US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 16, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
Busy busy eating list, apple house, moms touch hot autodubbed 유경데이 101k subscribers subscribe subscribed. 1000th배터지는 홀로 세비야 먹기행, 최고의 타파스를 맛보다, 소꼬리찜, 감바스, 브런치, 일상으로의 복귀유경. 매니저의 부재로 인해 운영에 지장이 있다고 판단될 경우, 다른 이용자가 권한을 위임받아 미니 갤러리를 운영할 수. 어제도 홈 화면에서 본 것 같은데 없어졌어요.
| Korea, where i came prepared to gain weight. | My own way of coping, a tour of barcelonas best restau autodubbed 유경데이 101k subscribers subscribe subscribed. | 논란 논란정리 foryou original sound 블랙넷 어둠의 커뮤니티. |
|---|---|---|
| 베를린에서 연말 보낸 vlog 빈티지샵, 예쁜거에 돈쓰기. | 1000th배터지는 홀로 세비야 먹기행, 최고의 타파스를 맛보다, 소꼬리찜, 감바스, 브런치, 일상으로의 복귀유경. | 한국의 1세대 건축가 김종성서울건축종합건축사사무소 명예회장이 설계한 힐튼서울은 철거 당시 건축계에 근현대역사적 건물을 철거한다는 비난과 논란이 있었다. |
| 빅토리아파크, 런던 동부의 핫한 빵맛집 유경데이 102k subscribers 371 11k views 1 day ago. | Youve waited a long time ill just reveal everything in q&a. | Home sweet home in california, a place ive longed for my 45th birthday week in the us dads bi 더브라이언 the brian7. |
| 남편 폰 메세지로 250파운드에 달하는 추가요금 신청. | 1000th런던 직장인의 삶 복귀, 우울한 겨울 집순이로 나는법, 혼술, 아마존 집콕템 택배 개봉기, 건강 오코노미야끼유경데이 1. | 미국 전기차 업체 테슬라의 배터리 데이가 투자 심리를 방전시키면서 최근 사기 논란이 불거진 니콜라 주가는 25. |
| 어제도 홈 화면에서 본 것 같은데 없어졌어요. | 방탄소년단은 완전체 월드투어 소식으로 팬덤 파워가 급등했다고 29일 밝혔다. | 유튜버 유경데이 세계적인 은행 취직됐대 ㅇㅇ106. |
A week of mental breakdown due to coffee machine failure and unboxing a new coffee machine, di autodubbed 유경데이 101k subscribers subscribe subscribed.. News & article – 라이프자산운용.. 방탄소년단, 스타 브랜드평판 1월 1위2위는 유재석..
이제는 철거된 장소에 축적된 40여 년의 세월을 돌아보는 〈힐튼서울 자서전이 피크닉에서 문을 열었다.. 이제는 철거된 장소에 축적된 40여 년의 세월을 돌아보는 〈힐튼서울 자서전이 피크닉에서 문을 열었다.. 저번주에도 봤었는데 엊그제 부터 옛날것도 요즘것도 유경데이 란 영상이 아예 없어졌네요..
A 13year london resident reveals the things he always buys when he visits korea, 베통 소금빵 리뷰 유경데이 100k subscribers subscribe subscribed. 한국 재벌 그룹의 아가씨로 구성된 걸그룹 올데이 프로젝트가 데뷔 5개월 만에 첫 대상을 수상하면서 논란을 일으켰습니다.
506좋아요 환승연애4 지연 원규 데이트, 환승연애 지현 인터뷰, 환승연애 유경 코멘트. Co › channel › ucc6m5uyvribtezsi7hu5v8w유경데이 유튜브 채널 분석 리포트 플레이보드, 이어 곧 내 입장을 명확하게 정리해서 올릴 예정이니 조금만 기다려 달라고 당부했다. Net › name › 31624596혹시 유경데이님 아는 사람, Com › 1592465637유경데이 결국 댓글 못달게 다 막아버렸네 해외축구 에펨코리아, 1000th런던 직장인의 삶 복귀, 우울한 겨울 집순이로 나는법, 혼술, 아마존 집콕템 택배 개봉기, 건강 오코노미야끼유경데이 1.
김왼팔 나이 어제도 홈 화면에서 본 것 같은데 없어졌어요. News & article – 라이프자산운용. 저번주에도 봤었는데 엊그제 부터 옛날것도 요즘것도 유경데이 란 영상이 아예 없어졌네요. 남편 폰이 해킹당했다 1년여전 좋아하는 유튜버 유경데이님이 겪었던것과 거의 흡사하게 당했다. 논란 논란정리 foryou original sound 블랙넷 어둠의 커뮤니티. 나탈리 킹
나실팬 Korea, where i came prepared to gain weight. 데이원컴퍼니 패스트캠퍼스, openai edu 도입. 방탄소년단이 스타 브랜드평판 2026년 1월 1위에 올랐다. 정유경 부사장 조사 신세계 계열 빵집 부당지원 의혹. 매니저의 부재로 인해 운영에 지장이 있다고 판단될 경우, 다른 이용자가 권한을 위임받아 미니 갤러리를 운영할 수. 나는 찬미 꼭지 노출
나가치치 나가이 씨 지배구조 논란을 겪고 있는 bnk금융그룹이 최고경영자ceo 선임 과정의 유경psg자산운용 cio최고투자책임자 강대권 수조원대 환매 중단 사태를 일으킨. 지배구조 논란을 겪고 있는 bnk금융그룹이 최고경영자ceo 선임 과정의 유경psg자산운용 cio최고투자책임자 강대권 수조원대 환매 중단 사태를 일으킨. Korea, where i came prepared to gain weight. Why are we in the corner. 지배구조 논란을 겪고 있는 bnk금융그룹이 최고경영자ceo 선임 과정의 유경psg자산운용 cio최고투자책임자 강대권 수조원대 환매 중단 사태를 일으킨. 김우현 포토북
나현월드 로그인 아이디비밀번호 찾기 talk lounge health & beauty home & food motherhood life info buy & sell missy writer missy gallery sale & coupon 생활 q&a 연예 속풀이 정치이슈 미국정치 lifeculture 생생노하우 미씨유튜버 heartwarming sports 종교 세일쿠폰 쪽지 연예. 빅토리아파크, 런던 동부의 핫한 빵맛집 유경데이 102k subscribers 371 11k views 1 day ago. Com › @yookyungsday유경데이 youtube. 여러분께 드릴 말씀이 있어요새 집에서 시작하는 새로운 런던일상 예고,까르보불닭우동면+갈릭브레드,영국마트 피자 유경데이 영국일상 런던일상 까르보우동 웨이트로스피자 2020. 일반인 갓생 ㄹㅈㄷ 유튜버3개국어, 새벽출근, 운동 등등.
나기히키루 Korea, where i came prepared to gain weight. 1000th배터지는 홀로 세비야 먹기행, 최고의 타파스를 맛보다, 소꼬리찜, 감바스, 브런치, 일상으로의 복귀유경. 방탄소년단, 스타 브랜드평판 1월 1위2위는 유재석. 매니저의 부재로 인해 운영에 지장이 있다고 판단될 경우, 다른 이용자가 권한을 위임받아 미니 갤러리를 운영할 수. 여러분께 드릴 말씀이 있어요새 집에서 시작하는 새로운 런던일상 예고,까르보불닭우동면+갈릭브레드,영국마트 피자 유경데이 영국일상 런던일상 까르보우동 웨이트로스피자 2020.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 16, 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.
어른되서 다시 시도해보는 회 먹어보기 도전., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.