US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
이태원클럽 확진자 블랙수면방 방문 블랙수면방은 사우나라고는 하는데게이쪽 말로는 찜방이라고도 불린대요 black 간판에 전화번호 또한 없다고 합니다지나가는사람들은 저기가뭐하는 곳인지 의문을 품기도 한다고 그곳은 게이들이 어두운 방1평을 몇 십명씩 나체로 돌아다니면서눈치 볼것도. 탕과 수면실에서 음랑행위를 하는 사람들이 많았다. 서로 존댓말 쓰면서 그윽한 눈빛으로 서로를 바라봄 문제는 그게 아니고 2번방과 3번방 사이에 창문이 있었다는 거임. 탕과 수면실에서 음랑행위를 하는 사람들이 많았다.
건식한증막발한실,입식좌식샤워시설완비, 휴게실, 수면실, 컷트실 등 운영 24시간 영업하며, 안내데스크는 3층에 있습니다, 게이 사우나는 외부에 목욕탕이나 사우나라는 간판을 달지 않는다, 남성전용 사우나34층 남성전용 사우나로 일반고객 및 숙박고객 모두 이용할 수 있습니다. 내가 옛날에 친구들끼리 서울에 있는 그냥 평범한 사우나 간 적이 있는데 성신여대 쯤거기 수면실에 들어가자 마자 남자가 남자 위에서 그 짓 하는걸 봄그때 벙쪄서 문 닫고 피시방 갔는데이태원 게이 사건을 보니까 생각보다 더 감염자 많을 수 있겠다는 생각. Com › @ddolddolkim › videopt쌤과의 깜짝 만남, 유튜브 비밀 공개. 해당 날짜에 블랙수면방 방문자는 약 5000명이었습니다. 블랙수면방은 어두운 곳에서 성행위가 주목적이기 때문에 마스크, 손소독제, 거리두기는 사실상 불가능한 곳입니다, Com › @ddolddolkim › videopt쌤과의 깜짝 만남, 유튜브 비밀 공개. 남성 동성애자들이 이용하는 사우나였다, 팔로우 pt쌤이 내 정체를 알아버렸어🌈 추천 게이 pt쌤 헬스 헬스장 김똘똘 foryou gym lgbt pt 오리지널 사운드 김똘똘 ddolddol 게이 수면실 정로 게이 정인준 게이 김똘똘 복근.| 수면실 안에는 대략 20여 명이 나체인 채로 다닥다닥 누워있었다. | 글 쓰기에 앞서 본인은 절대 이성애자임을 밝히고 시작한다. | 동성애자들 아지트로 유명 그곳 게이사우나 직접 가보니. |
|---|---|---|
| 도 입장시 이름과 전화번호를 기입하도록 돼있었습니다. | 이태원클럽 확진자 블랙수면방 방문 블랙수면방은 사우나라고는 하는데게이쪽 말로는 찜방이라고도 불린대요 black 간판에 전화번호 또한 없다고 합니다지나가는사람들은 저기가뭐하는 곳인지 의문을 품기도 한다고 그곳은 게이들이 어두운 방1평을 몇 십명씩 나체로 돌아다니면서눈치 볼것도. | 내가 옛날에 친구들끼리 서울에 있는 그냥 평범한 사우나 간 적이 있는데 성신여대 쯤거기 수면실에 들어가자 마자 남자가 남자 위에서 그 짓 하는걸 봄그때 벙쪄서 문 닫고 피시방 갔는데이태원 게이 사건을 보니까 생각보다 더 감염자 많을 수 있겠다는 생각. |
| 게이 사우나 아니고 일반 사우나라고 확실해 말하더군요. | 서울 곳곳 게이사우나 추잡한 환락잠자다 성폭행 당해. | Com › pshskr › 220517305104‘동성애자들 아지트로 유명’ 그곳 게이사우나 직접 가보니&mldr. |
| 창문을 통해 3번방에서 2번방을 어느정도 볼 수 있었음. | Com › news › articleview르포 대학주택가 곳곳에 파고든 동성애 업소 동성애 기. | 탕과 수면실에서 음랑행위를 하는 사람들이 많았다. |
손놈문제가 많이 일어나다보니 카운터에서 아예 입장 제한을 하기도 한다.. 그리고 그 수면실에서는 종종 남자와 남자끼리의 가볍고 진한 섹스가 벌어지기도 한다..
그리고 그 수면실에서는 종종 남자와 남자끼리의 가볍고 진한 섹스가 벌어지기도 한다. Com › sooyoun180308 › 221956599358게이찜방 강남 블랙수면방 위치,주소,사진,잠입취재 ft. 그 일반 사우나의 수면실에도 물론 게이들은 있다. 입구에서 보이지 않는 부분에 다다르자 한 동성 커플이 성관계를 나누고 있었다, 팔로우 pt쌤이 내 정체를 알아버렸어🌈 추천 게이 pt쌤 헬스 헬스장 김똘똘 foryou gym lgbt pt 오리지널 사운드 김똘똘 ddolddol 게이 수면실 정로 게이 정인준 게이 김똘똘 복근. 실제 스카이데일리가 게이들이 밀집하는 것으로 알려진 서울 곳곳의 사우나들을 취재한 결과 이들은 수면실 안팎에서 함께할 파트너를 물색하고 즉석에서 성관계를 나눴다.
그 일반 사우나의 수면실에도 물론 게이들은 있다, 근데 차마 저기 수면실 앞에까지 가서 뭐하는지 쳐다보진 못하겠더라 그래서 사우나1 들어가면서 슥 훔쳐 보려는 계획을 세움 일어나서 사우나 들어가려는데 옆탕에 있던 아재가 일어나더니 따라오더라고 괜히 신경쓰여서 수면실을 자세히 못봄, 서울 곳곳 게이사우나 추잡한 환락잠자다 성폭행 당해, 입구에서 보이지 않는 부분에 다다르자 한 동성 커플이 성관계를 나누고 있었다.
스팽 영상 다소 외진 곳에 있었지만, 젊은 남성들의 방문이 이어졌다. 입구에서 보이지 않는 부분에 다다르자 한 동성 커플이 성관계를 나누고 있었다. Com › news › news_view게이 섹스, 청년부터 평범한 아버지남편도 일탈. 건식한증막발한실,입식좌식샤워시설완비, 휴게실, 수면실, 컷트실 등 운영 24시간 영업하며, 안내데스크는 3층에 있습니다. Com › news › news_view게이 섹스, 청년부터 평범한 아버지남편도 일탈. 스즈네 살구
스푸닝 영상 삭제 Com › pshskr › 220517305104‘동성애자들 아지트로 유명’ 그곳 게이사우나 직접 가보니&mldr. 글 쓰기에 앞서 본인은 절대 이성애자임을 밝히고 시작한다. 해당 날짜에 블랙수면방 방문자는 약 5000명이었습니다. 모텔과 다르게, 개방형 수면실 구조이다보니 손놈이 한 명 있으면 많은 사람이 피해를 본다. 해당 날짜에 블랙수면방 방문자는 약 5000명이었습니다. 시노다 유 복귀
스팽 사이트 수시로 탕과 수면실을 돌아다니며 방지해야하는거 아니냐고했더니 직원이 몇없어서 그렇다는군요. 근데 차마 저기 수면실 앞에까지 가서 뭐하는지 쳐다보진 못하겠더라 그래서 사우나1 들어가면서 슥 훔쳐 보려는 계획을 세움 일어나서 사우나 들어가려는데 옆탕에 있던 아재가 일어나더니 따라오더라고 괜히 신경쓰여서 수면실을 자세히 못봄. 동성애자들 아지트로 유명 그곳 게이사우나 직접 가보니. 서울 곳곳 게이사우나 추잡한 환락잠자다 성폭행 당해. 그 일반 사우나의 수면실에도 물론 게이들은 있다. 스카이림 표류기
스파크뱅 그럼 직원이 제지 해야 하는거 아닌가. 수시로 탕과 수면실을 돌아다니며 방지해야하는거 아니냐고했더니 직원이 몇없어서 그렇다는군요. 건식한증막발한실,입식좌식샤워시설완비, 휴게실, 수면실, 컷트실 등 운영 24시간 영업하며, 안내데스크는 3층에 있습니다. 해당 날짜에 블랙수면방 방문자는 약 5000명이었습니다. 수시로 탕과 수면실을 돌아다니며 방지해야하는거 아니냐고했더니 직원이 몇없어서 그렇다는군요.
스윗 로열 나무 위키 건식한증막발한실,입식좌식샤워시설완비, 휴게실, 수면실, 컷트실 등 운영 24시간 영업하며, 안내데스크는 3층에 있습니다. 대부분 수건으로 성기를 가리고 있었으나, 한두 명은 발기된 성기를 과감히 노출하고 있었다. 도 입장시 이름과 전화번호를 기입하도록 돼있었습니다. 근데 차마 저기 수면실 앞에까지 가서 뭐하는지 쳐다보진 못하겠더라 그래서 사우나1 들어가면서 슥 훔쳐 보려는 계획을 세움 일어나서 사우나 들어가려는데 옆탕에 있던 아재가 일어나더니 따라오더라고 괜히 신경쓰여서 수면실을 자세히 못봄. 그 일반 사우나의 수면실에도 물론 게이들은 있다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 4, 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.
게이 사우나 아니고 일반 사우나라고 확실해 말하더군요., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.