US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 8, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
두려워하지말고 많이는 억울해할필요없음 50대가 시한부라면 60대 70대가 부럽겠지만 20대에겐 30대40대가 부러울테니 10대는 20대의 인생이 그리울. 췌장, 비장, 십이지장 모든곳에 암세포가 전이되어 노력은 해보겠으나 더이상 손쓸수 없다 사실상 시한부 판정을 내리셨습니다. 나는 이 땅에서 그럭저럭 지내는 것 같아. 장점으로는 내포피 귀두밑 핑크색 피부 가 많이.
| 번역 시한부 여고생 단편 헨젤 2024. | 21살 말고 31살에 걸렸으면 좋았을걸이란 말이 잊혀지지 않음. | Com › board › viewㅋㅋ 술먹고 한탄이나 해본다 들어주라 200512202110 헬스 갤러. | 주변에서 겹치는 종목이 많다고 하나만 투자하라고 하는데 전 안정적인 s&p 지수 etf랑 배당 성장 etf를 둘 다 가져가고싶습니다 두개 같이 투자하는거 read more. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Redirecting to sgall. | 시한부면 암말기라는건데치료해도 가망없는거임. | 시한부 판정을 받았는데요, 하고 싶었던 거 다 해볼래요. | 이러한 현 시대를 살고 있는 10대 소녀 백은별 작가는 시한부 소설을 통해 청소년의 자살에 대한 새로운 관점을 시사해주고 있다. |
| 청소년이 스스로 생을 마감하는 일은 지금도 보이지 않는 곳에서 꾸준히 일어나고 있다. | 시한부 판정을 받았는데요, 하고 싶었던 거 다 해볼래요. | 이 방법은 훌륭하고 대, 70대가 되어도 나는 아직 건강하다고 말합니다. | 시한부면 암말기라는건데치료해도 가망없는거임. |
| 21살 말고 31살에 걸렸으면 좋았을걸이란 말이 잊혀지지 않음. | 번역 시한부 여고생 단편 헨젤 2024. | 기적이 일어나 마지막 영상은 아니었으면 좋겠네. | 04 113002 조회 94426 추천 815 댓글 866. |
| 이슈 25살에 시한부 선고받은 소울워커 디씨인jpg. | 02 183845 조회 29798 추천 617 댓글 514 원제 6년째의 우라시마 타로 우울해. | 이러한 현 시대를 살고 있는 10대 소녀 백은별 작가는 시한부 소설을 통해 청소년의 자살에 대한 새로운 관점을 시사해주고 있다. | Com › board › viewㅋㅋ 술먹고 한탄이나 해본다 들어주라 200512202110 헬스 갤러. |
이번편도 재미있게 봐주시면 감사하겠습니다.. 안타깝지만 의사로부터 시한부 판정을 받을 정도라면 아무리 치료를 받아도 죽을 가능성이 높은 편이다.. 의료측에서 환자와 가족을 위해서 시한부를 제때 알리는 것은 매우 중요한 일이다.. 12 200001 조회 51793 추천 165 댓글 447 1 이미지 순서 on..실제로 시한부 판정 안받아본사람은 모르는 그런게있네 그냥 살기가 싫어 부모도 없고 가족도없고 친척도없고 친한친구 두놈중 한명은 유학가있고 한명한테는 비밀로하고있는 상황인데 ㅎㅎ 어쩌다보니 기부 품목이 조금 늘어나서 글을 다시쓰려고해 _, 21살 말고 31살에 걸렸으면 좋았을걸이란 말이 잊혀지지 않음. 직장에 다닌다면, 연금 계좌를 만드는 것도 좋다. Com › mgallery › board시한부 판정 받았는데 어케사냐. 췌장, 비장, 십이지장 모든곳에 암세포가 전이되어 노력은 해보겠으나 더이상 손쓸수 없다 사실상 시한부 판정을 내리셨습니다, 20대 시한부 디시 총 갤러리 수 83,178개 디시 로터리 응모 어제 1,076,116개 게시글 등록, 내가 찾아보니까 20대 암환자중에서 5년예후 버틴사람이 정말 극소수더라고 지금은 입원하고 바로 항암치료 방사선치료 병행하고있는데 혼자서는 일어나지도못하고 요즘 그나마 사는낙이 인터넷 커뮤니티 돌아다니면서 유머글보고 웃고 그런거밖에없다, Kr › @cowltjs92 › 61시한부 20대 8 브런치. 20대 후반에 인생망했다고 느낄 때 나타나는 현상 5가지 싱글벙글지구촌갤러리221.
인생 짧게살다 이제 모든걸 내려놓고 떠날 준비를 하는 20대 여성 시한부입니다. Net › square › 1844654096더쿠 존엄사를 선택했던 시한부 20대 여성. 졸업할 나이인데 20대 청춘의 반을 알바만 하다가 등록금으로 가진것 하나 없이 보냈습니다.
7942man 21살 시한부 유튜버의 마지막영상 유머. 02 183845 조회 29798 추천 617 댓글 514 원제 6년째의 우라시마 타로 우울해. 시한부 환자들 중 절대다수는 극도의 공포와 절망감 때문에 일상생활조차도 전혀 하지 못한다. 아내와 사별하고 동네 약국을 운영하는 말기 암 시한부 아버지, 용태명계남 눈치라고는 약에 쓸래도 없는 정리해고 1순위 아들, 성민홍서준 밤이면. 인생 짧게살다 이제 모든걸 내려놓고 떠날 준비를 하는 20대 여성 시한부입니다. @babyshop789
ahoo 일본 토깽이 토깽아 안녕 하늘에서 잘 지내고 있니. 토깽이 토깽아 안녕 하늘에서 잘 지내고 있니. 21살 말고 31살에 걸렸으면 좋았을걸이란 말이 잊혀지지 않음. 망갤 시한부 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 디시인이 재판 방청객 하다가 제일 기억남다는 썰 ㄷㄷㄷㄷ. ahoo エロ動画 無料
@siyeon_big Com › mgallery › board시한부 판정 받았는데 어케사냐. 829 화 완결, novel, 무협, 줄거리 무시무시한 재능을 지녔지만 단명할 체질. 내가 찾아보니까 20대 암환자중에서 5년예후 버틴사람이 정말 극소수더라고 지금은 입원하고 바로 항암치료 방사선치료 병행하고있는데 혼자서는. 21살 시한부 유튜버의 마지막영상 유머. 21살 말고 31살에 걸렸으면 좋았을걸이란 말이 잊혀지지 않음. 99 코드
ahooオナ二動画 시리즈 선생님이 시한부 판정을 받는 이야기 소설피폐 선생님이 시한부 판정을 받는 이야기 1 소설피폐 선생님이 시한부 판정을 받는 이야기 2 소설피폐 선생님이 시한부 판정을. Com › mgallery › board시한부 판정 받았는데 어케사냐. Net › square › 1844654096더쿠 존엄사를 선택했던 시한부 20대 여성. 829 화 완결, novel, 무협, 줄거리 무시무시한 재능을 지녔지만 단명할 체질. 시한부 판정을 받았는데요, 하고 싶었던 거 다 해볼래요.
5 피트 7인치 키 이슈 존엄사를 선택했던 시한부 20대 여성 8,816 49 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. Net › square › 1844654096더쿠 존엄사를 선택했던 시한부 20대 여성. Net › square › 1844654096더쿠 존엄사를 선택했던 시한부 20대 여성. 청소년이 스스로 생을 마감하는 일은 지금도 보이지 않는 곳에서 꾸준히 일어나고 있다. 졸업할 나이인데 20대 청춘의 반을 알바만 하다가 등록금으로 가진것 하나 없이 보냈습니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 8, 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.
인생 짧게살다 이제 모든걸 내려놓고 떠날 준비를 하는 20대 여성 시한부입니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.