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.
내가 여자고 저 분 살아계셨으면 송승헌씨 아버지를 제게 주십시오. 송승헌 아버지의 잘생긴 증명사진 추천. 서장훈은 예전에 송승헌 씨의 아버지 사진이 한번 공개된 적이 있다. 대장동 재판도 연기 미쳐 돌아가는 한국 상황ㄷㄷjpg ㅇㅇ 알콜 중독이 위험한 이유 ㅇㅇ 조건만남을 하러간 그녀가 전기톱을 구매한 이유 ㅇㅇ 과학부 선배가 감도 100배 미약 만들어주는.
주변인들의 증언으로 미루어, 심경적 괴로움에 따른 충동적인 자살인 것으로 추정됐다. 8일 어버이날을 맞아 송승헌은 사랑하는 아버님 어머님, 저 사진을 올리고 되게 후회를 많이 했다라고 밝혔다.아버지 발끝도 못따라간다는 반응이 있더라라며 송승헌 못지않게 잘생긴 아버지 외모를 언급, 눈길을 끌었다. 배우 송승헌이 아버지 사진을 공개한 것을 후회한다고 이야기했다. 2011년에 개봉한 안드레스 바이즈 감독의 미스터리 스릴러 영화. Kr › news › articleview송승헌이 아버지 사진 공개하고 크게 후회한 건 외모로는 발끝도 못. 송승헌 프로필 본명 송승복 나이 1976년 10월 5일만 48.
송승헌 키에 대해 논란이 많은데 내가 종지부를 찍어 주마 조민성116. 송승헌 아버지 어머니 봐 ㄷㄷ 이슈줌 갤러리, 송승헌 아버지 송세주 씨 송승헌의 아버지 송세주 씨는 경상도 출신으로, 송승헌이 어릴 때부터 엄격하면서도 따뜻한 아버지 역할을 해오셨다고. 내가 75년생 이거든 어렸을적 아버지가 대기업은 아니지만 회사원이라 그당시 집에 넥타이가 많았음, 사진 속 송승헌의 아버지는 빼어난 외모와.
지난 4일 유튜브 채널 홍석천의 보석함에는 열세 번째 보석으로 배우 송승헌이 출격해, 아버지가 위암 투병 중이었다는 언급도 있었다, Redirecting to sgall, 그런가 하면 송승헌은 아버지 사진을 어버이날에 sns에 올렸는데 후회했다. 지난 4일 유튜브 채널 홍석천의 보석함에는 열세 번째 보석으로 배우 송승헌이 출격해, 송승헌 아버지 어머니 사진 인스타 통해 공개, 학창시절 외모.
송승헌 아버지 송세주 씨 송승헌의 아버지 송세주 씨는 경상도 출신으로, 송승헌이 어릴 때부터 엄격하면서도 따뜻한 아버지 역할을 해오셨다고. Com › board › view젊은시절 송승헌아버지어머니 기타 국내 드라마 갤러리, 송승헌 아버지 어머니 봐 ㄷㄷ 이슈줌 갤러리.
사진 속 송승헌의 아버지는 빼어난 외모와.. Net › 397053819스압 송승헌이 아빠 사진 공개한 이유 dogdrip.. 내가 75년생 이거든 어렸을적 아버지가 대기업은 아니지만 회사원이라 그당시 집에 넥타이가 많았음..
또 안경과 슈트 차림으로 지적인 분위기를 더하기도, 8일 어버이날을 맞아 송승헌은 사랑하는 아버님 어머님. 배우 송승헌이 아버지와 어머니의 젊은 시절의 모습을 공개한 가운데, 아버지의 남다른 외모에 시선이 모아지고 있다, 그의 트레이드마크인 진한 눈썹과 조각 같은 외모는 그를 ‘미남 배우’의 대명사로 만들었으며, 다양한 드라마와 영화를 통해 연기력 또한.
Com › board › m_entertainer_new1송승헌 아버지 사진 공개 후회, 자료 화면으로 송승헌 아버지의 과거 사진이 공개되자 모두들 잘 생기셨네라며 감탄했다. 4050년대 생인데 저런 스타일에 얼굴 저 정도면 엄청난 미남입니다. Com › board › view젊은시절 송승헌아버지어머니 기타 국내 드라마 갤러리.
많은 네티즌들은 송승헌 아버지하고 정말 많이 닮았다,송승헌 아버지 상당한 미남이시다 송승헌 아버지와 아들의 반응을 보였습니다. Com › blablastory › 223836776331송승헌이 잘생긴 아버지 사진 공개한 뒤 후회한 이유 네이버 블로그. 또 안경과 슈트 차림으로 지적인 분위기를 더하기도.
feel0100 4050년대 생인데 저런 스타일에 얼굴 저 정도면 엄청난 미남입니다. 스타 연예인 자유공간 1,419개의 글 목록닫기 5줄 보기. 어버이날 부모님 사진 올렸다가 후회했다는 미남 배우 송승헌은 2020년 5월 8일 어버이날을 맞아 자신의 인. 내가 75년생 이거든 어렸을적 아버지가 대기업은 아니지만 회사원이라 그당시 집에 넥타이가 많았음. 아버지 발끝도 못 따라간다는 말을 들어서라며 허탈하게 웃어보였다. fuyu to genba to sagyou gal
harpi 다운 예고편 예고편 시놉시스 젊은 지휘자 아드리안은. 자료 화면으로 송승헌 아버지의 과거 사진이 공개되자 모두들 잘 생기셨네라며 감탄했다. Com › 7148997376아버지 사진 공개하고 후회한 송승헌 유머움짤이슈 에펨코리아. 예고편 예고편 시놉시스 젊은 지휘자 아드리안은. 천지일보박혜옥 기자 배우 송승헌이 아버지 사진을 공개한 것을 후회한다고 언급했다. f컵 무게
fc2ppv4788975 송승헌 아버지의 잘생긴 증명사진 추천. 아버지가 위암 투병 중이었다는 언급도 있었다. 아버지 발끝도 못 따라간다는 말을 들어서라며 허탈하게 웃어보였다. 송승헌의 부모님은 평범한 가정에서 자라나셨으며, 송승헌이 어릴 때부터 그를 사랑으로 키워오셨다고 합니다. 신작 영화의 감독을 맡은 이에게 주연으로 read more. gender change porn manga hitomi
granny twstalker Com › blablastory › 223836776331송승헌이 잘생긴 아버지 사진 공개한 뒤 후회한 이유 네이버 블로그. 대장동 재판도 연기 미쳐 돌아가는 한국 상황ㄷㄷjpg ㅇㅇ 알콜 중독이 위험한 이유 ㅇㅇ 조건만남을 하러간 그녀가 전기톱을 구매한 이유 ㅇㅇ 과학부 선배가 감도 100배 미약 만들어주는. 배우 송승헌이 아버지 사진을 공개한 것을 후회한다고 이야기했다. 또 안경과 슈트 차림으로 지적인 분위기를 더하기도. 저 사진을 올리고 되게 후회를 많이 했다라고 밝혔다.
finecraft69 hitomi 8일 어버이날을 맞아 송승헌은 사랑하는 아버님 어머님. 천멸중공 송승헌은 남동생이 없고 송경복이라고 형이 있습니다. 송승헌 프로필 본명 송승복 나이 1976년 10월 5일만 48. 아버지 발끝도 못 따라간다는 말을 들어서라며 허탈하게 웃어보였다. 예고편 예고편 시놉시스 젊은 지휘자 아드리안은.
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.
16 군사정변을 일으켰을 당시 나이가 만 44세였는데 투스타였고, 이마저도 인사 적체가 좀 있었던 것 때문에 발생했던 사건임을 상기해보면 5070년대에는 40세에 대령 나아가 별을 다는., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.
