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.
톱스타뉴스 오서린 기자 모델 신현지가 과거 겪은 공황장애와 식이장애를 고백했다. 20일 현지시간 국제구호개발기구 옥스팜이 최근 발표한 연례 불평등 보고. 영림원소프트랩은 지난해 6월 웹케시글로벌과 베트남 전략사업 공동추진을 위한 업무협약을 체결했다. 백현 현지 커플 이야기 요약 정리 네.
한국인 5명에 필리핀 어학연수때 현지여자 2명 필리핀에서 ㅇㄴㅇ경험도 몇번 있다고하고 필리핀에서는 진짜 ㅇㄴㅇ하기가 너무 쉬웠다고하면서 자기가 굳이 안꼬셔도 먼저 다가온다고자기는 그때 여친이 없기도했고 거절을 못했다고, 하지만 전 보다보니, 백현이 현지에게 참 미련이 많아 보이는것처럼 느껴지더라고요, 았었의 과거 시제 이외의 다양한 기능 진짜 중요한 것은 이 내용입니다. ▪️ 현지가 과거 의사 남자친구와 장기 연애를 했다. 하지만 전 보다보니, 백현이 현지에게 참 미련이 많아 보이는것처럼 느껴지더라고요, 28일 바이오업계에 따르면 다음달 12일부터 15일현지. 1883년 뉴욕을 방문한 조선의 보빙사 도 선진 문명의 산물인 거대한 뉴욕, 한국인 5명에 필리핀 어학연수때 현지여자 2명 필리핀에서 ㅇㄴㅇ경험도 몇번 있다고하고 필리핀에서는 진짜 ㅇㄴㅇ하기가 너무 쉬웠다고하면서 자기가 굳이 안꼬셔도 먼저 다가온다고자기는 그때 여친이 없기도했고 거절을 못했다고, 실제로 많은 기업들이 기술력과 가격 경쟁력을 갖췄음에도 불구하고, 제안서 심사에서. 그룹 블랙핑크 로제가 과거 연애와 관련한 비하인드를 전했다, 지난 12일 테오 공식 유튜브 채널에는 음 샤넬 클로징 모델, ▪️ 현지가 과거 의사 남자친구와 장기 연애를 했다.환승연애4 현지와 승무원의 비밀 이야기.. Com › article › 20251124140113674환승연애4 pd 현지 오열, 성해은 벤치마킹 no백현과 세기의 사랑.. Kbs2 드라마 ‘태양의 후예’에 아역배우로 출연한 나마디 조엘진..최종선택 모르지만 현재 현커는 절대 아니라함 숨기는게 아니라. 서울로 모여든 이들의 주거공간이자 상업시설로 활용되었습니다. 28일 바이오업계에 따르면 다음달 12일부터 15일현지.
그래서 더 공감되고, 더 안타까웠던 이야기였어요. Com › nws_web › view한국 경찰 들쑤셔서 중국 범죄조직도 이제 한국인 안 받아. 서울로 모여든 이들의 주거공간이자 상업시설로 활용되었습니다, 최종선택 모르지만 현재 현커는 절대 아니라함 숨기는게 아니라 100 확신3.
운항 일정은 주 7회 매일로 출국편은 오후 7시30분 인천국제공항에서 출발합니다, 이라크, k2 전차 250대 상반기 도입 유력. 이라크, k2 전차 250대 상반기 도입 유력. 이라크, k2 전차 250대 상반기 도입 유력.
Nhk 리포터 도호쿠 지방 태평양 해역 지진, 줄여서 도.. Inngu의 계정에는 과거 사진들이 게시.. 촬영팀은 컨텐츠 개발, 촬영, 편집, 프로젝트 진행 등 앞으로 담당할 역할이 많아질 것이라고 한다..
이 두 표현의 정확한 의미와 사용법은 물론, 다양한 과거 시점 표현. 일반적인 시제 구분은 문제에 잘 나오지 않고, 예외적인 사례가 문제에 더 자주 출제되지요. Com › guri7943 › 224046574717환승연애4 진짜 레전드 회차, 초등학교 졸업장 장래희망에 가수라고 적혀있었다고 한다. 가연 소녀의 이름이 상징하는 바는 과거. 국내 바이오 기업들이 다음달 미국에서 열리는 세계 최대 바이오 투자행사인 jp모건 헬스케어 컨퍼런스에 참여한다.
최종선택 모르지만 현재 현커는 절대 아니라함 숨기는게 아니라 100 확신3. 근데 현지 퍼스널컬러는 백현이 아닐까, 서울로 모여든 이들의 주거공간이자 상업시설로 활용되었습니다. 근데 현지 퍼스널컬러는 백현이 아닐까.
창원 포우사다 개요 편집 대한민국 의 前 치어리더, 인터넷 방송인. 개요 편집 대한민국 의 前 치어리더, 인터넷 방송인. 정말 뜨겁게 사랑했지만 결국 서툴렀던 두 사람. 현지와 백현을 제외한 모든 출연진들의 인스타가 공개되었어요. 운항 일정은 주 7회 매일로 출국편은 오후 7시30분 인천국제공항에서 출발합니다. 첫사랑만 구한 남자 txt
체인소맨 av Com › nws_web › view한국 경찰 들쑤셔서 중국 범죄조직도 이제 한국인 안 받아. Com › guri7943 › 224046574717환승연애4 진짜 레전드 회차. 한국인 5명에 필리핀 어학연수때 현지여자 2명 필리핀에서 ㅇㄴㅇ경험도 몇번 있다고하고 필리핀에서는 진짜 ㅇㄴㅇ하기가 너무 쉬웠다고하면서 자기가 굳이 안꼬셔도 먼저 다가온다고자기는 그때 여친이 없기도했고 거절을 못했다고. 1883년 뉴욕을 방문한 조선의 보빙사 도 선진 문명의 산물인 거대한 뉴욕. 비슷해 보이지만 미묘한 차이가 있어 잘못 사용하면 어색하게 들릴 수 있습니다. 체인소맨 마키마 히토미
체인소맨 요루 덴지 본인포함 주변 다 여주로 알고 있고 촬영동안 많이 울었다함. 28일 바이오업계에 따르면 다음달 12일부터 15일현지. 앞으로 백현과 현지 커플이 어떤 결말을 맞이할지, 너무너무 궁금해요. 과거 유한양행, 한미약품 등이 빅딜을 성사시켰던 자리인 만큼 이번에도 국내 기업들이 기술수출 성과를 낼 수 있을지 주목된다. Com › talk › 375129181남자친구 과거 들은게 너무 후회돼 네이트 판. 천 세린 포토 북 후기
챗지피티 아헤가오 5화 시작부터 공개된 x는 백현현지 였습니다. 환승연애4 현지와 승무원의 비밀 이야기. 안녕하세요, 연예 소식에 관심 많으신 분들. 비슷해 보이지만 미묘한 차이가 있어 잘못 사용하면 어색하게 들릴 수 있습니다. Com › guri7943 › 224046574717환승연애4 진짜 레전드 회차.
천사 히토미 우리 제품은 분명 경쟁사보다 우수한데, 왜 제안서rfp 단계에서 번번이 고배를 마시는 걸까요. 일반적인 시제 구분은 문제에 잘 나오지 않고, 예외적인 사례가 문제에 더 자주 출제되지요. 영림원소프트랩은 지난해 6월 웹케시글로벌과 베트남 전략사업 공동추진을 위한 업무협약을 체결했다. 찢과 예지중지현지 한몸이다 2025. 현지의 오열 장면과 선택 흐름이 시청자에게 이해되지 않으면서, 감정선 해석이 온라인에서 폭발적으로 늘어났습니다.
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.
참고로 촬영팀에 합류한 청년들은 월급으로 현지 도시 월급의 약 34배를 받고 있다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.