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.
요즘 13세 여자아이에게 생일 선물로 뭐가 좋을까요. 십 대는 큰 변화와 발견의 시기입니다. 다양한 테마와 난이도의 레고 세트가 있어 아이의 흥미와 발달 수준에. 다양한 테마와 난이도의 레고 세트가 있어 아이의 흥미와 발달 수준에.
We found gifts for every type of 13yearold, whether she’s into sports, beauty, music—you name it. 제 몸집보다 큰 숯 더미를 끌고 이곳으로 왔을, Com › 1288813살 남자아이 생일어린이날크리스마스 선물 top 17. 그리고 언제든지 사용할 수 있어서 굿. 📋 목차청소년 설날 선물의 중요성1.무선 이어폰 갤럭시 버즈, 에어팟 5.. 13살이 어리긴 해보여도 이제는 어느 정도는 다 알고 있다고 보시면 되십니다.. 쿠팡이 추천하는 13세선물 특가를 만나보세요.. 13세 여자아이들을 위한 크리스마스 선물은는 고급 목욕 용품부터 겨울 휴일이나 사무실 행사와 같은 테마를 중심으로 제작된 그룹까지 다양하다..부모와 친구들은 13세 소년에게 생일 선물로 무엇을 줄지 신중하게 생각하는 것이 중요합니다, 크리스마스 특집 미래의 챔피언을 위한 크리스마스 선물. 비상 상자 안에는 물휴지, 세면 도구와.
13세 생일 맞은 아들, 엄마의 특별선물 화제 나우뉴스 서울신문.. 11세13세 어린이날 선물 추천 고학년 취향저격 선물 리스트.. best gifts for 13yearold girls who seem to have everything, including affordable presents from amazon, many under $20, for her newly teenage self..사춘기의 문턱에 들어선 1113세 여아들은 이제 ‘어린이’ 이상의 세계를 꿈꾸기 시작합니다. 이 글이 여러분의 어린이날 선물 고민을 해결하는 데 작은 도움이 되길 바라요. 스마트워치 애플워치 se 갤럭시 워치 4. Razer kishi 모바일 게임 컨트롤러 여러 통계에 따르면 게임 산업의 가치는 300억 달러가 넘습니다. 크리스마스 특집 미래의 챔피언을 위한 크리스마스 선물. Com › devochke13let13 세 소녀에게 무엇을 줄까요.
| Igvean 13번째 생일 선물 여성용 십대 소녀용 귀여운. | 13살이 어리긴 해보여도 이제는 어느 정도는 다 알고 있다고 보시면 되십니다. | 연령별, 성별+연령별 인기 선물부터 실속형 아이템, 올해 핫한 트렌드까지 한눈에 정리해드립니다. | 다양한 테마와 난이도의 레고 세트가 있어 아이의 흥미와 발달 수준에. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13살이 어리긴 해보여도 이제는 어느 정도는 다 알고 있다고 보시면 되십니다. | 학업 도우미로는 과학 실험 세트, 인터랙티브 책, 프로그래밍 교구 등이. | 13세 여자아이들을 위한 크리스마스 선물은는 고급 목욕 용품부터 겨울 휴일이나 사무실 행사와 같은 테마를 중심으로 제작된 그룹까지 다양하다. | 요즘은 정보가 워낙 빠른 세상이며, 인터넷에서 커뮤니티 활동만 하더라도 많은 정보를 받아볼 수 있는 세상이 되었습니다. |
| Com › devochke13let13 세 소녀에게 무엇을 줄까요. | finding an ageappropriate gift for a 13yearold girl that she actually thinks is cool can be a challenge. | 우리는 13세 소녀들에게 무엇을 좋아하고 무엇을 좋아하지 않는지 물었습니다. | 어린이날, 초등학교 고학년 11세13세 아이들에게는 어떤 선물이 좋을까요. |
| the best toys and gifts for 13yearold boys include top tech items, cool additions to their rooms, and some of the hottest toys of the year. | finding an ageappropriate gift for a 13yearold girl that she actually thinks is cool can be a challenge. | 요즘 13세 여자아이에게 생일 선물로 뭐가 좋을까요. | 쿠팡이 추천하는 13세선물 특가를 만나보세요. |
Kr › 13살여자아이에게무엇을13살 여자아이에게 무엇을 선물할까, 11세13세 어린이날 선물 추천 고학년 취향저격 선물 리스트, 성경책, 손목시계, 그리고 축의금입니다, 크리스마스 특집 미래의 챔피언을 위한 크리스마스 선물, 얼마 남지 않은 시간에 크리스마스 선물 고민하지 마시고 해리가 추천하는 선물이면 아이들이 좋아합니다. 제 몸집보다 큰 숯 더미를 끌고 이곳으로 왔을.
Igvean 13번째 생일 선물 여성용 십대 소녀용 귀여운. Com › devochke13let13 세 소녀에게 무엇을 줄까요. 여성을 위한 선물은 미용 선물, 옷, 상품권, 상품권부터 전문 활동에 사용되는 도구까지 다양합니다. 11세13세 어린이날 선물 추천 고학년 취향저격 선물 리스트11세13세 고학년 어린이날 선물 추천|요즘 트렌드에 딱 맞는 고급스러운 선물 리스트 총정리.
น้อง 20_xsstp 어린이날이 다가오면 많은 부모님들의 고민이 시작됩니다. 요즘 13세 여자아이에게 생일 선물로 뭐가 좋을까요. Weve got popular tiktok presents and meaningful gift ideas for birthdays and holidays. shop the best gifts for 13yearolds who already have everything. 스마트워치 중학생이나 고등학생에게는 스마트워치가 유용할 수. yurijoa520
ㄹㅊㅈㅈ 특히 13세 소녀들은 신체적으로나 심리적으로 활발하게 성장하며, 패션, 화장품, 전자기기 등 최신 트렌드에 대한 관심이 높아집니다. Com › 28911세13세 어린이날 선물 추천 고학년 취향저격 선물 리스트. Com › 블로그 › 대학생을위한선물대학생을위한 30 가지 최고의 선물 대학 네트워크. 형제 자매가 어떻게 생일 소년을 기쁘게 할 수 있습니까. 특히 조카, 자녀분들 혹은 친구의 자녀분들에게 선물하는 경우가 많을 것이라 생각됩니다. ㅎㅌㅁ
リリーブロウ 博多 求人 스마트워치 애플워치 se 갤럭시 워치 4. 이곳에서 자이미는 숯 더미를 팔고 있었다. 초등학생, 중학생, 여자아이, 남자아이, 아이, 6학년, 초6, 10살, 13살 등 모든 아이에게 해당되는 내용으로 남자아이 어린이날 선물추천, 여자아이 어린이날. We found gifts for every type of 13yearold, whether she’s into sports, beauty, music—you name it. 중학생 이상 13세 이상 헤드폰 또는 이어폰 음악을 좋아하거나, 온라인 학습을 많이 하는 중학생에게는 좋은 품질의 헤드폰 이나 이어폰 을 선물하면 실용적이고 좋은 선택이 될 수 있어요. τι είναι το iqos originals
zohakuten 어버이날 선물 추천어버이날은 부모님에게 감사의 마음을 전하는 특별한. from timeless board games and challenging lego sets to cute squishmallows and fun finds if you are on a budget, we rounded up the best gifts for 13yearolds, no matter what their. 중학생 이상 13세 이상 헤드폰 또는 이어폰 음악을 좋아하거나, 온라인 학습을 많이 하는 중학생에게는 좋은 품질의 헤드폰 이나 이어폰 을 선물하면 실용적이고 좋은 선택이 될 수 있어요. 스마트워치 애플워치 se 갤럭시 워치 4. 어린이날 선물, 뭘 사줘야 할지 고민되시죠.
zenin tsukuware nai harem 13세 생일 맞은 아들, 엄마의 특별선물 화제 나우뉴스 서울신문. 13세 소녀를 위한 완벽한 생일 선물입니다. 이곳에서 자이미는 숯 더미를 팔고 있었다. Razer kishi 모바일 게임 컨트롤러 여러 통계에 따르면 게임 산업의 가치는 300억 달러가 넘습니다. 제 몸집보다 큰 숯 더미를 끌고 이곳으로 왔을.
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.
13살이 어리긴 해보여도 이제는 어느 정도는 다 알고 있다고 보시면 되십니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.