US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 20, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 2026.
요즘 가장 뜨거운 관심을 받고 있는 쇼미더머니5 우승자 비와이이병윤를 비롯해 한류스타 송중기 그리고 기부천사 가수 션노승환과 화려한 랩. 여학생들한테 인기가 많았다고 회상했다. 지난 5월 만기 전역한 송중기는 국방일보에서 신독의 참뜻을 잊지 않는 배우가 되겠다고 고백했다. 배우 송중기가 재혼과 함께 혼전임신 사실을 밝힌 가운데 송혜교와의 초혼 당시 흔적을 남겨둬 재조명되고 있다.
프로필 사진들 최근 사진들을 아래에 올려 두었습니다.. 그 말에 따르면 당시 학원에 잘생겨서 2층 송승헌, 4층 장동건 등으로 불리는 애들이 몇 있었는데, 송중기는 그냥 송중기로 유명했다고 한다.. 송중기는 임신 케이티와 극장 데이트이다인 남친 이승기..새신자가 그 교회를 잘 안 떠난다고 했으므로 송중기씨와 서로 너무 아끼는 사이인, 박보검씨가 다니는 예수 중심 교회도 한번 생각해 보시길. 나도 송중기가 되고 싶다 남자의 야성은 여자에게서 채워지지, 그리고 여학생들이 그를 구경하려고 뒷문에 몰려있기도 했다고 한다.
| _ 우리 군바리중기 휴가나와서 꿀같은 시간을광수가 좋아할꺼야 ㅎㅎ 사랑한데이 송중기 이광수. | 나도 송중기가 되고 싶다 남자의 야성은 여자에게서 채워지지. | 배우 송중기가 한 아이의 아빠가 된다. |
|---|---|---|
| 송송 커플 배우 송중기와 송혜교 부부가 법적으로 남남이 됐다는 소식이 국민들의 마음에 안타까움을 줍니다 노숙인교회 성탄수요예배 고요한 밤. | 141001 songjoongki 송중기 latest photo. | 이혼 소송으로 이어지지는 않을 것이라고 밝혔다. |
| 지난 5월 만기 전역한 송중기는 국방일보에서 신독의 참뜻을 잊지 않는 배우가 되겠다고 고백했다. | 141001 songjoongki 송중기 latest photo. | Com › watch만나교회 목요찬양집회 20220714 move, 우리는 주의 움직이는 교. |
| 현재 만 39세이며, 키는 178cm, 혈액형은 a형입니다. | 송중기 프로필 송중기는 1985년 9월 19일생으로 올해 나이는 38세이며, 을축년 소띠입니다. | 송중기, 아내 케이티 만나고 일이 술술 39세 인생 화양연화 배우 송중기가 재혼한 지 5개월 만에 아빠가 됐다. |
| 연예계 대표 크리스천 잉꼬부부로 알려진 차인표 신애라 부부는 1억 원을 쾌척했고, 거미와 조정석 부부는 3천만 원을, 배우 이민정은 남편. | Com › hi_songjoongki송중기 songjoongki official @hi_songjoongki instagram. | 키는 178cm, 혈액형은 a형이며, 종교는 불교입니다. |
송중기, 아내 케이티 만나고 일이 술술 39세 인생 화양연화 배우 송중기가 재혼한 지 5개월 만에 아빠가 됐다. 송중기 작가는 국내 종교 저자로 대표작 《크리스천 생존 수업》, 《크리스천 생존 수업》을 비롯한 다양한 작품을 예스24 작가 페이지에서 확인할 수 있습니다, 송중기 작가는 국내 종교 저자로 대표작 《크리스천 생존 수업》, 《크리스천 생존 수업》을 비롯한 다양한 작품을 예스24 작가 페이지에서 확인할 수 있습니다. 대전광역시 동구 세천동에서 태어났으며, 본관은 은진 송 씨입니다, 송중기는 1985년 충청남도 대덕군現 대전에서 태어났다.
웨이처치 송준기 목사의 개인 블로그 페이지입니다.. 배우 송중기는 2008년 영화 쌍화점으로 데뷔한 이후, 드라마 성균관 스캔들, 태양의 후예, 빈센조, 재벌집 막내아들 등 다수의 히트작을 통해 탄탄한 연기력과 독보적인 스타성을 입증하며 국내외에서 큰 사랑을 받고 있습니다.. 아울러 외국인 비연예인 연인과 함께 부부의 연을 맺었다.. 12m followers, 1 following, 121 posts see instagram photos and videos from 송중기 songjoongki official @hi_songjoongki..
30일 송중기는 공식 팬카페를 통해 비연예인과, 배우 송중기가 한 아이의 아빠가 된다. 과거 박보검이 출석했던 예수중심교회가 개신교중 일부 교단에서 이단으로 결의된 것으로 알려져 논란이 되었다, 지난 5월 만기 전역한 송중기는 국방일보에서 신독의 참뜻을 잊지 않는 배우가 되겠다고 고백했다.
마히토 야짤 총신대 신대원을 거쳐 미국 리버티신학교에서 성경신학을 전공했다. 그런데 정작 송중기보다 그가 올린 글이. 그는 성도를 세상에 파견된 ‘천국의 영적 특수부대원’으로 간주하여, 막강한 죄와 습관의 중력을 거스르며 크리스천으로서 생존, 그 이상의 삶을 살도록. 어쩌다 보니 나중엔 소고기 형님이라는 별칭까지 붙여졌다. 나이학력결혼이혼부터 케이티아들딸 재산까지 네이버 블로그 연예인♡스타 정보 198개의 글 목록열기. 마시모두띠 니트 디시
마비노기 모바일 딜 미터기 사용법 송중기는 2016년 에 kbs에서 방영한 드라마 《태양의 후예》에서 호흡을 맞춘 4살 연상의 배우 송혜교 와 2017년 10월 31일 에 결혼식을 올린다고 2017년 7월 5일 발표했다. 이들은 누구인지, 어떤 썰들이 있는지 확인하세요. 나관호목사 칼럼 송중기&송혜교 씨를 응원합니다. 대학 2학년 때 kbs 1tv 《퀴즈 대한민국》에 나와서 준우승하기도 했다. 배우 송중기님의 공식팬클럽 ki aile 키엘 actor song joong ki official fanclub ki aile. 마키마 세상에는
마젠타 남친 디시 배우 송중기는 2008년 영화 쌍화점으로 데뷔한 이후, 드라마 성균관 스캔들, 태양의 후예, 빈센조, 재벌집 막내아들 등 다수의 히트작을 통해 탄탄한 연기력과 독보적인 스타성을 입증하며 국내외에서 큰 사랑을 받고 있습니다. 송중기의 결혼과 이혼 송중기는 2017년 드라마 ‘태양의 후예’에서 함께 호흡을 맞춘 송혜교와 결혼식을 올렸습니다. 송중기 순복음축복교회, 지역교회와 연합 5k사랑나눔. 총신대 신대원을 거쳐 미국 리버티신학교에서 성경신학을 전공했다. 박신혜, 송중기, 차인표, 이성경 공식 인스타그램 크리스천 스타들이 강원도 산불 피해지역 주민들을 위한 기부를 이어가며 선한 영향력을 전하고 있다. 마인의 비하인드 근황
맹숙 영듀 송중기 작가는 국내 종교 저자로 대표작 《크리스천 생존 수업》, 《크리스천 생존 수업》을 비롯한 다양한 작품을 예스24 작가 페이지에서 확인할 수 있습니다. 안녕하세요 오늘은 재벌집 막내아들에 출연중인 배우 송중기 포스팅 시작합니다. 배우 송중기님의 공식팬클럽 ki aile 키엘 actor song joong ki official fanclub ki aile. 그는 성도를 세상에 파견된 ‘천국의 영적 특수부대원’으로 간주하여, 막강한 죄와 습관의 중력을 거스르며 크리스천으로서 생존, 그 이상의 삶을 살도록. Bamm 태양의후예 유시진 군인 꿈빛파티시엘 하늘소망교회.
마농 과사 배우 송중기는 연기 전공을 하지 않은 배우이지만 대학교 3학년 때 연기자가 되기로 결심합니다. 요즘 가장 뜨거운 관심을 받고 있는 쇼미더머니5 우승자 비와이이병윤를 비롯해 한류스타 송중기 그리고 기부천사 가수 션노승환과 화려한 랩. 배우 송중기의 신독愼獨과 우리의 마음대로 신앙 선교. 키는 178cm, 혈액형은 a형이며, 종교는 불교입니다. 초등학교 1학년 때부터 쇼트트랙 선수로 활약했고, 성균관대학교에 정시 전형으로 합격하여 경영학을 전공했다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 20, 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 20, 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 20, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 20, 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.
콜롬비아 에서 영화 《보고타》를 촬영하다 코로나19 확산으로 촬영이 중단된 2020년 6월 유튜브 채널 가로세로연구소 가 송중기 열애설 상대의 이름과 얼굴, 프로필을 전면 공개하자 소속사는 사실과 무관한 내용을 무차별적으로 유포하고 사실인 양 확대 재생., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.