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.
Com › board › view충격 국가에서 적극 노예생산 권장. 저출산 문제는 관심이 높은 현안인 만큼, 관련 기사가 올라오면 댓글이 적게는 수백 개, 많게는 수천 개씩 달리는 경우가 많다. Profile_image 생크림빵 ip read more. 이슈 저출산 본질은 애낳아주고 싶을만한 남자 부족임 71,724 644 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo.
| 노예에게서 출생한 자녀는 그대로 주인의 재산이 되기 때문이지. | 일할 노예가 부족해요 저출산 문제 심각. | 디씨에서 고안한 한국식 저출산 대책 레전드 자유게시판. | 참고로 출산율 높기로 유명한 하레디 애들도 보조금 받으니까 출산율 유지되는 거지, 보조금 끊으면 그 집단이 유지나 될까. |
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| 12 151501 조회 25398 추천 452 댓글 624 애 많이 낳아서 좋다는 건 국가와 재벌들의 논리일 뿐 개인의 행복과는 무관. | 저출산은 축복이다 저출산대책 마이너 갤러리. | 복지에 투자하고 월급 개선하고 서민들이랑 초부자들 숫자 줄이고 중산층을 늘리면 해결됨. | 집값이 문제라고 하는데 한국의 소득대비 월세 비율은 오히려 낮은편이고 심지어 일본은 26년부터 500엔 수준의 저출산세까지 징수한다는데. |
| 1년 암수포함 토종센징 5만명 이하로 출산율 찍는거다. | 저출산은 걍 노예들이 현실을 알아버린 거지 취업 갤러리. | 현대 한국인의 70% 이상은 노비의 후손이다. | 집값이 문제라고 하는데 한국의 소득대비 월세 비율은 오히려 낮은편이고 심지어 일본은 26년부터 500엔 수준의 저출산세까지 징수한다는데. |
| 17% | 18% | 20% | 45% |
작성자raining278 read more, 근데 하기 귀찮고 힘들고 지겹고 귀찮잖어, Profile_image 생크림빵 ip read more.
요새 왜 한집에 하나만 낳는지 잘 생각해봐요, 학습된 무기력learned helplessness 또는 학습된 무력감은 피할 수 없거나 극복할 수 없는 환경에 반복적으로 노출된 경험으로 학습하여 이후에 read more, 요즘 노예들이 말을 안들어요 mz세대의 등장. 사실 지금 와서 저출산이니 뭐니 하는게 웃김 출산율 마이너. 예컨대 지금 저출산 고령화 시대에 태어나는 아이들의 기성세대인 지금 젊은 세대들이 아이들보고 세금노예, 부양노예 이렇게 부르는걸 안다면 아이들이 얼마나 소름이 끼치고 세대간부작용이 생길지. 처음에는 어느정도 효과가 있지만 결국 그 대책을 모두 받는 사람들조차도 기존 고인물들과 현격히 벌어지는 격차를 막지 못하고 노예계층으로 전락함 그리고 그 사실을 모두가 알게됨 결국 아무리 스타팅 패키지 퍼부어도 신규유입은 사라지고 서버종말이 다가옴.
이슈 노예의 소유주들은 은근히 노예가 가정을 갖기를 바랐다.. 애를 작은 성인 정도로 보는 성인들이 많아짐 욕구조절이나 사회화 면에서 애들이 그렇지 라는 사회적 이해가 소멸 아이에 대한 존중이 사라지는 사회가 됨 부모님들이 마주하는 곤경이 점점 깊고 다양해짐 저출산 심화에 일조 이런 악순환의 흐름인데.. 일단 대부분이 20대초반에 강제징병당해서 서구선진국보다 몇년늦은 사회생활을 하는데 군가산점하나 못받음..
저출산은 축복이다 저출산대책 마이너 갤러리, 요새 왜 한집에 하나만 낳는지 잘 생각해봐요, 초 저출산 국가 유럽 선진국, 미국, 일본, 한국, 중국, 사실 지금 와서 저출산이니 뭐니 하는게 웃김 출산율 마이너, Com › board › view어느 의사가 생각하는 저출산 의미.
렛츠 다오 애를 작은 성인 정도로 보는 성인들이 많아짐 욕구조절이나 사회화 면에서 애들이 그렇지 라는 사회적 이해가 소멸 아이에 대한 존중이 사라지는 사회가 됨 부모님들이 마주하는 곤경이 점점 깊고 다양해짐 저출산 심화에 일조 이런 악순환의 흐름인데. 집값이 문제라고 하는데 한국의 소득대비 월세 비율은 오히려 낮은편이고 심지어 일본은 26년부터 500엔 수준의 저출산세까지 징수한다는데. 배우고 본적이 없으니 아이에게 다양한 길을 제시해주는 법도. 이슈 노예의 소유주들은 은근히 노예가 가정을 갖기를 바랐다. 저출산 사회에 맞게 노동 시스템이 변화해야하는데, 이딴식으로 퇴행적인 마인드로 회사에 피해주지 말라는 개소리를 하는건 지능문제다. 렌고쿠 연옥 일러스트
리히 익스프레스 무료 처음에는 어느정도 효과가 있지만 결국 그 대책을 모두 받는 사람들조차도 기존 고인물들과 현격히 벌어지는 격차를 막지 못하고 노예계층으로 전락함 그리고 그 사실을 모두가 알게됨 결국 아무리 스타팅 패키지 퍼부어도 신규유입은 사라지고 서버종말이 다가옴. 노예에게서 출생한 자녀는 그대로 주인의 재산이 되기 때문이지. 너야말로 대책없는 비난만 하지말고 납득할만한 반박을 하거나 내 주장중 객관적으로 틀린부분을 지적하셈 dc app. 애를 작은 성인 정도로 보는 성인들이 많아짐 욕구조절이나 사회화 면에서 애들이 그렇지 라는 사회적 이해가 소멸 아이에 대한 존중이 사라지는 사회가 됨 부모님들이 마주하는 곤경이 점점 깊고 다양해짐 저출산 심화에 일조 이런 악순환의 흐름인데. 요즘 노예들이 말을 안들어요 mz세대의 등장. 린 프레데릭
리사 ㅂㅈ노출 작성자raining278 read more. 그런데 댓글을 보면 저출산 정말 큰일이라는 걱정보다는, 정부와 기득권을 탓하는 험악하고 살벌한 내용으로 넘쳐난다. 저는 애 둘이상 있는집은 진짜 개념녀로 인정합니다. 통계자료가 사실상의 근거자료고 그걸 바탕으로 추측만 가능할 뿐이지. Com 저출산해서 줄어드는건 니들 노예고요 기득권 노예는 이미 태어나서 안줄어들어요 진짜 부조리극이 따로없음 ㅋㅋ 게시판 이력. 로로 끝나는 단어
린유 노모 1년 암수포함 토종센징 5만명 이하로 출산율 찍는거다. 나라는 기득권 소유지 노예는 그냥 사람. Profile_image 생크림빵 ip read more. 지속적으로 인구를 줄이려는게 느껴짐 ㅇㅇㅇ. Com › 6477671147저출산은 노예가 현실을 알아버린거라는 디씨인.
루루 멘헤라 저출산 긍정론자들은 일자리가 줄어들고 있으니 저출산이 좋은 방향이라고 말하고 있지만 객관적 관점에서 국가 발전에 필수적인 노동력의 공급도 점차 부족해진다를 의미하기 때문에 전문가들은 저출산을 부정적으로 바라본다. 80에 어땠는지는 잘 모르겠는데 본문은 멸시의 시선이고 행복한 가정을 보여주는 건 동경의 시선이라 좀 다른 듯. Com › board › view충격 국가에서 적극 노예생산 권장. 거지같은 집에서 태어나봐야 기득권 노예로 살아야 한다. 요즘 노예들이 말을 안들어요 mz세대의 등장.
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.
요새 왜 한집에 하나만 낳는지 잘 생각해봐요., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.