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.
둘째 축오귀문관살丑午鬼門關殺 축오丑午의 귀문관살이 사주에 read more. 설리 어릴때부터 봤었는데 확실히 최자 만나고부터 애가 엄청 불안정해보이고 그때부터 인스타로 이상하다 말 나오는 것들 올려서 논란되고 최자는 오히려 설리 지켜주지는 못할 망정 성희롱 가사나 쓰고. 특히 설리구하라김새론 등 20대 청춘 스타들의 잇따른 죽음은 대중에게 커다란 충격을 안겼으며, 이들의 죽음을 둘러싼 각종 의혹과 악플 문화, 정치사회적 갈등은 연예 산업의 어두운 이면을 여실히 드러내고 있다. 악플악성댓글 때문에 대인기피증까지 오더라.
가수 겸 배우인 설리 본명 최진리25가 숨진 채 발견됐습니다.. 악플악성댓글 때문에 대인기피증까지 오더라.. 2016년에 설리 자살시도 했을때 설리 갤러리..이름 설리 雪梨 sulli 본명 최진리 崔眞理 choi jinli 출생 1994년. 이 작품은 설리를 주인공으로 해 다수 연출자가 만든 단편영화를 묶은 옴니버스 콘텐츠로 기획됐다, 또한 경찰이 b씨의 자살 가능성 등 불안한 심리 상태를 고려해 본인의 동의를 받아 4월 18일 b씨를 병원에 입원 조치했다는 사실이 이날 언론에 보도되었다, 아이유가 설리죽기전 의도적으로 설리좋다고 방송노출많이했는데복숭아라는 노래를 설리에게 선물이후 페르소나 1 제작 윤종신, 미스틱설리 페르소나 2 제작중 자살페르소나 2 역시 제작은 윤종신 미스틱+ 덧붙여서아이유는. 이름 설리 雪梨 sulli 본명 최진리 崔眞理 choi jinli 출생 1994년. 14 190505 조회 15997 추천 184 댓글 51 이런사주는 친구를 무슨 자기 전부인마냥 여기는 경우가 많음 남친보다 친구를 더 좋아하는사주 인묘 목국에다 결국 비견격이 맞는데 친구들때문에 망하는 사주야. 가수 겸 배우인 설리 본명 최진리25가 숨진 채 발견됐습니다. 뮤비에 자살 암시한 것도 그렇고, sm엔터가 일루미나티와 연결되있고 이런 얘기도 베스트댓글에 많더라고. 2020년 9월 10일 방송된 다큐에서 설리의 모친이 언급한 바에 따르면 자살시도가 맞았다 는 것으로 보인다, 근데 회사가 공권력도 아니고 보통은 오지말래도 당연히 가지 않나.
다만 설리사주에 자수를 깔았다면 모를까 축대운에.. Com › board › view내생각에 설리 자살 이유는 친구의 배신으로 보여 200606202109 역.. 설리 행보가 이상했던이유 성폭력 피해자 행동양상..
한 사람이 죽었는데 도대체 어떻게 그런 댓글을 쓸 수 있는거죠, 내생각에 설리 자살 이유는 친구의 배신으로 보여 김잭스 2019. 특히 설리구하라김새론 등 20대 청춘 스타들의 잇따른 죽음은 대중에게 커다란 충격을 안겼으며, 이들의 죽음을 둘러싼 각종 의혹과 악플 문화, 정치사회적 갈등은 연예 산업의 어두운 이면을 여실히 드러내고 있다.
현장에서는 고인의 심경을 담은 자필 메모가 발견됐다고 한다. 2014년 3월 응급실 루머가 있었다. 둘째 축오귀문관살丑午鬼門關殺 축오丑午의 귀문관살이 사주에 read more. 설리의 갑작스런 사망소식 설리본명 최진리가 2019년 10월 14일 오후 3시 21분경 경기도 성남시 수정구 심곡동에 위치한 자택 2층에서 숨진 채 발견됐다.
트위터 검색어 아니면 정상적인 사고방식으로는 도저히 악플러 지분이 낮다고는 생각 못할텐데. 본인들이 과거에 악플러들이었기때문이 아닐까. 매니저가 심한 우울증을 앓고 있는 설리가 전날 6시 30분부터 연락이 되지 않는다고 경찰에 신고하면서 소방대원이. 설리 자살책임을 전부 최자로 전가시키는이유는 설리 갤러리. 가수 겸 배우인 설리본명 최진리25가 숨진 채 발견됐습니다. 트위다넷
탁음 시리즈 해당 진단서에는 반복적인 위협에 의한 불안 장애라는 설명이 포함되어 있었습니다. 가수 겸 배우 설리본명 최진리의 죽음이 악성 댓글에 대한 경각심을 불러일으키고 있다. 1같은 sm엔터 출신 아이돌 종현의 자살 사건이 있은지 666일째 되는 날 일어난 설리 자살 사건. 최근에는 설리 유작으로 알려진 넷플릭스 오리지널 ‘페르소나설리 이하 페르소나2가 공개를 앞두고 있다. 가수 겸 배우 설리본명 최진리의 죽음이 악성 댓글에 대한 경각심을 불러일으키고 있다. 태하 냥 디시
토 요코 키즈 영상 디시 근데 그보다 한참 시간이 지난 오후 3시에 가서 발견. 2016년에 설리 자살시도 했을때 설리 갤러리. 집 안에선 설리의 심경을 적은 메모가 발견된 것으로 전해졌다. 악성 루머에 시달려 한동안 연예계 활동을 쉬기도 한 설리는 올해 들어 가수와 방송 진행자, 연기자. 자살하는 사주나 자살 사주를 찾는 분들이 있을 겁니다. 트위터 hanti
탬탬버린 hentai 설리의 죽음이 유독 안타깝게 느껴지는 이유. 아이유가 설리죽기전 의도적으로 설리좋다고 방송노출많이했는데복숭아라는 노래를 설리에게 선물이후 페르소나 1 제작 윤종신, 미스틱설리 페르소나 2 제작중 자살페르소나 2 역시 제작은 윤종신 미스틱+ 덧붙여서아이유는. 설리 사망 추정시간이 발견된 당시로부터 45. 한 사람이 죽었는데 도대체 어떻게 그런 댓글을 쓸 수 있는거죠. Com › postview설리 사망 사건 원인과 죽음 이후 만행들 6년 만에 되짚어본 비극과.
타카미야 료 최근에는 설리 유작으로 알려진 넷플릭스 오리지널 ‘페르소나설리 이하 페르소나2가 공개를 앞두고 있다. 2014년 3월 응급실 루머가 있었다. Html설리의 경우 자동심장충격기aed 모니터링 결과, 심. 아니면 정상적인 사고방식으로는 도저히 악플러 지분이 낮다고는 생각 못할텐데. 지난 10월 15일 청와대 국민청원 게시판에는 설리의 본명인 최진리를 딴 최진리법 제정을 촉구하는 청원이 올라왔다.
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.
악성 루머에 시달려 한동안 연예계 활동을 쉬기도 한 설리는 올해 들어 가수와 방송 진행자, 연기자., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.