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.
머스크, 아스퍼거 증후군 앓고 있다 고백. 그녀는 모델 겸 영양사이기도 하며, 노년으로 접어든 시기에도 모델로서 활동하고 있는 것으로 유명하다. Com을 설립하고 매각하여 약관의 나이에 2천억원대의 억만. 그리고는 발명한 사람은 죽여버리고서 심장마비라 거짓말을 한답니다.
뇌과학과 인공지능의 융합을 추구하는 한양대학교 심리. 노컷헬스컬럼 한상백의 돌출입 양악 이야기. Com › site › data일론 머스크, ‘전기톱’에 ‘히틀러’까지&mldr, 할 일이 쌓이다 보면, 원래의 의도를 잃어버리기 쉽습니다, 요새는 mbti 맞는 친구를 사귀고, mbti에 따라 상대방을 이해, 공감하는데요글로벌 슈퍼리치일론머스크, 제프베조스, 워런버핏 등 슈퍼리치 mbti 도 알아봅니다. 미국 전기차업체 테슬라의 일론 머스크 최고경영자ceo가 세계 최대 부자로 등극했다. Com › qna › detail일론 머스크 혈액형 아시는 분 계신가 지식in, 일론머스크의 오랜 팬으로서 나는 그의 혈액형을 b형으로 추측해본다. 아버지 에롤 머스크는 엔지니어였으며 어머니인 메이 머스크는 모델 겸 영양사. 머스크, 아스퍼거 증후군 앓고 있다 고백.27살에 300억, 30살에 3000억을 번 일론 머스크 실리콘밸리의 거부로 zip2 는 당시 떠오르고 있던 인터넷을 기반으로 지도 소프트웨어와 전화번호 검색 기능을 합쳐 놓은 서비스를 제공했다.. 회춘하려 아들 피 수혈받은 존슨, 머스크 공개 비난왜.. 일론머스크의 오랜 팬으로서 나는 그의 혈액형을 b형으로 추측해본다.. 45 그의 어머니 메이 머스크 본명 할드먼는 캐나다..
2000년대초에 최초로 소개되었고 최근에는 일론 머스크가 투자한 뉴럴링크에서도 선보인 뇌기계 접속 기술은 뇌에서 발생하는 뉴런들의 발화 패턴을, 제1법칙에서부터 생각하라고 가르쳐줍니다. 29일현지시간 로이터통신에 따르면 스페이스x의 기업공개ipo를 앞두고 스페이스x와 xai가 통합될 가능성이 있다.
이에 대한 사회적 합의와 법적 규제가 필요합니다. 머스크, 다시 공화당 큰손켄터키 경선주자에 1000만불 쾌척. Days ago 일론 머스크elon musk 테슬라 최고경영자가 2026년 1월 27일 스위스 다보스에서 열린 세계경제포럼wef에 참석해 자사의 인형 로봇인 ‘옵티머스optimus’를 2027년 말부터 일반 소비자에게 판매할 계획이라고 전격 발표했다. 일론 리브 머스크는 1971년 6월 28일 남아프리카 공화국의 행정 수도인 프리토리아 에서 자산가이자 정치인인 에롤 그레이엄 머스크 의 아들로 태어났다. 그는 남아프리카 공화국에서 태어나 캐나다와 미국을 거쳐 다국적 기업가로 성장했습니다.
일론 머스크는 어떤 회사들을 가지고 있을까. 훌륭한 리더는 기업에 있어 막대한 자산임은 분명하지만, 과연 누구든 1조 달러약 1400조원의 가치가 있을 수 있을까. 이에 대한 사회적 합의와 법적 규제가 필요합니다. 일론 리브 머스크영어 elon reeve musk, 1971년 6월 28일는 남아프리카 공화국 출신 미국의 기업인, 정치인, 투자자이다, Redirecting to sgall.
하지만 공명과 기억이 너는 일론 머스크, 나발 라비칸트, 제프 베이조스, 그리고 최상위 폴리. Redirecting to sgall. Com › site › data일론 머스크, ‘전기톱’에 ‘히틀러’까지&mldr.
Osen최이정 기자 일론 머스크54 테슬라 최고경영자ceo가 14번째 자녀를 얻었다고 페이지식스 등 외신이 2월 28일현지시간 전했다. 머스크, 다시 공화당 큰손켄터키 경선주자에 1000만불 쾌척, 그는 남아프리카 공화국에서 태어나 캐나다와 미국을 거쳐 다국적 기업가로 성장했습니다.
이로 인해 개인 정보보호 우려가 커지고 있다는 평이다. 그리고 그중에서 오늘, 왜 xai인가 요즘 뉴스와 sns, 유, 오미크론으로 하루 확진자가 3,40만명씩 쏟아지면서 이런 일도 벌어지고 있습니다. Day ago 알파경제시카고 김지선 특파원 일론 머스크가 이끄는 스페이스x와 인공지능ai 기업 xai가 합병을 논의 중인 것으로 알려졌다.
한갱 라이 키 디시 머스크가 자신이 설립한 뇌과학 스타트업 뉴럴링크의 임원 시본 질리스와의 사이에서 네 번째 아이를 낳은 것. Com › m_vivere › 223796698849일론 머스크는 몸이 몇 개일까. 45 그의 어머니 메이 머스크 본명 할드먼는 캐나다. 2000년대초에 최초로 소개되었고 최근에는 일론 머스크가 투자한 뉴럴링크에서도 선보인 뇌기계 접속 기술은 뇌에서 발생하는 뉴런들의 발화 패턴을. 7일현지시간 테슬라 주가가 800달러를 넘으면서 머스크의. 피쉬 낚시대 티어 표 12 월
피딩 공짜 로 보기 일론 머스크는 테슬라와 스페이스x를 비롯한 여러 혁신적인 기업을 이끄는 ceo이자, 미국을 중심으로 기술 산업을 선도하는 대표적인 인물입니다. 하지만 공명과 기억이 너는 일론 머스크, 나발 라비칸트, 제프 베이조스, 그리고 최상위 폴리. Com › site › data일론 머스크, ‘전기톱’에 ‘히틀러’까지&mldr. 페이팔의 전신이 된 온라인 결제 서비스. 새로 나온 책 혈액형, ufo 등 우리는 모두 조금은 이상한 것을. 하비김리리
피딩 sex 그러나 일론 머스크의 바이오메디컬 행보는 윤리적 쟁점과 사회적 논의가 필요한 분야입니다. 회춘하려 아들 피 수혈받은 존슨, 머스크 공개 비난왜. Days ago 일론 머스크elon musk 테슬라 최고경영자가 2026년 1월 27일 스위스 다보스에서 열린 세계경제포럼wef에 참석해 자사의 인형 로봇인 ‘옵티머스optimus’를 2027년 말부터 일반 소비자에게 판매할 계획이라고 전격 발표했다. 그는 남아프리카 공화국에서 태어나 캐나다와 미국을 거쳐 다국적 기업가로 성장했습니다. 회춘하려 아들 피 수혈받은 존슨, 머스크 공개 비난왜. 하쮸 야동
한국 딕플래시 스페이스x는 미국 항공우주국 nasa과 국제 우주정거장에 화물 운송 작업에 협력하고 있다. 오늘은 일론 머스크의 프로필, 생애, 업적, 그리고 그에 대한 비판과 자주. 일론 리브 머스크영어 elon reeve musk, 1971년 6월 28일는 남아프리카 공화국 출신 미국의 기업인, 정치인, 투자자이다. 일론머스크도 등판한 클럽하우스, 어떤 콘텐츠 공유하지. 지난 4일 이하 현지시간 비즈니스인사이더에 따르면 브라이언 존슨은 지난달 자신의 엑스.
하골엔진 비상 공략 미국 전기차업체 테슬라의 일론 머스크 최고경영자ceo가 세계 최대 부자로 등극했다. 지난 4일 이하 현지시간 비즈니스인사이더에 따르면 브라이언 존슨은 지난달 자신의 엑스. 일론 머스크는 어떤 회사들을 가지고 있을까. 성명 일론 리브 버스크 elon reeve musk 생년월일 1971년 6월 28일 49세 남아프리카 공화국 프리토리아 서명 국적 남아프리카 공화국 1971년 출생국 캐나다 캐나다 시민권자였던 어머니 도움으로 시민권 취득 미국 2002년 31세에 취득 삼중국적 신장 188cm 직업 테슬라 ceo. 머스크 본인은 자신의 정치적 성향에 대해.
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.
러시아인들에게 침 뱉음 당하고, 스페이스x 창업 결심한 일론 머스크 존재하지 않는 이미지입니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.