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.
2004년 7월 18일 연쇄살인범 유영철이 경찰에 붙잡혔습니다. Com › board › view교도소에 유영철에게 당한 피해자 귀신잇네 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 왼쪽부터 문홍주박상진 특검보, 민중기 특검, 김형근오정희 특검보, 홍지항 지원단장. 2005년 6월 사형이 최종 확정된 후 현재는 서울구치소에서 사형 미결수로 분류돼 수감돼 있다.
실종신고도 제대로 안되던거잖아 유영철이 잡히고 나서 진상이 밝혀지는 과정 위주로 가겠지 자백받아서 시신발굴하고. 게다가 나거한 같이 남녀갈등이 극심해진 2020년대부터 디시인사이드 등에서 밈으로 쓰이고 있다, 머리카락이 쭈볏이 설 정도로 놀랐던 순간은, 잘린 머리가 수건걸이에서 떨어졌던 순간도 아니고, 머리없는 몸뚱아리가 내게 달려들었던 순간도 아니고, 개복한.사형장 시설 재정비하자 날 죽이라던 연쇄살인마 유영철. 아니 추격자 볼라고 정보보다가 유영철 얘기가 나와서 드가봤는데, Com › board › view유영철사건총정리 사고 갤러리. 대한민국에서는 2004년 유영철 사건을 계기로 사이코패스라는 개념이 대중에게 처음 소개되었다.
원국 자체가 무진 백호에 경진 괴강으로 점철되어 있으니 피의 냄새가 진동을 합니다. 진범인지 아닌지 논쟁여지가 있는것도 아니고 100% 진범이라 사형무기징역 나온걸로 알고있는데 왜 아직 사람취급을 해주는지 이해가 안되네 시스템모오니터 2022, 김씨는 지난해 6월 3일8월 14일까지 디시인사이드 내 신세경 관련 게시판과 기타 드라마 게시판에 신씨를 협박모욕하는 글을 450여차례, 생애 편집 1969년 충청남도 서천군 농촌에서 오남매 중 셋째로 태어나 고향 인근에서 초중고교를 졸업했다.
법무부는 대구교도소에 수감 중인 유영철, 정형구 등 사형수를 지난주 서울구치소로 이감시켰다.. ‘루비’는 24일현지시간 미국 빌보드가 홈페이지에 발표한 ‘2025년 지금까지 나온 최고의 앨범 50’에서 21번째로 언급됐다.. 유영철은 2003년부터 20명을 살해하고 2005년 사형이 선고돼 지금까지 18년째 복역 중이다..
2005년 6월 사형이 최종 확정된 후 현재는 서울구치소에서 사형 미결수로 분류돼 수감돼 있다. 02 0652 유영철 아들 찾아서 유영철 보는앞에서 교도관이 토막 쳐주면 좋겠다 3 네오메탈 2022, 똑똑한 것 같으면서 멍청하고 리더 성격 아니고 강약약강 내가 생각하는 얘가 유영철 딸이라면 유영철 딸이 나 초딩때 집에 가는거 몰래 뒤쫓아와서 나 어디 사는지 알아낸 적 있음 초딩때 스토킹 당함 dc, 지난 5일에는 미국 유명 음악지 롤링스톤이 뽑은 ‘2025년 지금까지 나온. 똑똑한 것 같으면서 멍청하고 리더 성격 아니고 강약약강 내가 생각하는 얘가 유영철 딸이라면 유영철 딸이 나 초딩때 집에 가는거 몰래 뒤쫓아와서 나 어디 사는지 알아낸 적 있음 초딩때 스토킹 당함 dc. 유영철 살인하고 장기 먹었다 범죄 갤러리.
20일 kbs 2tv 에선 유영철의 연쇄살인사건을 다룬다. ‘루비’는 24일현지시간 미국 빌보드가 홈페이지에 발표한 ‘2025년 지금까지 나온 최고의 앨범 50’에서 21번째로 언급됐다. Be0v6zosdz_1q와 심각하다 이거 널리 퍼트려줘. 역학 설정 new 연관 글쓰기 차단 설정 머리말∙꼬리말 설정 ai 이미지 간편 등록new 근데 유영철 아들은 왠만한 역갤러들보단 잘 살고 있을걸 ㅇㅇ 118. 이전까지 나는 어차피 사형수라서 잃을 것이 없다며 교도관.
치지디갤 정남규 나 유영철, 김해선, 온보현 같은 연쇄살인범들과 달리, 강호순은 성장 과정에 ‘불우한 가정환경이나 폭력성 학대 흔적’이 없다. 그는 2004년 1월 14일 부터 2006년 4월 22일 까지 서울, 경기도 지역에서 13명을 살해하고 20명에게 중상을 입힌 범죄자 다. 야 내가 유영철 잡을뻔한 썰 말해줬냐. 게다가 나거한 같이 남녀갈등이 극심해진 2020년대부터 디시인사이드 등에서 밈으로 쓰이고 있다. 만약 이 사주에 미약하게라도 갑목이 있다면 그런 흉은 피하고 오히려 이런 악살들이 길함으. 카리나 경멸
케모노파티 온리팬스 자신만은 간질로 죽어서는 안 되겠다는 생각에 살해한 4명의 사체에서 간. 진범인지 아닌지 논쟁여지가 있는것도 아니고 100% 진범이라 사형무기징역 나온걸로 알고있는데 왜 아직 사람취급을 해주는지 이해가 안되네 시스템모오니터 2022. Com › board › view교도소에 유영철에게 당한 피해자 귀신잇네 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 어차피 좆되는건 유영철이라 난 단물만 빼먹고 쏙빠져서 내인생 살아야지. 똑똑한 것 같으면서 멍청하고 리더 성격 아니고 강약약강 내가 생각하는 얘가 유영철 딸이라면 유영철 딸이 나 초딩때 집에 가는거 몰래 뒤쫓아와서 나 어디 사는지 알아낸 적 있음 초딩때 스토킹 당함 dc. 카발로
커플 섹스 유영철 만난썰 푼다 201008202102 대출 갤러리. 사형수들의 호송에는 무장한 교도관들이 동원됐다. 아무리 처음엔 서로 사랑해서 만났다지만 20명을 토막살인하고 심지어 인육까지 자행한 살인마의 아들을 오직 모성애. 아니 추격자 볼라고 정보보다가 유영철 얘기가 나와서 드가봤는데. 2005년 6월 사형이 최종 확정된 후 현재는 서울구치소에서 사형 미결수로 분류돼 수감돼 있다. 카난 아카이브 디시
케이브덕 플러스 후기 아내 황씨는 과거 빚쟁이들에게 쫒기다가 유영철이 구해준걸 인연으로 결혼하고 아들을 하나 낳지만 결혼생활 10년동안 유영철이 제 집보다 교도소를 더 들낙거리자 지쳐서 이혼하고 양육권까지 가져감. 법알못새끼들 일단 썰풀기전 말해줌 유영철은 사형선고 받음. 2003년 부터 2004년 까지 20명을 살해한 희대의 연쇄 살인마 유영철. Com › mgallery › board살인마 유영철의 전 부인과 그 친아들 근황 싱글벙글 지구촌 마이너. 유영철은 주로 노인과 여성을 노려 잔혹한 범행을 저질렀다.
친애하는 x 좌표 아무리 처음엔 서로 사랑해서 만났다지만 20명을 토막살인하고 심지어 인육까지 자행한 살인마의 아들을 오직 모성애. Com › board › view교도소에 유영철에게 당한 피해자 귀신잇네 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 유영철은 2003년 9월부터 2004년 7월까지 20명을 살해했다. 아찔아찔과거 유영철을 집에 숨겨줬던 디씨인jpg. 아니 추격자 볼라고 정보보다가 유영철 얘기가 나와서 드가봤는데.
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.
정남규 나 유영철, 김해선, 온보현 같은 연쇄살인범들과 달리, 강호순은 성장 과정에 ‘불우한 가정환경이나 폭력성 학대 흔적’이 없다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.