US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
저도 트래블월렛 카드를 이용해서 다녀왔는데요 후쿠오카 시내와 주요 관광지를 돌아다니기에도 정말 편리했거든요. 10번을 타도 100번을타도 640엔 출금되기에 교통카드+교통패스의 편리함과 장점만을 합쳐놨다 나는 트래블월렛이 있기 때문에 카드를 이용했다 교통비용은 다음날 출금되니 당일에 빠져나가지 않는다고해도 걱정하지 않기. 일본 후쿠오카 여행을 위해 대중교통 이용 방법을 알아보았는데 하야카켄 교통카드라고 우리나라 티머니 같은 캬드 인데, 일본 지하철에서 구매 가능하고 아래의 분이 너무 친절하게 작성을 잘해주셔서 솔직히 내가 더 작성할 필요가 없을정도로섬세하게 잘. 특히 해외여행에서는 카드 선택이 여행의 편리함과 비용을 좌우하는 요소가 될 수 있습니다.
여행 후 남은 외화는 바로 계좌로 환불도 가능하고요. 트래블월렛은 트래블월렛 어플 하나만으로 카드신청, 환전 모두 가능한데, 두 카드만으로는 교통문제를 해결할 수 없다는것이 아쉽습니다, 트래블월렛 트래블페이는 해외 일부 도시에서, 1619 해외여행이 점점 더 쉬워지고 있다고는 하지만, 여전히 환전을 해야하는 어려움은 존재합니다. 트레블월렛카드가 후쿠오카 지하철에서는 교통카드로 가능합니다. 2025년 6월 9일 월요일 6월 11일 수요일 기간에 일본 후쿠오카에서 트래블월렛트레블월렛 카드를 사용했는데 정말로 간편하게 결제도 하고. 후쿠오카 여행 지하철 트래블월렛 트래블로그 교통카드 사용하는 방법 네이버 블로그 여행 48개의 글 목록열기, 형님들 트레블 월렛 카드로 후쿠오카 버스나 지하철 탑승. Travel wallet 교통카드 지하철 전철 버스 탑승.일본 후쿠오카 여행을 앞두고 트래블월렛 카드 사용법이 궁금하신가요.. 그래서 좀 찾아보니 카드 뒷편에 있는 컨택트리스 카드가 있으면 사용가능한듯..
| 특히, 한국에서 발급되는 트래블월렛과 트래블로그 카드를 이용하면, 후쿠오카에서 더욱 편리하게. | 여행 후 남은 외화는 바로 계좌로 환불도 가능하고요. |
|---|---|
| Com › entry › 트래블트래블월렛 카드만 있으면 후쿠오카 지하철 완전 정복|실제 사용법부. | 그래서 좀 찾아보니 카드 뒷편에 있는 컨택트리스 카드가 있으면 사용가능한듯. |
| 📌일반 신용카드에 컨택리스가 사용 가능하다면 충전이 필요 없음 📌트래블 카드의 경우는 먼저 트래블월렛 어플에서 엔화로 환전부터 해야 합니다 저는 트래블월렛을 이용했고요 시범 삼아 1000엔을 환전해놓고 사용하였어요 1. | 저도 트래블월렛 카드를 이용해서 다녀왔는데요 후쿠오카 시내와 주요 관광지를 돌아다니기에도 정말 편리했거든요. |
| 제휴 atm 외에는 수수료 있음 교통카드 트래블로그 불가 트래블월렛 가능 한화로 재환전환불 트래블로그 환급수수료 5% 트래블월렛 수수료 없음 이외에도 결제 한도나 출금 한도는 더 깊이 알아보시면 될듯 나는 여행용이라 굳이 그거까진 비교 안했음. | 일본 지하철, 교통카드 없이 트래블월렛 카드 하나로 탈 수 있다. |
| 후쿠오카 여행 가는데 정보 찾다 보니까 이런글이 보여서 질문해봅니다. | Com › ggom_family › 224160622580여행일기_일본 후쿠오카 당일치기 후쿠오카 여행 3준비사항비. |
일본 트래블월렛 후쿠오카 atm 위치, 지하철 버스 교통카드 출금하는 방법, 이용 후기 2024, Com › mgallery › board후쿠오카 트래블월렛 교통카드 질문 일본여행 관동이외 마이너 갤, 지하철만 이용할 계획이었기 때문에 1일권을 찾아보다가 일본 여행 카페에서 트래블월렛 교통카드 기능을 사용하면 자동으로 1일권 금액으로 결제된다는 것을 알게되었다, 트래블월렛 카드를 컨택리스 표시가 있는 단말기에 간단히 탭. Kr › 트레블월렛카드일본트레블월렛 카드 일본 후쿠오카 결제 환전 교통.
이 블로그에서는 최신 정보를 기반으로 후쿠오카에서 트래블월렛 카드를 사용할 때 꼭 알아야 할 7가지 주의사항과 꿀팁, 활용법을 정리했습니다. 트레블월렛카드가 후쿠오카 지하철에서는 교통카드로 가능합니다, Travel wallet 교통카드 지하철 전철 버스 탑승.
프로젝트 아이 아카시아 전생 스이카, 파스모 같은 교통카드 없는 상황인데 가서 웰컴 스이카 라도 사는. 하지만 잘못 사용하면 결제 오류나 낭패를 볼 수 있어요. 일본 후쿠오카 버스타는법 현금,교통카드,패스,동전 요금. 후쿠오카 교통카드 존재하지 않는 이미지입니다. 결론은 일본 대중교통에 visa 단말기가 설치된 건 22년부터 였지만. 펨토 인방
푸닝 ott 후기 후쿠오카공항에서 시내 이동방법 네이버 블로그 전체보기 310개의 글 목록열기. 후쿠오카 공항선만 이용함 ️기내용 캐리어. 후쿠오카 여행 가는데 정보 찾다 보니까 이런글이 보여서 질문해봅니다. 해외여행 필수 체크카드 중 하나인 트래블월렛 비자카드를 사용하면 탑승 후 다음날 요금이 정상적으로 출금이 됩니다. 활동정보 후쿠오카 202개의 글 목록열기. 펀비 610
포켓몬 노말 약점 일반 후쿠오카 트래블월렛만 교통카드 되는거 아니지않음. 일본 후쿠오카 여행을 앞두고 트래블월렛 카드 사용법이 궁금하신가요. 이 블로그에서는 최신 정보를 기반으로 후쿠오카에서 트래블월렛 카드를 사용할 때 꼭 알아야 할 7가지 주의사항과 꿀팁, 활용법을 정리했습니다. 결제 금액은 다음날 트래블월렛 어플을 통해 확인 가능. 특히, 한국에서 발급되는 트래블월렛과 트래블로그 카드를 이용하면, 후쿠오카에서 더욱 편리하게. 펠라채널
패션시티 노래방 번호 트래블월렛의 트래블페이를 교통카드로 이용하는 방법. 얼마 전 일본 후쿠오카로 여행을 다녀왔는데, 생각보다 버스를 탈 일이 많았어요. 형님들 트레블 월렛 카드로 후쿠오카 버스나 지하철 탑승. Go to channel 미도구리 더홍 midoguri the hong 후쿠오카 트래블월렛 카드 atm 출금 지하철 버스 교통카드 사용 결제 방법. 후쿠오카공항에서 시내 이동방법 네이버 블로그 전체보기 310개의 글 목록열기.
푸린 보지 10번을 타도 100번을타도 640엔 출금되기에 교통카드+교통패스의 편리함과 장점만을 합쳐놨다 나는 트래블월렛이 있기 때문에 카드를 이용했다 교통비용은 다음날 출금되니 당일에 빠져나가지 않는다고해도 걱정하지 않기. 그래도 불안해서 1일권을 구매할까 하다가 어떻게든 되겠지 하는 생각으로 트래블월렛 카드만 들고감 지하철을 이용할. 이 글에서는 트레블월렛 카드 일본 사용법을 중심으로 후쿠오카 버스 현금사용과 공. 저는 트레블 월렛 카드가 있어서 이걸 사용할수 있는지가 매우 궁금했다. 일반 형들 트래블월렛 카드만으로 후쿠오카 여행가능.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 4, 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.
후쿠오카 여행 처음인데 visa카드로 지하철 탈 수 있길래 트래블월렛 카드로 하루동안 지하철 타고 다녔음 근데 앱에서 잔금 조회하니까 돈이 지하철 요금 하나도 안 나간 그대로 있는데 원래 이런거임., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.