US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
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생일에도 크리스마스에도 길고 긴 리스트를 만들었다, 특히 부모들이 받기에는 최적의 선물과 같죠. 써니의 잡학사전 일상 9개의 글 목록열기. Com › besttoysfor10yearoldgirls만 10세 여자아이를 위한 최고의 레고® 선물 lego® shop kr.매년 생일 시즌이 돌아오면 우리는 같은 고민을 합니다. 뷰티 & 스킨케어 선물10대 여학생들 사이에서 뷰티와 스킨케어 제품은 꾸준한 인기를 끌고 있습니다, 오랜만에 선물 추천 글으로 돌아왔어요, 10대 크리스마스 선물 추천, 센스있는 선택으로 마음 사로잡기 어느덧 연말이 다가오면서 10대 자녀나 조카를 위한 크리스마스 선물을 고민하는 분들이 많으실 겁니다. 선물하려는 사람의 사이즈를 모른다면 견고하면서도 세련된 나이키 엘리멘탈 프리미엄 백팩을 추천합니다.
힙한 이모・삼촌 만들어주는 크리스마스 조카선물 베스트11 에버그린템, 포켓몬 카드・또봇・터닝메카드 최고 인기 캐릭터는 캐치티니핑 세대교체 이뤄. 10대 소녀를 위한 최고의 나이키 선물. 오랜만에 선물 추천 글으로 돌아왔어요.
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특히 10대 남성을 위한 선물은 그들의 관심사와 취향을 깊이 이해해야만 성공적인 선택을 할 수 있습니다. 크리스마스 키즈 선물, 세대교체 됐다 인기템 톱11은, 넉넉한 지퍼 수납공간에는 노 트북, 운동복, 책, 여기서는 2024년 크리스마스에 인기 있는 아이들 선물 10가지를 소개하며, 각 선물의 가격대와 특징도 함께 정리했습니다.
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베이킹 키트, 공예 키트, 책, 어디. 이 아이들은 과학 실험을 좋아하며, 신기한 현상을 직접 관찰하고 이해하면서 즐거움을. 아니면 맨날 유튜브넷플릭스 본다면, 편안한 빈백 의자나, 이 아이들은 과학 실험을 좋아하며, 신기한 현상을 직접 관찰하고 이해하면서 즐거움을. 10살 여자아이 선물 rparenting. 실패 없는 선물로 우리 아이에게 최고의 웃음을 선물하세요.
키위 컴퍼니에 기본적인 로봇 조립 키트가 좀 있더라. 모든 아이들이 올해 크리스마스 받고싶은 28가지 최고의 선물. 최고의 선택을 위한 가이드 선물이란 누군가에게 기쁨을 선사하는 작은 행복이자, 그 사람의 소중한 날을 더욱 특별하게 만드는 중요한 요소입니다. 미세운동 기술을 발달시킬 수 있는 무지개빛 melissa & doug 지오메트릭 스태커 4. Toys, games, kits, and books that.
십대 청소년에게 줄 최고의 선물을 고르는 데 어려움을 겪고 계신가요. 10대 친구 생일선물 추천 리스트 10가지 그럼 바로 아래에서 10대 여학생을 위한 생일선물 선택 기준부터 찬찬히 살펴볼게요, 어린이날이 다가오면 가장 먼저 떠오르는 고민, 바로 우리 아이에게 어떤 선물을 해줄까. 10살 아이가 뽑은 어린이날 선물 top 5 이거면 아이들 환호성 보장.
써니의 잡학사전 일상 9개의 글 목록열기. 남자아이 어린이날 선물 추천리스트 블로그. 10대 소녀를 위한 최고의 나이키 선물, 남자아이 어린이날 선물 추천리스트 블로그.
유타노 10대 친구 생일선물 고르기, 쉽지 않죠. 생일에도 크리스마스에도 길고 긴 리스트를 만들었다. 10대는 자신만의 스타일을 찾아가는 시기입니다. 어린이날, 생일, 입학졸업 선물 고민되시나요. 엄마 아빠에게 10대 여자아이들에게 선물하기도 좋고, 가성비까지 좋은 선물에 관해 이야기해 해보려고 하는데요. 윤지 쿵 후기 디시
윤가 놈 논란 키위 컴퍼니에 기본적인 로봇 조립 키트가 좀 있더라. 10세 소녀를 위한 인기 선물은는 고급 목욕 용품부터 겨울 휴일이나 사무실 행사와 같은 테마를 중심으로 제작된 그룹까지 다양하다. 10대 소녀를 위한 최고의 나이키 선물. 미세운동 기술을 발달시킬 수 있는 무지개빛 melissa & doug 지오메트릭 스태커 4. 연말 선물 고민 10대 20대 30대 각 세대별 크리스마스 선물 선호도 품목 총정리 강혁진 작가 8시라디오 행복을여는아침 cpbc fm 20221219. 윤가놈 결혼 실패
유해화학물질 취급 기준으로 올바르지 않은 것은_ 어린이날이 다가오면 가장 먼저 떠오르는 고민은 바로 무슨 선물을 해줘야 할까. 10대 친구 생일선물 추천 리스트 10가지 그럼 바로 아래에서 10대 여학생을 위한 생일선물 선택 기준부터 찬찬히 살펴볼게요. 2025년, 10대들이 열광하는 키워드는 개성, 실용성, 공유성, 감성입니다. 최고의 선택을 위한 가이드 선물이란 누군가에게 기쁨을 선사하는 작은 행복이자, 그 사람의 소중한 날을 더욱 특별하게 만드는 중요한 요소입니다. 매년 생일 시즌이 돌아오면 우리는 같은 고민을 합니다. 유튜버 소올 결별 이유
윤잉 레전드 10살 여자아이 선물 rparenting. 넉넉한 지퍼 수납공간에는 노 트북, 운동복, 책. 로블록스 한다면, 로블록스 기프트 카드 사줘서 게임 내에서 원하는 거 사게 해주는 것도 좋고. 매년 돌아오는 특별한 날인 만큼, 아이들이 정말 좋아하고 기억에 남을 선물을 해주고 싶어 지죠. 조립을 마쳤다면 우리의 두 주인공을 각자의 스탠드에 올려 전시해 보아요.
이나 무라 아미 움짤 넉넉한 지퍼 수납공간에는 노 트북, 운동복, 책. 10대는 자신만의 스타일을 찾아가는 시기입니다. 특히 z세대, 알파세대 사이에 속한 10대들은 디지털 환경에 익숙하고, 트렌드에 민감하며, 자신만의 취향을 정확히 알고 표현하는 세대입니다. 미세운동 기술을 발달시킬 수 있는 무지개빛 melissa & doug 지오메트릭 스태커 4. 특히 z세대, 알파세대 사이에 속한 10대들은 디지털 환경에 익숙하고, 트렌드에 민감하며, 자신만의 취향을 정확히 알고 표현하는 세대입니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 7, 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.
모든 아이들이 올해 크리스마스 받고싶은 28가지 최고의 선물., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.