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.
V73 한글패치 썬더스토어한글패치 수동설치일반적인 모드 까는 것처럼 하면 됨착한 갤럼의 모드 설치법v40v49 한글패치한글 깨지는것만 고치고 싶으면 리썰갤의 유능한 갤럼이 만든 fontpatcher 모드 사용. Com › mgallery › board링크한번만요 링크 마이너 갤러리. 283652 공지 리버스 1999 갤러리 대회 모음 25. 이용약관 유료서비스 이용약관 개인정보 처리방침 청소년 보호정책 모바일 이용약관 모바일 개인정보 처리방침.
Com › mgallery › board리버스1999 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.. 이용약관 유료서비스 이용약관 개인정보 처리방침 청소년 보호정책 모바일 이용약관 모바일 개인정보 처리방침.. Com › mgallery › board코스피 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드..통합검색을 이용해 여러 갤러리를 확인해 보세요, Com › mgallery › board링크한번만요 링크 마이너 갤러리, 4 13 274711 공지 갱차목록 thirtyseven 24. 5 34 518314 일반 록라 컨텐츠 나올때마다 평가가 구록라보다 별로네 ㅇㅇ1. 이용약관 유료서비스 이용약관 개인정보 처리방침 청소년 보호정책 모바일 이용약관 모바일 개인정보 처리방침. 골스레이커스 링크 마이너 갤러리 몇번임. 엔젤릭 링크 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 마이너 설정 new 연관 글쓰기 차단 설정 머리말∙꼬리말 설정 ai 이미지 간편 등록new 바셀 링크좀요 링갤러 175, Com › mgallery › boardfc 모바일 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 여기서는 첫 운동이라고 했으나 타 커뮤에서는 4개월 헬린이가 됨 5. Com › board › link링크 잘만돼 ㅋㅋ 링크 마이너 갤러리.
엔젤릭 링크 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.. 대상단지 조회검색방법 아파트란 글자를 입력하지 마시고 단지명이 영문인 경우 한글로 입력하여 주세요.. Com › mgallery › board리버스1999 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드..You will be redirected in a few seconds. Day ago 기사링크 항공모함 배치한 트럼프 이란은 대화 원해, 게시물이 존재하지 않거나 삭제되었습니다.
타 커뮤니티 운동관련 갤러리 마다 똑같은 글을 올림 헬린이 가슴팔 오운완 헬스 갤러리 헬린이 가슴팔 오운완 근력운동 마이너 갤러리 오운완 파워리프팅 마이너 갤러리 4, 1 6 274709 공지 리버스1999 마이너 갤러리 규정1 thirtyseven 24. 링크한번만요 링크 마이너 갤러리 ㅈㅂ요. Com › mgallery › board리썰 컴퍼니 한글패치 v73 리썰 컴퍼니 마이너 갤러리.
검색하신 물건에 단지가 존재하지 않습니다, 20 기준1 thirtyseven 24. 엔젤릭 링크 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.
골스레이커스 링크 마이너 갤러리 몇번임, 링크 마이너 설정 new 연관 글쓰기 차단 설정 머리말∙꼬리말 설정 ai 이미지 간편 등록new 링크 잘만돼 ㅋㅋ 링갤러 115. V73 한글패치 썬더스토어한글패치 수동설치일반적인 모드 까는 것처럼 하면 됨착한 갤럼의 모드 설치법v40v49 한글패치한글 깨지는것만 고치고 싶으면 리썰갤의 유능한 갤럼이 만든 fontpatcher 모드 사용. 애개리쭤어억 코스피갤러리 매니저 10$ oldspice 부매니저 스자키아야 4tpszksk 청개구리페페 cjdrornf cutemaid futuresf 진서연 kaweb 무리뉴 mdd2080 ㄴmooㅎ itscexti coconut mbqrvglw 선물옵션 trueking 개초딩 rocheld1 팔베개 sleight7.
자기만의방 가슴 Com 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드 디시인사이드는 다양한 주제를 갤러리, 마이너 갤러리, 미니 갤러리 커뮤니티 서비스로 제공합니다. Com › mgallery › board코스피 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 킥스타터 링크 결과는 ,067,395를 모금하여 목표액인 25만 달러의 4배를 달성해 성공적으로 마감되었고 제품이 전세계로 발송되었다. Com › board › link링크 잘만돼 ㅋㅋ 링크 마이너 갤러리. 283652 공지 리버스 1999 갤러리 대회 모음 25. 임신 후 헤어짐
임성미 노출 엔젤릭 링크 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. Day ago 기사링크 항공모함 배치한 트럼프 이란은 대화 원해. 킥스타터 링크 결과는 ,067,395를 모금하여 목표액인 25만 달러의 4배를 달성해 성공적으로 마감되었고 제품이 전세계로 발송되었다. Dmm 게임 엔젤릭 링크エンジェリックリンク 갤러리입니다. Com › board › link링크 잘만돼 ㅋㅋ 링크 마이너 갤러리. 잭 델라 마달레나 코 디시
잠따 썰 검색하신 물건에 단지가 존재하지 않습니다. 매체는 휴스턴은 지난 시즌 선발과 불펜을 괴롭힌 부상 변수에 대비하기 위해 투수진 뎁스를 보강했다고 설명했다. V73 한글패치 썬더스토어한글패치 수동설치일반적인 모드 까는 것처럼 하면 됨착한 갤럼의 모드 설치법v40v49 한글패치한글 깨지는것만 고치고 싶으면 리썰갤의 유능한 갤럼이 만든 fontpatcher 모드 사용. 한편 샌프란시스코가 덩카이웨이와 read more. 통합검색을 이용해 여러 갤러리를 확인해 보세요. 일본온리팬스
인스타 g컵녀 야동 Com › mgallery › board코스피 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 링크한번만요 링크 마이너 갤러리 ㅈㅂ요. 대상단지 조회검색방법 아파트란 글자를 입력하지 마시고 단지명이 영문인 경우 한글로 입력하여 주세요. Com › mgallery › boardfc 모바일 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 매체는 휴스턴은 지난 시즌 선발과 불펜을 괴롭힌 부상 변수에 대비하기 위해 투수진 뎁스를 보강했다고 설명했다.
적당히 위험하게 작가 총 40경기에서 기록은 73타수 13안타 1홈런 6타점 타율 0. Com › board › link링크 잘만돼 ㅋㅋ 링크 마이너 갤러리. 대상단지 조회검색방법 아파트란 글자를 입력하지 마시고 단지명이 영문인 경우 한글로 입력하여 주세요. Com › mgallery › board리썰 컴퍼니 한글패치 v73 리썰 컴퍼니 마이너 갤러리. 엔젤릭 링크 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요.
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.
애개리쭤어억 코스피갤러리 매니저 10$ oldspice 부매니저 스자키아야 4tpszksk 청개구리페페 cjdrornf cutemaid futuresf 진서연 kaweb 무리뉴 mdd2080 ㄴmooㅎ itscexti coconut mbqrvglw 선물옵션 trueking 개초딩 rocheld1 팔베개 sleight7., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.