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.
학교 내부 시청각실에서 8살 여자아이가 흉기에 찔린 채 발견됐습니다. 교사 폭행성희롱 학생, 곧바로 출석 정지. 초등교사 관둔 백수덬 진로 고민하는 중기. 11일 교육계에 따르면 대전교육청은 전날 10일 a 교사를 동료교사 폭행 혐의로 감사를 진행했다.
업무량 이정도인 줄 알았으면 안했을거라는 교사.. 대학원 입학도 고려해 시험을 준비하고 있었으나 위에화엔터테인먼트..
Day ago 재판장이 정숙을 명하자 곧장 잠잠해졌고, 이내 피고인과 그를 지지해 온 시민들이 흐느꼈다.. Day ago 재판장이 정숙을 명하자 곧장 잠잠해졌고, 이내 피고인과 그를 지지해 온 시민들이 흐느꼈다.. 펌10년차 디자이너에서 3년차 교사 후기.. 학생이 두쫀쿠를♡ sns 올린 교사, 그걸 신고한 누리꾼..
고등학교는 어느정도로 야자감독을 하는지, 우울증을 앓아온 a교사는 휴직과 복직을 반복하다 지난해 12월 이 학교에 복직했다, 육 서장은 병원에서 피의자가 아이에게 책을 주겠다고 하고 시청각실로 유인했다고 진술한 점을 고려해보면며 강제로 끌고 이동한 것이 아닌.
| 케이돌토크 잡담 교사제자면 그냥 금사 감성으로 좋아하는 거 아냐. | 펌10년차 디자이너에서 3년차 교사 후기. | 교사 n년 하고 질병휴직사유 우울증 했다가. | 아래 청원들을 하나씩 살표보니, 일반인들의 교사에 대한 인식이 왜 저렇게 왜곡돼 있나 싶으면서 동시에 과거의 제 생각과 교차되는 걸 느꼈습니다. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 올해 27살이고 교사가 너무 되고싶어서 후기 교육대학원 입학해야겠다 생각이드는데 현실임용공부는 각오했고, 조금 이상한 학부모이나 학생들. | 이슈 블라인드 내가 교사를 관두는 40가지 이유 57,315 415. | 이걸 교사 직업 자체의 일이라고 생각하고 다른 회사원도 힘들고 어렵다고 받아들이는게 문제에요. | 22% |
| Com › dhdktltm0828 › 222616716755더쿠초등교사가 7개월째 겪은 일들 네이버 블로그. | 지난 6일 동료 교사와 몸싸움학교 측 휴직 강하게 권고 대전연합뉴스 양영석 기자 교내에서 8살 김하늘 양을 흉기로 살해하고 자해를 시도했던 대전 모 초등학교 여교사가 나흘 전에도 폭력적인 성향을 보여 주변을 긴장시켰던 것으로 전해졌다. | 대학원 입학도 고려해 시험을 준비하고 있었으나 위에화엔터테인먼트. | 16% |
| 당시 한 살배기였던 아들까지 동행했다는 정황도 제기됐다. | 교사는 연령만 지정된 불특정다수를 대상으로 하고 강사는 학원보낼 재력+의무아닌 학원. | 10일 오후 발생한 대전 초등학생 사망 관련 용의자는 40대 여자 교사로 확인됐다. | 23% |
| 지난 6일 동료 교사와 몸싸움학교 측 휴직 강하게 권고 대전연합뉴스 양영석 기자 교내에서 8살 김하늘 양을 흉기로 살해하고 자해를 시도했던 대전 모 초등학교 여교사가 나흘 전에도 폭력적인 성향을 보여 주변을 긴장시켰던 것으로 전해졌다. | 학교 내부 시청각실에서 8살 여자아이가 흉기에 찔린 채 발견됐습니다. | 지난 6일 동료 교사와 몸싸움학교 측 휴직 강하게 권고 대전연합뉴스 양영석 기자 교내에서 8살 김하늘 양을 흉기로 살해하고 자해를 시도했던 대전 모 초등학교 여교사가 나흘 전에도 폭력적인 성향을 보여 주변을 긴장시켰던 것으로 전해졌다. | 39% |
케이돌토크 잡담 교사제자면 그냥 금사 감성으로 좋아하는 거 아냐, 10일 오후 발생한 대전 초등학생 사망 관련 용의자는 40대 여자 교사로 확인됐다. Day ago 재판장이 정숙을 명하자 곧장 잠잠해졌고, 이내 피고인과 그를 지지해 온 시민들이 흐느꼈다. 무명의 더쿠 20251201 233504 이유가 다 넘 그럴듯해ㅋㅋ.
룰34 비디오 사건이 발생한건 오늘 10일 오후 5시 50분쯤으로 파악되는데요. 1 논란의 시작 경기도 교육청, 전교조, 일반 교사 노조에서 행정실 인원 1명을 충원해주는 대신, 31개의 업무를 행정실 교육행정직 공무원들에게 넘긴다고 해서 난리가 남 이미 31개 중 20개가 행정실로 업무이관 시행하고 있고 업무이관에 관한 시범학교 시행중. 아무래도 시수가 더많은과목이랑 아닌 과목쌤이랑 월급차이가 나는지 궁금 그리고 기간제 교사면 만약에 1년만하고 그만두면 월급에서 연금으로 따로 떼가잖아 이건 어케되는건지도 궁금하구 아 정교사랑 기간제교사랑 급여만보면 차이가 나. 업무량 이정도인 줄 알았으면 안했을거라는 교사. 10일 오후 발생한 대전 초등학생 사망 관련 용의자는 40대 여자 교사로 확인됐다. 로맨틱여름 디시
루랭이 티켓 Com › dhdktltm0828 › 222616716755더쿠초등교사가 7개월째 겪은 일들 네이버 블로그. 방학 기간 학생에게 두바이쫀득쿠키두쫀쿠를 받았다는 게시글을 올린 교사를 이른바 김영란법청탁금지법으로 신고했다는 사연이 전해졌다. Com › board › view실시간 초등교사 커뮤니티를 본 더쿠 노괴들 반응 실시간 베스트 갤. 계획 범죄를 부인하는 취지에 가까운 것으로 보인다. 고등학교는 어느정도로 야자감독을 하는지. 루미뜨 왁싱샵 여자왁싱 5
력으로 시작하는 세 글자 단어 그외 교사덬인데 사명감도 이젠 없고 최대한 휴직하다 의원면직할거인 후기 13,487 83 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 무명의 더쿠 20251201 234413 삭제된 댓글입니다. 이걸 교사 직업 자체의 일이라고 생각하고 다른 회사원도 힘들고 어렵다고 받아들이는게 문제에요. 그리고 최근엔 조울증 진단까지 받았어ㅎㅎ. 1 논란의 시작 경기도 교육청, 전교조, 일반 교사 노조에서 행정실 인원 1명을 충원해주는 대신, 31개의 업무를 행정실 교육행정직 공무원들에게 넘긴다고 해서 난리가 남 이미 31개 중 20개가 행정실로 업무이관 시행하고 있고 업무이관에 관한 시범학교 시행중. 리리
리오 인스티즈 무명의 더쿠 20251201 234413 삭제된 댓글입니다. 그외 교사덬인데 사명감도 이젠 없고 최대한 휴직하다 의원면직할거인 후기 13,487 83 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 월급과 재테크특히 교사는 초봉이 많지 않은 직업이다보니 더 궁금해 3. 국회 앞 집회 참여한 소리꾼 겸 교사 백금렬 씨뉴스1 광주뉴스1 최성국 기자 검찰이 교육공무원 신분으로 집회에 참석, 윤석열김건희를 비판하는 등 국가공무원법 위반 혐의에 대해 2심에서 무죄를 선고받은 전직 교사 백금렬 씨의 사건을 대법원에 상고. 사건이 발생한건 오늘 10일 오후 5시 50분쯤으로 파악되는데요.
로리 porn 당초 방과후 교실 이후 아이가 복귀하지 않자 아이 부모가 오후 5시 18분쯤 실종신고를 한 것으로 알려졌습니다. 국회 앞 집회 참여한 소리꾼 겸 교사 백금렬 씨뉴스1 광주뉴스1 최성국 기자 검찰이 교육공무원 신분으로 집회에 참석, 윤석열김건희를 비판하는 등 국가공무원법 위반 혐의에 대해 2심에서 무죄를 선고받은 전직 교사 백금렬 씨의 사건을 대법원에 상고. 학생이 두쫀쿠를♡ sns 올린 교사, 그걸 신고한 누리꾼. 이슈 8년차 교사가 느끼는 요즘 고등학생들 특징. 업무량 이정도인 줄 알았으면 안했을거라는 교사.
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.
무명의 더쿠 20251201 233504 이유가 다 넘 그럴듯해ㅋㅋ., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.