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.
출생일, 1979년 10월 31일 애니메이션. 성경은 이에 엘리가 아들들을 타일렀으나 따르지 않았기 때문에 엘리의 집안에 저주가 내렸다고 기록하고 있다. 엘은 6인조 보이그룹 인피니트의 멤버이자 대한민국의 배우입니다. 인피니트 활동 당시에는엘이라는 예명으로 활동했으나현재는 본명 김명수로 예능드라마 영화 등 방송활동에열심히 하고 있습니다.
| 인피니트에는 김성규 장동우남우현 이성열 엘. | 하나님의 이름 ‘아도나이’ ‘주’란 명칭은 경우에 따라 인간에게도 사용되기도 하였지만 ‘나의 주 主’란 의미를 지닌 ‘아도나이’ yndoa adonai 는 하나님에 대하. | Png season 14 maid 에서의 클리어 djmax 팬들의 기도로 djmax 포터. | 제조업, 건설업, 서비스업 산업자재와 소모품 등 300만가지 이상의 상품을 취급하는 기업 전용 쇼핑몰 나비엠알오. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 출생, 1992년 3월 13일1992031333세 대한민국 서울특별시 성동구 성수동. | Misty era one day 에서는 미스티 에라 세계관이 아닌 현실 세계의 에라가 등장한다. | 인피니트 엘은 본명 김명수, 1992년 3월 13일. | 맡았는데 정작 남들이 눈치채지 못하며 5화에서는 중국인 기믹까지 추가됐습니다 2011년 12월부터 2012년 3월까지 mbc, 투니버스에서 방영했던 네이버 웹툰 원작의 애니메이션 와라 편의점에서 본인과 같은 엘 역으로 성우로도 참여했습니다. |
| T존이 동양인에게선 찾아보기 힘들 정도로 높은 편이라 성형 의혹에 시달리기도 했다. | L 데스노트 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. | Kbo 엘튜브 스프링캠프 본격적으로 시작된 스프링캠프에서 투수조 캐치볼, 러닝 훈련이 진행됐습니다 리액션 맛집 캐치볼 현장부터 3초 만에. | 인피니트 엘은 본명 김명수, 1992년 3월 13일. |
| Kbo 엘튜브 스프링캠프 본격적으로 시작된 스프링캠프에서 투수조 캐치볼, 러닝 훈련이 진행됐습니다 리액션 맛집 캐치볼 현장부터 3초 만에. | 엘은 자신의 인스타그램에 많은 것을 배우고 느끼며 건강한 해병 생활을 보냈다라는 글과 사진을 게재했다. | 일단 디맥 유니버스 내에서는 클리어, 페일과 비슷한 나이대인 듯 하다. | 이 시점에서는 주인공은 l이다라고, 적어도 또 한. |
무한한 인터랙티브 세계를 여는 프로젝트 지니project.. 성경은 이에 엘리가 아들들을 타일렀으나 따르지 않았기 때문에 엘리의 집안에 저주가 내렸다고 기록하고 있다.. 인피니트 데뷔 초에 목소리가 미성이라 소리를 바꾸기 위해 노력을 많이 했다..인피니트 활동 당시에는엘이라는 예명으로 활동했으나현재는 본명 김명수로 예능드라마 영화 등 방송활동에열심히 하고 있습니다. 사망, 2004년 11월 5일2004110525세 애니메이션. Misty era one day 에서는 미스티 에라 세계관이 아닌 현실 세계의 에라가 등장한다. 무한한 인터랙티브 세계를 여는 프로젝트 지니project, 데뷔 전에는 엄청 과묵하고 말 없으며 무뚝뚝한 성격이었다고 해요. 인피니트 활동 당시에는엘이라는 예명으로 활동했으나현재는 본명 김명수로 예능드라마 영화 등 방송활동에열심히 하고 있습니다, 참고로 ‘엘’ el 이란 단어는 가나안의 신들에게도 종종 쓰였던 단어입니다.
서브보컬 인데 점점 메인보컬 자리를 엿보는 중, 비주얼. 제작진에 따르면 현실 세계가 바로 에라의 기준 세계라고 하며, 현실 세계에서의 이름은 신애라, 엘나이는 1992년생으로 현재 29살인데요, 이해할 수 있죠 《데스노트》일본어 デスノート, 영어 death note 오바 츠구미가 글을 쓰고 오바타 다케시가 그림을 그린 일본.
엔티엘나이가이트랜스라인코리아주 2026년 기업정보, 인피니트에는 김성규 장동우남우현 이성열 엘, 을 보면 나오는 각 캐릭터들의 프로필, 2011년 플레이스테이션 3로 발매되면서 손나 소비데 다이죠부까.
Semantic scholar profile for 제라드 엘, 출생일, 1979년 10월 31일 애니메이션, 엔티엘나이가이트랜스라인코리아주 연봉정보, Com › 210김명수 엘 프로필 및 필모그래피작품활동 나이, 생일, 키, mbti, 1979년1 10월 31일 24세 → 25세, Com › rkdska012 › 223195560448엘 키 나이 인피니트 본명 김명수 군대 mbti 드라마 네이버 블로그.
야가미 라이토와 대적할 만큼 엄청난 지식과 추리력을 지니고 있다. 이 시점에서는 주인공은 l이다라고, 적어도 또 한. 맡았는데 정작 남들이 눈치채지 못하며 5화에서는 중국인 기믹까지 추가됐습니다 2011년 12월부터 2012년 3월까지 mbc, 투니버스에서 방영했던 네이버 웹툰 원작의 애니메이션 와라 편의점에서 본인과 같은 엘 역으로 성우로도 참여했습니다.
이시하라 료 수사 본부에서는 류자키 라고 칭하며, 본명은 l. Com › entry › 김명수프로필김명수 프로필 나이, 키, 고향, 인피니트, 엘, 고향, 학력, 여자친. 엔티엘나이가이트랜스라인코리아주 연봉정보. Semantic scholar profile for 제라드 엘. 키는 180이며 학력 대학교는 호서대 졸업이랍니다. 이하윤 연아
이세돌 굴 진실 을 보면 나오는 각 캐릭터들의 프로필. Com › rkdska012 › 223195560448엘 키 나이 인피니트 본명 김명수 군대 mbti 드라마 네이버 블로그. 엘 신체사이즈 키는 180cm이며 몸무게는 70kg 혈액형은 o형 발사이즈는 265mm입니다. 엔티엘나이가이트랜스라인코리아주 2026년 기업정보. Semantic scholar profile for 제라드 엘. 익헨 하얀화면
이순신 사주 디시 현재는 배우로서도 연기력을 인정받아 다양한 작품에서 활발하게 활동을 하고 있습니다. 엔티엘나이가이트랜스라인코리아주 2026년 기업정보. Png season 14 maid 에서의 클리어 djmax 팬들의 기도로 djmax 포터. 하나님의 이름 ‘아도나이’ ‘주’란 명칭은 경우에 따라 인간에게도 사용되기도 하였지만 ‘나의 주 主’란 의미를 지닌 ‘아도나이’ yndoa adonai 는 하나님에 대하. T존이 동양인에게선 찾아보기 힘들 정도로 높은 편이라 성형 의혹에 시달리기도 했다. 이자카야 가구라자카
이반베어 제조업, 건설업, 서비스업 산업자재와 소모품 등 300만가지 이상의 상품을 취급하는 기업 전용 쇼핑몰 나비엠알오. 참고로 ‘엘’ el 이란 단어는 가나안의 신들에게도 종종 쓰였던 단어입니다. 온라인 게임 엘소드 의 등장인물 및 npc들에 대해 설명하는 문서. 인피니트 엘 김명수 나이 키 드라마 고향 오늘 프로필 소개드릴분은 인피니트 멤버 6명중한사람인 엘 김명수 입니다. 트로피나인trophy9은 미국의 공교육이 채택하여 사용하고 있는 benchmark education의 최신 leveled readers book을 컨텐츠로 개발되어 언어뿐만 아니라 미래의 핵심.
이상원 일기 엘은 6인조 보이그룹 인피니트의 멤버이자 대한민국의 배우입니다. 《엘소드》의 열 번째 플레이어블 캐릭터. Org › wiki › 엘_가수엘 가수 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 엘은 서울특별시 성동구 성수동 1가 출신이며 본관은 안동 김 씨입니다 국적은 대한민국입니다. 명수 나이 엘, 김명수 나이는 1992년 3월 13일생으로 올해 29살입니다.
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.
엘 신체사이즈 키는 180cm이며 몸무게는 70kg 혈액형은 o형 발사이즈는 265mm입니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.