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.
일반 스이세이 코스프레하는 와타나베 줄리아씨가 보고싶다 ㅇㅇ 2024. 밀리시타 콜라보로 추가된 줄리아 와 시즈카 가 다른 사무소 소속 아이돌라는 점에서 어드바이저 칭호를 받은 것과 비교하면 특이한 케이스이다. 일반 실베유입을 위한 스이세이 개인정보 유출의 진짜 배경. 13 0122 줄리아와타나베 엄마는 왜나를 9일늦게낳앗지 1 줄리아와타나베 2024.
노래와 아이돌을 각별히 사랑하는 버츄얼 아이돌.. 이제와서 말하는거지만 스이짱 빨간약은 별생각없는데평소에버튜버 잘모르는사람들이 나무위키나 디씨글 조금읽고..호시마치 스이세이 신상 털려서 동남아 혼혈인게 들통 났다. 호시마치 스이세이 는 일본의 버츄얼 유튜버, 버츄얼 아이돌이다, ‘호시마치 스이세이’는 전 세계적으로 인기를 끌고 있는 홀로라이브 프로덕션 소속 버튜버로서 유튜브 방송뿐만 아니라 음악, 라이브 공연 등 다양한 활동을 선보이며 200만 명. 스이세이 저작권 관련해서 좀 더 자세히 알아봄 키즈나 아이. 13 0122 줄리아와타나베 엄마는 왜나를 9일늦게낳앗지 1 줄리아와타나베 2024.
Com › mgallery › board아니 여기에는 대놓고 실명이 박제되어 있었네ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 키즈나 아이 마. 35k views 테트리스 세계 2위와 격한 대결을 벌이는 스이세이가 너무 대단해. 칭호의 명칭은 다른 신데렐라 아이돌과 같은 담당 担当. 호시마치 스이세이 안에 사람 빨간약 네이버 블로그 전체보기 4,111개의 글 목록열기.
스이세이 애미가 10세 이하일 때인 60년대 후반 70년대 중반 사이에 어떤 이유로 스이세이의 외할머니가 사망했고, 당시에 레히욘을 한두 개 넘어서 가족들이 이주할 정도면, 스이세이 외할머니의 사망과 이주 사이에 관계가 있을 가능성이 높음.. Watanabe 아버지 성이 와타나베인듯스이세이가 영상에 있는 앨범 디자인을 엔도루 시절에 했는데스이세이네 엄마가 자기 딸 줄리아가 디자인한 앨범이.. 호쇼 마린 홀로라이브에서 둘째가라면 서러운 최고 인싸에 소문난 달변가들이기도 하고, 그림을 잘 그린다든가 노래 실력이 뛰어나다든가 등등 의외로 공통점이 꽤 많다..
Watanabe 아버지 성이 와타나베인듯스이세이가 영상에 있는 앨범 디자인을 엔도루 시절에 했는데스이세이네 엄마가 자기 딸 줄리아가 디자인한 앨범이. 참고로 2번째로 짧은 곡은 angel 타입의 read more, 노래와 아이돌을 각별히 사랑하는 버츄얼 아이돌, 오디션 지원서에는 사람의 마음을 움직이게 하는 직업을 하고 싶어 성우를 지망했다고 적었다. 그 다음으로 줄리아라는 이름을 가장 많이 쓰는게 필리핀이었음.
일반 스이세이 빨간약 100% 확정이라는 증거가 나왔음, Com › 7237416228빨간약 스이세이 버튜버 에펨코리아, 일본 부도칸 에서 라이브하는 것을 목표로 하고 있다, 시온아쿠아카나타와 아오가 동급이라고 스이세이x볼트룸 후드 41만원이라고라 2, 언젠가 도쿄돔에서14 라이브를 하는 것을 꿈꾸며, Com › mgallery › board느금마치 스이세이의 외가 내력을 파헤쳐 보자 ver.
자신이 무엇일지 맞추는 게임을 하였고 결과는 무승부로 났다, 언젠가 무도관에서 라이브를 여는 걸 꿈꾸며 활동, 7월 2일, 호시마치 스타디오에 첫 게스트인 pj.
스이세이 역시 이 사실을 잘 알고 있고, 언젠가 적극적인 콜라보를 하고 싶어한다. 13 0122 meda 그렇대요 meda 2024, Com › mgallery › board스이세이 코스프레하는 와타나베 줄리아씨가 보고싶다 키즈나 아이, 롯데시네마가 버튜버vtuber ‘호시마치 스이세이’의 supernova 콘서트를 라이브뷰잉을 통해 단독 상영한다고 밝혔다. 지금껏 쌓아올린 가수로서의 명성, 활약, 인기가 전부 스이세이로서 이룬거고 스이세이가 없는 와타나베 줄리아는 아무것도 아.
스이세이 역시 이 사실을 잘 알고 있고, 언젠가 적극적인 콜라보를 하고 싶어한다. 일반 실베유입을 위한 스이세이 개인정보 유출의 진짜 배경, 줄리아와타나베 엄마는 왜나를 9일늦게낳앗지, 참고로 2번째로 짧은 곡은 angel 타입의 read more, 시온아쿠아카나타와 아오가 동급이라고 스이세이x볼트룸 후드 41만원이라고라 2. 🎙️인방 스이세이, 호시마치 스이세이 286 데미소다사과맛20924160 ⚽️스포츠 유로 2024, 사비 시몬스, 사우스게이트 25 레드불20646 🤔일반 박영현, 고승민 14 조타구20845 🤔일반 폴드6 30 황금호박프로토타입204714 🤔일반 갤럭시.
오노사카 미사키 언젠가 도쿄돔에서14 라이브를 하는 것을 꿈꾸며. 오디션 지원서에는 사람의 마음을 움직이게 하는 직업을 하고 싶어 성우를 지망했다고 적었다. 그래서 스이세이와타나베 줄리아필리핀 혼혈 이 밝혀진거임. 🎙️인방 스이세이, 호시마치 스이세이 286 데미소다사과맛20924160 ⚽️스포츠 유로 2024, 사비 시몬스, 사우스게이트 25 레드불20646 🤔일반 박영현, 고승민 14 조타구20845 🤔일반 폴드6 30 황금호박프로토타입204714 🤔일반 갤럭시. 노래와 아이돌을 각별히 사랑하는 버츄얼 아이돌. 여사친 엉덩이
여자 사이코 패스 특징 디시 스이세이 저작권 관련해서 좀 더 자세히 알아봄 키즈나 아이. 오디션 지원서에는 사람의 마음을 움직이게 하는 직업을 하고 싶어 성우를 지망했다고 적었다. 스이세이 코로아즈 이노타쿠 포함해서 다같이 함구했는데 이걸 억지로 뜯어온거 보면 내가 코로아즈 이노타쿠 좋아하다보니까 좀 크게화남 줄리아와타나베 2024. 참고로 2번째로 짧은 곡은 angel 타입의 read more. 그래서 스이세이와타나베 줄리아필리핀 혼혈 이 밝혀진거임. 오디오 툰 무료로 보는 법 디시
오구라유나 보지 Midnight grand orchestra의 멤버로서 토이즈 팩토리에도 소속되어 있다. 7월 2일, 호시마치 스타디오에 첫 게스트인 pj. 호쇼 마린 홀로라이브에서 둘째가라면 서러운 최고 인싸에 소문난 달변가들이기도 하고, 그림을 잘 그린다든가 노래 실력이 뛰어나다든가 등등 의외로 공통점이 꽤 많다. Midnight grand orchestra의 멤버로서 토이즈 팩토리에도 소속되어 있다. Com › mgallery › board스이세이 코스프레하는 와타나베 줄리아씨가 보고싶다 키즈나 아이. 연우 온리팬
오기쿠보 유흥 7월 2일, 호시마치 스타디오에 첫 게스트인 pj. 스이세이 저작권 관련해서 좀 더 자세히 알아봄 키즈나 아이. 스이세이 이름은 julia watanabe일 확률이 높고 어머니 이름은 martha watanabe 아버지 성이 와타나베인듯 스이세이가 영상에 있는 앨범 디자인을 엔도루 시절에 했는데 스이세이네 엄마가 자기 딸 줄리아가 디자인한 앨범이라고 사진을 페이스북에 올려서. 스이세이 저작권 관련해서 좀 더 자세히 알아봄 키즈나 아이. 일반 실베유입을 위한 스이세이 개인정보 유출의 진짜 배경.
여자친구 임신 디시 13 0122 줄리아와타나베 엄마는 왜나를 9일늦게낳앗지 1 줄리아와타나베 2024. 35k views 테트리스 세계 2위와 격한 대결을 벌이는 스이세이가 너무 대단해. 참고로 2번째로 짧은 곡은 angel 타입의 read more. 호시마치 스이세이 안에 사람 빨간약 네이버 블로그 전체보기 4,111개의 글 목록열기. 참고로 2번째로 짧은 곡은 angel 타입의 read more.
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.
밀리시타 콜라보로 추가된 줄리아 와 시즈카 가 다른 사무소 소속 아이돌라는 점에서 어드바이저 칭호를 받은 것과 비교하면 특이한 케이스이다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.