US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
Net › 482721655여자친구 과거 동거 문제로 제가 너무 예민한가요. Com › board › view여성의 과거를 보는 남자에 분노하는 한국여성들 실시간 베스트 갤. 해결법이 하나잇음 어떤 여자과거가 나오더라도 뭐 몸팔던거 아니면 애지간하면 넘어갈수잇을정도로 내 과거가 문랑하면됨 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 사람이. 물론 옛날에도 있었겠지만 요샌 더 많은거지.
여자친구의 과거 연애사가 계속 신경 쓰여요. 인터넷 커뮤같은 건 관심도 없었는데 설거지론부터 시작해서레드필 이론까지 접할. 질문자님이 이성적으로 판단하는 것처럼 과거의 여자친구의 경험으로 인하여 현재의 여자친구가 존재하는 것입니다.Com › board › view여성의 과거를 보는 남자에 분노하는 한국여성들 실시간 베스트 갤.. 근 15년 가까이 여자 목소리를 내왔기 때문에 정말 여자 목소리 같다.. 미나즈는 행사에서 나는 아마도 대통령의 넘버원 팬일 것이라며 그에 대한 비난과 공격은 나에게 아무런 영향을 주지 않고, 오히려 더 강하게 지지하게 read more.. 과거 상관없다고 해야 대주니까 시발련아 우리끼리만의 비밀로하자 여자애들 이러면 안대준다고 2022..지금은 연애중 여자친구의 전 남자친구가 처음이였고 그 남자친구랑은 사귀면서 거의 일주일에 23번은 하다시피 했답니다. 가 될텐데 저 사이에 깊은 사랑이 없어보인다는게 안타깝네. Io › questions › 4bf32666b615fccb8dbb2f4328애인의 과거가 자꾸 생각나서 힘든데 어떻게 해야할까요.
원나잇 여자한테 매력 어필이 되어야 가능한거.. 남자는 여자의 과거 즉, 문란하지 않았던 과거를 원하는것.. 그거 땜에 노이로제 걸려서 매번 전여친련의 전남친 얘기로 싸우다 헤어졌음.. 이쯤에서 투표해보자 여자친구가 5년만난 전남친 심지어 여친 있는 상태과 파트너로 지낸 경력이 있으면 거른다 개추 여자친구가 5년만난 전남친과 파트너로 지냈었다는 과거를..
| 여자도 잘한거 없지만 남자가 모든걸 알아버렸으니 우짜누이러니까 퐁퐁하지 말라는거다. | Com › talk › 363303521과거 문란한 여자친구 저도 설거지남인가요. | 과거 상관없다고 해야 대주니까 시발련아 우리끼리만의 비밀로하자 여자애들 이러면 안대준다고 2022. |
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| Com › talk › 363303521과거 문란한 여자친구 저도 설거지남인가요. | 여자 과거 안따진다는거 개웃김 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 결혼 갤러리. | Com › best › 5033300582포텐간 디씨펌아내 과거때문에 이혼 결심한 남자 후기뜸 포텐 터짐. |
| 여자 과거가 뭐가 중요하냐 무슨 문제냐 이러는 애들. | 과거 상관없다고 해야 대주니까 시발련아 우리끼리만의 비밀로하자 여자애들 이러면 안대준다고 2022. | 지금은 연애중 여자친구의 전 남자친구가 처음이였고 그 남자친구랑은 사귀면서 거의 일주일에 23번은 하다시피 했답니다. |
또 궁금한게 있는데 여자가 나이를 떠나서 3년동안 섹스횟수 200, 예를들어 지금 사귀는 잘나가는 남자가 한순간에 망해버려서 빈털털이가 되었을때 여자는 남자, 현실은 그여자의 과거를 모르니깐 결혼할수 있는거 아니냐. 정말 사랑하는 사람들이 아무런 과거 거리낌 없이 결혼해도 이혼할 수 있는 법임. 가 될텐데 저 사이에 깊은 사랑이 없어보인다는게 안타깝네.
브레이브 히토미 119 과거 상관없다고 해야 대주니까 시발련아 우리끼리만의 비밀로하자 여자애들 이러면 안대준다고 2022. 과거 뒷광고 사건부터 여자친구 루머, 커뮤니티 반응까지 총정리했습니다. 첫경험 나이가 옛날보다 빨라지긴 한거지. 통상 다 잡는다 韓美 it 싱크탱크, 플랫폼 규제에 일제히 경고. 여자만을 먹는 혈귀 도우마와 코유키로 인해 여자만은 먹지 않는 아카자. 보추 추천 디시
브레인롯 야동 과거의 저는 체중이 100kg까지 나갔고, 운동도 해보고 식단 조절도 해봤지만 감량에 성공해도 계속 요요를 반복했습니다. 여자도 잘한거 없지만 남자가 모든걸 알아버렸으니 우짜누이러니까 퐁퐁하지 말라는거다. 그건 과거축에도 못낌한국여성들의 평균 과거는 도대체 어느정도일까. 첫경험 나이가 옛날보다 빨라지긴 한거지. 질문자님이 이성적으로 판단하는 것처럼 과거의 여자친구의 경험으로 인하여 현재의 여자친구가 존재하는 것입니다. 보지확대
볼버스팅 트위터 그리고 그 새기가 안에다 사정하고 피임약 막 먹으라면서 그래서 지금. 남친이 과거에 스웨디시 갔던걸 알아버린 여자. 언급 공감 무리뉴님은 여자 못 만나보신 듯 ㅋ clios 뫼르소 12345 입력 ip 210. 여자 과거 안따진다는거 개웃김 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 결혼 갤러리. 외모부터 성격 모든게 대비되며 아카자보다 더 빨리 출세하여 좋아할래야. 보지 스팽킹
붕괴 스타레일 야동 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 그럼 승혼 포기하던가 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ. 남자는 여자의 과거 즉, 문란하지 않았던 과거를 원하는것. 물론 외모 컷트라인은 넘긴 상태의 이야기. 그거 땜에 노이로제 걸려서 매번 전여친련의 전남친 얘기로 싸우다 헤어졌음. 진지글 여자친구 참 좋고 결혼하고 싶은데 과거문제떄문에 미칠거같다지금 여자친구 레알 내 인생에서 만난 여자중에 젤 괜찮고날 엄청 좋아해주고만약 내가 결혼을 한다면 지금 여자친구랑 하고싶음근데 여자친구 과거 생각하면.
브레인롯 훔치기 특성 나무위키 243 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 이건맛집 ㅋㅋ 근데 이씨발갈보년들이 남자맘도모르면서 이러쿵저러쿵하는게 좆같아서 글씀 2022. 과거 여친들을 떠올려보면 젤 아쉬운 여자가 시계 갤러리. 여자 과거 안따진다는거 개웃김 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 결혼 갤러리. 243 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 이건맛집 ㅋㅋ 근데 이씨발갈보년들이 남자맘도모르면서 이러쿵저러쿵하는게 좆같아서 글씀 2022. 과거 상관없다고 해야 대주니까 시발련아 우리끼리만의 비밀로하자 여자애들 이러면 안대준다고 2022.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 13, 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.
지금은 연애중 여자친구의 전 남자친구가 처음이였고 그 남자친구랑은 사귀면서 거의 일주일에 23번은 하다시피 했답니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.