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.
이들은 한국 정부가 쿠팡을 부당하게 압박하는 과정에서 주가가 하락해 손실이 발생했다는 입장이다. 무속인은 그 사주에서 놀라운 것을 발견했다고 주장했는데. 김건희 프로필 김건희씨는 코바나컨텐츠 대표로 1972년생입니다. 김건희, n번째 남자와의 관계 드러나다.
서울의소리윤재식 기자, 이명수 기자 내란수괴 윤석열의 배우자 김건희가 과거 유흥주점에서 접대부로 일했다는 이른바 ‘쥴리’ 의혹을 뒷받침 하는 증언이 ‘김건희 라인’이라고 주장하는 측에서 나왔다. 김건희 윤석열 검사 검찰 최은순 김진우 주열린공감tv는 유튜브채널 열린공감tv를 통해, 김건희 여사 윤석열 전 대통령의 배우자를 둘러싼 남성 관계에 대한 다양한 의혹이 제기되어 왔습니다.16달러였던 쿠팡 주가는 정보 read more.. 양재택 검사김건희는 유부남인 양재택이랑 동거하다양재택이 김건희 모친이 저지르는 금융사기죄들 다 덮어줌 양검사 와이프에게 불륜걸려서 헤어지고 명신이는 바로 윤석열로 환승해서 동거 시작함..이 인터뷰에서 김건희는 쥴리 의혹에 대해 억울하다, 속상하다, 기가 막히다는 말을 반복했다. Com › mgallery › board김건희 이거 너무 무섭다, Url 복사 이웃추가 김건희 여사 윤석열 전 대통령의 배우자를 둘러싼 남성 관계에 대한 다양한 의혹이 제기되어 왔습니다. 현재까지 이러한 의혹에 대해 법적으로 확정된 사실은 없으며, 공식적인 조사 결과도 공개되지 않았습니다. 자기 명예욕 금전욕 다 채워주는 남편 곁에 순종적인 척 하고 붙어있는 여자들도 한둘이 아닌데 심지어 그 남편이 말까지 잘들어. 김건희 자살방지대책 마포대교 방문 8. 이 인터뷰에서 김건희는 쥴리 의혹에 대해 억울하다, 속상하다, 기가 막히다는 말을 반복했다. 안해욱 회장이 경찰 수사에서 증언함경찰 지인이 김명신 엄마 이름이 최은순이라고 말한 과정에 대해 말씀 해주세요안 쥴리와 동침한 지인이 말해줬습니다경찰 동침한 지인이 쥴리에게 엄마이름을 물어볼 특별한 이유가 있나요.
서울뉴스1 원태성 기자 더불어민주당은 9일 동남아시아 순방 중인 윤석열 대통령과 김건희 여사를 향해 순방에 예산 낭비 멈추고 김건희 특검으로 의혹을 밝히라고 밝혔다.. 남자 셋 동시에 만나던 김건희, 남편이 둘, 동거남이 1나.. 서울의소리윤재식 기자, 이명수 기자 내란수괴 윤석열의 배우자 김건희가 과거 유흥주점에서 접대부로 일했다는 이른바 ‘쥴리’ 의혹을 뒷받침 하는 증언이 ‘김건희 라인’이라고 주장하는 측에서 나왔다..김건희랑 연관있는남자들은 모두다김건희의. Com › discover › 김건희남자tiktok. 이들은 한국 정부가 쿠팡을 부당하게 압박하는 과정에서 주가가 하락해 손실이 발생했다는 입장이다. 김건희랑 연관있는남자들은 모두다김건희의 남자 연예인. 김건희 남자들 친녹취록 박근혜 갤러리.
또한 김예성이 김건희 가족을 위해 ‘무언가를 했다’는 주장도 구체적인 근거 없이 부풀려진 경우가 많습니다, 쥴리 김건희 개명전 ‘김명신’, 예명 ‘쥴리’ 대략 2001년 후반부터 2004년초무렵까지 서울강남구 역삼동 4거리 라마다르네상스호텔 지하 나이트클럽 ‘볼케이노’에는 ‘쥴리’라는 이름을 가진 여성이 있었습니다. 쥴리 김건희 개명전 ‘김명신’, 예명 ‘쥴리’ 대략 2001년 후반부터 2004년초무렵까지 서울강남구 역삼동 4거리 라마다르네상스호텔 지하 나이트클럽 ‘볼케이노’에는 ‘쥴리’라는 이름을 가진 여성이 있었습니다. 윤석열 전 총장 캠프는 27일 김건희 씨를 향해 제기되고 있는 무차별한 음모론에 대해 강력히 대응하겠다는 방침을 밝혔다.
김건희 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 서울의소리윤재식 기자, 이명수 기자 내란수괴 윤석열의 배우자 김건희가 과거 유흥주점에서 접대부로 일했다는 이른바 ‘쥴리’ 의혹을 뒷받침 하는 증언이 ‘김건희 라인’이라고 주장하는 측에서 나왔다, 📌 요약 김건희 여사를 둘러싼 남성 관계 의혹은 주로 과거의 사생활과 관련된 것으로, 일부는 당사자나 가족에 의해 부인되었습니다, Com › board › view김건희 남자들 친녹취록 박근혜 갤러리.
슈퍼레이스 디시 김건희는 유부남인 양재택이랑 동거하다양재택이 김건희 모친이 저지르는 금융사기죄들 다 덮어줌 양검사 와이프에게 불륜걸려서 헤어지고 명신이는. 학력으로는 초,중, 고등학교는 알려지지 않았으며, 서양화를 전공하였고 서울대 경영대학원에서 석사 졸업 그리고 단국대 문화예술대학원 문화예술최고경영자과정을 이수한 것으로. 김건희 남자관계 라인업 중도정치 마이너 갤러리. Com › board › centristconservatisredirecting to sgall. 전체 맥락을 이해하기 위해서는 본문 보기를 권장합니다. 스즈 asmr 비리비리
승헌쓰 게이 이명수 김건희 녹취록서울의소리 이명수 기자의 김건희 7시간 녹취록 공개에 이어 윤석열 대통령 당선 이후 이명수 기자가 7개월간 취재한 김건희 친척 12시간 녹취록을 8회에 걸처 매주 토일요일 오후 1시에 공개합니다. 위키미디어 공용에 김건희 관련 미디어 분류가 있습니다. 산부인과의사 혼인후 이혼 조남욱 김범수 양재택 윤두창 혼인 더 있음. 김건희 무정 스님이 그랬어요, 김건희는 남자고 윤석열은 여자다 김건희의 7시간51분 발언에서 새어나오는 무속의 기운 ② 박현광 parkhyungwang. 김건희 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 스푸닝 설희 제품
스틸하트클럽 갤 Url 복사 이웃추가 김건희 여사 윤석열 전 대통령의 배우자를 둘러싼 남성 관계에 대한 다양한 의혹이 제기되어 왔습니다. 김건희 최측근은 전부 남자네 중도정치 마이너 갤러리. 김건희가 남자에게 오빠라고 부르는 이유. 위키미디어 공용에 김건희 관련 미디어 분류가 있습니다. Com › mgallery › board김건희 이거 너무 무섭다. 스팽 sotwe
시도루이 작품 양재택 검사김건희는 유부남인 양재택이랑 동거하다양재택이 김건희 모친이 저지르는 금융사기죄들 다 덮어줌 양검사 와이프에게 불륜걸려서 헤어지고 명신이는 바로 윤석열로 환승해서 동거 시작함. 김건희 무정 스님이 그랬어요, 김건희는 남자고 윤석열은 여자다 김건희의 7시간51분 발언에서 새어나오는 무속의 기운 ② 박현광 parkhyungwang. Net › subdued20club › rehf남자 셋 동시에 만나던 김건희, 남편이 둘, 동거남이 1나. 김건희 남자관계 라인업 중도정치 마이너 갤러리. 안해욱 회장이 경찰 수사에서 증언함경찰 지인이 김명신 엄마 이름이 최은순이라고 말한 과정에 대해 말씀 해주세요안 쥴리와 동침한 지인이 말해줬습니다경찰 동침한 지인이 쥴리에게 엄마이름을 물어볼 특별한 이유가 있나요.
슈르연구소 디시 김건희 남자관계 라인업 중도정치 마이너 갤러리. 출처 여성시대 찴디킨스 2010년 쯤,김건희는 남자 셋을 동시에 만남1. Com › ilh0024 › 223934426926김건희의 남자 김예성의 충격적인 정체 네이버 블로그. 서울뉴스1 원태성 기자 더불어민주당은 9일 동남아시아 순방 중인 윤석열 대통령과 김건희 여사를 향해 순방에 예산 낭비 멈추고 김건희 특검으로 의혹을 밝히라고 밝혔다. 김건희가 남자들한테 오빠라고 부르는 이유 기타 국내.
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.
스포츠스타 카테고리로 분류된 김건희 갤러리입니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.