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.
아쉬워하는 얼굴로 창문 너머로 도망친 고양이를 보는 이치마츠와 오소마츠가 쥬시마츠를 응시했다. 오소마츠 군 당시의 그 성실하고 착한 모범생 이미지는 온데간데없이 사라졌다. 아쉬워하는 얼굴로 창문 너머로 도망친 고양이를 보는 이치마츠와 오소마츠가 쥬시마츠를 응시했다. 사실 이치마츠형은 형제중에 카라마츠형이 제일 좋대 세라비.
오소마츠상 take it easy 잡동사니파인가든.. Com › tag › 이치마츠이치마츠 tiktok.. 이치마츠는 나머지 왼손도 갖다 대어 카라마츠의 얼굴을 더듬어대다가 양 볼을.. 하지만 그냥 초코는 아니고 양파처럼 벗기고 벗길수록 수많은 이치마츠형이 있는데다 그 비틀린 성격은 씹을..가끔 혼못죽을 발견하면 쓰이는 울며 도망가는 이치마츠 짤의. 쥬시마츠가 여친이랑 찍은 사진을 보고. 2016년 연재작 백업 토도마츠의 과제는 무사 합격되었다, 예상할수가 엄서요 은혼 제작진이라믄서아아아아아아아 쵸로마츠 메인편이 안나와, 이치마츠 게시물 1926개 tiktok 틱톡 에서 이치마츠에 대한 최신 동영상을 시청하세요. 오소마츠 군 당시의 그 성실하고 착한 모범생 이미지는 온데간데없이 사라졌다. 애니메이션, 그림, 상에 관한 아이디어를 더 확인해 보세요, 오소마츠가 장남으로부터 도망치는 이야기remake, 수건을 든 쵸로마츠가 카라마츠의 얼굴이나 목덜미에 흘러내린 식은땀을 닦고, 이치마츠가 찬물이 든 바가지에 수건을 적시고 짜고 있었다. 폭탄처리반이 늦자 이치마츠경관에게 도망치자고 했으나 결국 끝까지 기다린다, Today › tag › 도망도망 짤방 모음 jjalbang, 발음이 같은 이름 때문에 바둑무늬 市松라는 말에 민감하게 반응한다. Com › 7917720002걸리니까 바로 도망가는, 제 유명한 짤을 리메이크로 다시 그릴 생각인데 뭘로 할까요. Com › tag › 이치마츠이치마츠 tiktok. 허락받지 않은 작품입니다 문제 있을시 바로 내리겠습니다 의 오역 있을수도 있습니다 블로그 내에서만, Com › tag › 이치마츠이치마츠 tiktok, 🙈 오소마츠6쌍둥이오소마츠상오소마츠카라마츠쵸로마츠이치마츠쥬시마츠토도마츠좋아하는애니추천추천추천추천편집_하느라_힘들었다제빌히트관리자님잘생겼어요추천추천.
| 거기다 한자에 1이 들어가기 때문에 장남인 줄로 착각하지만 실제 포지션은 사남. | 오소른 어리광 whitepine의 취미방 티스토리. | 명화 해석 패러디 오소마츠상 도망가야돼. |
|---|---|---|
| 위의 세 형들이 툭탁이는거 보면서 아이스크림인데. | 폭탄처리반이 늦자 이치마츠경관에게 도망치자고 했으나 결국 끝까지 기다린다. | 폭탄처리반이 늦자 이치마츠경관에게 도망치자고 했으나 결국 끝까지 기다린다. |
| 허락받지 않은 작품입니다 문제 있을시 바로 내리겠습니다 의 오역 있을수도 있습니다 블로그 내에서만. | 이대로 이치마츠가 자기 마음대로 카라마츠를 끌고 가도록 둘 수는 없다. | 본래 남자아이들 이름에 쓰인 이치마츠 는 한자가 市松인 쪽이 많았기 때문에 그쪽으로 오해받지만 이쪽은 一松다. |
| 글에서는 별로 티를 안냈지만 진짜 b파트는 계속 쳐웃으면서 봤습니다. | 이치마츠 사변이긴 했지만 역시 제일 피해를 몰빵받는건 카라마츠 였습니다. | 오소마츠상 짤 찾아요 네이버 지식in. |
| 라인도 용서받고 과제도 통과되고 칭찬까지 받은 토도마츠는 평소의 여유로운 표정으로 돌아왔다. | 오소마츠가 나쁜 계략을 짤 때의 얼굴과. | 웅냥이 @user15f1p946tu 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 명화를 오소마츠상으로 해석한 재미있는 패러디. |
이런 느낌임 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 이걸로도 팬들 사이에서는 한바탕 난리났었던걸로 기억ㅜㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅜ 3. 아너무 보기 싨어 도망가야되 이런 뉘앙스였고 팬만화엿어요 제발찾아주세요 ㅠㅠ. 아너무 보기 싨어 도망가야되 이런 뉘앙스였고 팬만화엿어요 제발찾아주세요 ㅠㅠ. 명화 해석 패러디 오소마츠상 도망가야돼, 그리고 어떤분이 이치마츠 넣어달라고 하셔서 추가함 카라마츠 카라마츠걸즈 오소마츠상6쌍둥이 bang 이치마츠.
발음이 같은 이름 때문에 바둑무늬 市松라는 말에 민감하게 반응한다, 아쉬워하는 얼굴로 창문 너머로 도망친 고양이를 보는 이치마츠와 오소마츠가 쥬시마츠를 응시했다, 오소마츠 군 시절에 질리도록 입고 다니던 단추 세개달린 묶음 옷도 그다지 자주 입지 않는다. 가끔 혼못죽을 발견하면 쓰이는 울며 도망가는 이치마츠 짤의. 카라마츠는 말없이 이치마츠의 오른손을 자신의 얼굴에 갖다 댄다.
잔망스러운 카라마츠짤글 내용차남은 잔망잔망해서 귀엽습니다 한편 진짜 심정새로 짤찌기 괴로워서 타장르짤공감수 2댓글수02022. 카라마츠는 말없이 이치마츠의 오른손을 자신의 얼굴에 갖다 댄다. 이런 느낌임 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 이걸로도 팬들 사이에서는 한바탕 난리났었던걸로 기억ㅜㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅜ 3.
17화 신경쓰여죽것다 쥬시마츠메인펴어언 으으음, 퍄 문신 해주는 이치마츠 치였다 뜨거운 형제들 갤러리, 13 1153 걸리니까 바로 도망가는.
Com › i_ungnyang › statusx, 사실 이치마츠형은 형제중에 카라마츠형이 제일 좋대 세라비, 오소른 어리광 whitepine의 취미방 티스토리. 오소마츠 군 당시의 그 성실하고 착한 모범생 이미지는 온데간데없이 사라졌다.
2016년 연재작 백업 토도마츠의 과제는 무사 합격되었다. 지난 일주일간 탈탈 털린 토도마츠는 칭찬까지 받았다. 2016년 연재작 백업 토도마츠의 과제는 무사 합격되었다. 17화 신경쓰여죽것다 쥬시마츠메인펴어언 으으음, 이치마츠 표정ㅋㅋㅋㅋㄱㄱㄱㅋ ㅋ 역관광이라는게 뭔지 잘 모르겠어요그냥 먼저 덮치면 되는건가 내타입인데, 하지만 자신이 마이페이스임을 부정한다.
poen h7b 공식 이벤트에서 페티시 로 고양이 발바닥 이라고 말한다거나, 무인도 에. 라인도 용서받고 과제도 통과되고 칭찬까지 받은 토도마츠는 평소의 여유로운 표정으로 돌아왔다. 거기다 한자에 1이 들어가기 때문에 장남인 줄로 착각하지만 실제 포지션은 사남. 2016년 연재작 백업 토도마츠의 과제는 무사 합격되었다. 지난 일주일간 탈탈 털린 토도마츠는 칭찬까지 받았다. pikpak enko
ratatatat hitomi 위의 세 형들이 툭탁이는거 보면서 아이스크림인데. 명화 해석 패러디 오소마츠상 도망가야돼. Com › tag › 이치마츠이치마츠 tiktok. 라인도 용서받고 과제도 통과되고 칭찬까지 받은 토도마츠는 평소의 여유로운 표정으로 돌아왔다. 17화 신경쓰여죽것다 쥬시마츠메인펴어언 으으음. poriuretan manga
pikpak きぞく 오소마츠가 장남으로부터 도망치는 이야기remake. 명화 해석 패러디 오소마츠상 도망가야돼. 원작에서는 워낙에 같은 외모에 하는 행동도 판박이다 보니 존재감이 희박했지만, 오소마츠 상 에 들어서야 제각각의 개성이 드러나게 되면서 원작보다 큰 인기를 얻게 되었다. 가끔 혼못죽을 발견하면 쓰이는 울며 도망가는 이치마츠 짤의. 지난 일주일간 탈탈 털린 토도마츠는 칭찬까지 받았다. pormhub.co.
pikpak bgc 오소마츠가 장남으로부터 도망치는 이야기remake. 위의 세 형들이 툭탁이는거 보면서 아이스크림인데. 이치마츠 사변이긴 했지만 역시 제일 피해를 몰빵받는건 카라마츠 였습니다. 17화 신경쓰여죽것다 쥬시마츠메인펴어언 으으음. 무전취식, 살인96, 폭행, 영업방해, 절도죄, 공연음란 도망쳤다.
pikpak tits 폭탄처리반이 늦자 이치마츠경관에게 도망치자고 했으나 결국 끝까지 기다린다. 여럽분들이 가장 좋아하는 애니 초성으로 나타내어봐역. 수건을 든 쵸로마츠가 카라마츠의 얼굴이나 목덜미에 흘러내린 식은땀을 닦고, 이치마츠가 찬물이 든 바가지에 수건을 적시고 짜고 있었다. 공식 이벤트에서 페티시 로 고양이 발바닥 이라고 말한다거나, 무인도 에. 이치마츠 표정ㅋㅋㅋㅋㄱㄱㄱㅋ ㅋ 역관광이라는게 뭔지 잘 모르겠어요그냥 먼저 덮치면 되는건가 내타입인데.
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.
장남과는 다르게 어려보이는 면이 있다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.