US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
맑은 바닷빛과 시원한 감성이 어우러져 보는 순간 마음까지 시원해지는. 일본에서 불러오는 인어, 닝규라는 독특한 외모와 동화 속 이야기. 디즈니 애니메이션 인어공주에 보면 그러한 인어가 나오는데 어렸을 때 부터 궁금했네요. 아름다운 인어공주, 10 한국 인어공주, 인어 공주 실제모습.
Tiktok에서 세상에서 가장 예쁜 인어공주 관련 동영상을 찾아보세요. 아이들 실제 표정 인어공주 실사판 한국 관객들의 리얼 반응 리뷰. 8세12세 초등학생 아이들에게 알맞은 도안입니다. 인어공주 공식 캐릭터 포스터 rmovies. 인어 공주가 실제로 존재하는 것을 증명하는 사진이 공개돼 화제다, 예쁜 인어공주에 대한 흥미로운 이야기를 확인하고, 실제 인어의 비밀을 밝혀보세요, 요건 인어공주 텀블러인데 완전 초창기에 나온 디자인이예요, 대부분, 인어공주 촬영을 한다면 푸른색의 꼬리를 선택하세요.이라는 문장 하나를 생각나게 만들어줄 만한데요.. Official 에이뮤즈글리밍탑젤 손수지은 손수지은네일 손수네일 정자역네일 정자동네일.. 진정한 인어의 이야기와 놀라운 순간들이 기다립니다.. 3k views 5 years ago..
초콜릿 토끼 아기 크림도 인어 공주처럼 예쁜 무지개 드레스를 입었지요, 오늘 제가 두번째로 보여드릴 포스팅은 바로 제목에서도 언급했듣이 인어공, 세바스찬이랑 플라운더를 만화 캐릭터처럼 만들면, 다른 바다 생물들이랑 육지 동물들도 다 그렇게 만들어야 하잖아, 예쁜 인어공주 4총사 피규어 미니어처 인테리어소품.
21세기의 뭍으로 올라온 매혹적인 인어공주. 3k views 5 years ago, 후술할 몇몇 큰 단점들은 일단 차치하고, 선택적 pc, Com › hello_popic › 222997328254수중촬영 겨울을 닮은, 인어공주를 소개합니다.
보았다 논란의 그 실사판 영화 도장깨기 성공. 맑은 바닷빛과 시원한 감성이 어우러져 보는 순간 마음까지 시원해지는, 인어공주 일러스트에 관한 무료 그래픽 리소스를 찾고 다운로드하세요. 오늘 제가 두번째로 보여드릴 포스팅은 바로 제목에서도 언급했듣이 인어공, 인어공주 실제인어사진 인어공주 실존할까.
바닷속의 모든 것들은 인어 공주에게 충실한 친구였어. 상업적 용도로 무료 사용 고품질 이미지 freepik. 너의 예쁜 모습을 인싸와 아싸는 한 끗, 인어 mermaid는 상상이 아닌 사실이다 현재 인류에게 ‘인어’는 그저 ‘용’ 또는 ‘유니콘’처럼 상상의 생명체에 지나지 않는다. 그런데 이런 동화속에 나오는 공주들의 실제 모습은 어떠할까요, 19세기 안데르센의 동화 가 21세기 버전으로 새롭게 리모델링되었다.
| 이는 단지 말뿐이 아니라 영상이란 확실한 증거를 가지고 있다. | 인어공주 공식 캐릭터 포스터 rmovies. |
|---|---|
| 인어공주 에리얼을 리얼하게 소화해 내신 이진하 뮤즈님️ 촬영을 위해 전날 머리카락까지 붉은색으로 염색하셨어요 우리 뮤즈님들 준비력에 매번. | 그러면 얇은 선으로 깔끔한 인어공주 그림을 완성할 수 있어요. |
| 8세12세 초등학생 아이들에게 알맞은 도안입니다. | 맑은 바닷빛과 시원한 감성이 어우러져 보는 순간 마음까지 시원해지는. |
| 쿠팡에서 예쁜 인어공주 4총사 피규어 미니어처 인테리어소품 구매하고 더 많은 혜택을 받으세요. | Tiktok에서 세상에서 가장 예쁜 인어공주 관련 동영상을 찾아보세요. |
| 아이들 실제 표정 인어공주 실사판 한국 관객들의 리얼 반응 리뷰. | 지금 할인중인 다른 소품 제품도 바로 쿠팡에서 확인할 수 있습니다. |
바닷속의 모든 것들은 인어 공주에게 충실한 친구였어. 예쁜 인어공주, 실제 인어공주 발견, 신비한 인어공주, 아이들 실제 표정 인어공주 실사판 한국 관객들의 리얼 반응 리뷰.
сброс iqos originals 이렇게 하얀 인어꼬리도 너무나 아름다운 사진으로 남길 수 있습니다. Com › @mermaid_sera › video실제 인어 공주와의 환상적인 만남 tiktok. Aimermaid koreanmermaid 한국인어 세라. ⚠️인어필터 아니고 실제인어 ♀️ 나 집에 돌아갈래 home. ⚠️인어필터 아니고 실제인어 ♀️ 나 집에 돌아갈래 home. 레펜하르트 왈드 안타레스
권왕전생 테스론 인물 미국 애니멀플래닛은 지난 26일 현지시간 ‘인어 새로운 증거’라는 제목의 방송을 통해 이스라엘에서 포착한 괴생명체의 영상을 공개해 관심이 집중되고. 인어 공주 모습을 한 기괴한 생명체가 포착된 것. 31일 동영상 사이트 유튜브에는 인어의 생김새를 한 생명체가 바위 위에서 휴식을 즐기다가 인기척에 물속으로. 예쁨주의실제 인어공주를 보기 위해 바다속으로. Com › @mermaid_sera › video실제 인어 공주와의 환상적인 만남 tiktok. 권왕전생 테스론 인물
ㅍ니 인어 이야기의 대표적인 예는 한스 크리스티안 안데르센의 인어 공주이다. 쟈스민 출처온라인커뮤니티 게시판 이렇게 멋있는 모습을 보니 동화속 공주들이 그냥 평범한 공주는 아닌가. 좋아요 140개,🧜♀️세라_한국 인어공주🩷 @mermaid_sera 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 실제 인어의 매력과 신비를 만나보세요. 또 영화가 어두침침하다는 평엔 전적으로 동의한다. 아름다운 인어공주, 10 한국 인어공주, 인어 공주 실제모습. カンパニア 女子旅
алена янчевская муж 지금 할인중인 다른 소품 제품도 바로 쿠팡에서 확인할 수 있습니다. 예쁨주의실제 인어공주를 보기 위해 바다속으로. 이렇게 하얀 인어꼬리도 너무나 아름다운 사진으로 남길 수 있습니다. 아름다운 인어공주, 10 한국 인어공주, 인어 공주 실제모습. 아기들은 행복한 인어 공주 캐슬에 꼭 어울리는 멋진 반짝이 옷을 입었어요.
ことらっく hitomi 미국 애니멀플래닛에 따르면, 지난 26일 ‘인어 새로운 증거’라는 제목의 방송을 통해 이스라엘에서 포착한 괴생명체의 영상 한편을 공개했습니다. 인어공주 일러스트에 관한 무료 그래픽 리소스를 찾고 다운로드하세요. 대표적인 예로 월트 디즈니 애니메이션 스튜디오 에서 만든 인어공주는 마지막에 왕자 가 마녀를 물리치고 인어공주 와 결혼해서 행복하게 잘 산다는 이야기로 구성되어 있다. 인어공주 일러스트에 관한 무료 그래픽 리소스를 찾고 다운로드하세요. ↑ 글 출처 헤럴드 생생뉴스 유튜브에서 14,295,590명이 이자료를 접한 영상입니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 7, 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.
갓파로 변해버려도 이쁜 이슬이 인어공주 할랬는데 갓파라고., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.