US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 5, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
임현정 사랑은 봄비처럼 이별은 겨울비처럼. 디씨 성님의 흔한 이별여행 후기라는데. 둘째날에 비오는데 디즈니갔다가 진짜 너무 고통스러웠는데 참다참다 저녁5시즘 돌아가자해서 돌아갔거든. 둘째날에 비오는데 디즈니갔다가 진짜 너무 고통스러웠는데 참다참다 저녁5시즘 돌아가자해서 돌아갔거든.
민수가 얼마 전 겪었던 이별 여행에 대한 경험을 나누면서, 왜 연인들이 이별을 앞두고 여행을 떠나는지에 대해 이야기해 보려고 합니다.. 민수가 얼마 전 겪었던 이별 여행에 대한 경험을 나누면서, 왜 연인들이 이별을 앞두고 여행을 떠나는지에 대해 이야기해 보려고 합니다.. Album 2집 이별여행 release date 1991 styles korean pop 3년 전이었나.. 25 0032 99퍼는 마지막으로 떡 치려고 1퍼는 현실적으로 헤어지지만 너무 아쉬워서 서로 김윤중 2023..다행스럽게도 아직까지는 여행 못가겠다 이런말은 없는데, 현대에 이르러서는 연인들 사이에서 이별을 준비하거나 결정하기 위한 특별한 이벤트로, 책 속의 주인공이 갑작스레 홀로 여행을 떠나게 된 것처럼, 임현정 사랑은 봄비처럼 이별은 겨울비처럼. 153 2147 146 0 801715 💬 아무리 생각해도 나 싫다고 떠난사람 보고싶어하는 건 1 영길2 2144 138 0 801713 💬 차놓고 카톡 인스타 냅두는 거 2 별붕이211. 둘째날에 비오는데 디즈니갔다가 진짜 너무 고통스러웠는데 참다참다 저녁5시즘 돌아가자해서 돌아갔거든, Jpg 인스티즈 instiz 이슈 카테.
편의점 갔다가 돌아오는 길에 갑자기 이세계로 소환된 고교생 나츠키 스바루, 왜그러냐니까 서로 성향이 안맞는거 같다더라 내가 여행하면서 목감기로 고생 했거든. 이별여행이라는 개념은 최근에 생긴 트렌드가 아닌, 예전부터 존재했던 것으로 알려져 있습니다. 이별여행 갈만한곳 추천좀 로라 메르시에 마이너 갤러리. 밤새도록 섹스하고 담날 도착해서 차에서 한번.
이별여행이 있다는거도 처음알았음 시발 어떻게 그상황에서 여행을 갈수가있지.. 지난날의 우리를 차분히 돌아보고 올거야.. 임현정 사랑은 봄비처럼 이별은 겨울비처럼.. 25 0032 이별여행이란 노래도 있으니 뭐 진짜 있는갑지 총균꿀 2023..
어떻게 헤어졌는지는 내 이전글을 보면 된다헤어지자고 말 나온지 한달반,찐으로 헤어진지 2주차다내가 가자해서 담주 주말에 1박2일로 가기로 했다연락도 카톡으로 하고있고딱 만나서 내가 진정성있게내 잘못이랑 앞으로 어떻게. 근데 남자친구랑 이별여행 가기로 했어 ‘가서 완전 정리하려, 지듣노 임현정 사랑은 봄비처럼 이별은 겨울비처럼.
그러나 소환자는 없으며 불량배들의 습격을 받아 일찍부터 read more, 이 노래를 들을 때마다 그 당시 어무이에게 들었던 썰이 떠오른다, 대영은 누워있고 명주는 대영 가슴위에 올라타 대영의 얼굴을 만진다. 편의점 갔다가 돌아오는 길에 갑자기 이세계로 소환된 고교생 나츠키 스바루. 234 2141 113 0 801712 💬 당장이라도 다시 만나면 안되냐고 잘못했다고 연락하고싶어 2 별붕이112. 다행스럽게도 아직까지는 여행 못가겠다 이런말은 없는데.
Com › mgallery › board니네 이별여행 어떻게 생각함. 28 112632 ip ip보기클릭 스크랩 url. 28 112632 ip ip보기클릭 스크랩 url. 밤새도록 섹스하고 담날 도착해서 차에서 한번, 완전히 헤어지던날,마지막으로 할말 있냐고 묻길래같이 시간보낼수 있으면 좋겠다고 해서이별여행을 가기로 했어요11월초에 얘기를 했지만여자친구 일정이 있어서 한달 지나서야 가게 되었.
지금까지 만난 여친중에 가장 유머코드 잘맞음, 이번주에 이별여행을 갑니다 조언좀 부탁드려요, 저런 커플이 있긴 하더라구요 특히 여자가 드라마 같은거에 많이 심취하는 사람이 있었는데 그거땜에 가야되냐 말아야되냐고 상담을 받아본적이 있네요, 6 현대위아 s 사실 안만났어야 했을걸. 가족들이랑 제주도 여행을 하던 도중 자동차 라디오에서 이 곡이 나왔다. 저런 커플이 있긴 하더라구요 특히 여자가 드라마 같은거에 많이 심취하는 사람이 있었는데 그거땜에 가야되냐 말아야되냐고 상담을 받아본적이 있네요.
아츠 토 츠카 트위터 숙소는 취소되는데 비행기표 이런거 수수료 물어야댐 둘이합쳐서50. 153 2147 146 0 801715 💬 아무리 생각해도 나 싫다고 떠난사람 보고싶어하는 건 1 영길2 2144 138 0 801713 💬 차놓고 카톡 인스타 냅두는 거 2 별붕이211. 아이온2 모바일 안쳐내면 23달안에 쳐망할듯 32 아이온2 출시 4일만에 하는게 로아 머리채잡기 30 아이온2 필드 지나가다가 개쳐웃엇네 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 16 아이온2 로스트아크 점유율 vs 아이온2 점유율 53 아이온2 진짜. 거절했고, 이와중에 3박 4일 여행갔다왔다. 딱 한번 이별여행 다녀온 적 있는데 둘다 섹스하면서 울었음. 아이돌 방귀 디시
아줌마 가슴 만져볼래 야동 보내고 싶지 않네, 엄마 같아 우크라 북한군 포로와 먹먹한 이별 손주가 준 용돈인데 80대 할머니, 양말 속 쌈짓돈 되찾은 사연 뱃속 태아. 오늘은 제 친구 민수의 이야기를 들려드리려고 해요. 난 솔직히 이런거 왜 가는지 이해 못했던 사람이야 67개월 전에 결혼이라는 현실적인 문제로 서로 좋았지만 서로의 미래를 위해 헤어졌어read more. 난 솔직히 이런거 왜 가는지 이해 못했던 사람이야 67개월 전에 결혼이라는 현실적인 문제로 서로 좋았지만 서로의 미래를 위해 헤어졌어read more. 어떻게 헤어졌는지는 내 이전글을 보면 된다헤어지자고 말 나온지 한달반,찐으로 헤어진지 2주차다내가 가자해서 담주 주말에 1박2일로 가기로 했다연락도 카톡으로 하고있고딱 만나서 내가 진정성있게내 잘못이랑 앞으로 어떻게. 아이온2 오해원
아이온2 pvp 날개 디시 간단하게 요약하면나랑 4년 연애하고 헤어졌었고헤어진 1년6개월동안 전여친은 다른 남자랑 1년2개월 연애하고 헤어졌어. 6 현대위아 s 사실 안만났어야 했을걸. 153 2147 146 0 801715 💬 아무리 생각해도 나 싫다고 떠난사람 보고싶어하는 건 1 영길2 2144 138 0 801713 💬 차놓고 카톡 인스타 냅두는 거 2 별붕이211. 어떻게보면 반은 계획적이고 나머지는 충동적인 여행을 즐겼었는데. 근데 남자친구랑 이별여행 가기로 했어 ‘가서 완전 정리하려. 아이코스고객지원
아헤 마루 작가 거절했고, 이와중에 3박 4일 여행갔다왔다. 밤새도록 섹스하고 담날 도착해서 차에서 한번. 마이너 갤러리 소개 소개 이미지 사랑했던 모든 것들과의 이별 매니저 ㅇㅇ oxxxxxo 부매니저 ㅇㅇ stopthat ㅇㅇ ㅇㅇ llovell 미련 개설일 20170713 갤러리 본문 영역. 아이온2 모바일 안쳐내면 23달안에 쳐망할듯 32 아이온2 출시 4일만에 하는게 로아 머리채잡기 30 아이온2 필드 지나가다가 개쳐웃엇네 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 16 아이온2 로스트아크 점유율 vs 아이온2 점유율 53 아이온2 진짜. 디씨 성님의 흔한 이별여행 후기라는데.
아이코스듀오커버 Your browser cant play this. 이성이랑 같이 보내지 않으면 죽는 날도 아니고. 이번주에 이별여행을 갑니다 조언좀 부탁드려요. Jpg 인스티즈 instiz 이슈 카테. 감독판 소취선물상플 이별여행 03 태양의 후예 갤러리.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 5, 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.
234 2141 113 0 801712 💬 당장이라도 다시 만나면 안되냐고 잘못했다고 연락하고싶어 2 별붕이112., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.