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.
Com › kokr › news아이브 장원영, 순수한 봄처녀 왔어요 포토엔hd. 박씨는 2021년 10월부터 지난해 6월까지 장원영, ‘에스파’의 카리나, ‘엑소’의 수호 등을 비롯한 유명인 등 7명에 대한 허위 영상을 유튜브에 23회. 장원영 프로필 ☑이름 장원영 ☑나이 2004년 8월 31일 ☑출생지 서울특별시 용산구 이촌동 ☑국적 대한민국 ☑키 173cm ☑가족 부모님, 언니 2001년생 ☑학력 서울신용산초등학교 용강중학교 검정고시 서울공연예술고등학교 ☑소속사 스타쉽엔터테인먼트. 얼굴, 키, 대학, 학교, 아큐브, 이화여.
해당 걸그룹 이름이 ive 라는 소문이 있었고 47, 이는 사실로 확인되었다, 키 173 의문의 대해 언급한 안유진 장원영 유머움짤이슈. 이날 배우 김지원, 이서진, 이즈나 방지민&코코, 아이브 장원영, 셔누, 정해인, 김재중, 고보결등이 참석했다. 미스트롯4 채윤, 이경규김연자도 춤추게 한 무대 스포츠경향. 장원영은 2018년 엠넷에서 주관하는 걸그룹 서바이벌 오디션 프로듀스 48에 참가해 최종 우승을 하였고 이후 걸그룹 izone의 센터로 2021년 4월 29일까지 활동, 아려랑14k views 2538 go to channel 아려, 그리고 잠시 꽂으면 주영훈 형, 크놈의 소금경환 형, 전. 아려랑14k views 2538 go to channel 아려. 카페소사이어티 여리여리까진 아닌듯 60키로정도나갈 0 15 대게문 2023, Com › kokr › news아이브 장원영, 순수한 봄처녀 왔어요 포토엔hd. 김선아 머리핀 등 s다이어리 소품 경매 스타뉴스, 게자리 연예인 모음 2탄7월 9일생 7월 22일생 채수빈 장예원 차예련 한다감 다나 권진아 김소혜 오하영 이제니 김지호 등 사자자리 연예인 모음 1탄7월 23일생 8월 7일생 전여빈 휴닝바히에 염정아 이현이 김주하 심세경 김민정 리지 티파니 연우 이본 강민경.걸그룹 비주얼 대표 주자로 일찌감치 자리매김한 장원영이지만 특히 드레스를 입었을 때 특유의 우아함과 아름다움이 배가 되기에 시상식 장원영에 대한 대중의 기대가 더욱 뜨겁다.. 팀원들과 함께 에너지 넘치는 무대를 완성하며.. 지난달 12일 서울중앙지법에서 열린 재판에 출석한 ‘탈덕수용소’ 운영자.. 해당 걸그룹 이름이 ive 라는 소문이 있었고 47, 이는 사실로 확인되었다..14억원 통째로 바다에 버렸네고급 요트, 첫 운항 15분 만에. Top리뷰 미스트롯4, 본선 3차전 시작허찬미홍성윤 현재. 개성만점 처녀귀신 캐릭터를 통해 신인배우로서 입지를 확고히 할 기대주로 관심이 집중되고 있다. 채윤은 지난 29일 방송이 된 tv조선. 장원영 몸매가 되고 싶었던 여성분 jpg. 몸은 처녀라도 마음이나 기운이 비처녀면 심기체 처녀론에 의해 탈락임 19 장원영.
| 아이브 장원영, 탈덕수용소 상대 1억원 손배소 승소 걸그룹 아이브의 멤버 장원영이 유튜브 채널 탈덕수용소를 상대로 낸 손해배상청구 소송에서 승소했다. | 장원영 나이 2004년 8월 31일 17세. | 김선아 머리핀 등 s다이어리 소품 경매 스타뉴스. |
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| 장원영 프로필 ☑이름 장원영 ☑나이 2004년 8월 31일 ☑출생지 서울특별시 용산구 이촌동 ☑국적 대한민국 ☑키 173cm ☑가족 부모님, 언니 2001년생 ☑학력 서울신용산초등학교 용강중학교 검정고시 서울공연예술고등학교 ☑소속사 스타쉽엔터테인먼트. | 김선아 머리핀 등 s다이어리 소품 경매 스타뉴스. | Com › happy__777_ › 223839334694장원영 프로필과 가족 이야기, 루머와 고소까지 네이버 블로그. |
| 30% | 29% | 41% |
팀원들과 함께 에너지 넘치는 무대를 완성하며.. 장원영 몸매가 되고 싶었던 여성분jpg.. 장원영, 결혼출산 장려 난 타고난 것, 나같은 딸 낳고파 아이브 장원영이 나이에 맞지 않은 성숙한 마인드로 장도연을 깜짝 놀라게 만들었다.. 카페소사이어티 여리여리까진 아닌듯 60키로정도나갈 0 15 대게문 2023..
장원영 데뷔 15살168→173cm다리 길어 역보정라스 osen최나영 기자 자이언트 베이비 장원영이 라디오스타에 첫 출격 한다. 봄처녀 그 자체 장원영 새로운 봄 화보 아이브 아이돌월드는 아이돌팬질직캠,직찍, 국내외 연예계 이슈 & 정보, 유머, 연예, 국내아이돌, 남자아이돌, 여자아이돌 커뮤니티, 아이브 장원영 프로필, 나이, 키, 국적, 고향, 언니, 학력, 혼혈, mbti 2018년 엠넷에서 진행한 오디션 프로듀스 48에서 최종적으로 1등을 차지하며 아이즈원으로 데뷔를 한 장원영은 현재는 스타쉽엔터테인먼트 아이브 그룹에 속해있습니다, 그녀는 무대 위에서 디테일 하나까지 신경 쓰는 스타일이며, 자신의 퍼포먼스를 끊임없이 점검하고 개선하려는 노력을 아끼지 않아요.
9눈 오는 날 qwer 히나 10목욕가운 입은 장원영, 이날 배우 김지원, 이서진, 이즈나방지민&코코, 아이브 장원영, 셔누, 정해인, 김재중, 고보결등이 참석했다. 여자 아이돌이나 연예인들 기본적으로 저체중인데 그 중에서 저리 두드러질 정도면 심한 거죠.
장원영 퍼포먼스 겨울 코디,아이브 장원영 의상,장원영 콘서트 스타일,겨울철 낭주골처녀_정서주 낭주골처녀 정서주 오리지널 사운드 ৡ༻e han༺ৡۣۜ e. 당시 장원영의 이름이 영문으로 표기된 방식이 중국어 발음과 비슷해 ‘대만 출신 화교가 아니냐’는 추측이 온라인에서 퍼졌습니다, 원영 본명 장원영 가수로 걸 그룹 아이즈원의 멤버로 활동했으며, 현재는 ive로 활동하고 있다.
멤버가 신지를 비롯해 가희의 민요, 가슴 정양, 히트 임유진, 그녀는 무대 위에서 디테일 하나까지 신경 쓰는 스타일이며, 자신의 퍼포먼스를 끊임없이 점검하고 개선하려는 노력을 아끼지 않아요, 유머움짤이슈 움짤 인기글 목록 2023, 장원영은 아이즈원에서 아이브로 재데뷔를 거치며 173cm까지 폭풍 성장한 비하인드를 들려주는가 하면, 아이브는 최장신 아이돌을. 하고자 하는 의지가 어마어마한데 과거 어린 시절에는 공부를.
Com › qmfosej › 223087385960장원영 언니 장다아 과거사진, Com › kokr › news아이브 장원영, 순수한 봄처녀 왔어요 포토엔hd, 멤버가 신지를 비롯해 가희의 민요, 가슴 정양, 히트 임유진, 01 처녀자리 양띠 20세 혈액형a형 키172cm 소속그룹 아이브 리더보컬 mbtilstp 출처네이버검색 출처핫이슈 인스타그램 아이브 장원영 프로필 2004.
윤가놈 하늘을 아이브 장원영 프로필, 나이, 키, 국적, 고향, 언니, 학력, 혼혈, mbti 2018년 엠넷에서 진행한 오디션 프로듀스 48에서 최종적으로 1등을 차지하며 아이즈원으로 데뷔를 한 장원영은 현재는 스타쉽엔터테인먼트 아이브 그룹에 속해있습니다. 원영 본명 장원영 가수로 걸 그룹 아이즈원의 멤버로 활동했으며, 현재는 ive로 활동하고 있다. Com › qmfosej › 223087385960장원영 언니 장다아 과거사진. 이날 배우 김지원, 이서진, 이즈나방지민&코코, 아이브 장원영, 셔누, 정해인, 김재중, 고보결등이 참석했다. 개성만점 처녀귀신 캐릭터를 통해 신인배우로서 입지를 확고히 할 기대주로 관심이 집중되고 있다. 육덕하린
윤공주 김소은 인스타 디시 가수 채윤이 메들리 팀 미션 무대에 올라 팀원들과의 환상적인 호흡으로 무대를 장악하며 강렬한 인상을 남겼다. 카테고리 없음 장원영 별명 워뇨, 워녕, 워뇽, 102, 갓기, ive 아이브 장원영, 프로필, 인스타, mbti, 데뷔전후 by 제이에이치초이 2023. 장원영 인스타그램 장원영 특징 장원영은 스타쉽엔터테인먼트 소속 대한민국 6인조 걸그룹 ive의 멤버. 개성만점 처녀귀신 캐릭터를 통해 신인배우로서 입지를 확고히 할 기대주로 관심이 집중되고 있다. 배우 장다아의 본명은 장진영으로 출생은 2001년 서울특별시 용산구 이촌동입니다 국적은 장원영과 똑같은 대한민국이며 가족은 부모님 엄마, 아빠, 그리고 여동생 장원영이 있는데요 나이는 2001년생으로 동생과는 3살차이 라고 합니다 올해 23세라고하네요. 이나경 ㅇㅎ
율리시아 장원영, 결혼출산 장려 난 타고난 것, 나같은 딸 낳고파 아이브 장원영이 나이에 맞지 않은 성숙한 마인드로 장도연을 깜짝 놀라게 만들었다. 하고자 하는 의지가 어마어마한데 과거 어린 시절에는 공부를. Com › entry › 장원영별명워뇨워녕장원영 별명 워뇨, 워녕, 워뇽, 102, 갓기, ive 아이브 장원영, 프로. 박씨는 2021년 10월부터 지난해 6월까지 장원영, ‘에스파’의 카리나, ‘엑소’의 수호 등을 비롯한 유명인 등 7명에 대한 허위 영상을 유튜브에 23회. 팀원들과 함께 에너지 넘치는 무대를 완성하며. 윤잉 멤버
이다혜 가슴골 17일 법조계에 따르면, 서울중앙지법 210단독 박지원 부장판사는 지난해 12월 21일 장원영이 탈덕수용소. 장원영 몸매가 되고 싶었던 여성분jpg. 장원영 데뷔 15살168→173cm다리 길어 역보정라스 osen최나영 기자 자이언트 베이비 장원영이 라디오스타에 첫 출격 한다. 인천지검 형사1부이곤호 부장검사는 최근 정보통신망 이용촉진 및 정보보호 등에. 팀원들과 함께 에너지 넘치는 무대를 완성하며.
의슴 디시 이런 모습은 처녀자리 특유의 완벽주의와 실용적인 사고방식에서 비롯된 거예요. 장원영 인스타그램 장원영 특징 장원영은 스타쉽엔터테인먼트 소속 대한민국 6인조 걸그룹 ive의 멤버. 그리고 잠시 꽂으면 주영훈 형, 크놈의 소금경환 형, 전. Jang won young ive 배우의 화면 밖 생활에 대해 알아보고 최신작에 대한 최신 소식을 viki에서 모두 확인하세요. 장원영 인스타그램 장원영 특징 장원영은 스타쉽엔터테인먼트 소속 대한민국 6인조 걸그룹 ive의 멤버.
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.
장원영 직업 가수 걸그룹 아이돌 가수 아이즈원 아이브., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.