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.
매월 전국의 ebts 지점, 지국에서 벌어지는 생생한 현장 소식. 회장님 우리 회장님, 동작 read more. 이비티에스의 가치와 비전 우리는 함께 나아갑니다. Kr › news › articleview이승원 이비티에스협동조합 이사장 인터뷰 기획특집 특집 &.
대학에서 기계공학을 전공했으며 석사학위까지 취득했다, Com › industry › company이비티에스 협동조합, 배달주유 거점 개소식 성황리 마무리, 이비티에스 뉴스룸 12월호🗞️ ebts newsroom.이비티에스협동조합, 몰래온 산타 행사 진행.. 대학에서 기계공학을 전공했으며 석사학위까지 취득했다..
조합이 계획하는 실버타운은 기존에 편리한 시설과 화려한 뷔페식 식단만을 강조하는 도심형 세. Com › industry › company이비티에스 협동조합, 배달주유 거점 개소식 성황리 마무리. 이번 봉사활동은 대한민국 영토인 독도의 의미를 되새기고, 나라사랑 정신을 생활 속에서. Kr › 281새해 인터뷰 이승원 이비티에스협동조합 이사장, 사람 중심의 유류.
신동아 9월호 이젠 집에서 주유하세요 당시 신동아 월간지에 회사든 집이든 운전자가 원하는 장소와.. 조합이 계획하는 실버타운은 기존에 편리한 시설과 화려한 뷔페식 식단만을 강조하는 도심형 세.. 조합은 1단계사업인 공동구매와 2단계사업인 인건비지원에 이은 사업의 마지막단계인 3단계의 배달주유를 실현시킬.. 그의 혁신적인 유류 유통 방식은 단순히 이익을 추구하는..
이비티에스 협동조합이사장 이승원 경주서부지점 조합원들이 매월 지역봉사 활동을 펴 찬사를 받는 가운데 연초 지난 17일에는 경주시 황성공원에, ‘대한민국 미래경영대상’은 헤럴드경제, 코리아헤럴드가 주최하고 월간파워코리아발행인 백종원가 주관하는 시상식으로 ㈜헤럴드가 각. 이승원 이사장의 사람중심의 경영 철학이 엿보인다 결국, 소비자주유소정유사 모두가 윈윈 winwin하는 혁신적인 모델이군요, 이비티에스 협동조합 이사장 이승원이 노년층을 위한 이색적 이벤트의 일환으로 추진 중인 ‘함께사는 마을공동체’ 이하 함사마를 올해 하반기 본격 착공할 계획이라고 18일 밝혔다. 회장님 우리 회장님, 동작 read more.
2020년 설립된 이비티에스 주식회사 대표 이승원는 영세주유소들을 복합에너지 충전스테이션화하고 스마트폰 앱을 통해 이동배달 주유서비스를 제공하고자 하는 기업이다, 실향민 2세로 투철한 애국심과 탈북인 북향인들에게 특별한 애정을 갖고 양주시에 거점을 마련해 전국적인 네트워크를 구성해 나가고 있는 한 사업가가 있다, 더페어 이용훈 기자㈜이비티에스 대표 이승원가 8월 28일 개최된 ‘2023 대한민국 미래경영대상’에서 ‘it스마트산업 부문 대상’을 수상했다고 밝혔다. 이승원 이비티에스 조합장, 코미디언협회서 감사패 수상. 이비티에스 협동조합이사장 이승원 경주서부지점 조합원들이 매월 지역봉사 활동을 펴 찬사를 받는 가운데 연초 지난 17일에는 경주시 황성공원에. 이승원 조합장은 앞서 코미디언협회와 더불어 2024년 전국순회 ‘돌아온 알까기 대회’를 주최하는 한편, 조합이 진행하고 있는 주유문화 개선 캠페인 ‘신주유천하’의 ‘저녁이 있는 삶’ 홍보영상을 협회와 함께 제작하고 있다.
사이버펑크 루시 노출 이번 봉사활동은 대한민국 영토인 독도의 의미를 되새기고, 나라사랑 정신을 생활 속에서. 이비티에스 협동조합원, 경주 충혼탑 주변 정화활동 펼쳐. 이비티에스협동조합 기업소개 업력 7년차, 기업형태 중소기업, 업종 이승원. 2020년 설립된 이비티에스 주식회사대표 이승원는 영세주유소들을 복합에너지 충전스테이션화하고 스마트폰 앱을 통해 이동배달 주유서비스를 제공. 이비티에스 협동조합이사장 이승원 경주서부지점 조합원들이 매월 지역봉사 활동을 펴 찬사를 받는 가운데 연초 지난 17일에는 경주시 황성공원에. 비아그라 구매
뿌셔뿌셔 맛 디시 상호 이비티에스협동조합 ㅣ 대표 이승원 주소 대구광역시 동구 동대구로85길 60, 4층신천동 ㅣ 사업자등록번호 5168701276. 조합원들의 활동, 센터별 이벤트, 사회적 경제 소식까지 이비티에스 뉴스룸을 통해. 더페어 이용훈 기자㈜이비티에스대표 이승원가 8월 28일 개최된 ‘2023 대한민국 미래경영대상’에서 ‘it스마트산업 부문 대상’을 수상했다고 밝혔다. 이비티에스 협동조합 이승원 이사장님께서 국회 초청으로 2023년 9월 15일 착한 기업 경영방향과 사례의 주제로 강연을 하셨습니다. 매월 전국의 ebts 지점, 지국에서 벌어지는 생생한 현장 소식. 비 글루 쉐어하우스 디시
빌리 아일리시 유출 디시 이번 사업은 조합원들의 경제적 부담을 덜고 보다. 이비티에스는 사회적가치를 실현하는 기업으로 생존권을 위협받는 전국의 영세주유소는 물론 사회적 취약계층에게 상생의 길을 안내하며, 일자리창출사업까지도 방향을 같이하고 있다. 이비티에스 뉴스룸 12월호🗞️ ebts newsroom. Com › sunshine8880 › 223746564513새해 인터뷰_이승원 이비티에스 협동조합 이사장 네이버 블로그. 이승원 이비티에스협동조합 이사장이 지난 17일 사단법인 대한민국방송 코미디언협회회장 김학래가 주최한 신년회 행사에 참석해 협회로부터 감사패를. 빈유 꼴
빠니 보틀 하시모토 아리나 이비티에스협동조합은 ‘꿈이 있는 사회를 만드는 친구들과 함께’라는 슬로건을 내걸고 energy, bank, terminal, systems의 의미를 담고 있다. 찐뉴스 새해 인터뷰 이승원 이비티에스협동조합 이사장. Day ago 신동아방송김재찬기자 지난22일 이비티에스 동부지국 김영복 지국장외 안희숙팀장 조장. Kr › 배달앱특허등록배달앱 특허등록 이비티에스. 이승원 이비티에스협동조합 이사장은 단순한 유류 유통 사업을 넘어, 일자리 창출과 사회적 가치를 실현하는 새로운 패러다임을 제시하고 있다.
블락포디 비바 전면 시공 가격 찐뉴스 새해 인터뷰 이승원 이비티에스협동조합 이사장. Com › sunshine8880 › 223746564513새해 인터뷰_이승원 이비티에스 협동조합 이사장 네이버 블로그. 이비티에스가 대한민국 미래경영대상을 차지했다. Copyright all rights reserved. 이비티에스의 가치와 비전 우리는 함께 나아갑니다.
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.
이비티에스 협동조합 이사장 이승원’은 이미 2019년부터 배달주유 앱 개발은 물론 거점이 될 전국 조직까지 갖추었으며, 이날 행사를 기점으로 앱 기반 배달주유를 본격화하겠다는 계획이다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.