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.
서면에서 무료로 퍼스널컬러 받는법 서면 새로 이전한 올리브영 1층에 무료로 퍼스널컬러 진단해주는 기계가 있대요 방법도 쉽고 게다가 무료라니 read more. 코앤쿨, 중독성이 강해 끊기 힘들었어요. Io › questions › 4d19b3059e14356883d75df요즘 코앤쿨 못구하나요. 병원에서 약 처방받은 것으로도 모자라서 밤에 심한 코막힘으로 코로 숨쉴수가 없어서 입으로 숨쉬다 보니 입속이 건조해지고 목구멍이 따가워지는 고통까지 느끼게 됩니다.
오트리빈이나 코앤쿨 장기복용하는 애들아 비염 마이너, 코앤쿨 나잘스프레이의 경우 자일로메타졸린이 함유된 충혈제거제로 비염이나 코막힘 증상이 있을 때 단기간 사용 고려할 수 있습니다. 코막힘, 콧물, 재채기에 효과가 있는 약입니다. 코앤쿨사용후가려움증 코앤쿨사용후따끔거림 코앤쿨사용후붉어짐 코앤쿨사용후건조함 코앤쿨사용후코막힘악화 코앤쿨사용후콧물증가 코앤쿨사용후두통 코앤쿨사용후눈따가움 코앤쿨사용후피부자극 코앤쿨사용후알레르기반응 코앤쿨부작용심각성. 자려고 누우면 양쪽다 막히고 앉으면 한쪽만 뚫리고 서있어야 겨우 사람, Io › questions › 4d19b3059e14356883d75df요즘 코앤쿨 못구하나요, 단 4일만에 코막혔던 시절이 생각나지도 않는다 존나행복하다 콧구녕 한정으로 코앤쿨 한번 뿌리는게 콧구녕으로 담배 10보루 피는거보다 유해함 진심 ㅋㅋ 보건복지부 장관한테 편지써서 이딴약은 판매금지시켜달라고 청원할거다 1 0 0.스캇 쇼크는 투걸즈 원컵이면 이미 충분하다고 유머 채널.. 코앤 스프레이는 코앤쿨 스프레이와 달리 반동성 비염 부작용을 나타내지 않습니다.. 코앤 vs 코앤쿨 나잘스프레이 코 비염 부작용.. ✓코막힘 코앤쿨 부어있는 비점막을 확 줄여줘서 숨쉬기 편해져요..Com › mgallery › board코앤쿨 끊은지 4일차 비염 마이너 갤러리, 코호흡이 뇌에 지대한 영향을 끼친다고 강사가 그러더라, 코앤쿨, 중독성이 강해 끊기 힘들었어요, 보니까 고생하는게이들 많은것같아서 도움되라고 써본다. 코앤 스프레이는 자주 사용해도 되나요. 코앤쿨 코 스프레이는 코막힘과 콧물이 함께 나타나는. 코앤쿨 나잘스프레이의 경우 자일로메타졸린이 함유된 충혈제거제로 비염이나 코막힘 증상이 있을 때 단기간 사용 고려할 수 있습니다. 오늘 소개드릴약은 한미약품 코앤쿨 나잘스프레이로 코막힘, 콧물, 재채기에 효과가 있는 약입니다 나잘 스프레이라는 이름처럼 코에 직접접으로 분사하여 빠르게 효과가 나타납니다 코앤쿨 나잘스프레이의 성분 효과 사용법 및 코앤쿨 에스와 차이점, 가격까지. 코앤 스프레이는 자주 사용해도 되나요.
코앤 vs 코앤쿨 나잘스프레이 코 비염 부작용. 단 4일만에 코막혔던 시절이 생각나지도 않는다 존나행복하다 콧구녕 한정으로 코앤쿨 한번 뿌리는게 콧구녕으로 담배 10보루 피는거보다 유해함 진심 ㅋㅋ 보건복지부 장관한테 편지써서 이딴약은 판매금지시켜달라고 청원할거다 1 0 0. 반갑다 코앤쿨 1년 쓴 병신이다 비염 마이너 갤러리.
난 코앤쿨을 거의 910년쨰 쓰고있는데 오늘로 끊은지 1주일 됐다. 뭐 비충혈제거제라서 남용하면 약물성비염 오는건 알겠는데 경험상 효과가 너무 좋아서 어제처럼 꽉막힌다 싶을땐 쓰고싶은데 걍 지금처럼 연속으로만 read more. 코앤쿨 코 스프레이는 코막힘과 콧물이 함께 나타나는. 코앤쿨, 중독성이 강해 끊기 힘들었어요, 이비인후과 5군데를 갔지만 1분진료 후 먹는약만줌. 그런데 코감기 걸리니깐 뿌려도 안 통하길래 ㅈ 댔다 싶어서 비염.
스캇 쇼크는 투걸즈 원컵이면 이미 충분하다고 유머 채널, 약사가 1주일 이상 사용하지 말라고 경고하지. 이번에 입문했는데 자기전에만 양쪽 한번씩 매일 뿌려도 안되냐4일됐는데 아직 부작용 없고 좋은데.
오트리빈이나 코앤쿨 장기복용하는 애들아 비염 마이너. 뭐 비충혈제거제라서 남용하면 약물성비염 오는건 알겠는데 경험상 효과가 너무 좋아서 어제처럼 꽉막힌다 싶을땐 쓰고싶은데 걍 지금처럼 연속으로만 read more, 그래서 하루에 1시간 간격으로 코앤쿨을 계속 뿌려댔었음. 병원에서 약 처방받은 것으로도 모자라서 밤에 심한 코막힘으로 코로 숨쉴수가 없어서 입으로 숨쉬다 보니 입속이 건조해지고 목구멍이 따가워지는 고통까지 느끼게 됩니다. 그래서 하루에 1시간 간격으로 코앤쿨을 계속 뿌려댔었음.
오늘 소개드릴약은 한미약품 코앤쿨 나잘스프레이로 코막힘, 콧물, 재채기에 효과가 있는 약입니다 나잘 스프레이라는 이름처럼 코에 직접접으로 분사하여 빠르게 효과가 나타납니다 코앤쿨 나잘스프레이의 성분 효과 사용법 및 코앤쿨 에스와 차이점, 가격까지. 코앤 스프레이는 코앤쿨 스프레이와 달리 반동성 비염 부작용을 나타내지 않습니다, 오늘 소개드릴약은 한미약품 코앤쿨 나잘스프레이로. ✓코막힘 코앤쿨 부어있는 비점막을 확 줄여줘서 숨쉬기 편해져요.
코 병신된거 느끼고 진단받고 약 처방받았다. Io › questions › 4d19b3059e14356883d75df요즘 코앤쿨 못구하나요. 코 병신된거 느끼고 진단받고 약 처방받았다.
약사가 1주일 이상 사용하지 말라고 경고하지. 코막힘, 콧물, 재채기에 효과가 있는 약입니다. 알레르기성 콧물 같은 물콧물에 가장 반응이 좋아요. 자려고 누우면 양쪽다 막히고 앉으면 한쪽만 뚫리고 서있어야 겨우 사람.
알레르기성 콧물 같은 물콧물에 가장 반응이 좋아요. 이번에 입문했는데 자기전에만 양쪽 한번씩 매일 뿌려도 안되냐4일됐는데 아직 부작용 없고 좋은데. Com › mgallery › board코앤쿨 끊은지 4일차 비염 마이너 갤러리. 서면에서 무료로 퍼스널컬러 받는법 서면 새로 이전한 올리브영 1층에 무료로 퍼스널컬러 진단해주는 기계가 있대요 방법도 쉽고 게다가 무료라니 read more, 병원에서 약 처방받은 것으로도 모자라서 밤에 심한 코막힘으로 코로 숨쉴수가 없어서 입으로 숨쉬다 보니 입속이 건조해지고 목구멍이 따가워지는 고통까지 느끼게 됩니다. 난 코앤쿨을 거의 910년쨰 쓰고있는데 오늘로 끊은지 1주일 됐다.
erome 백지헌 코앤쿨사용후가려움증 코앤쿨사용후따끔거림 코앤쿨사용후붉어짐 코앤쿨사용후건조함 코앤쿨사용후코막힘악화 코앤쿨사용후콧물증가 코앤쿨사용후두통 코앤쿨사용후눈따가움 코앤쿨사용후피부자극 코앤쿨사용후알레르기반응 코앤쿨부작용심각성. ✓코막힘 코앤쿨 부어있는 비점막을 확 줄여줘서 숨쉬기 편해져요. 병원에서 약 처방받은 것으로도 모자라서 밤에 심한 코막힘으로 코로 숨쉴수가 없어서 입으로 숨쉬다 보니 입속이 건조해지고 목구멍이 따가워지는 고통까지 느끼게 됩니다. 코앤쿨, 중독성이 강해 끊기 힘들었어요. 난 코앤쿨을 거의 910년쨰 쓰고있는데 오늘로 끊은지 1주일 됐다. erome 해기
e hen kor 자려고 누우면 양쪽다 막히고 앉으면 한쪽만 뚫리고 서있어야 겨우 사람. 단 4일만에 코막혔던 시절이 생각나지도 않는다 존나행복하다 콧구녕 한정으로 코앤쿨 한번 뿌리는게 콧구녕으로 담배 10보루 피는거보다 유해함 진심 ㅋㅋ 보건복지부 장관한테 편지써서 이딴약은 판매금지시켜달라고 청원할거다 1 0 0. 코앤쿨, 중독성이 강해 끊기 힘들었어요. 이비인후과 5군데를 갔지만 1분진료 후 먹는약만줌. 이번에 입문했는데 자기전에만 양쪽 한번씩 매일 뿌려도 안되냐4일됐는데 아직 부작용 없고 좋은데. es-101 korea
erome 뉴진스 코앤 스프레이는 자주 사용해도 되나요. 코앤 스프레이는 자주 사용해도 되나요. 반갑다 코앤쿨 1년 쓴 병신이다 비염 마이너 갤러리. 반갑다 코앤쿨 1년 쓴 병신이다 비염 마이너 갤러리. 코앤 vs 코앤쿨 나잘스프레이 코 비염 부작용. exo 5ch
erome kpop 서면에서 무료로 퍼스널컬러 받는법 서면 새로 이전한 올리브영 1층에 무료로 퍼스널컬러 진단해주는 기계가 있대요 방법도 쉽고 게다가 무료라니 read more. 이번에 입문했는데 자기전에만 양쪽 한번씩 매일 뿌려도 안되냐4일됐는데 아직 부작용 없고 좋은데. 이번에 입문했는데 자기전에만 양쪽 한번씩 매일 뿌려도 안되냐4일됐는데 아직 부작용 없고 좋은데. 오늘 소개드릴약은 한미약품 코앤쿨 나잘스프레이로. 서면에서 무료로 퍼스널컬러 받는법 서면 새로 이전한 올리브영 1층에 무료로 퍼스널컬러 진단해주는 기계가 있대요 방법도 쉽고 게다가 무료라니 read more.
doraemon hitomi 코앤쿨사용후가려움증 코앤쿨사용후따끔거림 코앤쿨사용후붉어짐 코앤쿨사용후건조함 코앤쿨사용후코막힘악화 코앤쿨사용후콧물증가 코앤쿨사용후두통 코앤쿨사용후눈따가움 코앤쿨사용후피부자극 코앤쿨사용후알레르기반응 코앤쿨부작용심각성. 병원에서 약 처방받은 것으로도 모자라서 밤에 심한 코막힘으로 코로 숨쉴수가 없어서 입으로 숨쉬다 보니 입속이 건조해지고 목구멍이 따가워지는 고통까지 느끼게 됩니다. 하루에 극단적으로 수십번수백번 뿌리셔도 부작용이 없으므로 안심. 서면 올리브영에서 무료 퍼스널컬러 진단 받기. 단 4일만에 코막혔던 시절이 생각나지도 않는다 존나행복하다 콧구녕 한정으로 코앤쿨 한번 뿌리는게 콧구녕으로 담배 10보루 피는거보다 유해함 진심 ㅋㅋ 보건복지부 장관한테 편지써서 이딴약은 판매금지시켜달라고 청원할거다 1 0 0.
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.
오늘 소개드릴약은 한미약품 코앤쿨 나잘스프레이로., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.