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.
결혼까지 생각한 여자친구였는데 엄청 화를 내내요여자친구는 클럽에 대해 개방적인 생각을 가지고 있습니다클럽이라는 곳의 분위기가 좋아서 가지만 가서 술자리를 함께한 그 누구와도 연락처를 주고 받은적이 없었고, 원나잇 또는 사귄적도 없었다고 합니다. 5성급 추천최신 발표 포커클럽 디시 의 혁명적인 돌파구와 카지노 게임 다운로드 베스트 온라인 카지노 분야에 미치는 영향. 죽은 사람을 농담의 소재로 사용하는 드립을 말한다. 산부인과 의사가 알려주는 g스팟보다 좋다는.
| 트위치 방송에서 가장 큰 인기를 얻는 방송. | 친구들 단톡방이 있는데어제부터 한놈이 계속 클럽. |
|---|---|
| 플라이트클럽 100% 정품이고 믿을 만해. | 잘생긴 한국남자를 찾아보기 힘들다고 성토하는 여자들반면 여자들은 70%가 이쁘다면서 십중칠예라는 말까지 나온 상황왜 이런 외모불균형이 생겨버린걸까. |
| 그 당시 전두환을 못알아보고 악수를 무시하면 생기는 일. | 클럽 부비부비 디시 부사관 장교 차이 디시. |
| 말이 안주류 & 술 페어링이지, 파스타와 각종 핫 디시, 디저트까지 깔아 놓으니 이건 그냥 축소형. | 부산 해운대 스웨디시〔 οιο칠육팔이사삼공팔 〕부산 해운대 노래방 불당동미러룸 성정동노래클럽 천안노래방알바구인구직 천안 노래클럽 부산광안리노래방의 검색. |
| 볼갤서는 클럽들어간다하면 부정적인 댓글 많이달리던데 결국 볼링 오래칠려면 클럽 들어가는게 좋긴해요 상주에서 직접 발을 넓힐수 있는 수단이라. | 사삼공팔 )평택노래홀2차 김해노래방 인계동노래방주대 강남 스웨디시 오산 원동 노래방 두정동노래클럽의 다나와 통합검색 결과입니다. |
창단 당시 충청도 를 연고로 했던 ob 베어스 를 자연스럽게 좋아했으나 ob 베어스 가 연고지를 서울로 이전하고 대전광역시 에는 빙그레 이글스 가 창단되면서 당연히 빙그레 이글스 의 팬이 되었다.. 볼링치고싶은데 주변에 같이 칠사람이 없다 볼링 갤러리.. 의사 월급 공개했다고 의사들한테 미친듯이 욕먹는 의사유튜버ㅠㅠ..
클럽 디 오아시스 준비물 수영복, 모자, 아쿠아슈즈, 선글라스, 또한, 국내에서 생산되어 높은 품질을, 사삼공팔 )평택노래홀2차 김해노래방 인계동노래방주대 강남 스웨디시 오산 원동 노래방 두정동노래클럽의 다나와 통합검색 결과입니다. 실제 방송사고 아나운서 민망 실수 사고51. 플라이트 클럽은 진짜인데, 가격은 그냥 강간 수준이야, 잘생긴 한국남자를 찾아보기 힘들다고 성토하는 여자들반면 여자들은 70%가 이쁘다면서 십중칠예라는 말까지 나온 상황왜 이런 외모불균형이 생겨버린걸까.
의사 월급 공개했다고 의사들한테 미친듯이 욕먹는 의사유튜버ㅠㅠ. 나도 중국 일본 친구들 있어서 이야기 많이 해 봤는데, 역사 가르칠, 이번에 틱톡에 태용이가 우리칠클럽음원으로 영상올렸던데 팬이 운영하는 거라면 멤버들도 다 알만큼 유명, 부산 해운대 스웨디시〔 οιο칠육팔이사삼공팔 〕부산 해운대 노래방 불당동미러룸 성정동노래클럽 천안노래방알바구인구직 천안 노래클럽 부산광안리노래방의 검색, 죽은 사람을 농담의 소재로 사용하는 드립을 말한다. 대전광역시 토박이로서 한화 이글스 의 열성 팬이다.
5성급 추천최신 발표 포커클럽 디시 의 혁명적인 돌파구와 카지노 게임 다운로드 베스트 온라인 카지노 분야에 미치는 영향.. 클럽 라면스프 사건 클럽을 너무나 좋아하는 친구가 있어요 2003년인가..
볼링치고싶은데 주변에 같이 칠사람이 없다 볼링 갤러리. Com › qna › dirsnct 127 우리칠클럽 네이버 지식in. 여기는 웨스틴서울파르나스 @westin_seoul_parnas 의.
히토미숫자 결혼까지 생각한 여자친구였는데 엄청 화를 내내요여자친구는 클럽에 대해 개방적인 생각을 가지고 있습니다클럽이라는 곳의 분위기가 좋아서 가지만 가서 술자리를 함께한 그 누구와도 연락처를 주고 받은적이 없었고, 원나잇 또는 사귄적도 없었다고 합니다. 말이 안주류 & 술 페어링이지, 파스타와 각종 핫 디시, 디저트까지 깔아 놓으니 이건 그냥 축소형. 의사 월급 공개했다고 의사들한테 미친듯이 욕먹는 의사유튜버ㅠㅠ. 여기는 웨스틴서울파르나스 @westin_seoul_parnas 의. 볼링치고싶은데 주변에 같이 칠사람이 없다 볼링 갤러리. 히토미 최면
히토미 제외 검색 Com › qna › dirsnct 127 우리칠클럽 네이버 지식in. 여기는 웨스틴서울파르나스 @westin_seoul_parnas 의. 죽은 사람을 농담의 소재로 사용하는 드립을 말한다. 이번에 틱톡에 태용이가 우리칠클럽음원으로 영상올렸던데 팬이 운영하는 거라면 멤버들도 다 알만큼 유명. 실제 방송사고 아나운서 민망 실수 사고51. 힙스터녀
히토미 타나카 디시 Nct 127 우리칠클럽 계정은 회사에서 운영하는 건가요 팬이 운영하는 건가요. 결혼까지 생각한 여자친구였는데 엄청 화를 내내요여자친구는 클럽에 대해 개방적인 생각을 가지고 있습니다클럽이라는 곳의 분위기가 좋아서 가지만 가서 술자리를 함께한 그 누구와도 연락처를 주고 받은적이 없었고, 원나잇 또는 사귄적도 없었다고 합니다. 여기에 무려 소고기 스테이크와 양갈비가 나온다고. 의사 월급 공개했다고 의사들한테 미친듯이 욕먹는 의사유튜버ㅠㅠ. Com › qna › dirsnct 127 우리칠클럽 네이버 지식in. 히토미 타투
히토미 후배위 여기는 웨스틴서울파르나스 @westin_seoul_parnas 의. 말이 안주류 & 술 페어링이지, 파스타와 각종 핫 디시, 디저트까지 깔아 놓으니 이건 그냥 축소형. 트위치 방송에서 가장 큰 인기를 얻는 방송. 잘생긴 한국남자를 찾아보기 힘들다고 성토하는 여자들반면 여자들은 70%가 이쁘다면서 십중칠예라는 말까지 나온 상황왜 이런 외모불균형이 생겨버린걸까. 볼갤서는 클럽들어간다하면 부정적인 댓글 많이달리던데 결국 볼링 오래칠려면 클럽 들어가는게 좋긴해요 상주에서 직접 발을 넓힐수 있는 수단이라.
히토미 클리 클럽 라면스프 사건 클럽을 너무나 좋아하는 친구가 있어요 2003년인가. 5성급 추천최신 발표 포커클럽 디시 의 혁명적인 돌파구와 카지노 게임 다운로드 베스트 온라인 카지노 분야에 미치는 영향. 트위치 방송에서 가장 큰 인기를 얻는 방송. 산부인과 의사가 알려주는 g스팟보다 좋다는. 데드사이드클럽 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.
창단 당시 충청도 를 연고로 했던 ob 베어스 를 자연스럽게 좋아했으나 ob 베어스 가 연고지를 서울로 이전하고 대전광역시 에는 빙그레 이글스 가 창단되면서 당연히 빙그레 이글스 의 팬이 되었다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.