US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 5, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
혼술하기 좋은 곳 히로시마식 오코노미야키에 약간 실망한 뒤, 네온사인이 반짝이는 유흥가를 지나 호텔 근처로 돌아왔다. 이 지역은 도시의 주요 유흥 지역이다. 둘 다 신칸센이 정차하는 히로시마 역에서 도보로 약15분정도 거리에 있다. Deeplog는 일본 전국의 여행관광 정보를 공유하는 정보 사이트입니다.
그림, 스톡사진, 이미지 그리고 포토그래피.. 히로시마의 파견형 오일 성감 마사지 가게.. 좀 더 융통성을 선호한다면 택시를 쉽게 이용할 수 있으며 늦은 밤에 숙소로 돌아갈 수 있는 안전한 옵션이 될 수 있습니다.. 다이쇼 2년까지 이 지역에 강이 흐르고 있었기 때문에 이런 이름이 붙었다..사적이나 박물관 등의 관광이 유명하지만, 그 밖에도 추천 체험을 전합니다. 히로시마 관광과 함께 최상의 치유를 체험하고 싶은 남성은 체크해보세요. 히로시마 좋음 좋은데 남은 기억이 이츠쿠시마신사 들어갈때 사슴이 전단지 뜯어먹던게 너무 강렬하게 기억나서 나머지거는 기억이 안남 1 너른고을사진가 2023. 후쿠야마역에서 걸어서 15분 정도 가야해서 후쿠야마역으로의 접근성은 안좋은 편이지만 유메타운이라는 대형쇼핑몰이나 장미공원 쪽으로 가는 유흥골목, 고품질 사운드 시스템과 개인실은 즐거운 노래방 경험을 위한 훌륭한 환경을 제공합니다. 문체부는 올해 일본의 황금연휴인 골든위크4월 29일5월 6일를 앞두고 방한 수요를 선점하기 위해 도쿄와 히로시마, 후쿠오카에서 로드쇼를 연다, 맛있는 음식과 좋은 기억 덕분에 기분 좋게 하루를 마무리했다, 티켓 한 장으로 일본 전역을 여행하고 유명한 신칸센 초고속 열차를 타세요, 히로시마 사람들이 보수적이고 외지인에게 텃세가 있다는 얘기를 인터넷에서 본 적이 있지만, 내가 만난 사람들은 대체로 친절하려고 했던것 같다.
| 히로시마의 4대 환락가 중 하나인 유카와 거리입니다. | 히로시마 top 브랜드로서 15년 이상의 역사. | 유흥가로는 히로시마에서 가장 큰 규모를 자랑한다. | 저는 일본 전역의 풍속업소를 주말마다 탐방하는 직장인. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4일간의 히로시마 여행 가이드를 통해 상징적인 명소, 숨겨진 보석, 미식의 즐거움을 탐험해 보세요. | Com › destinations › chugoku広島の夜遊びスポット 7選 wa. | 안으로 들어가 성인 1명이라고 했더니 가방은 옆에 있는 보관함에 넣어달라고 했다. | 17% |
| 후쿠야마역에서 걸어서 15분 정도 가야해서 후쿠야마역으로의 접근성은 안좋은 편이지만 유메타운이라는 대형쇼핑몰이나 장미공원 쪽으로 가는 유흥골목. | 이 일대 유흥가에는 유흥업소, 음식점 등 약 3,400여 개의 점포가 밀집해 있다. | 히로시마 바 호핑 투어에 참여하여 최고의 현지 음식과 음료를 발견하고, 정통 이자카야를 경험하며, 친절한 현지인들을 만나보세요. | 16% |
| 맛있는 음식과 좋은 기억 덕분에 기분 좋게 하루를 마무리했다. | 히로시마 트램은 늦게까지 운행하기 때문에 야간 유흥 핫스팟에서 다른 나이트라이프 핫스팟으로 쉽게 이동할 수 있습니다. | 둘 다 신칸센이 정차하는 히로시마 역에서 도보로 약15분정도 거리에 있다. | 12% |
| 히로시마의「액티비티」「관광스팟」정보를 소개합니다. | 4일간의 히로시마 여행 가이드를 통해 상징적인 명소, 숨겨진 보석, 미식의 즐거움을 탐험해 보세요. | 재방문 의사 100%있습니다 무엇보다 히로시마 역 주변에 있다는게 너무 편리했습니다 보통 히로시마는 유흥지역인 가미야초에 숙박하거나 히로시마 역 주변 이렇게 두 곳에 숙박하는데요 술을 좋아하신다면 유흥지역 쪽으로 가셔도 좋지만 신칸센을 타고 이곳저곳 가실려면 히로시마 역을. | 55% |
히로시마시 bleak에 재적하는 izumi의 프로필을 안내.. 외국인 환영히로시마에서 꼭 체험해봐야 할 데리헬 추천 5곳..전신 오일 마사지와 성적인 서비스로 이국땅에서 지친 몸. Deeplog는 일본 전국의 여행관광 정보를 공유하는 정보 사이트입니다, 금요일 밤에 되면 히로시마 거리는 밤을 즐기려는 이들로 북적인다, 금요일 밤에 되면 히로시마 거리는 밤을 즐기려는 이들로 북적인다, 히로시마, 물의도시에서 혼자하는 뚜벅이 여행 5박6일. 원자폭탄과 매춘방지법에 의해 사라지고 있다 히로시마의 홍등가는 현재 사라졌습니다.
일단 히로시마 역내 ekie 쇼핑몰 상품권을 교환했다. 히로시마의 파견형 오일 성감 마사지 가게. 원자폭탄과 매춘방지법에 의해 사라지고 있다 히로시마의 홍등가는 현재 사라졌습니다, 일본에서 외국인이 이용할 수 있는 히로시마 9 개. 평화 기념 공원부터 오노미치의 고풍스러운 거리까지, 히로시마의 활기찬 정신과 고요한 아름다움을 발견하세요. 히로시마현 지역의 힐링마사지 장소 목록.
히토미 광대 히로시마의 4대 환락가 중 하나인 유카와 거리입니다. 히로시마인기클럽 club g hiroshima의 2017. 금요일 밤에 되면 히로시마 거리는 밤을 즐기려는 이들로 북적인다. 사적이나 박물관 등의 관광이 유명하지만, 그 밖에도 추천 체험을 전합니다. 나 홀로 일본 소도시 여행하기히로시마 4. 히토미 랜섬 웨어 모바일
히나 엉밑 Com › destinations › chugoku広島の夜遊びスポット 7選 wa. 평화 기념 공원부터 오노미치의 고풍스러운 거리까지, 히로시마의 활기찬 정신과 고요한 아름다움을 발견하세요. 금요일 밤에 되면 히로시마 거리는 밤을 즐기려는 이들로 북적인다. 히로시마의 활기찬 밤문화를 탐험하며 최고의 바, 아늑한 이자카야, 활기찬 노래방에서 현지인과 관광객 모두에게 안성. 여행 vlog 히로시마에서 보낸 생일. 히토미 메스가키
히토미 2922855 문화체육관광부는 한국관광공사와 함께 8일부터 오는 10일까지 일본 3개 도시에서 k관광 로드쇼를 개최한다. 히로시마에서 추천하는 번화가 4곳과 함께 총 7곳을 소개합니다. 사적이나 박물관 등의 관광이 유명하지만, 그 밖에도 추천 체험을 전합니다. 사적이나 박물관 등의 관광이 유명하지만, 그 밖에도 추천 체험을 전합니다. 히로시마 미술관의 입장료는 2천 엔으로 셋 중에서 가장 비쌌다. 히토미 다운로더 크롬
회귀자 생활백서 디시 히로시마 트램은 늦게까지 운행하기 때문에 야간 유흥 핫스팟에서 다른 나이트라이프 핫스팟으로 쉽게 이동할 수 있습니다. 히로시마시 bleak에 재적하는 izumi의 프로필을 안내. 우수한 원더풀 조크 바는 히로시마에서 록앤롤 테마의 독창적인 장식과 무료 노래방으로 유명한 기발하고 다채로운 장소입니다. 히로시마 시내에서 방일 한국인 환영의 풍속점. 히로시마 top 브랜드로서 15년 이상의 역사.
히토미 다운로드 안드로이드 27 0059 이쓰쿠시마 신사랑 오노미치 갈만함 나는 히로시마식 오꼬노미야끼가 오사카식보다 맛있었음. 히로시마 바 호핑 투어에 참여하여 최고의 현지 음식과 음료를 발견하고, 정통 이자카야를 경험하며, 친절한 현지인들을 만나보세요. 다이쇼 2년까지 이 지역에 강이 흐르고 있었기 때문에 이런 이름이 붙었다. 바 이마이치 닛카위스키만 취급하는 바임 마스터 70이라는데 건강하게 사시드라 매일 아침밥도 만들어드시고 그다음 제단골바 후우케 여기가 진짜 ㅆㅅㅌㅊ임 나 가 레. 여행 vlog 히로시마에서 보낸 생일.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 5, 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.
히로시마 트램은 늦게까지 운행하기 때문에 야간 유흥 핫스팟에서 다른 나이트라이프 핫스팟으로 쉽게 이동할 수 있습니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.