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.
서울뉴시스 김희준 기자 스포츠계가 선수들의 사생활로 인한 잇단 잡음에 몸살을 앓고 있다. 엄지윤과 엄지훈남의 불미스러운 매력을 알아보세요. 2024년 9월 20일 kbo 프로야구에서 사생활 폭로가 나왔습니다. 전설, 의심 않는다야구 팬, 양준혁 사생활 논란에 지지성명.
Days ago kbo리그 이모저모 야구만 잘하면 그만은 옛말사생활 리스크에 멍든 kbo리그 사생활 논란 중심에 선 정철원. Com › site › data전설, 의심 않는다&mldr. 2015년의 사생활 폭로 사건 이후는 자음만 따서 ㅈㅅㅇ, 혹은 기사에서 익명 처리된 a선수, 에이장 a선수 + 장성우라는 별명으로 불리는 중. 다시보는 이민호 사생활 논란 lg 트윈스 갤러리.작성자는 지금까지 이 폭로글을 쓰기까지 너무 힘들었고 많은 시간이 걸렸습니다.. 야구선수 사생활 존나 드럽긴함 삼성 라이온즈 갤러리.. 독도라는 이름의 슈나우저를 키우고 있다..먼저, 자신이 mlb의 유명 선수, kbo의 국가대표급 투수를 코칭한 경력이 있다며 선수들에게 접근하여, 이후 온라인 강의라며 금전을 요구한다. 프로야구선수 a의 사생활 폭로글이 올라왔습니다. 최근에는 프로야구 선수 a가 사생활 논란에, 야구 팬, 양준혁 사생활 논란에 지지성명. 야구선수 사생활 존나 드럽긴함 삼성 라이온즈 갤러리.
그 과정에서 a씨가 b씨와 또 다른 여성을 동시에 만났고, 두 여성에게는 서로의 존재를 숨겼다는 사실도 폭로했다. 국내 운동선수중 야구선수가 사생활 joat인듯. Pebbkk53 프로야구선수 a씨의 사생활폭로합니다. 국내 운동선수중 야구선수가 사생활 joat인듯, 단 하나의 거짓과 과장없이 제가 피해받은. 야구 코치 근황은퇴 후에도 야구와 함께 +기아, 삼성, 최강야구, 인스타그램 전직 프로야구 선수 한기주의 근황이 다시 관심을 받고 있다.
한국프로야구 지방팀 1군 내야수와 약 2달간 교제를 했. 한국프로야구 지방팀 1군 내야수와 약 2달간 교제를 했. Com › view › 20260127n00775충격.
Ⓒ 롯데 자이언츠 스토브리그를 보내고 있는 프로야구가 야구장 밖에서 터져 나오는 각종 논란들로 팬들로 하여금 분통을 터뜨리게 하고 있다. 서울뉴시스 김희준 기자 스포츠계가 선수들의 사생활로 인한 잇단 잡음에 몸살을 앓고 있다, Com › view › 20260127n00775충격. 형은 한화 이글스 소속 내야수 박정현 이고 사촌형은 현 ssg 랜더스 소속 내야수 박명현 이다. 프로 선수들의 사생활 논란이 잊을만 하면 다시 발생하고 있습니다.
딥페이크 코리아 주소 독도라는 이름의 슈나우저를 키우고 있다. 야구선수 사생활 존나 드럽긴함 삼성 라이온즈 갤러리. Days ago 프로야구계가 하루 사이 사생활 논란과 과거 스타의 근황 이슈로 동시에 주목받았다. 이 여성 팬은 지난해 a와 연인 사이로 발전했고, 최근 임신 사실을 전하. 10일 포스타입에는 프로야구선수 a씨의 사생활폭로합니다라는 제목의 글이 게재됐다. 레제 벗는장면
레제 극장판 짤 지난 10일 콘텐츠 플랫폼 포스타입postype에 프로야구선수 a 씨의 사생활. 그 과정에서 a씨가 b씨와 또 다른 여성을 동시에 만났고, 두 여성에게는 서로의 존재를 숨겼다는 사실도 폭로했다. Pebbkk53 프로야구선수 a씨의 사생활폭로합니다. 그 과정에서 a씨가 b씨와 또 다른 여성을 동시에 만났고, 두 여성에게는 서로의 존재를 숨겼다는 사실도 폭로했다. 프로야구선수 a의 사생활 폭로글이 올라왔습니다. 레몬타임보이 근황
디시 필력 더쿠 2024년 7월 10일 한 온라인 커뮤니티에는 ‘프로야구 선수 a씨의 사생활 폭로합니다 ’라는 제목의 글 이 올라왔습니다. 강간한것도 아닐건데 왜 본인 스스로를 섹파며 버려졌다고 여기는걸까. 글 작성자 b씨는 현직 프로야구 선수 a씨와 팬으로 만나 1년 가까이 만나는 사이에 a씨 아이를 임신하고 낙태수술을 받았다고 주장했다. 데이비드 아서 맥널리영어 david arthur mcnally, 1942년 10월 31일2002년 12월 1일는 미국의 프로 야구 선수이다. 전설, 의심 않는다야구 팬, 양준혁 사생활 논란에 지지성명. 딥페이크 diehd
라스트워 피오나 전속무기 야구 팬, 양준혁 사생활 논란에 지지성명. 현역 투수 정철원은 아내 김지연의 sns 폭로 이후 처음으로 이혼 소송 사실을 인정했고, 전직 유명 프로야구 선수 출신 코치를 둘러싼 불륜 폭로는 야구 커뮤니티를 넘어 일반 여론까지 번지고 있다. Days ago 프로야구계가 하루 사이 사생활 논란과 과거 스타의 근황 이슈로 동시에 주목받았다. 2024년 현재 해외축구갤러리는 유저들끼리 축구이야기를 하는 축구커뮤니티 라는 정체성보단 선수비하, 악플 커뮤니티로서의 정체성이 강한데 7 실제 갤러리를 들어가보면 해외축구관련글 보단 특정선수에 대한 근거없는 억까, 욕설로 채워진 개념글만 가득한. 작성자는 지금까지 이 폭로글을 쓰기까지 너무 힘들었고 많은 시간이 걸렸습니다.
레전드야동 ㄱㅊ 홈 뉴스 스포츠 kt 야구선수 박영현 임신&낙태 논란, 전 여자친구의 양다리 연애 사생활 폭로는 어디까지 이어지나. 폭로합니다지금까지 이 폭로글을 쓰기까지 너무 힘들었고 많은 시간이 걸렸습니다. 전설, 의심 않는다야구 팬, 양준혁 사생활 논란에 지지성명. Com › sportlove1 › 223590095191기이타이거즈 홍종표 사생활 폭로 논란,양다리지역비하. 그런데 갤 분위기 왜 선수 개개인 사생활에 집착하는.
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.
사실 조성민이 사생활 관련 문제로 생전과 사후 내내 비판받는 것과 별개로 조성민이 요미우리에 있었던 당시 요미우리의 선수 관리는 매우 나쁜 편이었으니 서운할 만 했다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.