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.
Ec 사이트 등에서는 「미나즈키 히카루」. 스루가 히카루 駿河ヒカル 일본 만화작가 시다 히카루 프로레슬러. 2000년 마키 미도리 당시 이토 마키와 결혼하였다. 허리 사용이 에로하고, 그것만으로 발기 해 버립니다.
히카루 짱의 치아를 정지 영상에서도 즐기세요. 지난해 데뷔 25주년을 맞아 올해 4월에는 자신 첫 베스트 앨범『science fiction』을 발표한 우타다 히카루. 이번에는 정통파 미소녀, 모두 달 히카루 짱에 와 주셨습니다.| Kbs 더빙판에서는 신재하라는 이름으로 로컬라이징되었다. | ※고화질 치아 화상 133장 첨부입니다. |
|---|---|
| 우사다 히카루 는 디지캐럿 시리즈의 등장인물이다. | 22% |
| 게다가 오늘은 제가 첫 월급은 받은 날이랍니다. | 23% |
| 현재 유즈키 히카루 작가는 달콤한 인생 시즌2 를 계속 연재중에 있습니다. | 55% |
신도우 히카루 만화 마법기사 레이어스 의 등장인물에 대해서는 시도우 히카루 문서를 참고하십시오. 19일자 일본의 스포츠신문들은 우타다 히카루가 18일 도쿄 시부야에서 진행된 도쿄fm의 공개 생방송에서 다음 달 미국에서 발매될 2집 앨범 디스, 히카루라는 죽은 여류작가의 소설이 출간된다는 사실이다.
사랑스러운 미나즈키 히카루의 프로필과 사진 소개합니다.. 히카루 2004년 케플러의 멤버 우타다 히카루 일본의 가수 야오토메 히카루 일본의 가수, 배우이며, 남성 아이돌 그룹 hey.. 롤러 스케이트를 타고 춤추며 노래했으며, 자니즈 사무소 에 소속해 있었다..
Ec 사이트 등에서는 「미나즈키 히카루」 이름으로도 되어 있다. 의 유닛 snow man의 멤버 이토 히카루 일본의 프로 야구 선수이며, 현재 센트럴 리그인 요코하마 dena 베이스타스의 소속 선수. Com › catsharklover › 223804173882『메달리스트』 52화 추측 쏙독새의 별 카미사키 히카루. 사랑스러운 미나즈키 히카루의 프로필과 사진 소개합니다. Org › wiki › 변덕스러운_오렌지변덕스러운 오렌지로드 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전, 만화가 워낙 잔인하고 동성간 연애가 노골적으로 나와서 그런지 한국에선 유해서적으로 지정되어 발매가 금지되었다.
메달리스트 44개의 글 목록열기 tags, 히카루 술루 영어 hikaru sulu는 《스타 트렉 시리즈》의 등장인물이다, 히카루라는 죽은 여류작가의 소설이 출간된다는 사실이다. 자폐증인 오빠가 있는 카논에 대해서 이해하고, 그에 얽힌 문제가 일어났을 때 중재해 주었다. Org › wiki › 히카루_2004년히카루 2004년 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 쿠와바타 桑畑 선생 카논이 1학년 때의 담임.
히카루 나카무라 크리스토퍼 히카루 나카무라1 일본어 中村光, 영어 christopher hikaru nakamura. Org › wiki › 히카루_2004년히카루 2004년 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전, 애니메이션에서 목소리를 연기한 성우는 일본판은 히카미 쿄코 이고 한국판은 송정희 1대 디지캐럿 시리즈, 차명화 디지캐럿뇨 은하공주 디지캐럿 한국명 안보나이다. Org › wiki › 히카루_2004년히카루 2004년 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전.
《변덕스러운 오렌지로드》 일본어 きまぐれオレンジ☆ロード 기마구레 오렌지로도 또는 《새콤달콤 오렌지로드》는 일본의 로맨틱 코미디 만화이다, Ec 사이트 등에서는 「미나즈키 히카루」 이름으로도 되어 있다. 의 유닛 snow man의 멤버 이토 히카루. 수학여행 때 스스로 히카루용의 안내서를 만들어 주었다. Org › wiki › 히카루_2004년히카루 2004년 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전.
2000년 마키 미도리 당시 이토 마키와 결혼하였다. 이번에는 정통파 미소녀, 모두 달 히카루 짱에 와 주셨습니다. 2018년 7월 딥스 회사의 전속 배우 히카루란 이름으로 av 데뷔했다, 만화 달콤한 인생 도 국내에 불법판으로 발매가 되어서 나이든 아재 분들은 기억하는 분들도 꽤나 되실듯.
게다가 오늘은 제가 첫 월급은 받은 날이랍니다. 히카루 술루 영어 hikaru sulu는 《스타 트렉 시리즈》의 등장인물이다, 《변덕스러운 오렌지로드》 일본어 きまぐれオレンジ☆ロード 기마구레 오렌지로도 또는 《새콤달콤 오렌지로드》는 일본의 로맨틱 코미디 만화이다, 지난해 데뷔 25주년을 맞아 올해 4월에는 자신 첫 베스트 앨범『science fiction』을 발표한 우타다 히카루, 2018년 7월 딥스 회사의 전속 배우 「히카루」이름으로 av데뷔.
soop 다운 엄마, j계미소녀 물건으로 끌어당기는 그녀의 개인 베스트판을 어디보다도 빨리 빨리 전달. 히카루 술루 영어 hikaru sulu는 《스타 트렉 시리즈》의 등장인물이다. 메달리스트 44개의 글 목록열기 tags. 이 문서는 일본어 위키백과 의 光源氏 문서를 번역하여, 문서의 내용을 확장 할 필요가 있습니다. 천황이 어린 겐지를 후지츠보에게 데려와서 이 아이의 모친은 당신과 꼭 닮았으니 이 아이를 자신의 아이처럼 아껴주라. sotwe highcookie
sotwe 존잘 Org › wiki › 변덕스러운_오렌지변덕스러운 오렌지로드 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 히카루 짱의 치아를 정지 영상에서도 즐기세요. 어른들을 경멸하는 9명의 14살 소년들이 비밀결사를 만들고 세상의 추잡한 것을. 2018년 7월 딥스 회사의 전속 배우 「히카루」이름으로 av데뷔. Jump의 멤버 미도리카와 히카루 일본 아오니 프로덕션 소속의 남성 성우 이와모토 히카루 일본의 가수, 배우, 탤런트이며, 쟈니스 jr. sotwe 착의탈분
sotwe 공유와잎 High card 하이 카드, 모두 대문자는 카와모토 호무라, 무노 히카루, tms 엔터테인먼트 가 만든 일본의 멀티미디어 프랜차이즈 이다. Org › wiki › 히카루히카루 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. Com › sanrawraw › 223944387418히카루가 죽은 여름 해석, 숨은 상징 매미, 노우누키, 히카루, 해바. Works 에서 제작하여 2018년 10월 방영된 오리지널 애니메이션. 국내에선 불법본으로 모두 줄거야 라는 제목으로 나왔고, 본 분들이 꽤 있을텐데요, 실제론 이 만화는 일본 내에서는 너무나도 유명한. sotwe 사컨
sotwe hanti_g Ec 사이트 등에서는 「미나즈키 히카루」 이름으로도 되어 있다. Org › wiki › 히카루_2004년히카루 2004년 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. Ec 사이트 등에서는 「미나즈키 히카루」. 만화 달콤한 인생 도 국내에 불법판으로 발매가 되어서 나이든 아재 분들은 기억하는 분들도 꽤나 되실듯. 지난해 데뷔 25주년을 맞아 올해 4월에는 자신 첫 베스트 앨범『science fiction』을 발표한 우타다 히카루.
spicasiri High card 하이 카드, 모두 대문자는 카와모토 호무라, 무노 히카루, tms 엔터테인먼트 가 만든 일본의 멀티미디어 프랜차이즈 이다. Starto entertainment 소속. 몸이 안좋아서 2019년 11월부터 휴식기간을 가졌고 2020년 3월 24일에 활동 재개를 발표했다. 히카루 나카무라 크리스토퍼 히카루 나카무라1 일본어 中村光, 영어 christopher hikaru nakamura. 2018년 7월 딥스 회사의 전속 배우 히카루란 이름으로 av 데뷔했다.
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.
Org › wiki › 변덕스러운_오렌지변덕스러운 오렌지로드 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.
