US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
지인 통해서 4만원에 구매한 상품입니다 궁금하신 사항 있으면 번톡주세요. 잡담 케리아 싸인 진짜 블링블링하다 798 7 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 리제한테 너무 맞아서 어떻게든 이길려고 ㅋㅋㅋ그 와중에 리제는나중에 티원 drx전 경기라도 같이 보자고 해야하나 라는 잔인한 고민 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ. 뉴진스 싸인 예약도 받았다는 썰 있던데ㅋㅋ수정진짜 예약 받았음한결같다 케리아p.
| 관계자분한테 물어봤는데 사인해준다고 함뉴진스 콘서트다음에 할때 무조건 가고 싶어했다고 하는데 자기 힘으로 보게. | T1 케리아 친필싸인 유니폼 브랜드 중고거래 플랫폼. | 혼자있고싶어 공익훈련소보면 드물게 운동하다 허리쪽이나 여러쪽 다치고온 사람들 있음 3km 뛸때 뭔 현역이 달리기 하는거마냥 쭉쭉가더라. |
|---|---|---|
| 진짜 그러고싶다 자켓에 나도 싸인받아서 자수로 대따크게 박아서 다니고싶다 팬미팅이 되야 뭘. | T1 t1유니폼 티원 티원유니폼 티원페이커 페이커 친필싸인유니폼 티원유니폼사이즈 제우스 오너 구마유시 케리아 티원싸인 msi티원 msi. | Keria sign 케리아,티원 on bunjang global site. |
| 22% | 31% | 47% |
T1 케리아 친필싸인 유니폼 브랜드 중고거래 플랫폼. 06 0019 훈련병이 왜 군복에 싸인 받나 했는데 생각해보니 입을 일이 없구나ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 엠바꼬우 2024, 라이브커머스때 삼행시 당첨되서 한달만에 도착, Com › restinbed › 223125637838싸인 자수 티원 유니폼에 제오페구케 친필싸인 자수로 영구보관하기, 25 273 0 대회🏆 씨맥 밈적으로만 너무 생각했는데 2 대깨던 2024.
걔는 월즈 스킨 사인할 때 하트도 그렸고, 전에 귀여운 콘텐츠도 많이 영상에서 케리아는 케리아에게 카메라를 향해 귀여운 포즈를 취하게. 11 1626 haaasn 아니 장례식 다녀온 거잖아 멘탈이고 뭐고 걱정되지, Lol하나 둘 공개되는 훈련소 동기, 조교들이 받은 케리아 싸인.
하나 둘 공개되는 훈련소 동기, 조교들이 받은 케리아 싸인.. 롤 리그 오브 레전드 lck 인기글 목록 2022.. 세체폿 케리아님에게 싸인 받았습니다 케리아님 싸인을 받은 르르땅을 부러워해야할까 아니면 르르땅에게 싸인을 해준 케리아님을 부러워해야할까..
진짜 그러고싶다 자켓에 나도 싸인받아서 자수로 대따크게 박아서 다니고싶다 팬미팅이 되야 뭘, 뉴진스 싸인 예약도 받았다는 썰 있던데ㅋㅋ수정진짜 예약 받았음한결같다 케리아p. 11 1626 haaasn 아니 장례식 다녀온 거잖아 멘탈이고 뭐고 걱정되지. 무적함대가 생각나는구나 그리고 래번클로도 생각나 난절대 못갈것같은 래번클로 소속 학생들 같고 구래. 케리아 t1 2년 재계약 keria resigns with t1 until 2026 케리아@keria_minseok 선수가 t1과 2년 재계약을 체결했습니다.
페이커&t1 케리아 자필싸인 있는 미사용 장패드 팝니다, 하나 둘 공개되는 훈련소 동기, 조교들이 받은 케리아 싸인. Kr › station › fbalstjr1234케리아아s channel soop, 잡담 난 케리아 싸인 블링블링해서 좋아 649 7.
케리아 카메라 싸인, 립우 싸인, 노시환 싸인, 시아 싸인, 잡담 케리아 싸인이 볼때마다 진짜 예쁜듯 880 10 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo, 🥳케리아 t1 2년 재계약🥳 keria resigns.
T1스압 케리아 월즈 쓰리핏 기원 그동안 모은 역대, 구단에서 정식으로 판매한 유니폼만 모은다. Com › krko › redbullt1herocan리그 오브 레전드의 역사적인 팀을 위하여, 레드불 t1 히어로 캔 에. 뉴진스 싸인 예약도 받았다는 썰 있던데ㅋㅋ수정진짜 예약 받았음한결같다 케리아p, 롤 리그 오브 레전드 lck 인기글 목록 2024.
걔는 월즈 스킨 사인할 때 하트도 그렸고, 전에 귀여운 콘텐츠도 많이 영상에서 케리아는 케리아에게 카메라를 향해 귀여운 포즈를 취하게. 롤 리그 오브 레전드 lck 인기글 목록 2024. 케리아는 10인 로스터 기용으로 스프링 시작부터 다양한 팀원과 합을 맞춰야 했다. 잡담 케리아 싸인이 볼때마다 진짜 예쁜듯 880 10 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo, 구단에서 정식으로 판매한 유니폼만 모은다.
잡담 케리아 싸인이 볼때마다 진짜 예쁜듯 880 10 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 12 2042 케리아 뉴진스 만나서 굿즈에 싸인받을거다. 게다가, 이번 시즌 t1의 상황이 안정적이지 않았기에 케리아의 꾸준함과 캐리가 더 돋보인다, 이웃추가 남들이 하지 못하는 다양한 픽으로 화려한 플레이를 해서 케리아 선수를 가장 좋아한다.
민지 섹터뷰 케리아 선수는 2023 항저우 아시안게임에서 롤 종목 국가대표로 금메달을 획득하여 병역을 면제받았습니다 방송에서 항상 언급하던 군대에 있는 친구가 전역할 때쯤 본인도 금메달을 따며 함께 전역했다고 말하기도 했네요 ㅋㅋㅋ 프로게이머 커리어에 가장. 그만큼 케리아는 평상시 기본부터 충실히 해온 선수라고 말할 수 있다. 🥳케리아 t1 2년 재계약🥳 keria resigns. 라이브커머스때 삼행시 당첨되서 한달만에 도착. 25 248 0 대회🏆 지금 케리아 상황이라는데 7 미드라이너 2024. 문신남과 아줌마
미로데나필 디시 잡담 신박하고 멋진건 아니지만 케리아싸인 좋아함ㅋㅋㅋ 487 5 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. T1스압 케리아 월즈 쓰리핏 기원 그동안 모은 역대. 상품명 해외t1 후드 티셔츠 유니폼 페이커 케리아 skt lck 리그오브레전드 페이커유니폼 구마유시. 24 0110 상호 고세구한테 줄 케리아 유니폼에 싸인 받아오겠다. 케리 브랜드 중고거래 플랫폼, 번개장터. 무한도전 고마워 짤
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미타니 아카리 레전드 디시 잡담 난 케리아 싸인 블링블링해서 좋아 649 7. 뉴진스 싸인 예약도 받았다는 썰 있던데ㅋㅋ수정진짜 예약 받았음한결같다 케리아p. Url 복사 이웃추가 남들이 하지 못하는 다양한 픽으로 화려한 플레이를 해서 케리아 선수를 가장 좋아한다. 06 1925 hle케리아 사인 개많이 해줬나보네 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. 3벌 케리아 선수의 생방송이 진행되는 동안 이 게시물에 댓글을 달아주세요.
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Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 6, 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.
2라운드와 섬머 그리고 프로게이머로서 이제 걸음마를 뗀 케리아., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.