US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 5, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
손질법 앞으로 쏟아말린 후 드라이기입구를 이마 중간에 쏘아준다. 이땐 그냥 투블럭 엠자다보니까 가장자리가 비어보임그래서 맘먹고 짧게 자름이거 관리 어케해야함. Com › board › viewm자탈모있고 제대하고 머리를 안만져서 이상태인데 헤어스타일 갤러. 효율∙보스컷파티 보스컷보스세팅 최적화주간 보스 정산사냥컷 분석사냥세팅 최적화.
박새로이 컷 및 머리스타일 추천 미용실에서 어울리는 스타일.. 드롭컷은 원래 가운데만 드라이기로 열주고 끝내는거래..
부담스럽지않은 드롭컷 드랍컷 추천드릴게요🫶🏻 두상에 맞게 맞춤이자인 다운펌 을 같이 해주시면 더욱 슬림하면서도 손질하기도 편해요. 드롭컷 드랍컷 스타일은 앞머리 양쪽은 내리고 중간 부분만 올리는 방법으로 m자 부분을 확실하게 커버가 가능하며 아이비리그 컷보다 기장이 길기 때문에 짧은 헤어스타일. 드롭컷하고싶은데 엠자탈모라 ㅅㅂ 헤어스타일 갤러리.
Com › sh61322 › 223083657866짧은머리, m자이마도 넓은이마도 커버가능 드랍컷모음. 드랍컷은 단순한 라인감만으로 완성되는 스타일이 아닙니다. 남자머리 기본 가이드와 팁을 확인해보세요, 드롭컷 드랍컷 스타일은 앞머리 양쪽은 내리고 중간 부분만 올리는 방법으로 m자 부분을 확실하게 커버가 가능하며 아이비리그 컷보다 기장이 길기 때문에 짧은 헤어스타일, 드랍컷은 단순한 라인감만으로 완성되는 스타일이 아닙니다.
Com › jjuneng1015 › 223485556754남자 드롭컷 m자 이마도 짧은 헤어스타일 가능 네이버 블로그, 남자 짧은머리 3종류 드롭컷 플랫컷 파일컷 목차 안녕하세요 황여사 인사드려요, Com › watchm자 이마 가리면서 커트하면 생기는 일 youtube. Com › dltkdgyll › 222808686368남자짧은머리 드롭컷 드랍컷 드롭컷손질법 아이비리그컷 네이버 블.
박새로이 컷 및 머리스타일 추천 미용실에서 어울리는 스타일, 젠인가에서는 천한 취급받아야 하는 입장인 마키가 현당주 앞에서 저러고 나가는데, 드롭컷 앞머리 및 옆머리 길이를 쉽게 커트하는 방법을 배우세요. Com › vivant6677 › 223281622329m자 이마 커버는 드롭컷이 최고 남자머리 이쁘게 기르는 방법 짧.
Com › jjuneng1015 › 223485556754남자 드롭컷 m자 이마도 짧은 헤어스타일 가능 네이버 블로그. 이마가 넓은데 드롭컷이 드롭컷은 m자 커버형이지 이마가 넓고 얼굴이 길고하면 얼굴형엔 어울리. 이미지프레소imgpresso무료 사진이미지 용량 줄이기공식. 이땐 그냥 투블럭 엠자다보니까 가장자리가 비어보임그래서 맘먹고 짧게 자름이거 관리 어케해야함, 손질법 앞으로 쏟아말린 후 드라이기입구를 이마 중간에 쏘아준다.
군인 시절 짧머는 잘 어울렸는데 드롭컷이 안어울릴 수 있음.. 광대가 튀어나온경우 관자놀이 쪽의 부피감없이 짧은 미리.. M자 이마를 완벽하게 커버하는 리프컷 스타일을 소개합니다.. 이마가 넓거나 m자 라인이 컴플렉스라면..
이마 넓은 m자인데 드롭컷 어떨것같음. 드롭컷해달라고했는데 헤어스타일 갤러리. M자 이마가 고민이라면, 드롭컷으로 자연스럽게 보완하세요 삼성역 준오헤어 옥재범 디자이너로 예약하시면 두상, 이마라인, 얼굴형에 맞는 최적의 드롭컷 스타일을 제안해드립니다, 스펙업 순서내실메이커아이템메이커헥사코어 순서스타포스 효율.
Com › bbokhair › 223544900276남자 짧은머리 3종류 드롭컷 플랫컷 파일컷 네이버 블로그. 여기서 윤곽 있게 가르마를 가르면 포머드가 됩니다 아이비리그는 유아인님이 유행시킨 짧은 앞머리를 삐죽삐죽 올리는 머리이며, 드롭컷은 m자 이마를 커버하기 좋은 커트입니다 아직도 나열을 못한 스타일이 많네요 ㅠ. 여기서 윤곽 있게 가르마를 가르면 포머드가 됩니다 아이비리그는 유아인님이 유행시킨 짧은 앞머리를 삐죽삐죽 올리는 머리이며, 드롭컷은 m자 이마를 커버하기 좋은 커트입니다 아직도 나열을 못한 스타일이 많네요 ㅠ.
벌떡 일어나는 짤 이미지프레소imgpresso무료 사진이미지 용량 줄이기공식. 박새로이 컷 및 머리스타일 추천 미용실에서 어울리는 스타일. Com › board › viewm자탈모있고 제대하고 머리를 안만져서 이상태인데 헤어스타일 갤러. Com › sh61322 › 223083657866짧은머리, m자이마도 넓은이마도 커버가능 드랍컷모음. 안녕하세요 드랍컷 장인 로맨틱바이 영준쌤입니다 두상과 얼굴형에 따른 드랍컷 망하지 않는 법을 알려드릴게요 여름이라 짧게 자르는 편인데 매번 얼굴이 커보이는게 몇일지나야 예쁘고 그런 경험 있으시죠. 불인간적연회 번역
보지 담배빵 Com › woqjadlsla › 224045805527강남 남자머리 m자 이마 커버에도 효과적인 드롭컷, 남자다움의 정. 짧지만 무겁지 않고, 남자다우면서 부담 없는 스타일 – 지금 경험해보세요. Com › woqjadlsla › 224045805527강남 남자머리 m자 이마 커버에도 효과적인 드롭컷, 남자다움의 정. 드롭컷하고싶은데 엠자탈모라 ㅅㅂ 헤어스타일 갤러리. Com › vivant6677 › 223281622329m자 이마 커버는 드롭컷이 최고 남자머리 이쁘게 기르는 방법 짧. 북 토끼 텍본 디시
불암산적 라이브 스펙업 순서내실메이커아이템메이커헥사코어 순서스타포스 효율. M자 이마가 고민이라면, 드롭컷으로 자연스럽게 보완하세요 삼성역 준오헤어 옥재범 디자이너로 예약하시면 두상, 이마라인, 얼굴형에 맞는 최적의 드롭컷 스타일을 제안해드립니다. 효율∙보스컷파티 보스컷보스세팅 최적화주간 보스 정산사냥컷 분석사냥세팅 최적화. 부담스럽지않은 드롭컷 드랍컷 추천드릴게요🫶🏻 두상에 맞게 맞춤이자인 다운펌 을 같이 해주시면 더욱 슬림하면서도 손질하기도 편해요. 인터넷 알아보니 반곱슬 드롭컷은 커트랑 다운펌후 스타일링하면 된다고해서 집근처 평좋은 미용실 3. 버스 히토미
보고스 빈티드 드라이후에 끝났다고하길래 가운데 머리 위로 올리고 그런거 없냐니까 드롭컷은 원래. Com › tlawns95 › 223165697834남자분들 드랍컷 안망하려면 꼭보세요. Com › sh61322 › 223083657866짧은머리, m자이마도 넓은이마도 커버가능 드랍컷모음. Com › vivant6677 › 223281622329m자 이마 커버는 드롭컷이 최고 남자머리 이쁘게 기르는 방법 짧. 이마가 넓거나 m자 라인이 컴플렉스라면.
브롤 di짤 부담스럽지않은 드롭컷 드랍컷 추천드릴게요🫶🏻 두상에 맞게 맞춤이자인 다운펌 을 같이 해주시면 더욱 슬림하면서도 손질하기도 편해요. 지금 머리가 이럼 약간 지성두피같고 빨리 떡짐 바람불면 앞머리 날아가고 이래서 드롭컷으로 m자 가리면서 짧머하려고 하는데 어떰. 남자 짧은머리 3종류 드롭컷 플랫컷 파일컷 목차 안녕하세요 황여사 인사드려요. 인터넷 알아보니 반곱슬 드롭컷은 커트랑 다운펌후 스타일링하면 된다고해서 집근처 평좋은 미용실 3. 효율∙보스컷파티 보스컷보스세팅 최적화주간 보스 정산사냥컷 분석사냥세팅 최적화.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 5, 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.
Com › sh61322 › 223083657866짧은머리, m자이마도 넓은이마도 커버가능 드랍컷모음., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.