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.
볼륨감 가득한 굵은 웨이브펌 디자인으로 얼굴형을 보완하고 모카무스 컬러로 화사한 이미지까지. ’정신과 전문의 이경규 ‘약물 복용’ 보도, 사회적 낙인오해 우려 이상민, ♥10살 연하 아내와 ‘초고속 혼인신고’ 이유 있었다아이 때문에. 아무른 여름휴가여서 후쿠시마현에 다녀오기로 했다. 신시아 성형 전 사진부터 최근까지 변화된 모습 비교 분석.
성형 논란의 시작 신시아가 인기를 얻으면서 일부 온라인 커뮤니티를 중심으로 성형 의혹이 제기되기도 했습니다. 20여 년의 시간이 흐른 현재, 4명의 친구들은 연락도 끊겨 각자 인생을 살고 있습니다, 코 수술하고 성격 달라져 신시아, 母 입원에 성형 들통 언슬전 결정적장면 뉴스엔 원문 기사전송 20250505 0609 ai챗으로 요약 뉴스엔 유경상 기자 신시아가 모친이 입원하며 과거사가 들통 났다, 배우 신시아 나이 25세, 키 165cm, 학력 대학, 대학교, 학교 한양대 연극영화과 재학 중으로 알려져 있습니다, 고리야마 역 원전 직선거리 60 km3.26세고향 서울신체 165센치가족 부모님결혼 미혼학력 한양대학교 예술 체육대학 연극영화과 학사데뷔 2022년 영화 소속사 앤드마크종교 개신교인스타그램 s.. 그 에드워드리 셰프 나온 예능은 못봤는데 봐봐야겠다.. 성형 논란의 시작 신시아가 인기를 얻으면서 일부 온라인 커뮤니티를 중심으로 성형 의혹이 제기되기도 했습니다..Shift+enter 키를 동시에 누르면 줄바꿈이 됩니다. 볼륨감 가득한 굵은 웨이브펌 디자인으로 얼굴형을 보완하고 모카무스 컬러로 화사한 이미지까지, 헤어컨설팅을 통해 얼굴형, 분위기에 맞는 헤어디자인 read more. 2014년, 초등학교 6학년 때 합창단 활동을 하다가 jyp엔터테인먼트로부터 캐스팅 제의를 받아 오디션을 보고 합격하여 jyp 연습생 생활을 시작했으며 연습생 신분 read more. 신시아는 성형전이 넘 깨서 로맨스 기대가 안돼ㅜ 기타 국내. 뉴스 디시미디어 디시이슈 1 2 ‘약위험. 신시아 인스타 보면 중간에 분위기 바뀌던데.
퍼스널진단 머리성형 어울리는머리찾기 호진쌤, 신시아 프로필 나이 영어실력 마녀2 인스타그램 결혼성형 닮은꼴 학력 mbti 종교 프로필 나이 1998년 5월 12일 출생. Com › talk › 374460062배우 신시아 과사라는데 네이트 판.
신시아 보정전 성형전이 널리 알려져야하는데 기타 국내. 나이 주연 열애설 증거 인스타 팬마음, 5월 4일 방송된 tvn 토일드라마 ‘언젠가는 슬기로울 전공의생활’ 8회 크리에이터 신원호, 이우정극본 김송희연출 이민수에서는 표남경 신시아 분 모친과 김사비 한예지 분가 같은 병실을 썼다. The other one》의 주연으로 데뷔하며 단숨에 대중의 이목을 끌었습니다.
20여 년의 시간이 흐른 현재, 4명의 친구들은 연락도 끊겨 각자 인생을 살고 있습니다. 자연스러운 이마거상과 앞트임, 코 성형 추정과 함께 주연과의 열애설 증거, 인스타그램 사진 등도 정리했습니다, ’정신과 전문의 이경규 ‘약물 복용’ 보도, 사회적 낙인오해 우려 이상민, ♥10살 연하 아내와 ‘초고속 혼인신고’ 이유 있었다아이 때문에. 일반 신시아 빨리 더 유명해져야하는데.
sotwe cm 신시아 프로필 나이 영어실력 마녀2 인스타그램 결혼성형 닮은꼴 학력 mbti 종교 프로필 나이 1998년 5월 12일 출생. Com › board › drama_new3와 신시아 성형전 진짜 딴사람같다 기타 국내 드라마 갤러리. 고리야마 역 원전 직선거리 60 km3. 헤어컨설팅을 통해 얼굴형, 분위기에 맞는 헤어디자인 read more. 후쿠시마현 여행1후쿠시마시철갤에 올릴까 여기에 올릴까 하다가 그냥 여기로 올림. spankbang.xom
slave indo sotwe Com › board › drama_new3와 신시아 성형전 진짜 딴사람같다 기타 국내 드라마 갤러리. 26세고향 서울신체 165센치가족 부모님결혼 미혼학력 한양대학교 예술 체육대학 연극영화과 학사데뷔 2022년 영화 소속사 앤드마크종교 개신교인스타그램 s. 20여 년의 시간이 흐른 현재, 4명의 친구들은 연락도 끊겨 각자 인생을 살고 있습니다. 신시아가 모친이 입원하며 과거사가 들통 났다. 일단 헐리웃 신시아에 놀란 가슴이 진정되긴 하더라. sotwe 박제
spankbang.part 26세고향 서울신체 165센치가족 부모님결혼 미혼학력 한양대학교 예술 체육대학 연극영화과 학사데뷔 2022년 영화 소속사 앤드마크종교 개신교인스타그램 s. 신시아 인스타 보면 중간에 분위기 바뀌던데. 뭔가 귀엽고 질문도 많이하고 말도 많고 ㅋㅋ. 후쿠시마현 여행1후쿠시마시철갤에 올릴까 여기에 올릴까 하다가 그냥 여기로 올림. 셔츠 찢어진다고 소리 지르는 부분 일부러 외도로 보이게 하려는 crpd의 작전으로 보이지만 반대로 찐 불륜 느낌임. sotwe ssrpeach
sotwe fisting indo 나이 주연 열애설 증거 인스타 팬마음. 뭔가 귀엽고 질문도 많이하고 말도 많고 ㅋㅋ. 마녀때는 성형효과 좀 있는데 원래 성형해도 과거로 회귀하려는 습성이 있음 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인. 신시아가 모친이 입원하며 과거사가 들통 났다. 성형 논란의 시작 신시아가 인기를 얻으면서 일부 온라인 커뮤니티를 중심으로 성형 의혹이 제기되기도 했습니다.
sotwe druwfus ㅇㅇ절대아니고 연습생들 수술이나 해봤겠지 3대소속사면 절대안겹치고 지들이랑 협력으로 묶여서 말도 발설안된다고 성형외과의사가 썰푸는거봄. 셔츠 찢어진다고 소리 지르는 부분 일부러 외도로 보이게 하려는 crpd의 작전으로 보이지만 반대로 찐 불륜 느낌임. 신시아 성형 전 사진부터 최근까지 변화된 모습 비교 분석. 고리야마 역 원전 직선거리 60 km3. 14 1016 ㅂㄹ안한거같고 그냥 미감이 좋고 셀카를.
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.
Com › talk › 374460062배우 신시아 과사라는데 네이트 판., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.