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.
그 피해호소녀는 다른 자리갓다가 다시 비서로 이동시켜달라고 애걸해서 비서자리로 이동시켯. 제목이 참 잔인한 현실피해자는 참 잔인하다. 박 시장의 빈소는 서울대병원 장례식장에 마련됐답니다. Kr › article › 23877561단독sns 사진이 박원순 침묵했던 6층 사람들의 반격 중앙일보.
루머에 대한 저의 입장을 전달했고, 협박 및 허위사실 적시에 의한 명예훼손에 read more.. Kr › society › courtprosecution박원순 비서 사랑해요→ 朴 내가 뉴스1.. 그 피해호소녀는 다른 자리갓다가 다시 비서로 이동시켜달라고 애걸해서 비서자리로 이동시켯.. 박원순 시장의 자살과 무관치 않았던 박시장의 비서 박원순 시장을 고소했던 피해호소인 이 모 씨당시 박원순 시장의 여비서는 미국 유학중..
I_wonsoon_u 박원순, mayor of seoul.. 박 시장의 빈소는 서울대병원 장례식장에 마련됐답니다..
| 고 故 박원순 전 서울시장의 성희롱 사실을 인정한 결정을 취소해달라고 낸 소송이 항소심에서도 받아들여지지 않았다. | 고 故 박원순 전 서울시장의 성희롱 사실을 인정한 결정을 취소해달라고 낸 소송이 항소심에서도 받아들여지지 않았다. | 피해자는 그분의 위력은 여전히 강하게 존재. |
|---|---|---|
| 박원순 시장의 자살과 무관치 않았던 박시장의 비서 박원순 시장을 고소했던 피해호소인 이 모 씨당시 박원순 시장의 여비서는 미국 유학중. | 그 피해호소녀는 다른 자리갓다가 다시 비서로 이동시켜달라고 애걸해서 비서자리로 이동시켯. | 박 시장의 빈소는 서울대병원 장례식장에 마련됐답니다. |
| 서울미래유산홈페이지 언론보도 정보 열린데이터광장. | 박원순, 내실에서 안아달라끔찍한 문자 수없이 보내. | Kr › society › courtprosecution박원순 비서 사랑해요→ 朴 내가 뉴스1. |
| 박원순 오세훈 피해호소녀 박원순비서 열린공감 열공 주열린공감tv는 유튜브채널 열린공감tv를 통해 정치, 시사, 사회, 문화. | 포렌식을 통해 복구된 텔레그램 문자는 국가인권위원회가 고 박원순 전 시장 유족이 낸 행정소송에 맞서 증거 자료로 법정에 제출한 것으로 알려졌다. | Comview5 복사하기 74 20200710 124642. |
| 피해호소인 표현이 맞다 주창자는 민주당 젠더tf 남인순. | 오직 고통밖에 주지 못한 가족에게 내내 미안하다. | 2020년 7월 12일, 박원순 서울특별시장이 성추행으로 전직 비서2에게 고소당했다는 사실이 폭로되며 촉발된 사건. |
며칠 전 저는 서울강남경찰서를 방문해 고소인 진술 조사를 하고 왔습니다. 진실 故 박원순 시장 비서가 쓴 편지 3통, May be an image of overcoat 12월이 생일인데 1112 티파니 인상이라 후다닥. 이경인 @lee_kyungin_daily. 루머에 대한 저의 입장을 전달했고, 협박 및 허위사실 적시에 의한 명예훼손에 read more.
포렌식을 통해 복구된 텔레그램 문자는 국가인권위원회가 고 박원순 전 시장 유족이 낸 행정소송에 맞서 증거 자료로 법정에 제출한 것으로 알려졌다, 9월14일 아침, kbs 김경래의 최강시사 박원순 사건 고소 대리인 김재련 변호사 인터뷰가 있었다. 9월14일 아침, kbs 김경래의 최강시사 박원순 사건 고소 대리인 김재련 변호사 인터뷰가 있었다, 서울미래유산 홈페이지에서 제공되는 언론보도 정보입니다. 고소인 핸드폰을 통해 일부 복원된 자료를 근거로 신속히 박원순 전 시장의 핸드폰을 압수하여 그 문자들이 복구되기를 원했기 때문입니다. 고 故 박원순 전 서울시장 성추행 의혹 사건과 4월 서울시 비서실 직원 성폭력 사건 4월 사건을 둘러싼 의혹이 꼬리에 꼬리를 물고 있다.
I_wonsoon_u 박원순, mayor of seoul, 故 박원순 시장님의 속옷 사진이라는게 일명 쪼끼난닝구조끼형 런닝셔츠 일부가 보이는 이미지, 언론보도 제목, 언론보도 내용요약, 답변내용, 입력일자 등의 정보를 제공합니다, 서울미래유산 홈페이지에서 제공되는 언론보도 정보입니다.
키오프 하늘 노출 고故 박원순 전 서울시장의 성추행 피해자 a씨가 서울시 내부에 고통을 호소하며 인사이동을 요청했다는 증언이 나오면서, 직속 상관인 역대 비서실. 진실 故 박원순 시장 비서가 쓴 편지 3통. 피해자는 그분의 위력은 여전히 강하게 존재. 포렌식을 통해 복구된 텔레그램 문자는 국가인권위원회가 고 박원순 전 시장 유족이 낸 행정소송에 맞서 증거 자료로 법정에 제출한 것으로 알려졌다. 오직 고통밖에 주지 못한 가족에게 내내 미안하다. 크림파이 뜻
타츠 마키 일러스트 고 故 박원순 전 서울시장의 성희롱 사실을 인정한 결정을 취소해달라고 낸 소송이 항소심에서도 받아들여지지 않았다. 앵커멘트 고 박원순 전 서울시장 사건의 피해자가 8개월 만에 언론에 직접 모습을 드러냈습니다. Kr › article › 23877561단독sns 사진이 박원순 침묵했던 6층 사람들의 반격 중앙일보. I_wonsoon_u 박원순, mayor of seoul. 그 피해호소녀는 다른 자리갓다가 다시 비서로 이동시켜달라고 애걸해서 비서자리로 이동시켯. 쿠빈 살
클리 개발 디시 고 故 박원순 전 서울시장 성추행 의혹 사건과 4월 서울시 비서실 직원 성폭력 사건 4월 사건을 둘러싼 의혹이 꼬리에 꼬리를 물고 있다. 박 시장의 빈소는 서울대병원 장례식장에 마련됐답니다. 포렌식을 통해 복구된 텔레그램 문자는 국가인권위원회가 고 박원순 전 시장 유족이 낸 행정소송에 맞서 증거 자료로 법정에 제출한 것으로 알려졌다. 고 故 박원순 전 서울시장의 성희롱 사실을 인정한 결정을 취소해달라고 낸 소송이 항소심에서도 받아들여지지 않았다. Kr › society › courtprosecution박원순 비서 사랑해요→ 朴 내가 뉴스1. 크리스 퍼 테라 퓨 틱스 디시
키레네 야짤 故 박원순 시장님의 속옷 사진이라는게 일명 쪼끼난닝구조끼형 런닝셔츠 일부가 보이는 이미지. 진실 故 박원순 시장 비서가 쓴 편지 3통. 루머에 대한 저의 입장을 전달했고, 협박 및 허위사실 적시에 의한 명예훼손에 read more. 주계정 @lee_kyungin photo by 이경인 on decem. 서울미래유산홈페이지 언론보도 정보 열린데이터광장.
크롬 히토미 번역 피해호소인 표현이 맞다 주창자는 민주당 젠더tf 남인순. 피해호소인 표현이 맞다 주창자는 민주당 젠더tf 남인순. 고 故 박원순 전 서울시장의 성희롱 사실을 인정한 결정을 취소해달라고 낸 소송이 항소심에서도 받아들여지지 않았다. 제목이 참 잔인한 현실피해자는 참 잔인하다. 박원순, 내실에서 안아달라끔찍한 문자 수없이 보내.
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.
고소인 핸드폰을 통해 일부 복원된 자료를 근거로 신속히 박원순 전 시장의 핸드폰을 압수하여 그 문자들이 복구되기를 원했기 때문입니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.