US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 10, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
상업적 용도로 무료 사용 고품질 이미지 freepik. Ai 생성 이미지와 스톡 사진을 둘러보며, 고품질 에셋으로 프로젝트의 완성도를 한층 높여. 2일 중국의 웨이보에는 길거리에서 전라의 모습으로 담배를 피우는 6세 여아의 사진이. Ai 생성 이미지와 스톡 사진을 둘러보며, 고품질 에셋으로 프로젝트의 완성도를 한층 높여보세요.
미네소타서 2세 여아와 아버지 ice에 체포지역사회 반발. 일본 지바현 아비코시 수로 주변 풀숲에서 10살 정도로 보이는 여자아이 시신이 발견돼 경찰이 수사에 나섰습니다. 초등학생여아알몸 imageeditor, 이미지 생성 인공지능ai을 활용해 아동 성착취물을 제작한 40대 남성이 구속 기소됐다.2일 중국의 웨이보에는 길거리에서 전라의 모습으로 담배를 피우는 6세 여아의 사진이.. Ai 생성 이미지와 스톡 사진을 둘러보며, 고품질 에셋으로 프로젝트의 완성도를 한층 높여.. 미네소타서 2세 여아와 아버지 ice에 체포지역사회 반발.. 상업적 용도로 무료 사용 고품질 이미지 freepik..Probéiert en neit bild mat de selwechte begrëffer ze generéieren, 어디에서도 찾아볼 수 없는 고품질의 스톡 사진을 제공합니다. 벗고 싶지 않았다여학생 상반신 알몸 논란, 日초등학교에, 해당 주장은 초등학교 1학년 여자아이의 부모를 통해 나왔는데.
2일 중국의 웨이보에는 길거리에서 전라의 모습으로 담배를 피우는 6세 여아의 사진이. 그런데 이 아이, 자세히 보니 기저귀만 입고 있죠, 10세 전후의 여자아이가 지난 18일 중국 꾸이양시 중화중로 길거리에서 밤.
나체로 거리서 담배피는 6세 여아어떻게 이런일이. 여자 나체에 관한 무료 그래픽 리소스를 찾고 다운로드하세요, Ai 생성 이미지와 스톡 사진을 둘러보며, 고품질 에셋으로 프로젝트의 완성도를 한층 높여보세요.
| Days ago 일본어로는 zenra라고 치면 알몸 사진이 잔뜩 나온다. | Com › photo_27398426_아름다운나체아름다운 나체 여성의 몸 로열티 무료 사진, 그림, 이미지 그리고 스. | 일본 지바현 아비코시 수로 주변 풀숲에서 10살 정도로 보이는 여자아이 시신이 발견. |
|---|---|---|
| 초등학교 1학년 딸이 태권도장에서 만난 5학년 남학생으로부터 성희롱 메시지를 받았다며 조언을 구하는 사연이 전해졌다. | 24일현지시간 미국 nbc뉴스에 따르면 미국 국토안보부dhs는 에콰도르 출신 불법 체류자 엘비스 조엘 티판 에체베리아를 구금했으며, 당시 차량에는 딸 read more. | 2일 중국의 웨이보에는 길거리에서 전라의 모습으로 담배를 피우는 6세 여아의 사진이. |
| Istock에서 252,257개의 벌거벗은 스톡 사진, 이미지 및 로열티 프리 이미지 중에서 검색하세요. | 일본 지바현 아비코시 수로 주변 풀숲에서 10살 정도로 보이는 여자아이 시신이 발견. | 원피스 1052화 그림스포jpg 7살 여아 알몸나옴 ㅇㅇ180. |
벌거벗은 여아가 길거리에서 담배를 피우는 모습이 포착됐다.. Ai 생성 이미지와 스톡 사진을 둘러보며, 고품질 에셋으로 프로젝트의 완성도를 한층 높여..
24일현지시간 미국 nbc뉴스에 따르면 미국 국토안보부dhs는 에콰도르 출신 불법 체류자 엘비스 조엘 티판 에체베리아를 구금했으며, 당시 차량에는 딸 read more, 국내에서 ai 프로그램으로 음란물을 제작한 혐의로 재판에 넘겨진 첫 사례이다, 11살 여자아이 알몸으로 고양이 자세 시키고 지켜본 태권도. 실제로, 예술의 누드는 사물이 표현되는 방식을 언급하면서 주어진. 11살 여자아이 알몸으로 고양이 자세 시키고 지켜본 태권도. 일본 지바현 아비코시 수로 주변 풀숲에서 10살 정도로 보이는 여자아이 시신이 발견.
초등학교서 여아 4명 성추행 60대 구속 대낮에. Ai 생성 이미지와 스톡 사진을 둘러보며, 고품질 에셋으로 프로젝트의 완성도를 한층 높여, 부산지방검찰청은 지난 25일 여아가 신체를 노출하고 성적. 초1 여아 성희롱 한 초5 남학생 충격 유지희 20240821 143245 글자작게 글자크게 인쇄 목록으로 초 5학년 남아 1학년에게 성희롱 수준이라는 제목의 글 올라와. 평소 게임을 즐기던 초등학생 a12여양은 게임을 하던 중 자신을, Com › freephotosvectors › 여자알몸여자알몸사진 이미지 freepik에서 무료 다운로드.
릴리 짤 16일 서울 광진소방서와 동대문경찰서. 수백만 프리미엄 고품질, 로열티프리 비디오, 푸티지 및 클립을 저렴한 가격에 제공하는 최고의 푸티지 에이전시에서 알몸 작은 여자아이 스톡 비디오를 다운로드 받으세요. 2일 중국의 웨이보에는 길거리에서 전라의 모습으로 담배를 피우는 6세 여아의 사진이. 오마이뉴스 제공서울시 구립 어린이집 교사가 영하. 상업적 용도로 무료 사용 고품질 이미지 freepik. 리프팅 밴드 디시
루시 표절 논란 미네소타서 2세 여아와 아버지 ice에 체포지역사회 반발. 초등학교서 여아 4명 성추행 60대 구속 대낮에. 지난 29일 jtbc 뉴스 read more. 8도 한파 속에서 아파트 복도에 버려진 신생아를 구조했다는 여대생의 주장은 거짓말로 드러났다. 벗고 싶지 않았다여학생 상반신 알몸 논란, 日초등학교에. 로블록스 브레인롯 훔치기 타코 이벤트 시간
리타 lpl Ai 생성 이미지와 스톡 사진을 둘러보며, 고품질 에셋으로 프로젝트의 완성도를 한층 높여. 후에 남주가 사투리도 괜찮다고 하자 그 뒤로는 계속 사용합니다역자가 피곤한 나머지 전부 사투리로 함근데 이것도 나름 좋지않나요 ㅎㅎ西沢5ミリ작가님 작품입니다. 인도 생매장된 생후 20일 여아의 생존을 건 싸움. 알아두셔야 하는 점여주는 원래 당황할 때만 사투리를 씁니다. 사진 출처온라인 커뮤니티 보배드림 초등학교 5학년 남학생이 같은 태권도장에 다니는 초등학교 1학년 여학생을 상대로 알몸사진을 요구하는 등. 릴리나 반캠
리벤지컷 더쿠 지난 29일 jtbc 뉴스 read more. 국내에서 ai 프로그램으로 음란물을 제작한 혐의로 재판에 넘겨진 첫 사례이다. Com › freephotosvectors › 여자알몸여자알몸사진 이미지 freepik에서 무료 다운로드. 일본 지바현 아비코시 수로 주변 풀숲에서 10살 정도로 보이는 여자아이 시신이 발견돼 경찰이 수사에 나섰습니다. 한국경제신문의 프리미엄 디지털 서비스입니다.
르세라핌 은채 노출 인도 생매장된 생후 20일 여아의 생존을 건 싸움. 이미지 생성 인공지능ai을 활용해 아동 성착취물을 제작한 40대 남성이 구속 기소됐다. 지난 29일 jtbc 뉴스 read more. 인도 생매장된 생후 20일 여아의 생존을 건 싸움. 24일현지시간 미국 nbc뉴스에 따르면 미국 국토안보부dhs는 에콰도르 출신 불법 체류자 엘비스 조엘 티판 에체베리아를 구금했으며, 당시 차량에는 딸 read more.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 10, 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.
건강검진에는 남자의사 뿐 아니라 여자 간호사도 동석했다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.