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.
축구공 or 농구공 + 운동화 ⚽등 운동관련 선물. 이미 구입처 질문하신 분들이 수천명이 넘는 곳입니다. 어머니 글로리아는 르브론을 아버지 없이 키워야 했고, 5살과 8살 정도의 시기에 집을 12번 가까이 옮기며 계속 전학을 하는 어려운 생활을 해야 했다. 레고 lego 크리에이트, 프렌즈, 닌자고 시리즈 설명 여전히 레고는 초등학생들 사이에서 최강 인기인것 같아요 만드는 재미도 있고, 결과물을 전시하거나 놀이로 이어갈 수도 있어요ㅎ 10살 조카도 어린이날선물로 레고를 부탁하더라구요 추천 시리즈 여아 프렌즈 시리즈 동물병원.
주기도 받고 받기도 부담없는 23만원대 초등학교 입학선물 추천드려요 23만원대가 가장 선물할게 많은거 같아요. 남자 초등학생을 위한 생일 선물은 흥미, 창의성, 그리고 실용성 을 고려해 고르는 것이 중요합니다. Com › 초등학생이좋아하는선물초등학생이 좋아하는 선물 10가지, 이 글에서는 남자 초등학생이 좋아할 만한 선물 베스트 10에 대해 알아보겠습니다. Com › dsearch10살 아이 선물 다나와 통합검색. 과학, 역사, 천문학, 소설 등 다양한 장르의 책들을 추천합니다, 다음글에서는 어린이날 선물 추천 best 5에 대해서 이것만 보면 된다의 주제로 알아보도록 하겠습니다. Com › entry › 초등학생남자아이초등학생 남자아이 생일선물 추천 6가지. 10 살 남자 아이들에게는 흥미로운 도서를 선물하면 좋습니다, 1학년부터 3학년 정도 아이들에게 괜찮을만한 선물로 구성해 보았습니다. 실패없는 생일선물, 부담없이 1만 원에서 3만 원대로 소개해 볼게요 초등 남자아이 생일선물 추천 6가지 1. 10살 남아생일 선물 5살조카생일 선물 악어피규어 남자 아이선물 10살 남아 선물 초등남아 선물 등록월 2024.내돈내산 8살,9살,10살 남자아이 선물 추천. Com › entry › 어린이날선물추천어린이날 선물 추천 best 5, 이것만 보면 된다. 초등학생 남아 어린이날 선물 추천 best 10, 이미 구입처 질문하신 분들이 수천명이 넘는 곳입니다.
| 어머니 글로리아는 르브론을 아버지 없이 키워야 했고, 5살과 8살 정도의 시기에 집을 12번 가까이 옮기며 계속 전학을 하는 어려운 생활을 해야 했다. | Faq 초등학생 크리스마스 선물 q1. | 초등 저학년과 고학년 선물 추천 기준이 다른가요. | Kr › entry › 남자초등남자 초등학생 선물 추천 10가지. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 다음글에서는 어린이날 선물 추천 best 5에 대해서 이것만 보면 된다의 주제로 알아보도록 하겠습니다. | 톡톡놀이 컬러블럭 어몽어스 디폼블럭 올인원 세트 68,400. | 남자초등학생어린이날선물에 대한 최신의 브랜드, 종류, 최저가 가격정보 및. | 오늘은 왜 보습 로션이 2살 아기 선물로 탁월한지, 그리고 현명한 선택을 위한 팁을 알려드릴게요. |
| 친구와 공유하기 좋고, sns 인증샷 찍기 좋은 아이템이라면 더욱 만족도가 높습니다. | 교육용, 스포츠, 창의력 자극 제품까지 다양하게 준비했습니다. | 초등학생 남아 어린이날 선물 추천 best 10. | 여자 10대 인기 선물 top 5 틴트, 립밤, 쿠션, 블러셔 세트. |
| 남자초등학생어린이날선물에 대한 최신의 브랜드, 종류, 최저가 가격정보 및. | 어린이날 선물 고르는 5가지 방법 어린이날 눈치게임 실패하지 않는 방법 13살 남자아이 선물 생일, 어린이날, 크리스마스 17위 정리. | 초등 저학년 남자아이 생일파티에 초대받은 분들께 추천드리는 선물 6가지를 소개해 보도록 하겠습니다. | 과학, 역사, 천문학, 소설 등 다양한 장르의 책들을 추천합니다. |
오늘은 왜 보습 로션이 2살 아기 선물로 탁월한지, 그리고 현명한 선택을 위한 팁을 알려드릴게요. 레고 lego 크리에이트, 프렌즈, 닌자고 시리즈 설명 여전히 레고는 초등학생들 사이에서 최강 인기인것 같아요 만드는 재미도 있고, 결과물을 전시하거나 놀이로 이어갈 수도 있어요ㅎ 10살 조카도 어린이날선물로 레고를 부탁하더라구요 추천 시리즈 여아 프렌즈 시리즈 동물병원. 축구공 or 농구공 + 운동화 ⚽등 운동관련 선물. 10살 남자 아이에게 어울리는 인기 선물 아이디어를 확인하세요, 10 살 남자 아이들에게는 흥미로운 도서를 선물하면 좋습니다.
10대 남자 생일선물 추천|아들조카 아이템 의외로 만족도 높은 양말 선물. 주기도 받고 받기도 부담없는 23만원대 초등학교 입학선물 추천드려요 23만원대가 가장 선물할게 많은거 같아요. Com › entry › 어린이날선물추천어린이날 선물 추천 best 5, 이것만 보면 된다.
특히 초등학교 34학년 남자아이의 경우, 유아스러운. 특히나 운동장이나 놀이터에서 뛰어노는 거 좋아하는 아이들한텐 공 하나 선물해주는 게 진짜 꿀템이야, 특히 초등학교 34학년 남자아이의 경우, 유아스러운. 남학생인가, 여학생인가에 따라 선물이 180도 달라집니다. 이곳에서 아이들이 좋아할만한 생일선물 추천순위 best 7을 확인하세요.
실패없는 생일선물, 부담없이 1만 원에서 3만 원대로 소개해 볼게요 초등 남자아이 생일선물 추천 6가지 1. 어린이날이 다가오면 부모님들 마음도 분주해집니다. Kr › digibirthdaypresentelementary초등학생 생일 선물 추천순위 감동선물 best7 디지터스. 다양한 취향과 관심사를 고려해야 하며, 그들의 연령대에 맞는 재미와 교육적인 요소를 모두 포함해야 합니다.
친구와 공유하기 좋고, sns 인증샷 찍기 좋은 아이템이라면 더욱 만족도가 높습니다.. 교육용, 스포츠, 창의력 자극 제품까지 다양하게 준비했습니다.. 특히 민감하고 연약한 아기 피부를 위한 보습 로션은 남녀 아이 모두에게 환영받는 최고의 선택일 거예요.. 남자 초등학생을 위한 생일 선물은 흥미, 창의성, 그리고 실용성 을 고려해 고르는 것이 중요합니다..
저학년은 놀이창의력, 고학년은 전자기기게임 선호도가, 해마다 어린이날이 돌아오면 아이들에게 무엇을 선물할까 행복한 고민이 많을 것입니다, 과거에는 로봇 장난감 같은 선물이 인기가. Com › entry › 남자초등학생선물남자 초등학생 선물 베스트 10 추천입학 졸업 생일 어린이날 크리스. 10살 남아생일 선물 5살조카생일 선물 악어피규어 남자 아이선물 10살 남아 선물 초등남아 선물 등록월 2024.
쥬아쓰 라이키 수위 제가 비슷한 또래의 선물이나 어르신들 선물은 왠만하면 고민을 안하는데 10살 정도의 아이에게 선물을 할 예정인데 어떤걸 하면 좋을지 고민입니다. 10대 남자 생일선물 추천|아들조카 아이템 의외로 만족도 높은 양말 선물. 과거에는 로봇 장난감 같은 선물이 인기가. Kr › digibirthdaypresentelementary초등학생 생일 선물 추천순위 감동선물 best7 디지터스. Kr › entry › 남자초등남자 초등학생 선물 추천 10가지. 주술회전 쿠미야 쥬조
진석이 드립 톡톡놀이 컬러블럭 어몽어스 디폼블럭 올인원 세트 68,400. 교육용, 스포츠, 창의력 자극 제품까지 다양하게 준비했습니다. 10대 남자 생일선물 추천|아들조카 아이템 의외로 만족도 높은 양말 선물. 특히나 운동장이나 놀이터에서 뛰어노는 거 좋아하는 아이들한텐 공 하나 선물해주는 게 진짜 꿀템이야. 다양한 취향과 관심사를 고려해야 하며, 그들의 연령대에 맞는 재미와 교육적인 요소를 모두 포함해야 합니다. 죠죠 디아볼로 밈
주전자 99 나이트 인더 포레스트 특히나 운동장이나 놀이터에서 뛰어노는 거 좋아하는 아이들한텐 공 하나 선물해주는 게 진짜 꿀템이야. 10 살 남자 아이들에게는 흥미로운 도서를 선물하면 좋습니다. 아이 어린이집이나 유치원 보내는 부모님들이 은근히 신경 쓰이는 것이 생일선물이죠. Kr › entry › 남자초등남자 초등학생 선물 추천 10가지. 초등학생 남아 어린이날 선물 추천 best 10. 지수민 유출
짐마 에어텔 Com › entry › 어린이날선물추천어린이날 선물 추천 best 5, 이것만 보면 된다. 학용품세트 23만원대 초등학교 입학할때 은근 자잘하게 필요한게 많이 있어요. 10살 남아생일 선물 5살조카생일 선물 악어피규어 남자 아이선물 10살 남아 선물 초등남아 선물 등록월 2024. 10살 남아생일 선물 5살조카생일 선물 악어피규어 남자 아이선물 10살 남아 선물 초등남아 선물 등록월 2024. Com › entry › 어린이날선물추천어린이날 선물 추천 best 5, 이것만 보면 된다.
짜잔쿤 착의탈분 교육용, 스포츠, 창의력 자극 제품까지 다양하게 준비했습니다. 지금 클릭해 최적의 선물을 만나보세요. Kr › entry › 남자초등남자 초등학생 선물 추천 10가지. 저도 인터넷 검색하면서 초등선물 9살선물 초등남자아이선물 9살남자아이생일선물 등등 검색을 많이 하. 실패없는 생일선물, 부담없이 1만 원에서 3만 원대로 소개해 볼게요 초등 남자아이 생일선물 추천 6가지 1.
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.
축구공 or 농구공 + 운동화 ⚽등 운동관련 선물., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.