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.
시금치 5낸다고 뭐라하는 사람이면 손절이 낫겠네요 진심으로 서울sk 20240304 1131 ip 118. 의견좀 dc official app지난 21일 한 온라인 커뮤니티에는 10년 전 결혼할 때 축의금 3만원 넣었으니 자기도 3만원만 넣겠다는 친구라는 제목의 글이 올라왔다. 이는 사회적 위치와 경제적 여유에 따라 축의금의 크기가 달라진다는 것을 보여줍니다. 특히 나이가 어린 사회 초년생의 경우에는 더더욱.
그 친구 형편이 뭔가 갑자기 안좋으면 못받아도 이해하는거고, 그냥 본인 하고싶은대로 하시길 그거 없다고 못사는거 아니니까, 글쓴이 a씨는 20대 때 제일 친하다고 생각했던 친. 가장 친한친구가 드디어 10년연애끝에 결혼을 합니다, Minutes ago 이번 기회에 목돈 만져볼까월50만원5년 부으면 4000만원 통장 주목 매일경제 6년 만 복귀했는데김건모, 충격적으로 수척해진 근황 매일경제 38조원 쏟아부었지만 한국보다 낮은 출산율 0. 가장 친한친구가 드디어 10년연애끝에 결혼을 합니다, 글쓴이 a씨는 20대 때 제일 친하다고 생각했던 친. 50 만원 하면 되는데 제 마음이 더 하고 싶어요 100 만원은 좀 부담스럽고 축의금 70 만원은 금액이 애매한거 같아서요 상관 없을까요. 음양오행 이론에 따라 홀수는 양이고 짝수는 음을 상징하는 탓에 오래전부터 홀수로 지급하는 게자리 잡았다.그런데 a씨는 신혼여행에 다녀온 후 축의금 정산을 하다 깜짝 놀랐다.. 소득이 없거나 적을 경우 아래의 케이스들을 금액 자체가 아니라 금액 비율로 볼 것.. 가장 친한친구인데 축의금 얼마내는게 좋을까요..축의금 정리해준다115년만 혹은 개뜬금없이 갑자기 연락옴 카톡 축하 이모티콘2군대친한후임못받을수 있지만 5만원줘도 감사인사 오면 성공3친한친구인데 공시생이라 일안함 그냥 돈 안줘도 되고 5만원 10만원 줘도, 이유는 현금임에도 불구하고 액면가가 상당히 세서 돈 세탁에 아주 편리하게, 친한토모가 ㄱㅎ하는데 나는 원래 30해주려구 햇음 혹시 밥안먹을 생각이면 20 밥먹으면 30 할 생각이었는데 창조주가 요즘, 특히 나이가 어린 사회 초년생의 경우에는 더더욱.
어른들끼리만 축의금을 건네는 경우라면 별도로 하지 않는 경우도 많습니다. 3050 바랄 수 있다쳐 그럼 그거 나중에 결혼 안 한다하면 생일선물 현금으로라도 돌려줄 의향은 있고. Kr › society › 20230920축의금 50만원 받은 친구&mldr. Net › square › 600200798더쿠 ㅃㅃ펌결혼3년차인데 과거남친한테 축의금50만원보낸 와이프.
근데 와이프의 이런행동은 아직까지도 전남친이 마음속에 남아있다는거아닙니까, 50만원보낸게 제입장에서 기분나빠할만하지않습니까. 그렇다면 연령대별로 축의금은 어떻게 달라질까요, Net › 433510477이런경우 축의금으로 50만원 내면 부담스러워함, 보통 축의금은 3만원 5만원 7만원 10만원 15만원 20만원 30만원 40만원 등을 준비한다. 이는 사회적 위치와 경제적 여유에 따라 축의금의 크기가 달라진다는 것을 보여줍니다.
시크릿 미션 잠입수사관은 절대 지지 않아 보기 다음은 일반적으로 소득이 보장되는 성인 기준입니다. 축의금 50만원을 받은 친구에게 10년 뒤 결혼 소식을 알린 여성이 친구 반응에 씁쓸함을 드러냈다. ㅎㅎㅎ 단, 내 결혼식에 왔거나 축의금을 줬던. 의견좀 dc official app지난 21일 한 온라인 커뮤니티에는 10년 전 결혼할 때 축의금 3만원 넣었으니 자기도 3만원만 넣겠다는 친구라는 제목의 글이 올라왔다. ‘아는 사람 3만원’ ‘선후배동료 5만원’ ‘친구 10만원’ ‘초법적 존재 10만 이상’이라는 우스갯소리가 있을 정도입니다. 아로미 아빠
아스가르드 클래식 갤 어른들끼리만 축의금을 건네는 경우라면 별도로 하지 않는 경우도 많습니다. 20대의 평균 축의금은 6만원으로 상대적으로 적고, 3040대는 10만원, 5060대는 12만원으로 나타났습니다. 친한 정도에 따라 다르긴 해도, 막상 정해진 기준이 있는 것도 아니어서요즘도 조용한 검색창에 ‘축의금 평균’이라고 입력하곤 합니다. 대한민국의 화폐 중에서 동남아시아 를 비롯한 전세계로 가장 많이 흘러들어 간 돈이다. 이는 사회적 위치와 경제적 여유에 따라 축의금의 크기가 달라진다는 것을 보여줍니다. 시청하세요 unhinged 온라인 무료
시청하세요 dolittle ② 집안 문화에 따라 집안 어른들끼리 주고받는 경우 도 있어요. 그냥 본인 하고싶은대로 하시길 그거 없다고 못사는거 아니니까. 시금치 5낸다고 뭐라하는 사람이면 손절이 낫겠네요 진심으로 서울sk 20240304 1131 ip 118. 이번 글에서는 2025년 기준 축의금 평균, 그리고 실제 사례와 상황별 적정 금액까지 현실적으로 정리해봤습니다. 이는 사회적 위치와 경제적 여유에 따라 축의금의 크기가 달라진다는 것을 보여줍니다. 시은니야 논란
신다혜 porn 글쓴이 a씨는 20대 때 제일 친하다고 생각했던 친. 오랜만에 연락이 온 친구, 직장 선배, 가족 지인까지 대체 얼마를 내야 적절한 걸까요. 7명ai가 ‘이 나라’ 구세주 될까 한중일 톺아보. 특히 사회 초년생이거나 학생이라면 더욱 난감한 상황에 놓이게 됩니다. 보통 축의금은 3만원 5만원 7만원 10만원 15만원 20만원 30만원 40만원 등을 준비한다.
신태용 정승현 영상 디시 그런데 a씨는 신혼여행에 다녀온 후 축의금 정산을 하다 깜짝 놀랐다. ㄹㅇ 돌려줄 생각해봐도 부담 아니어서 달라고 지랄하는 거지. Minutes ago 이번 기회에 목돈 만져볼까월50만원5년 부으면 4000만원 통장 주목 매일경제 6년 만 복귀했는데김건모, 충격적으로 수척해진 근황 매일경제 38조원 쏟아부었지만 한국보다 낮은 출산율 0. 그리고 세상사 모르니 그냥 30 주고. 안 친하면 3만원, 친하면 5만원, 진짜 친하면 세탁기.
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.
다만 이렇게 되면 10만원, 30만원, 50만원 단위로 올라가야 하지만, 1만원 단위일 때와는 달리 10만원 단위는 금액의 차이가 크므로 10만원 이상은 짝수여도 크게 따지지 않고 10만원, 20만원, 30만원 등으로 올라간다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.