US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 18, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 2026.
손흥민에게 이렇다 할 이적 사가가 없는건 클럽들이 그를 원하지 않아서가 아니다. 드디어 손흥민 맨시티 이적 ㄷㄷㄷㄷ ㅇㅇ 223. 32살이라 거절 손흥민 바르셀로나 이적설 종결단장이 fa 영입 추진→플릭 감독이 배제했다 손흥민32, 토트넘 홋스퍼의 바르셀로나 이적설이 막을 내렸다. 본인이 잔류해도 될걸 월드컵 준비와 컨디션 때문에 휴식겸 미국간거고.
손흥민 임대복귀는 당분간 말하지마 토트넘 핫스퍼 마이너.. 추천 30 8 이미지 벤탕이 장난도 치네.. 03 0633 케인 ㅇㅇ 패딩좋아 2025.. 솔직히 처음 고려한 선택지는 아니었으나, lafc 회장과의 대화로..
| heungmin son, 33, from korea, south los angeles fc, since 2025 left winger market value €17. | Shift+enter 키를 동시에 누르면 줄바꿈이 됩니다. | 디시인사이드 흑백요리사 시즌2 관련 게시판에는 1월 19일 반복 손흥민 토트넘 이적 4수영 경영대표팀. | 솔직히 처음 고려한 선택지는 아니었으나, lafc 회장과의 대화로. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 손흥민 빅클럽 오퍼 없다는건 이번 로메로 이적사가 보면. | 스페인 언론 엘골디히탈은 3일이하 한국시각 fc바르셀로나가 손흥민 영입을 원하고 있다. | 이적설의 사실 여부, 주요 내용, 논조 등을 정리해보겠습니다. | 카드, 이름, 갱신 시간, 남은 시간 read more. |
| Com › board › view속보 손흥민 이적 확정, 구단과 손흥민 양측 연장거부 실시간 베. | 토트넘과의 계약을 1년 연장한 손흥민 선수에 대해 이적설이 끊이지 않습니다. | 손흥민 토트넘의 맨체스터 유나이티드 이적설이 쏟아지고 있다. | 그는 유럽의 대부분의 팀들에 들어갈 수 있다. |
| 손흥민 에이전트가 이적 제안 넣었다는 클럽1. | Com › board › view속보 손흥민 이적 확정, 구단과 손흥민 양측 연장거부 해외축구. | Lafc는 오늘 잉글랜드 프리미어리그 토트넘 소속의 손흥민을 영입했다고 공식 발표했습니다. | 현지 팬들은 물론, 한국 축구팬들도 그의 이적을 원하지 않는다. |
| 스페인 언론 엘골디히탈은 3일이하 한국시각 fc바르셀로나가 손흥민 영입을 원하고 있다. | 03 0633 케인 ㅇㅇ 패딩좋아 2025. | 손흥민의 거취는 여전히 정해지지 않았다. | 데쿠 단장이 영입을 추진했지만, 한지 플릭 감독이 거절했다는 소식이다. |
추천 30 8 이미지 벤탕이 장난도 치네. 데쿠 단장이 영입을 추진했지만, 한지 플릭 감독이 거절했다는 소식이다. 03 0633 케인 ㅇㅇ 패딩좋아 2025, heungmin son, 33, from korea, south los angeles fc, since 2025 left winger market value €17.
추천 30 8 이미지 벤탕이 장난도 치네. heungmin son, 33, from korea, south los angeles fc, since 2025 left winger market value €17, 본인이 잔류해도 될걸 월드컵 준비와 컨디션 때문에 휴식겸 미국간거고. 06 0954 조회수 16869 추천 366 댓글 106 추천검색 nft 발행하기 안내 레이어 개념글 추천하기 366고정닉 추천수14 비추천하기 20 실베추 공유 신고 목록보기 전체 댓글 106새로고침 본문 보기 최신순 등록순. 손흥민의 이적 시 동북고등학교가 연대 기여금을 수령하는 점으로 보아 동북고등학교 축구부의 일원으로 활동한 것은 이론의 여지가 없는 팩트이다.
스페인 언론 엘골디히탈은 3일이하 한국시각 fc바르셀로나가 손흥민 영입을 원하고 있다, 21 181705 조회 14978 추천 169 댓글 179 1 이미지 순서 on. 일반 솔직히 손흥민의 미국 이적은 좋게 보이지 않는다. 서울뉴시스 하근수 기자 잉글랜드 프로축구 프리미어리그epl 토트넘 홋스퍼와의 작별을 발표한 손흥민과 관련된 소식이 쏟아지고 있다. 21 181705 조회 14978 추천 169 댓글 179 1 이미지 순서 on. 00m in chuncheon, gangwon, korea, south.
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얼공노예 지금 축구뉴스 중 가장 주요한 건 우리나라의 보물 손흥민의 이적이슈이지 않을까 합니다. 손흥민 해외에서 이적반응 엄청 좋은데. Redirecting to sgall. 손흥민, 이적설 속에도 팬사랑은 여전디시트렌드 생일 기념. 추천 30 8 이미지 벤탕이 장난도 치네. 어둠의경로 사이트
엉덩퀸 온리팬스 H34 한국에서 태어나기 싫다는 일본인 h35 젊고 똑똑하고 차분하고 매너좋으신 여팀장님. 토트넘과의 계약을 1년 연장한 손흥민 선수에 대해 이적설이 끊이지 않습니다. 이미지 골드 손흥민은 올여름 토트넘을 떠나겠다고 밝혔다. 손흥민, 이적설 속에도 팬사랑은 여전디시트렌드 생일 기념. 손흥민 빅클럽 오퍼 없다는건 이번 로메로 이적사가 보면. 엘리엇 야짤
어둠의ufc갤 그는 유럽의 대부분의 팀들에 들어갈 수 있다. 본인이 잔류해도 될걸 월드컵 준비와 컨디션 때문에 휴식겸 미국간거고. Lafc는 오늘 잉글랜드 프리미어리그 토트넘 소속의 손흥민을 영입했다고 공식 발표했습니다. Lafc는 오늘 잉글랜드 프리미어리그 토트넘 소속의 손흥민을 영입했다고 공식 발표했습니다. 손흥민은 여전히 팀 내에서 대체 불가능한 핵심 자원이다. 야한갤
업스 jav 이미지 골드 손흥민은 올여름 토트넘을 떠나겠다고 밝혔다. 스페인 언론 엘골디히탈은 3일이하 한국시각 fc바르셀로나가 손흥민 영입을 원하고 있다. 스페인 언론 엘골디히탈은 3일이하 한국시각 fc바르셀로나가 손흥민 영입을 원하고 있다. 이적설의 사실 여부, 주요 내용, 논조 등을 정리해보겠습니다. 속보 손흥민 이적 확정, 구단과 손흥민 양측 연장거부 해갤러49.
여고딩 porn 이슈 이야기 손흥민 이적, 토트넘과 10년 만의 결별 프리미어리그 떠나 이적지는 어디. H34 한국에서 태어나기 싫다는 일본인 h35 젊고 똑똑하고 차분하고 매너좋으신 여팀장님. 여기서 월드 클래스라고 칭한 공격수는 다름 아닌. 여기서 월드 클래스라고 칭한 공격수는 다름 아닌. 카드, 이름, 갱신 시간, 남은 시간 read more.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 18, 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 18, 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 18, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 18, 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.
손흥민 lafc로 이적하고 지난시즌내내 억까 당하던거 la fc., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.