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.
4개월 동안 준비한 프로젝트에서 제외당했어요. 임신시키고 나몰라라하는 남자에겐 어떤 강제적인 조치를 할. 더the 친절한 기자들 수개월 동안 여중생과 동거하면서 성폭행한 혐의로 기소된 40대에 대해 대법원이 사랑하는 사이였다는 주장을 받아들여. 나는 낙태했다모두가 알지만 하지 않은 이야기 남성중심적 인식이 더 힘들었다, 67년간 여성의 몸을 옭아맨 형법상 낙태죄의 개정 시한이 두 달.
여수 20대 남녀 임신중 맞아 vs 사실과 달라 인터넷 공방, Kr › news › articleview임신해서 죄송합니다&mldr. 딸뻘 여중생 임신시킨 40대, 무죄 이유 뜯어보니 더the. 원하지 않는 임신으로 태어난 인물 편집 스티브 잡스 친부모가 서로 결혼하고 싶어서 자식을 가졌으나, 막상 여자 집안의 반대로 결과적으로는 원치 않았던 아이가 되어버렸고 결국 입양을 갔다.| Kr › news › plan임신은 둘이 했는데왜 책임은 여자만 지나요 서울신문. | 법률사무소 율선 홍경열 변호사는 강간으로 고소하는 것이 가장 정확하고 빠른 방법이라고 했다. | 4개월 동안 준비한 프로젝트에서 제외당했어요. |
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| 임신으로 인한 부당해고의 법적 근거 우리나라의 근로기준법 제31조에 따르면, 임신이나 출산을 이유로 해고하는 것은 금지되어 있어요. | 사건 2020고합503 강제추행, 강간, 협박 피고인 a 검사 김상문기소, 안지영, 이혜미공판 변호인 법무법인 맥 담당변호사 신광섭 판결선고 2021. | 출산 지도에 분노한 여성들 내 자궁에 전세 냈나. |
| 더the 친절한 기자들 수개월 동안 여중생과 동거하면서 성폭행한 혐의로 기소된 40대에 대해 대법원이 사랑하는 사이였다는 주장을 받아들여. | Kr › news › plan임신은 둘이 했는데왜 책임은 여자만 지나요 서울신문. | 또한, 남녀고용평등과 일가정 양립 지원에 관한 법률에서도 임신 중인 근로자를 보호하고 있답니다. |
| Com › 9528손해배상《원하지 않은 ‘임신’wrongful. | 괜찮은 방법 생각 나는게 별로 없네요 뭐 방법이 있을까요. | 4개월 동안 준비한 프로젝트에서 제외당했어요. |
단독 임신 빌미 50억원 뜯어낸 40대 내연녀 무죄.. 원하지 않는 임신으로 태어난 인물 편집 스티브 잡스 친부모가 서로 결혼하고 싶어서 자식을 가졌으나, 막상 여자 집안의 반대로 결과적으로는 원치 않았던 아이가 되어버렸고 결국 입양을 갔다.. 내연남의 아이를 낙태하는 조건으로 50억원을 받았다가 공갈죄로 기소된 여성에게 무죄가 선고됐다.. 36주차 낙태 브이로그 사건, 병원장 살인죄 10년 구형..또한, 남녀고용평등과 일가정 양립 지원에 관한 법률에서도 임신 중인 근로자를 보호하고 있답니다, 여수뉴시스김석훈 기자 전남 여수시에서 결혼을 앞둔 20대 임산부가 남자친구에게 폭행당해 억울하다는 내용의 인터넷 호소문이 게재돼 논란이, 여성의 임신중단 결정권을 존중하며, 임신중단 합법화를 요구하는 익명의 여성 모임 bwave는 6일 오후 3시, 서울 종로구 정부종합청사 앞에서 가임. 산부인과에서 정상임신을 자궁외임신으로 오진해 아이를 잃은 한 여성의 사연이 알려져 누리꾼들의 공분을 사고 있습니다. 피임을 하지 않거나 양육 책임을 지지 않는 남성을. 만국공통으로 떳떳하게 사죄하는 사람보다 뻔뻔하게 내빼는 사람을 훨씬 더 싫어하기 때문이다.
검찰은 결혼 자금 문제로 다툼이 생기자 이씨가 낙태 사실을 악용했다고 보고, 이씨를 낙태 방조 혐의로 재판에 넘겼다, 35주까지 임신 모르다 사산아기 시신 방치 20대 무죄. 임신후 책임 회피하는 남성의 죄 물어달라. Com › sadasa0907 › 223749906295임신으로 인한 부당해고 시 법적처벌 네이버 블로그. 나는 낙태했다모두가 알지만 하지 않은 이야기 남성중심적 인식이 더 힘들었다, 67년간 여성의 몸을 옭아맨 형법상 낙태죄의 개정 시한이 두 달. 법률사무소 율선 홍경열 변호사는 강간으로 고소하는 것이 가장 정확하고 빠른 방법이라고 했다.
디시히토미 법률사무소 율선 홍경열 변호사는 강간으로 고소하는 것이 가장 정확하고 빠른 방법이라고 했다. 여수뉴시스김석훈 기자 전남 여수시에서 결혼을 앞둔 20대 임산부가 남자친구에게 폭행당해 억울하다는 내용의 인터넷 호소문이 게재돼 논란이. Kr › news › plan임신은 둘이 했는데왜 책임은 여자만 지나요 서울신문. Com › news › articleview출생신고 안 한 갓난아기, 모르는 이한테 입양 보낸 부부&mldr. 임신시키고 나몰라라하는 남자에겐 어떤 강제적인 조치를 할. 레제 코스프레 섹스
딥코리아 임신시키고 나몰라라하는 남자에겐 어떤 강제적인 조치를 할. 진정으로 산부인과를 걱정하는 의사들 모임이하 진오비은 14일 최근 18세 여고생이 임신 6개월의 태아를 낙태하는 시술을 받던 중 과다출혈로 사망. 35주까지 임신 모르다 사산아기 시신 방치 20대 무죄. 더the 친절한 기자들 수개월 동안 여중생과 동거하면서 성폭행한 혐의로 기소된 40대에 대해 대법원이 사랑하는 사이였다는 주장을 받아들여. 미국 연방대법원의 임신중단권 폐기 결정으로 여론이 들끓고 있는 가운데 성폭행을 당한 10세 피해자가 거주하던 지역에서 임신중단 수술을 받지 못한. 래빗홀 한국야동
레무 야동 36주차 낙태 브이로그 사건, 병원장 살인죄 10년 구형. 미국 연방대법원의 임신중단권 폐기 결정으로 여론이 들끓고 있는 가운데 성폭행을 당한 10세 피해자가 거주하던 지역에서 임신중단 수술을 받지 못한. 검찰은 결혼 자금 문제로 다툼이 생기자 이씨가 낙태 사실을 악용했다고 보고, 이씨를 낙태 방조 혐의로 재판에 넘겼다. 사건 2020고합503 강제추행, 강간, 협박 피고인 a 검사 김상문기소, 안지영, 이혜미공판 변호인 법무법인 맥 담당변호사 신광섭 판결선고 2021. 산부인과에서 정상임신을 자궁외임신으로 오진해 아이를 잃은 한 여성의 사연이 알려져 누리꾼들의 공분을 사고 있습니다. 레제 원본 디시
딥페이크 카리나 야동 서울연합뉴스 김치연 기자 한 20대 여성이 임신 35주째까지 임신 사실을 모르다가 홀로 출산한 뒤 사망한 아기를 방치한 혐의로 재판에. 만국공통으로 떳떳하게 사죄하는 사람보다 뻔뻔하게 내빼는 사람을 훨씬 더 싫어하기 때문이다. 검찰은 결혼 자금 문제로 다툼이 생기자 이씨가 낙태 사실을 악용했다고 보고, 이씨를 낙태 방조 혐의로 재판에 넘겼다. 여수뉴시스김석훈 기자 전남 여수시에서 결혼을 앞둔 20대 임산부가 남자친구에게 폭행당해 억울하다는 내용의 인터넷 호소문이 게재돼 논란이. 당장 대한민국에서도 명백한 잘못이 있음에도 자기는 잘못이 없다고 끝까지 뻗대면 멈추지않고 마지막까지 더 강력하게 비난하는 모습을 볼 수 있다.
렉돌 야동 의붓딸 12년간 성폭행하고 임신시킨 50대, 항소심도 징역 25년. Kr › news › articleview임신해서 죄송합니다&mldr. 임신으로 인한 부당해고의 법적 근거 우리나라의 근로기준법 제31조에 따르면, 임신이나 출산을 이유로 해고하는 것은 금지되어 있어요. 최근 청와대 국민청원에는 산부인과 의사의 오진으로 힘들게 임신한 뱃속 아이가 사망했다는 제목의 글이 올라왔습니다. 임신으로 인한 부당해고의 법적 근거 우리나라의 근로기준법 제31조에 따르면, 임신이나 출산을 이유로 해고하는 것은 금지되어 있어요.
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.
, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.