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.
러우전쟁 사상자 러시아와 세계 미니 갤러리. 포텐 우크라이나, 결국 아브디브카에서 패배, 철수 결정. 현지 시각 15일 독일 dpa통신 보도를 보면, 유엔 인권최고대표사무소ohchr는 전날 홈페이지를 통해. 다윗 곧 프로펫 이 政演 님께서 신의 율법들의 명령들을 말씀을 하실 때마다 신의 상상을 초월을 하는 기적들의 신원하심과 형벌들의 재앙들과 재난들 read more.
우크라이나 전쟁의 사망자 빨간약 러시아와 세계 미니 갤러리, 우크라이나 전사자 120130만명이 맞다고 봄 러시아와. 러시아 국방부가 공개한 우크라이나 외국인 용병과 사망자 수. Com › korean › articles우크라이나 전쟁의 최종 단계.러우전쟁 사상자 러시아와 세계 미니 갤러리.. 영상이 좀 잔인해서 캡쳐본만 올리겠습니다.. 기사는 팩트를 전하면 되는데 왜 왜곡할까.. Net › hit4 › 31977최근 러시아군 사망자 추이 보고서 인기 게시물 시보드..오싹오싹 최근 러시아군 사망자 추이 보고서 실시간 베스트, 오싹오싹 최근 러시아군 사망자 추이 보고서 실시간 베스트, 이제 군첩들이 사망자가지고 시비걸로 온건가, 러시아군과 우크라이나군이 백병전을 벌이는 영상이 공개되었습니다. 현실적으로 보면 러시아랑 우크라이나랑 사상자 비슷할 거임. 서로를 동등한 전투자로 존중했지만, 러시아인은 그가 자신의 소총에 기어 read more.
| 지난 7일 현재 2만7423명의 러시아군 사망자가 확인됐다. | Com › international › europe전쟁 1000일 우크라 영토 18%가 러 수중에 넘어갔다. | 우크라이나 사상자 수가 실제로는 그보다 더 많을 것으로 보이지만 이코노미스트 집계를 기준으로 러시아보다는 적은 셈이다. |
|---|---|---|
| 전쟁 이후 우크라이나의 출산율은 약 3분의 1로 폭락했다. | 비비씨나 이코노미스트보면 러시아쪽이 20만 이상 우크라쪽이 10만 이상 죽었다고 추정하던데 그럼 21세기 사망자 1등 맞음. | 서로를 동등한 전투자로 존중했지만, 러시아인은 그가 자신의 소총에 기어 read more. |
| 위 링크에서 보고서를 볼수있음사상자사망자+전투가 불가능할 정도의 부최근 러시아군 사망자 추이 보고서. | 다윗 곧 프로펫 이 政演 님께서 신의 율법들의 명령들을 말씀을 하실 때마다 신의 상상을 초월을 하는 기적들의 신원하심과 형벌들의 재앙들과 재난들 read more. | 이러한 제약에도 불구, 미디어조나와 bbc 러시아 서비스는 자원봉사자 네트워크와 협력해 러시아 전역의 공동묘지 사진과 소셜미디어 게시를 통해 확인된 전쟁 사망자 데이터베이스를 구축했다. |
러시아는 2022년 9월 자국군 전사자가 5천937명이라고 밝힌 이후 사상자 현황을 공개하지 않고 있다. 우크라이나 사상자 수가 실제로는 그보다 더 많을 것으로 보이지만 이코노미스트 집계를 기준으로 러시아보다는 적은 셈이다. 러시아는 2022년 9월 자국군 전사자가 5천937명이라고 밝힌 이후 사상자 현황을 공개하지 않고 있다.
전쟁 장기화로 우크라이나 국민의 고통도 깊어지고 있다. 각 사망자는 각기 다른 이야기와 꿈, 그리고, 여기까지가 공식적으로 신원이 확인된 양측 사망자 수임, 이러한 제약에도 불구, 미디어조나와 bbc 러시아 서비스는 자원봉사자 네트워크와 협력해 러시아 전역의 공동묘지 사진과 소셜미디어 게시를 통해 확인된 전쟁 사망자 데이터베이스를 구축했다. Html우크라이나군이 아브디브카에서 후퇴한다고 발표했습니다.
한국인도 15명이 참전해 5명이 사망한 것으로 집계됐다, Com › korean › articles우크라이나 전쟁의 최종 단계, Organalysisrussiasgrindingwarukraine최근 미국 전략국제문제연구소csis에서 러우전쟁 사상자 추이에. 작년 2월 우크라이나 전쟁이 시작된 이후 현재까지 민간인 사망자가 만 명에 육박했다는 유엔의 조사 결과가 나왔습니다.
그럼 념글의 1623만명은 어디서 나왔냐. 그러나 전쟁 당사국은 상대방 피해를 부풀리고 자신들의 손실은 축소할 가능성이 있다고 전문가들은 지적한다. 작년 2월 우크라이나 전쟁이 시작된 이후 현재까지 민간인 사망자가 만 명에 육박했다는 유엔의 조사 결과가 나왔습니다. ㅋ내 개인적으로는 1520만 정도 추정한다만.
백업 옵트아웃 이제 군첩들이 사망자가지고 시비걸로 온건가. 전용 텔레그램 채널을 운영하면서 디시인사이드에서는 검열당할 영상들을 공유하고, 한국 언론에서는 접하기 어려운 친러 전과 영상들이 많이 올라오는 등, 친러시아적. 기사는 팩트를 전하면 되는데 왜 왜곡할까. 세이브더칠드런은 2014년 친러반군 및 러시아군과 우크라이나군 사이에서 발생한 돈바스전쟁 발발 후 우크라이나 내에서 인도적 지원활동을 펼쳐왔어요. 이 전쟁의 가장 큰 피해자는 분명히 사망자들일 것이며, 그들의 죽음은 단순한 숫자로 치부될 수 없다. 방방봐 비비빅 라방녀
배우리 근황 러시아우크라이나 갤러리에서 다양한 이야기와 정보를 공유하세요. 그럼 념글의 1623만명은 어디서 나왔냐. 세이브더칠드런은 2014년 친러반군 및 러시아군과 우크라이나군 사이에서 발생한 돈바스전쟁 발발 후 우크라이나 내에서 인도적 지원활동을 펼쳐왔어요. 기사는 팩트를 전하면 되는데 왜 왜곡할까. 비비씨나 이코노미스트보면 러시아쪽이 20만 이상 우크라쪽이 10만 이상 죽었다고 추정하던데 그럼 21세기 사망자 1등 맞음. 백앤아 숨바꼭질
박지 군대 그러나 bbc가 러시아 독립언론 ‘미디어조나’와 조사한 결과 사망한 러시아 군인 2만. 러시아군과 우크라이나군이 백병전을 벌이는 영상이 공개되었습니다. Com › korean › articles러시아 사망자 수는 실제 얼마나 될까. 러시아우크라이나 러우전 사상자 정리 갤러리. 현지 시각 15일 독일 dpa통신 보도를 보면, 유엔 인권최고대표사무소ohchr는 전날 홈페이지를 통해. 박좌헌 논란
박자영 야동 각 사망자는 각기 다른 이야기와 꿈, 그리고. 기사는 팩트를 전하면 되는데 왜 왜곡할까. 포텐 우크라이나, 결국 아브디브카에서 패배, 철수 결정. 그러나 전쟁 당사국은 상대방 피해를 부풀리고 자신들의 손실은 축소할 가능성이 있다고 전문가들은 지적한다. 한국에서도 15명이 전쟁에 참여했으며, 이 중 5명이 사망한 것으로 나타났다.
바스트모핑 영어로 그러나 bbc가 러시아 독립언론 ‘미디어조나’와 조사한 결과 사망한 러시아 군인 2만. 한국에서도 15명이 전쟁에 참여했으며, 이 중 5명이 사망한 것으로 나타났다. 우크라이나 군인, 러시아군과 백병전 중 사망 rwar. 각 사망자는 각기 다른 이야기와 꿈, 그리고. 러시아와 세계 미니 갤러리 r242 판.
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.
Organalysisrussiasgrindingwarukraine최근 미국 전략국제문제연구소csis에서 러우전쟁 사상자 추이에., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.