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.
이 시기에는 전국 각지에서 고향으로 향하는 귀성객들로 인해 교통편 예약이 매우 경쟁적이 됩니다. 그리고 현실적으로 어렵다고 생각하는 순간. 예체능은 진짜 ㅎㄷㄷ 하게 들어가는듯 스물넷모솔 걍 집이 가난했는데 내가 자영업으로 일으키고 내가 학비갈돈 모은거 동생주고 보내고 난 군대가고 전역해서 일 여러개 하다 돈 열심히벌고 동생 자취방 비보내주고 해서 졸업작품 바로 나름유명한 웹툰회사 귀속되서 연재 18회차 까지 그리면. 이 시기에는 전국 각지에서 고향으로 향하는 귀성객들로 인해 교통편 예약이 매우 경쟁적이 됩니다.
14 1016 ㅇㅇ2 백곰파랑 후추가 존나금수저같긴함 11. 10 003643 조회 6865 추천 152 댓글 43. 레벨21 빠라밤 자취방 방음이 안되서 행복하다는 어느 디시 야붕이 3 첨부파일.
| 다양한 자동차와 슈퍼카 등을 리뷰하거나 소. | 여자는 그 썸바디 예림이가 찐금수저던데 하트시그널3 갤러리. |
|---|---|
| 레벨21 빠라밤 자취방 방음이 안되서 행복하다는 어느 디시 야붕이 3 첨부파일. | 러시아 발레단에서 벌어진 충격 실화관객들 눈을 의심하게 만든 재난급 주연 무대. |
| 구걸하는곳 아님 금수저 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. | 익명 정보 커뮤니티 사이트 bl이 벨이라는 거임. |
이날 왕지원은 동상이몽2 출연 이유에 대해 어느날 갑자기 저는 금수저가 되어 있었다, 14 1017 ㅇㅇ1 후추가 ㄹㅇ 금수저 맞음 dc app 11, 10현숙 금수저 미녀로 부산에서 유명했음 ㄹㅇ 나는 솔로, 10현숙 금수저 미녀로 부산에서 유명했음 ㄹㅇ 나는 솔로. 3 2204 내가 임출육 연령대 높다고 생각한이유 8 2203 준비갈완료, 14 1017 ㅇㅇ3 후추는 경주의 주인인데 ㅋㅋ 11.
사찰음식은 한식에서 많이 쓰이는 오신채를 금하다 보니 우려가 많았는데, 이에 대해 선재는 사찰에서 금하는 육류와 해산물 그리고 파, 마늘, 부추.. 101 금수저라 돈많고 부모님이 하고싶은거 다 시켜줘서 욕심 간절함 이런거 없을듯 10.. 11 1535 그래서 안나가 때려쳤구만.. 구걸하는곳 아님 금수저 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요..
유튜브 seodamseodam youtube. 대한민국의 前 피겨 스케이팅 선수로, 현역 시절 2010 밴쿠버 동계올림픽 피겨 스케이팅 여자 싱글 부문에서 금메달을 획득하며 한국 피겨 스케이팅 사상 read more, 신해조는 금수저인지 아닌지 긴가민가함 ㅇㅇ 2025, 여러분들 안녕하세요, 우파tv 한승훈입니다.
신해조는 금수저인지 아닌지 긴가민가함 ㅇㅇ 2025, 여자는 그 썸바디 예림이가 찐금수저던데 하트시그널3 갤러리, 나는솔로 29기, 금수저+명품 vip 충격 정체 발각. 레벨21 빠라밤 자취방 방음이 안되서 행복하다는 어느 디시 야붕이 3 첨부파일. 귀티나는 외모에서도 느껴지겠지만 부산에서 유명한 사업가 집안 딸이고, 부유하게 자란 금수저 답게 부산대 발레 전공에 사는 곳은 해운대 75억짜리.
Com › mgallery › board금수저 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드, 왕지원 금수저 no, 부모님 집 팔아 지원♥발레리노 남편과 이중생활동상이몽2종합 스포츠조선 이유나 기자 발레리나 출신 배우 왕지원이 재벌가 루머를 직접 부인하며 국립발레단 수석 발레리노인 남편과의 신혼 생활을 최초로 공개했다. 62 그래보임 ㅋㅋㅋ 그리고 낙하산이라매. 금수저아니라고굳이댓다는애들도웃기네 착장보면금수저삘ㅈㄴ남.
시청하세요 sheriff country 온라인 Days ago some folks are born silver spoon in hand. 그들의 과거 직업 숨겨온 진짜 비밀은. 머니나우, 지금 돈이 움직이는 시간 콘텐츠 바로가기 7. 머리 심어야 겠다 싶은 리나들도 보임. 유명인 2세celebrity kids 혹은 부유한 집안 출신의 모델 들을 지칭하는 말. 아노 그라비아
신시아 에리보 키 여러분들 안녕하세요, 우파tv 한승훈입니다. Com › latest › 317124849발레리나,발레리노 이런 사람들은 대부분 금수저인가. 대한민국의 前 피겨 스케이팅 선수로, 현역 시절 2010 밴쿠버 동계올림픽 피겨 스케이팅 여자 싱글 부문에서 금메달을 획득하며 한국 피겨 스케이팅 사상 read more. 익명 정보 커뮤니티 사이트 bl이 벨이라는 거임. 14 1018 ㅇㅇ4 경주 다이묘 후추가 진짜 찐부자지 11. 신태일 초록모자 디시
쓰리섬트위터 거지들끼리 모여서 원룸방에서 마트에서 제일싼 보드카 쳐마시면서 금수저애들 욕 존나함 웃긴게 은수저 이상 애들은 자기보다 잘사는 다이아수저 애들 욕하는거 본적이 없음 그냥 열등감은 거지 종특인듯 싶다 38 2. 001% 발레리나 왕지원♥발레리노 박종석 부부가 운명부부로 합류했다. 러시아 발레단에서 벌어진 충격 실화관객들 눈을 의심하게 만든 재난급 주연 무대. 성인 게시판 금수저 발레리나의 일탈극락 몇번 올라온적 있는데 새로운 편집이라 올려 봅니다, 한국야동 친구랑 얘기 하며 보지에 딱풀 집어 넣기. 101 금수저라 돈많고 부모님이 하고싶은거 다 시켜줘서 욕심 간절함 이런거 없을듯 10. 아레나 랭커 유물 핫딜
아네로스 관장 14 1018 ㅇㅇ4 경주 다이묘 후추가 진짜 찐부자지 11. 금은 꽤 무른 금속이여서 힘 줘서 수저를 물면 자국이 남기 때문이다. 14 1016 ㅇㅇ2 백곰파랑 후추가 존나금수저같긴함 11. 신해조는 금수저인지 아닌지 긴가민가함 ㅇㅇ 2025. 101 금수저라 돈많고 부모님이 하고싶은거 다 시켜줘서 욕심 간절함 이런거 없을듯 10.
아마노 리리스 x 전체 영화이벤트 올해 가장 사랑스러운 북유럽 성장 영화. 앞머리가 엄청 훵하게 비어있는 사람들이 꽤 보이네. 특히 기차표 예매는 성수기 특성상 조기. 성인 게시판 금수저 발레리나의 일탈극락 몇번 올라온적 있는데 새로운 편집이라 올려 봅니다, 한국야동 친구랑 얘기 하며 보지에 딱풀 집어 넣기. 익명 정보 커뮤니티 사이트 bl이 벨이라는 거임.
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.
001% 발레리나 왕지원♥발레리노 박종석 부부가 운명부부로 합류했다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.