US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 16, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
중국상해 밤문화대행 코스로 ktv인지 중국상해 방송국인지를. 3박만 가도 거의67만원 정도는 아끼는데 일행들이랑 합치면 꽤 아낄수 있음. 상하이 가려고 하는데 유흥이나 떡지도 어디서 봐야 잘 나옴. 상하이 가려고 하는데 유흥이나 떡지도 어디서 봐야 잘 나옴.
마음 같아선 금방이라도 다시 오고싶은 마음이지만 그게 내맘대로 되질 않는다.. 한 10년도 더된것 같은뎅 네이버에서 상해ㅃ 까지만 입력하면 자동으로 키워드가 완성되는 상해빨간그네 얼마나 유명했으면 그렇게까지 돼었을까.. 상해빨간그네 남자라면 상하이에 갔다온 사람치곤 다 가본곳이란다..
| 예전에 상해살때 보면 대학가근처나 지하철역근처나 어디에나 사우나 있었는데 요즘 어떰. | Com › page_681상해여행중 상해밤문화 상해ktv 상하이 밤문화 최강 후기 상하이 럭셔. | Com › board › view상해 황제마사지 빨간그네 후기로 뉴비 인사 올립니당 여행동남. | 그 유명했던 상해빨간그네가 없어졌다네 아는놈만 알고 모르는 놈은 100번을 중국상하이로 출장을 가봤자 근처에도 못가봤을 중국상해의 빨간그네. |
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| 상해여행은 몇번 가보긴 했지만 그땐 가족 여행이라서 밤문화쪽엔 경험이 없습니다. | ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 상해 북경등 여러곳에 있다고 듣긴했음 답글달기 익명회원. | 분위기를 환기할겸 생산적인 글을 써드려야할것 같아서 작년 2023년 10월부터 12월까지 3달간의 단기출장 후기를 공유해보고자합니다. | 3박만 가도 거의67만원 정도는 아끼는데 일행들이랑 합치면 꽤 아낄수 있음. |
| 워낙 유명하다니깐 삐끼들도 판친다는 소문도 있고 카페,블로그로 낚시질하는 것들은 좀 피하고 싶거든요. | 저장요즘 상해에서 mz들에게 이게 핫하다는데. | 매번 동남아 여행을 꿈꾸다가 이래저래 상황이 안돼 3번이나 항공, 호텔을 취소하다가며칠전에 부모님 모시고 상해 3박4일 여행 다녀온 김에 후기 남겨봐요. | 비수기 기준으로 1상하이 왕복급은 아낀다. |
| 개인적인 소개 등은 접어두고 형님들 좋아하실 유흥 얘기만 해드릴게요. | 근무 난이도는 매점에 따라 천지차이지만 어려운 편은 아니고 대체로 쉬운 편이다. | 상하이 ktv스웨사우나 디시 가이드 중국 ktv 2차 가격빨간그네한인타운 마사지 정보 중국이 세계적인 유흥 메카로 떠오르면서 한국인 관광객과 거주자들은 디시인사이드를 통해 상하이대련 등 주요 도시의 ktv사우나마사지 정보를 쉽게 얻고 있습니다. | 한 10년도 더된것 같은뎅 네이버에서 상해ㅃ 까지만 입력하면 자동으로 키워드가 완성되는 상해빨간그네 얼마나 유명했으면 그렇게까지 돼었을까. |
| Com › author1_680상하이 명월관 상하이 마사지 상하이 빨간그네 상하이 황제투어 상하. | 중국여행지를 상해여행 추천여행지중 가볼만한 곳이라는 곳을 찾아보면 어김없이 상해빨간그네를 찾아냈다. | 중국상해에는 상해빨간그네라는게 유명하다고 하면서 여기저기서 추천을 많이 해주더라구요. | 마음 같아선 금방이라도 다시 오고싶은 마음이지만 그게 내맘대로 되질 않는다. |
며칠전에 부모님 모시고 상해 3박4일 여행 다녀온 김에 후기 남겨봐요. 이번 휴가때 벼르고 벼렀던 상해여행을 갑니다. 3박만 가도 거의67만원 정도는 아끼는데 일행들이랑 합치면 꽤 아낄수 있음. 이미지 중국 칭다오 빨간그네 다녀왔다ㅋㅋ, 1일1개, 남들과는 다른 여행꿀팁을 드리는 망구입니다 상해여행할때 혹시 운동화 브랜드 매장에 가보셨나요.
예전에 상해살때 보면 대학가근처나 지하철역근처나 어디에나 사우나 있었는데 요즘 어떰, 그중에서 특히 밤문화를 위주로 ktv포함 상해빨간그네 정보를 찾고 있습니다, 매번 동남아 여행을 꿈꾸다가 이래저래 상황이 안돼 3번이나 항공, 호텔을 취소하다가며칠전에 부모님 모시고 상해 3박4일 여행 다녀온 김에 후기 남겨봐요, 스타필드에서 35가지의 조합으로 감자튀김을 커스텀하세요. 위치 짝귀 마곡발산점 서울 강서구 마곡중앙8로5길 11 1층 119121호 → 발산역 2번 출구에서 456m 🍽️영상 속 메뉴.
Com › author1_676jinlong 第676页상하이 ktv 에코걸 출장서비스第676页. 안성 스타필드 브리쉘프라이에서 감자튀김 즐기기. 우선 와이프가 100만원을 지원해줘서, 부모님 환갑 기념으로 셋이서 가족 여행을 상해로 처음으로 다녀왔습니다. 신당동 최고의 한식뷔페, 지현식당 소개.
히토미 타나카 디시 상해빨간그네 남자라면 상하이에 갔다온 사람치곤 다 가본곳이란다. Id부터 느껴지듯 약삭빠른 쫄보 뉴비 인사드려요 형님들. 3박만 가도 거의67만원 정도는 아끼는데 일행들이랑 합치면 꽤 아낄수 있음. 29 042307 빨간그네 접하면 다른데는 진짜 심심하지 않냐. 상해빨간그네 남자라면 상하이에 갔다온 사람치곤 다 가본곳이란다. 히토미 학생회장
히토미 아내 504 벌써 1년이라는 시간이 흐렀다. 그중에서 특히 밤문화를 위주로 ktv포함 상해빨간그네 정보를 찾고 있습니다. Id부터 느껴지듯 약삭빠른 쫄보 뉴비 인사드려요 형님들. 매번 동남아 여행을 꿈꾸다가 이래저래 상황이 안돼 3번이나 항공, 호텔을 취소하다가며칠전에 부모님 모시고 상해 3박4일 여행 다녀온 김에 후기 남겨봐요. 비자 회사에서 대행업체를 통하여 발급 6개월 복수비자 2회까지 왕복가능 가족 부임할 가능성이 있어, 중국생활을 체험하고자 가족비자를 따로 개인적으로. 히토미 임신태그
힡5미 분위기를 환기할겸 생산적인 글을 써드려야할것 같아서 작년 2023년 10월부터 12월까지 3달간의 단기출장 후기를 공유해보고자합니다. 29 042307 빨간그네 접하면 다른데는 진짜 심심하지 않냐. Redirecting to sgall. 1 디시인사이드 아르바이트 갤러리에서 나온 은어로, 편의점 아르바이트생을 비하하거나 자조할 때 쓰는 단어. 상해로 신입사원 연수 갔다가 남자동기들 단체로 갔었닼ㅋㅋㅋ 추억돋네나역시 지금까지 빨간그네만한 곳을 접하지 못했어. 히토미 후배위
히토미 얀데레 디시 상해로 신입사원 연수 갔다가 남자동기들 단체로 갔었닼ㅋㅋㅋ 추억돋네나역시 지금까지 빨간그네만한 곳을 접하지 못했어. 분위기를 환기할겸 생산적인 글을 써드려야할것 같아서 작년 2023년 10월부터 12월까지 3달간의 단기출장 후기를 공유해보고자합니다. Redirecting to sgall. 비수기 기준으로는 1상하이 왕복급은 아낌 2024. 이미지 중국 칭다오 빨간그네 다녀왔다ㅋㅋ.
히토미 외모지상주의 한 10년도 더된것 같은뎅 네이버에서 상해ㅃ 까지만 입력하면 자동으로 키워드가 완성되는 상해빨간그네 얼마나 유명했으면 그렇게까지 돼었을까. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 상해 북경등 여러곳에 있다고 듣긴했음 답글달기 익명회원. Id부터 느껴지듯 약삭빠른 쫄보 뉴비 인사드려요 형님들. 중국상해에는 상해빨간그네라는게 유명하다고 하면서 여기저기서 추천을 많이 해주더라구요. 중국상해 밤문화대행 코스로 ktv인지 중국상해 방송국인지를.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 16, 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.
마음 같아선 금방이라도 다시 오고싶은 마음이지만 그게 내맘대로 되질 않는다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.