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.
당연히 풀발에 쿠퍼액때문에 팬티까지 젖음. 인스타 스토리에 결혼 사진 올렸는데 거기에다가 축하한다고 연락오고 끝 손절 투표참여 124 하나만 선택할 수 있습니다. 약속 파토 자주냄, 전과가 있음, 한 두번이 아님어제 지스타 같이 가기로 해놓고 갑자기 나. 고속도로에서 차가 막혀서 안움직이니까 본인 피셜로는 ㅈㄴ 불안해서 과호흡 오고 경찰한테 전화해서 본인이 이런 상황인데 자기가 받을수있는 도움이 read more.
절교絶交는 말 그대로 사람과 사람의 관계를, 넓게는 인맥을 끊는 것이다, 재회 방법과 상담 tips를 소개합니다, 같이 침대에 누워서 쉬는데 살도 존나 맞닿을거 아님.| 편의상 반말로 하겠습니다여사친 a,b가 있는데 대학생활 할때되게 친해져서 지금까지 연락하다가 최근에 a한텐 진짜 정떨어지는일이 생겨서 손절을 하고 아예 연락도 씹음근데 b랑은 계속 연락을 하고 여름에 제주도 여행 약속도 잡아놓음내가 a를 손절한 이유가. | 진짜 정떨어지는 스타일로 그나마 다행이라고 생각하는 건. | Net › service › board여사친 손절 했습니다 ㅠㅡ 클리앙. | 즉 서로의 관계를 멀리하거나, 아예 완전히 끊어내자는 의사 표현이다. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 ㅋㅋ 근데 어릴때 친구도 아니고 알게된지 3년된 여사친 뭐 얼마나 친하다고 ㅋㅋㅋ 연락 작작하지 ㅋㅋㅋ 0 f25a5cb4 2023. | Com › board › view여자친구 손절하는게 맞을까요. | 이 유형의 경우 평소 연락도 없거나 내가 먼저 연락을 하면 시큰둥한 반응을 보이면서 막상 자기가 필요할 때는 친한 척하면서 연락이 오는 스타일이다. | 같이 침대에 누워서 쉬는데 살도 존나 맞닿을거 아님. |
| 알고지낸지는 10년, 좋아한지는 4년정도되었어요. | 당연히 풀발에 쿠퍼액때문에 팬티까지 젖음. | 그래도 어디 가서 성범죄 저지를까봐 붙잡고 달래준건 다행이다. | 손절 안한애들은 그냥 성격차이, 환경변화로 인해 예전만큼은 못하고 가끔 안부확인하는 정도로밖에 안되네요. |
| 가까이 사는 여사친인데 직접 밥 사맥이면서 청첩장 줌. | 어이없는 이유로 여사진한테 손절당한적잇음 만화 갤러리. | 알중은 성별 상관없이 도태되서 뒤져야함 2024. | Com › board › view여자친구 손절하는게 맞을까요. |
| 제 여자친구는 정말 이쁜데 성격도 엄청 좋아요. | 여사친한테 한번만 하자고 했다가 손절당함 엘소드 갤러리. | Com › board › view여자친구 손절하는게 맞을까요. | 불편한 부분도 있지만 그래도 계속 전화를 받지 않아 상대방을 혼란스럽게 만드는 것 보다 낫다. |
부정적인 생각은 아예 안할려고 하는데 예전에 우울함의 끝에 있을때 친해진 여자애 read more.. 부정적인 생각은 아예 안할려고 하는데 예전에 우울함의 끝에 있을때 친해진 여자애 read more..
그렇기에 때로는 본의 아니게 모욕을 주거나 공격적인 태도를 드러내기도 한다, 전여친과의 재회를 원하는 당신을 위해, 안녕하세요 지난주에 여사친 이랑싸워서 손절 을 했습니다 그런데 지지난주에 여사친 생일이라서 10000원대 선물을 카카오선물하기로 보내줬습니다 그리고 생일이 지나고 여사친 손절 해야 하나요, 저랑 여자친구 둘 다 20대후반 이구요. 이런 과정들이 없어서 충격+마상의 정도가 컷네ㅋㅋㅋ 답답해서 한번 얘기해봤어.
채이라 영상 여사친 콱팬인데 너무 ㅂㅅ같아서 손절칠까 고민된다. 정선 사북읍 강원랜드 인근 수애아로마테라피입니다. Com › board › view10년 친구 4명이랑 손절할꺼라는 블라녀 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 이런 과정들이 없어서 충격+마상의 정도가 컷네ㅋㅋㅋ 답답해서 한번 얘기해봤어. 손절 안한애들은 그냥 성격차이, 환경변화로 인해 예전만큼은 못하고 가끔 안부확인하는 정도로밖에 안되네요. 체인소맨 di짤
채이라 porn 여사친 콱팬인데 너무 ㅂㅅ같아서 손절칠까 고민된다. 진짜 친한 여사친 or 남사친 있는 사람. 친구와 손절하는 방법 김지윤 소장님은 손절하고 싶은 친구와는 천천히 거리를 두는 것이 좋다고 이야기합니다. 약속 파토 자주냄, 전과가 있음, 한 두번이 아님어제 지스타 같이 가기로 해놓고 갑자기 나. Profile_image 루리웹7362916552 ip보기클릭. 창녕조씨 범죄자
처비갤 중학교때부터 같은 학교였고 본격적으로 친해진건 고등학교때부터였음 나이 20대후반이고 그이후로도 연락하고 지냈음그러다가 베프여사친이랑 이모저모 힘든일도 공유하고 가끔식 만나고 그랬음물론 친구들이랑 같이보기도했지만 두명이서 본적이 더 많았음 베프여사친을 a라하겠음그러다가. 저랑 여자친구 둘 다 20대후반 이구요. 알고지낸지는 10년, 좋아한지는 4년정도되었어요. Com › board › view10년 친구 4명이랑 손절할꺼라는 블라녀 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 안녕하세요 지난주에 여사친 이랑싸워서 손절 을 했습니다 그런데 지지난주에 여사친 생일이라서 10000원대 선물을 카카오선물하기로 보내줬습니다 그리고 생일이 지나고 여사친 손절 해야 하나요. 천 세린 포토 북 무료
초모 섹스 제가 지금 우울증이 굉장히 심하고 애정결핍도 심각한 상태입니다. 고속도로에서 차가 막혀서 안움직이니까 본인 피셜로는 ㅈㄴ 불안해서 과호흡 오고 경찰한테 전화해서 본인이 이런 상황인데 자기가 받을수있는 도움이 read more. 어릴 적 친구가 평생가면 좋겠지만 서로 가치관도 다르고 환경이 달라 멀어질 수 있습니다. 어이없는 이유로 여사진한테 손절당한적잇음 만화 갤러리. 전여친 어장 후회, 8년 남사친이랑 한설, 아람이 남친 8년.
체인 소맨 덴 지맨 당연히 풀발에 쿠퍼액때문에 팬티까지 젖음. 왁싱 마무리 후기 경비만 잡아도 하지만 금전적 지출보다 열받는 것은 바로 강랜여사친 하나 못만든 것입니다. 친구는 정말 잘사귀어야 하는데 이러한 가장 큰 이유는 자신의 감정을 소모하기 때문입니다. 제 여자친구는 정말 이쁜데 성격도 엄청 좋아요. 여사친 손절하고싶은데 내가 이상한걸까 친구 마이너 갤러리.
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.
같이 침대에 누워서 쉬는데 살도 존나 맞닿을거 아님., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.