many worry about risks associated with their operational presence in the US, where the Open Society Foundations, a major donor, have already been threatened, and the administration is preparing a list of “domestic terrorists” under overbroad guidance that could be interpreted to include the work of many progressive groups.
Breaking the authoritarian wave and standing up for human rights is a generational challenge. In 2026, it will play out most acutely in the US, with far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world. Fighting back will require a determined, strategic, and coordinated reaction from voters, civil society, multilateral institutions, and rights-respecting governments around the globe.
생활과 윤리 마이너 설정 new 연관 글쓰기 차단 설정 머리말∙꼬리말 설정 ai 이미지 간편 등록new 일반 이지영 선생님 강의 개선됐으면 하는 점 생갤러 61., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.