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.
도쿄호텔 추천 100개 파헤치기는 단순 후기 모음이 아니에요. 시부야구 의 공유 아파트 일람 셰어하우스를 찾으신다면. 사생활을 보호하고 편안한 공용 공간을 만듭니다. Sakura house도쿄 쉐어하우스 시부야 센다가야 4쵸메.
도쿄東京, tokyo의 시부야는 젊음과 활력이 넘치는 대표적인 명소로, 여행객이라면 반드시 들러야 할 곳입니다.. 하얏트 하우스 도쿄 시부야는 도쿄 시부야에서의 특별하고 편안한 숙박 경험을 제공할 것입니다..하얏트 하우스 도쿄 시부야는 도쿄 시부야에서의 특별하고 편안한 숙박 경험을 제공할 것입니다. 스기나미구, 시부야구, 세타가야구 아라카와구 쉐어하우스의 묘미이기도 한 「입주자끼리의 교류」를 낳기 위해서, 쾌적하고 아늑한 공유부를 만들고 있습니다. 숙소는 konno hachimangu shrine에서 7분 거리, 시부야 센터 타운에서 600m, shibuya centergai shopping street에서 6분. 특히, 시부야는 그 자체로 하나의 문화 상징이며, 그 거리에서 느끼는 열정과 활력은 정말 특별합니다, Com › 232도쿄의 심장, 하라주쿠 타케시타 거리. 시부야 숙소 실시간 예약 꿀팁 시부야구 호텔, 게스트하우스 등 실시간 예약은 ‘아고다’ 를 활용하면 정말 편리합니다, 보더리스 하우스 메이다이마에는 근처 메이다이마에역에서 신주쿠까지 전철로 5분, 시부야까지 7분으로 입지가. 2012년 이후 시부야는 천지개벽이라는 말이 어울릴 만큼 대규모 재개발 프로젝트를 진행해 왔다. 요코하마 day3 오모테산도에서 시부야, 미나토미라이 아카렌카창고 크리스마스마켓 26개월아기와 일본여행. 시부야를 방문하는 이유는 여러 가지가 있지만, 다양한. 하얏트 하우스 도쿄 시부야 객실 및 스위트룸. 이곳의 주요 극장으로는 파르코 극장 2016년 폐장, 클럽 콰트로, 시네 퀸트, 시네세존 시부야, 스튜디오 파르코 등이 있으며, 여러 영화제와 음악제가 개최된다.
Borderless house 시부야이케지리 하우스 쉐어하우스. Com › entry › 7월해외여행추천7월 해외 여행 추천, 여행지 부터 선택하기. Sakura house도쿄 쉐어하우스 시부야 마루야마쵸, 근처에는 여러 관광 명소가 밀집해 있습니다. 시부야의 저택 휴가지 숙소 도쿄도, 일본.
요즘 꽃보다 남자 드라마 열기가 뜨겁더군요 원래 일본만화 원작으로 일본, 대만에서도 큰 인기를 모았지만 우리나라 f4가 가장 멋지다고 디올 메이크업 프로팀 여 선생님들이 한 목소리를 내시던데. 이 감동적인 실화는 영화 hachiko a dog’s story로도 제작되어. 사생활을 보호하고 편안한 공용 공간을 만듭니다.
신주쿠에서 두 정거장 거리에 있는 하타가야역에서 100걸음 거리에 있으며.. 호텔, 레지던스, 게스트하우스 등 다양한 숙소 유형이 있으니, 지금부터 하나씩 살펴볼까요..
2023년판도쿄시부야・아오야마의 추천 쉐어 하우스 10선. 시부야 에서 20분 이내 쉐어하우스를 찾으신다면, 시부야구 의 공유 아파트 일람 셰어하우스를 찾으신다면. 이 감동적인 실화는 영화 hachiko a dog’s story로도 제작되어.
보더리스 하우스 메이다이마에는 근처 메이다이마에역에서 신주쿠까지 전철로 5분, 시부야까지 7분으로 입지가, 이 곳은 고품질의 스테이크와 훌륭한 서비스로 유명하며, 도쿄를 방문하는 많은 사람들에게 인기가 있습니다. 시부야의 오크하우스 안내센터이하 시부야정보관을 소개합니다. 요코하마 day3 오모테산도에서 시부야, 미나토미라이 아카렌카창고 크리스마스마켓 26개월아기와 일본여행. 벌써 부터 장마소식이 들려오고 7월에도 마찬가지로 날씨가 우중충할것으로 보입니다. 시부야 현대 일본문화의 중심, 대혼잡의 스크램블 교차로 시부야를 상징하는 스크램블 교차로 를 담은 예술적인 사진은 세계적인 패션잡지나 여행잡지의 페이지를 장식하고 있지만, 거기에는 이유가 있습니다.
kijiro_bites porno H97 4min shibuya|cozy 1br in sangenjaya|loft. 시부야역 인근의 현대적인 객실 하얏트 하우스 도쿄 시부야. 일본을 방문하는 해외 관광객에게 인기있는 지역은 어디입니까. Credit 트립닷컴 하얏트 하우스 도쿄 시부야는 시부야역 바로 옆 사쿠라가오카 지역에 자리한 4성급 호텔로, 특히 장기 투숙객이나 가족 단위 여행객에게 최적화된 아파토텔 aparthotel 콘셉트를 자랑합니다. 신주쿠에서 두 정거장 거리에 있는 하타가야역에서 100걸음 거리에 있으며. k8on
kingqueenissue 유동인구가 엄청난 시부야역 바로 앞에 위치하며 수많은 대로가 교차하는 곳으로, 전 세계에서 가장 붐비는 보행자 도로로 정평이 나 있습니다. 시부야구 의 공유 아파트 일람 셰어하우스를 찾으신다면. 어떤 스타일의 숙소를 선호하는지에 따라서도 선택이 달라지겠죠. 도쿄東京, tokyo의 시부야는 젊음과 활력이 넘치는 대표적인 명소로, 여행객이라면 반드시 들러야 할 곳입니다. 2012년 시부야 히카리에, 2017년 시부야 캐스트, 2018년 시부야 스트림, 2019년 시부야 소라스타, 시부야 후쿠라스. kimi ga suki o wakaru made
kaori pikpak 도쿄東京, tokyo의 시부야는 젊음과 활력이 넘치는 대표적인 명소로, 여행객이라면 반드시 들러야 할 곳입니다. F54 tokyo β 쿠가야마5 주소 東京都杉並区久我山2丁目. 시부야의 오크하우스 안내센터이하 시부야정보관을 소개합니다. 수많은 시부야 호텔 중 하얏트 하우스를 선택해야 할 이유, 지금 바로 공개합니다. 시부야의 오크하우스 안내센터이하 시부야정보관을 소개합니다. kaori1206 myfans
kissjav 책상 도쿄 시부야에서의 특별한 경험을 원하신다면, 하얏트 하우스 도쿄 시부야 가 최고의 선택이 될 것입니다. 시부야역에서 하우스까지 걸어도 30분거리라서 막차를. 히비야선 히로역에서 도보 5분 야마노테선 에비스역에서 도보 1012분 거리에 위치해 있는 숙소. 3대 부도심의 하나인 시부야는 편균 월세는 당연히 비싼 편이고 주변은 주택 자체가 많지 않습니다. Credit 트립닷컴 하얏트 하우스 도쿄 시부야는 시부야역 바로 옆 사쿠라가오카 지역에 자리한 4성급 호텔로, 특히 장기 투숙객이나 가족 단위 여행객에게 최적화된 아파토텔 aparthotel 콘셉트를 자랑합니다.
j_roro leak 오늘은 오크하우스의 268건물 5572객실을 관리, 운영하고 있는의 오크하우스의 핵심. 시부야 에서 20분 이내 쉐어하우스를 찾으신다면. Sakura house도쿄 쉐어하우스 시부야 마루야마쵸. 바로 근처에는 충견의 상징인 하치코 동상이 자리해 있어 인증샷. 이 기사에서는 해외 관광객에게 특히 인기있는 시부야 신주쿠지역의 매력에 대해 소개하겠습니다.
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.
보더리스 하우스 메이다이마에는 근처 메이다이마에역에서 신주쿠까지 전철로 5분, 시부야까지 7분으로 입지가., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.