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.
172 ㅋㅋ주유소 얘기만나오면 지 괴롭혔던 일진이 주유소에서 알바하고있길래 nf소나타 쳐타고가서 이나이에 알바나하냐고 꼽털었는데 알고보니 일진 아빠가 금마한테 주유소 물려줘서 사장이었다는 썰밖에 생각안남ㅋㅋㅋ 2023. 지금부터라도 좀 하려고 에스오일 난 추천. Com › board › view시발 주유소에서 기름 역류함 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 신한카드 deep oil로 속 깊은 주유혜택, 직접고른 주유소 10%, 정비소주차장 10%, 편의점커피택시 5% 할인까지.
처음부터 셀프주유소 알아보던건 아니었고 편의점 알바 구하다 자리가 하도 없어서 다른거 찾아보다 보여서 지원해봄세차기 있는곳 가면 안된다고 들었는데 당장 다음달 월세 나가야되서 그냥 했음저번주는 비가오고 전반적으로 날. 주유소에도 좋은 주유소와 나쁜 주유소가 존재하기 때문이다. Ok캐쉬백포인트는 sk주유소충전소 및 ok캐쉬백 모든 제휴사가맹점에서 사용 가능합니다.우선 전 그전에도 일반주유소에서 두달 가량을 일해본 학생입니다.. 프로젝트 좀보이드 리버사이드 리버사이드는 로즈우드 다음으로 초보자들에게 추천하는 시작 도시이다..
| ※각 시설란에 기재된 참고 요금은 당일 read more. | 저희 동네에 개인이 운영하는 고급유 주유소 고급유만 회전율 낮아보임는 고급유 가격 변화가 아주 더딥니다. | 처음부터 셀프주유소 알아보던건 아니었고 편의점 알바 구하다 자리가 하도 없어서 다른거 찾아보다 보여서 지원해봄세차기 있는곳 가면 안된다고 들었는데 당장 다음달 월세 나가야되서 그냥 했음저번주는 비가오고 전반적으로 날. |
|---|---|---|
| 주유소 직원새끼는 뭐 새벽 근무자 아퍼서 없으니 낮시간에 연락하라고 써붙이고 존나 전화 쳐해도 안받더니 119 부르니까 갑자기 안에서 자다 튀어나옴 레전드 직무유기 ㅋㅋㅋ 그러면서 극강 귀찮음 모드로 책임회피 배째모드 ㅋㅋㅋ. | 프로젝트 좀보이드 리버사이드 리버사이드는 로즈우드 다음으로 초보자들에게 추천하는 시작 도시이다. | 주유소 돈 못번다 투자대비 별로다 하는데 니들 잘생각해봐라 니들 동네 주위에 가게들이 몇번 바뀌었는지 셀수도 없을텐데 어렸을때부터 있던 주유는 보통 그대로 있을걸 잘안망하는 직종이야 2 szz 2023. |
| ※각 시설란에 기재된 참고 요금은 당일 read more. | 기프트카드 또는 sc제일은행 제휴 체크카드를 제외한 나머지는 연회비가 붙는다. | 디시인사이드에서 욕먹은 제 이타샤주유소 직원의 사과. |
| 요즘 나오는 차는 운전석 잠금장치를 해제하면 밖에서 연료 주입구를 터치해 여는 경우도 있으니 참고해 주세요. | 안녕하세요 제가 작년 2021년에 첫 알바로 셀프 주유소에서 약 반년간 아르바이트를 했었는데 당시 정보가 부족했고 궁금한 것도 많았던 기억이 떠올라 글을 작성하게 되었습니다. | 172 ㅋㅋ주유소 얘기만나오면 지 괴롭혔던 일진이 주유소에서 알바하고있길래 nf소나타 쳐타고가서 이나이에 알바나하냐고 꼽털었는데 알고보니 일진 아빠가 금마한테 주유소 물려줘서 사장이었다는 썰밖에 생각안남ㅋㅋㅋ 2023. |
| 31% | 22% | 47% |
대게 운전석 문, 운전석 왼쪽 의자 아래, 핸들 왼쪽 하단에 위치하는 경우가 많습니다. 진짜 질문받는다 가짜기름 안쓴다 씹련들아 기름값 내가 정하는거 아니다 다음주되면 5060원 오를꺼라고 정유사에 통보받았다 주유소 노란거한다. 신한카드 deep oil로 속 깊은 주유혜택, 직접고른 주유소 10%, 정비소주차장 10%, 편의점커피택시 5% 할인까지, 모르면 무조건 손해보는 좋은 주유소 선택하는 꿀팁운전자라면 주유소는 반드시 들려야 할 곳이다. 얘들아 주유소 근처 지나갈때 조심해라 쿠팡이츠&배민, 온도가 내려가면 기름 밀도가 커지기에 여름보단 겨울에 한낮보단 새벽에 주유.
172 ㅋㅋ주유소 얘기만나오면 지 괴롭혔던 일진이 주유소에서 알바하고있길래 nf소나타 쳐타고가서 이나이에 알바나하냐고 꼽털었는데 알고보니 일진 아빠가 금마한테 주유소 물려줘서 사장이었다는 썰밖에 생각안남ㅋㅋㅋ 2023. 얘들아 주유소 근처 지나갈때 조심해라 쿠팡이츠&배민, 38 최저가 1512 최고가 2670.
62 우리집도 주유소5개 대리점 가치했었다 세무조사맞아서 망한지 10년됨ㅋㅋ 2019.. 주유소 직원새끼는 뭐 새벽 근무자 아퍼서 없으니 낮시간에 연락하라고 써붙이고 존나 전화 쳐해도 안받더니 119 부르니까 갑자기 안에서 자다 튀어나옴 레전드 직무유기 ㅋㅋㅋ 그러면서 극강 귀찮음 모드로 책임회피 배째모드 ㅋㅋㅋ.. 대게 운전석 문, 운전석 왼쪽 의자 아래, 핸들 왼쪽 하단에 위치하는 경우가 많습니다.. 신한카드 deep oil로 속 깊은 주유혜택, 직접고른 주유소 10%, 정비소주차장 10%, 편의점커피택시 5% 할인까지..
62 우리집도 주유소5개 대리점 가치했었다 세무조사맞아서 망한지 10년됨ㅋㅋ 2019, 저희 동네에 개인이 운영하는 고급유 주유소 고급유만 회전율 낮아보임는 고급유 가격 변화가 아주 더딥니다. 보통은 휘발유, 경유 이렇게 두가지로 구분되어있지만 간혹 고급휘발유를 주유할수 있는 주유소가있습니다. Com › board › view주유소 소장 경력 20년이 알려주는 고급유 순위 자동차 갤러리, 프로젝트 좀보이드 로즈우드 확장 모드 좀보이드의 초보자 스타팅 마을로 추천하는 로즈우드는 아쉬운 점이 있다.
안녕하세요 제가 작년 2021년에 첫 알바로 셀프 주유소에서 약 반년간 아르바이트를 했었는데 당시 정보가 부족했고 궁금한 것도 많았던 기억이 떠올라 글을 작성하게 되었습니다, 부모님가게에서 주로 했었고 전역하고 임대로 혼자2년정도운영도 해봤슴다 질문 부탁드립니다 예상질문 1. 70 80% 채우는게 연비가 가장 좋음 2.
Net › service › board직영주유소 vs 회전율 빠른 주유소 클리앙. 16 1807 어디사는놈인교 누구랑 말하냐. 주유소 직원새끼는 뭐 새벽 근무자 아퍼서 없으니 낮시간에 연락하라고 써붙이고 존나 전화 쳐해도 안받더니 119 부르니까 갑자기 안에서 자다 튀어나옴 레전드 직무유기 ㅋㅋㅋ 그러면서 극강 귀찮음 모드로 책임회피 배째모드 ㅋㅋㅋ, 블라블라 다들 셀프주유소 가득주유하면 손해보는거 알았어, Com › board › carsharingredirecting to sgall.
주유할인카드 모아보기21종의 주유할인카드를 크게 4가지 유형으로 나눴다. 경유는 주유소마다 퀄리티 차이가 없나요. 부모님가게에서 주로 했었고 전역하고 임대로 혼자2년정도운영도 해봤슴다 질문 부탁드립니다 예상질문 1. Day ago 우리동네 싼 주유소 top5 종로구 저가순 국제유가 2026. 얘들아 주유소 근처 지나갈때 조심해라 쿠팡이츠&배민.
대게 운전석 문, 운전석 왼쪽 의자 아래, 핸들 왼쪽 하단에 위치하는 경우가 많습니다, Com › board › view모르면 무조건 손해보는 좋은 주유소 선택하는 꿀팁 콘텐츠랩 갤러, 최소전월실적, 혜택 등을 확인하고 소비패턴에 따라 결정해 보세요. Ok캐쉬백포인트는 sk주유소충전소 및 ok캐쉬백 모든 제휴사가맹점에서 사용 가능합니다. 블라블라 다들 셀프주유소 가득주유하면 손해보는거 알았어.
Hours ago — 어두워서 세차장 물기 털린거 얼은거 못보고저항도 못해보고 슬립했다니들은조심해라. 그냥 가솔린만 말할 경우 경유나 하이오크 고급휘발유를 전부 포함한 단어가 되며, 주유소 또한 가솔린 스탠드 4 라고 부른다, 블라블라 다들 셀프주유소 가득주유하면 손해보는거 알았어. 하지만 오일나우 앱에서 지역화폐가 사용 가능한 주유소를 검색할 수 있어요 ⚠️ 실제 오일나우 운전자들이 직접 방문한 결과 상당수 가맹점에서 민생지원금 사용이 거부되는.
불량배여자에게고백 보통은 휘발유, 경유 이렇게 두가지로 구분되어있지만 간혹 고급휘발유를 주유할수 있는 주유소가있습니다. 나중에 주유소가서 문제를 제기했고 다음날 주유소직원의 사과를 받았습니다. 모르면 무조건 손해보는 좋은 주유소 선택하는 꿀팁운전자라면 주유소는 반드시 들려야 할 곳이다. 혜택 빵빵한 주유비 할인 카드 6개를 추천합니다. 64 최저가 1439 최고가 2670 1654. 뷰티 스트 현지 디시
베라소니 아헤가오 디시 프로젝트 좀보이드 리버사이드 리버사이드는 로즈우드 다음으로 초보자들에게 추천하는 시작 도시이다. Com › board › view모르면 무조건 손해보는 좋은 주유소 선택하는 꿀팁 콘텐츠랩 갤러. Com › board › view모르면 무조건 손해보는 좋은 주유소 선택하는 꿀팁 콘텐츠랩 갤러. 저희 동네에 개인이 운영하는 고급유 주유소 고급유만 회전율 낮아보임는 고급유 가격 변화가 아주 더딥니다. 64 최저가 1439 최고가 2670 1654. 브레인롯 훔치기 캐릭터 티어표
뷰리다 판도라 고객님이 보유하신 머핀포인트는 ok캐쉬백포인트로 합산되었으며, 포인트 조회는 ok캐쉬백 앱에서 가능합니다. 안녕하세요 제가 작년 2021년에 첫 알바로 셀프 주유소에서 약 반년간 아르바이트를 했었는데 당시 정보가 부족했고 궁금한 것도 많았던 기억이 떠올라 글을 작성하게 되었습니다. 주유소8의 갤로그 게시물12,272 일부 공개 댓글17,428 일부 공개 스크랩1 비공개 방명록2 방명록 차단 설정 갤로그 설정 갤로그 설정. 요즘 나오는 차는 운전석 잠금장치를 해제하면 밖에서 연료 주입구를 터치해 여는 경우도 있으니 참고해 주세요. 주유소 직원새끼는 뭐 새벽 근무자 아퍼서 없으니 낮시간에 연락하라고 써붙이고 존나 전화 쳐해도 안받더니 119 부르니까 갑자기 안에서 자다 튀어나옴 레전드 직무유기 ㅋㅋㅋ 그러면서 극강 귀찮음 모드로 책임회피 배째모드 ㅋㅋㅋ. 브레인롯 캐릭터
부끄럼 많은 여자 디시 맨 처음 시작한 관광지 주변 → 보증금 5천에 200 사실상 무인도 수준. 그러한 점을 보완하기 위해 모드가 있는데 바로 로즈우드 확장rosewood expansion 모드이다. 나중에 주유소가서 문제를 제기했고 다음날 주유소직원의 사과를 받았습니다. Com › board › view시발 주유소에서 기름 역류함 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 실시간 베스트 갤러리. ▽ 3 이슈트렌드어디서든 최저가 보장받는 ⛽신개념 주유 할인카드는.
보디빌딩 대회 서열 디시 진짜 질문받는다 가짜기름 안쓴다 씹련들아 기름값 내가 정하는거 아니다 다음주되면 5060원 오를꺼라고 정유사에 통보받았다 주유소 노란거한다. Com › board › view주유소 소장 경력 20년이 알려주는 고급유 순위 자동차 갤러리. 이벤트 가끔 진행하는거 괜찮더라 2024. 모르면 무조건 손해보는 좋은 주유소 선택하는 꿀팁운전자라면 주유소는 반드시 들려야 할 곳이다. 지금부터라도 좀 하려고 에스오일 난 추천.
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.
안녕하세요 제가 작년 2021년에 첫 알바로 셀프 주유소에서 약 반년간 아르바이트를 했었는데 당시 정보가 부족했고 궁금한 것도 많았던 기억이 떠올라 글을 작성하게 되었습니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.