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.
인간이 만든 광고보다, ai 광고가 더 효과적. Combbac9a2724973 ⚜️트위터 iwaego. Com › iwaego › statusx. 플레이 중인 유저 얼굴을 게임 내에 띄워주는 식으로 진행될 예정이었던 것이다.
| 21 아오쯔이와 차오환둥이 황성에서 맞대결, 린겅신이. | Kr › community › misc김웅서 사망 사건 정리, 동거녀 기지현 얼굴 공개, 통화 녹취록으로. | 최근 유튜브계를 뒤흔든 고기남자와 배인규의 싸움 사건을 아시나요. |
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| Combbac9a2724973 ⚜️트위터 iwaego. | 장갑은 제 생각나서 샀다는데눈물찔끔. | 파일럿 예고편 kpl 드림팀 합체, read more. |
| 이 캐릭터를 재구축하고 자연스러운 얼굴 표정과 신체 움직임을 구현하기 위해 ai를 학습시키는 데에만 약 4개월이 소요됐다. | 한 유튜버가 대표적인 사이버렉카인 유튜버 뻑가의 얼굴 사진이라면서 한 남성의 얼굴을 담은 사진을 15일 공개했다. | Com › watch실물 보고 미호크라 한 사람 찾습니다. |
| 소비자들이 자주 사용하는 스마트폰 앱 장터에 알몸 이미지를 합성해주는 인공지능ai 앱이 버젓이 등록된 것으로 나타났다. | 플레이 중인 유저 얼굴을 게임 내에 띄워주는 식으로 진행될 예정이었던 것이다. | 카운터사이드 개발자였던 박상연 디렉터와 맞팔로우 되어있다. |
그리고 정작 듀얼배틀 게임내용 자체엔 다들 관심 없었던거 같은데.. ‘남의연애’는 웨이브 wavve에서 제작공개하는 퀴어 남성 동성애자 연애 리얼리티 프로그램입니다.. 고기남자와 배인규가 싸우게 되면서 고기남자의 얼굴과 실명이 공개되었는데요.. 본인 얼굴은 공개도 못하면서 남의 외모를 지적하면 안된다라고 분노하고 있습니다..인간이 만든 광고보다, ai 광고가 더 효과적. 초콜릿이 이어준 나영이와의 첫 만남 12년의 기록, 버튜버 오버워치2 오버워치유튜버 more. 최근 유튜브계를 뒤흔든 고기남자와 배인규의 싸움 사건을 아시나요. Com › watch버튜버 실물 공개 사고. Com › watch버튜버 실물 공개 사고.
권상우 아들 얼굴 공개, 언제 어디서. Kr의 배우 프로젝트가 60초 독백 페스티벌 수상자들의 연기 영상을 공개했습니다. 안녕하세요 다른건 아니였고 모 커뮤니티에 제 신상과 흡사.
장갑은 제 생각나서 샀다는데눈물찔끔. 연말에 좋은 선물 받아서 느므 기분좋고 냥이들이 좋아하니 더 좋네요. 이와는 마스크를 쓴 채 빨간약을 일부 공개할 결심을 내비쳤으나. 좋아요 29개,mwr life여행플랫폼이영림 @zeeyeen01 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 가장 많은 조회수를 기록한 얼굴 마사지 방법으로 건강과 미용을 동시에. 캐릭터 실체 캐릭터 실체 이분 남자아님 여자임 캐릭터 실체 캐릭터 실체 생각해봐라 얼굴이 최소 사람처럼만 생겼으면 씹덕가면쓰고 버튜버 했겠냐 아프리카나 가서 여캠했겠지 버튜버하는 여자들은 와꾸수준이 진짜 최소한의 인간의 허들을 넘지 못하는 캠빨이나 화장으로도 카바안되는 괴물.
실물공개버튜버 얼굴유출 방송사고 29k views 1 year ago, Kr › community › misc김웅서 사망 사건 정리, 동거녀 기지현 얼굴 공개, 통화 녹취록으로. & 설명 & ⚜️name iwa 이와 ⚜️치지직 schzzk. 주딱 얼굴공개, 19금 코스프레 알몸 도게자 인증, 버튜버 데뷔, 대리인증맡긴 유포자 고소 등 패배했을시 짊어져야 했던 듀얼의 무게가 달랐었다고 한다. 버츄얼 스나이퍼 이와 개빻았네 진짜 디시인사이드. 이 캐릭터를 재구축하고 자연스러운 얼굴 표정과 신체 움직임을 구현하기 위해 ai를 학습시키는 데에만 약 4개월이 소요됐다.
처녀 여친 디시 그리고 정작 듀얼배틀 게임내용 자체엔 다들 관심 없었던거 같은데. 플레이 중인 유저 얼굴을 게임 내에 띄워주는 식으로 진행될 예정이었던 것이다. 앨범 컨셉에 맞춰 몽환적인 무드에 익숙하면서도 낯선 비아이의 얼굴까지 모두 담아왔습니다. 하술하겠지만 몸매가 좋아 동탄룩 반캠도 한 적 있음에도 여까,김길현등과의 합방에서 마스크한채 얼굴을 공개했는데 반응이 리바이, 비주얼밴드 베이스라며 잘생긴. Kr › community › misc김웅서 사망 사건 정리, 동거녀 기지현 얼굴 공개, 통화 녹취록으로. 체ㅂ 트위터
초록모자 벌칙 풀영상 평소 카운터사이드 방송은 진행하지 않다가 29 방송에서 처음으로 계정을 공개하였다. Com › watch버튜버 실물 공개 사고. 한 유튜버가 대표적인 사이버렉카인 유튜버 뻑가의 얼굴 사진이라면서 한 남성의 얼굴을 담은 사진을 15일 공개했다. 소비자들이 자주 사용하는 스마트폰 앱 장터에 알몸 이미지를 합성해주는 인공지능ai 앱이 버젓이 등록된 것으로 나타났다. 초콜릿이 이어준 나영이와의 첫 만남 12년의 기록. 채령 꼭노
초 남성 증후군 외모 카운터사이드 개발자였던 박상연 디렉터와 맞팔로우 되어있다. 방송에서 아들이 17살이라고 직접 언급하며 자연스럽게 화면에 노출됐고, 이 장면이 온라인에서 빠르게 퍼졌습니다. 이와는 마스크를 쓴 채 빨간약을 일부 공개할 결심을 내비쳤으나. 카운터사이드 개발자였던 박상연 디렉터와 맞팔로우 되어있다. 때문에 이성관계에서도 얼굴은 굉장히 중요하다. 초승달 나이
최솜 섹스 파일럿 예고편 kpl 드림팀 합체, read more. 초콜릿이 이어준 나영이와의 첫 만남 12년의 기록. 이 캐릭터를 재구축하고 자연스러운 얼굴 표정과 신체 움직임을 구현하기 위해 ai를 학습시키는 데에만 약 4개월이 소요됐다. 버츄얼 스나이퍼 이와 개빻았네 진짜 디시인사이드. 치지직및 유튜브에서 방송을 진행하고 read more.
천 세린 포토 북 디시 앨범 컨셉에 맞춰 몽환적인 무드에 익숙하면서도 낯선 비아이의 얼굴까지 모두 담아왔습니다. 앨범 컨셉에 맞춰 몽환적인 무드에 익숙하면서도 낯선 비아이의 얼굴까지 모두 담아왔습니다. 고기남자와 배인규가 싸우게 되면서 고기남자의 얼굴과 실명이 공개되었는데요. 이와 본인은 이 상황이 꽤나 부끄럽다 밝혔다. 이와는 마스크를 쓴 채 빨간약을 일부 공개할 결심을 내비쳤으나.
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.
주딱 얼굴공개, 19금 코스프레 알몸 도게자 인증, 버튜버 데뷔, 대리인증맡긴 유포자 고소 등 패배했을시 짊어져야 했던 듀얼의 무게가 달랐었다고 한다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.