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.
와튼 기자는 자신의 트위터에서 ‘한국 도미노피자에 관한 3가지’라는 제목으로 다음과 같이 설명했다. 바라만 보고 있어도 유잼인간 박보검💗콩국수 러버로 유명한 그의 콩국수 황금 비율은. 박보검유튜브 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. Redirecting to sgall.
2016년 1월 16일 박보검은 서울 kbs스포츠월드 아레나홀 에서 ‘우리들의 첫 만남, 설렘’이라는 주제로 첫 팬미팅을 개최했다.. 엔씨소프트를 누구보다 증오하고 싫어하는 블두순들이 호연이 pk있다고 선동하는 바람에 호연만 무려 500억에 달하는 개발비와 마케팅비를 통째로 날려먹은 희대의 악질 선동에 시달려서 실제로 pvp라고 할 요소 자체가 없다..
기타 국내 드라마 갤러리 설정 연관 갤러리 320 갤주소 복사 이용안내 박보검 촬영하다 부상당했대 ㅇㅇ116, 남다른 신앙심을 가진 것으로 알려진 박보검에게 유독 종교는 왜 논란거리가 될까. 와튼 기자는 자신의 트위터에서 ‘한국 도미노피자에 관한 3가지’라는 제목으로 다음과 같이 설명했다.
01 080433 삭제 댓글돌이 디시트렌드 빽투더차트 김소연, 밝은 에너지로 시청자 홀렸다상큼+재치 매력 대방출 멸종위기종이 여기에서익산 왕궁서 집단 서식 확인됐다는 이 ‘야생생물’ 1 20 ㅇㅇ223, ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 거의 릴스뜨자마자 댓다심 ㅋㅋㅋ. 08 1408 몸까지 잘 생겨진 박보검 근황 ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ, 2016년 3월 25일 앳스타일에는 남친짤, 박보검 저장하시겠습니까. Hours ago — 반면 디시인사이드 이합갤이재명은 합니다 마이너 갤러리 박보검 보검매직컬 배나라 한재아 열애 전현무 시말서, Hours ago — 연예 카테고리로 분류된 박보검 갤러리 입니다.
쿠킹미제 chu-203 2017년 4월 15일, 22일 방영 된 2018 평창올림픽 특집의 게스트로 박보검이 나왔는데 이에 하하가 이름의 끝자인 검을 이용해 박보검 겁나 웃기다라는 의미로 박보검의 예능감을 칭찬하며 박보검나웃겨라는 드립을 계속해서 시전했다. Hours ago — 반면 디시인사이드 이합갤이재명은 합니다 마이너 갤러리 박보검 보검매직컬 배나라 한재아 열애 전현무 시말서. 박갤러는 갤러리에서 권장하는 비회원 전용 갤닉네임입니다. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 거의 릴스뜨자마자 댓다심 ㅋㅋㅋ. 무인에서 분위기 띄우는 박보검 ㅇㅇ 소속사 짹 인스스 ㅇㅇ 생일 라이브 full ㅇㅇ 원더랜드 제작사 공계 박보검 뉴짤 ㅌㅂㅇㅈㅇ ㅇㅇ 머글이 쓰는 주관적 후기 박갤러 박보검 생일케잌 ㅇㅇ 영화의 전당 중극장 무인 박갤러 생일 라방 팬아트 ㅇㅇ. 클래시갤
쿠도 라라 Watch short videos about 이선우 정환이 디시 from people around the world. 두 번째 합격할 것 같은데 바쁜 스케줄에 저 정도면 대단한 거야. 지난 27일 종영한 ‘청춘기록’에서 박보검은 꿈을 위해 고군분투하는 ‘사혜준’ 역을 맡아 현실. Hours ago 박보검 저 쌩얼에 장발인 캐 한번 해야겠다 ㅇㅇ211. 지난 25일 박보검이 자신의 sns에 올린 글이 문제가 됐다. 쿠주 디시
코네 같은 사이트 얼굴 때문에 닥터포헤어 모델이 된 듯한 박보검. 김수현 군대시절 김새론한테 보낸 편지와 뽀뽀 사진 추가로 공개함. 무인에서 분위기 띄우는 박보검 ㅇㅇ 소속사 짹 인스스 ㅇㅇ 생일 라이브 full ㅇㅇ 원더랜드 제작사 공계 박보검 뉴짤 ㅌㅂㅇㅈㅇ ㅇㅇ 머글이 쓰는 주관적 후기 박갤러 박보검 생일케잌 ㅇㅇ 영화의 전당 중극장 무인 박갤러 생일 라방 팬아트 ㅇㅇ. 녹본이 올라왔는데 왜들 그러시는 거예요 박보검 갤러리. 박보검의 논란은 지난 25일 sns에 올린 글 하나에서부터 시작됐다. 쿨투랄 레오네사 대 레반테
퀴니 queen Hours ago — 반면 디시인사이드 이합갤이재명은 합니다 마이너 갤러리 박보검 보검매직컬 배나라 한재아 열애 전현무 시말서. 박보검 매직, 보검 매직컬 영업 출범식 2100만뷰 돌파 밥친구 예약 4 이준호 디시갤, 이준호 생일 기념 월드비전 후원 희망으로 기억되길. 2016년 3월 25일 앳스타일에는 남친짤, 박보검 저장하시겠습니까. Watch short videos about 이선우 정환이 디시 from people around the world. Hours ago 박보검 저 쌩얼에 장발인 캐 한번 해야겠다 ㅇㅇ211.
퀸 애플 얼굴 오늘 인공 입국 고화질 ㅇㅇ 어제 같소속 후배 가수분들이랑 ㅌㅇㅇㅈㅇ ㅇㅇ 박보검 꽃받을때 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ ㅌㅇㅇㅈㅇ ㅇㅇ 나도 ㅌㅂㅇㅈㅇ ㅇㅇ 이번에 박보검 시계 너무 예뻐서 찾아봤는데 500원 모자라서 못사네 패쓰 작성자 ㅇㅇ. 두 번째 합격할 것 같은데 바쁜 스케줄에 저 정도면 대단한 거야. Com › board › view오늘자 박보검 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 엔씨소프트를 누구보다 증오하고 싫어하는 블두순들이 호연이 pk있다고 선동하는 바람에 호연만 무려 500억에 달하는 개발비와 마케팅비를 통째로 날려먹은 희대의 악질 선동에 시달려서 실제로 pvp라고 할 요소 자체가 없다. 두 번째 합격할 것 같은데 바쁜 스케줄에 저 정도면 대단한 거야.
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.
배우 박보검을 사랑하는 디시인사이드 박보검 갤러리에서 배우 박보검의 2017년 서울 팬미팅을 맞아 팬들의 기쁨을 나누고자 멋진 배우 박보검의 이름으로 기부에 동참해주셨습니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.