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.
탄핵 반대자가 내란동조자윤종신김이나윤일상 음악인. 07 개딸좌빨아 윤종신이 좌파라는거 밝혀졌으면 현실수긍나해 극우몰이하지말고. 윤 종북 좌파때문에 사회 곳곳 무너져청년들, 문제점 인식해 보람 등록 2025. 오늘 이선균 어쩌고 하던데 mlbpark.
사진윤종신 sns윤종신이 현 시국에 대해 소신발언을 했다.. ‘윤석열의 탄핵과 즉각체포’를 요구한다며 시국 선언을 했다.. 30 31 윤종신 본인에 따르면 잦은 음주와 흡연으로 인해 목소리가 변했다고 한다.. 우파 연예인 감우성, 강우석, 공유, 길용우, 남궁원, 금보라, 고두심, 견미리, 김원희, 이영애, 이동준..
리플수정저 인간이 좌파는 맞습니다 지금 좌파가 다시 노무현 소환하고 있죠 딱 이시기에 발표 입니다 노래 듣던 안듣던이야 상관 없지만 목적을, 07 개딸좌빨아 윤종신이 좌파라는거 밝혀졌으면 현실수긍나해 극우몰이하지말고. 현장출동 좌파 연예인 총집합 봉준호, 윤종신, 김의성, 장항준.
Kr › news › hotissues탄핵 반대자가 내란동조자&mldr. 가수 윤종신이 방송인 김구라에 대한 생각을 밝혔다. 윤종신은꼭 정치현란에참여하는 전형적인좌파 찌끄레기네 예술인들은 참여하고싶어도 기다리고 참고 상황을지켜보는것이지 우파 좌파 연예인있지만, 英유력지 이재명은 좌파 선동가음주운전 전과도 영국 유력 일간지인 파이낸셜타임스 ft가 유력한 한국의 차기 대통령으로 이재명 더불어민주당 대표를 꼽으며 그가 ‘좌파 선동가’라고 지적했다. 지구상에서 회가 사라지지 않는 한, 당신은 머릿속에 남어.
좌파였네 윤종신 하니 예전에 1박2일때 강호동이 화천이였나 포유류 고통 그거 생각나네 ㅋㅋ. 13일 총 762명의 가칭 대한민국 음악인 연대는 탄핵에 반대하는 자가 내란 동조자다. 123 비상계엄 사태 탄핵 찬성에 적극 동조한 문화예술인을 상대로 온라인 커뮤니티 내에서 불매운동이 확산되고 있다. 371k followers, 884 following, 6,395 posts 윤종신 @yoonjongshin on instagram creator, 月刊 尹鍾信, 月刊食堂, mystic story. 윤종신 유명한 좌파인데 몰랐냐 올해도. 블챌 스페셜 포토덤프 6,937개의 글 블챌 스페셜 포토덤프목록열기 블챌 스페셜 포토덤프 윤종신 미국체류중 소신발언 코스프레 미국가서 좌파시민들 선동 목적이였나 아니면 말고박근혜 대통령때 미국 좌파들과 난리도 난리도 아니였는데.
나는찬미 sex 371k followers, 884 following, 6,395 posts 윤종신 @yoonjongshin on instagram creator, 月刊 尹鍾信, 月刊食堂, mystic story. 지구상에서 회가 사라지지 않는 한, 당신은 머릿속에 남어. 윤종신 유명한 좌파인데 몰랐냐 올해도 싱어게인4 갤러리. 윤종신 뭐 진보보수 좌우 정치성향 의 문제가 아니다. 오늘 이선균 어쩌고 하던데 mlbpark. 나옹이빵 얼굴
김상민 그는 감히전설 이라고 할수 있다 여자 친구 인스 타 정리하자면 좌파 연예인은 정치사회적 이슈에 대해 목소리를 내는 연예인을 의미합니다. 리플수정저 인간이 좌파는 맞습니다 지금 좌파가 다시 노무현 소환하고 있죠 딱 이시기에 발표 입니다 노래 듣던 안듣던이야 상관 없지만 목적을. 리플수정저 인간이 좌파는 맞습니다 지금 좌파가 다시 노무현 소환하고 있죠 딱 이시기에 발표 입니다 노래 듣던 안듣던이야 상관 없지만 목적을. 하림에 이어 윤종신까지, 좌표 찍혀도 음악만으로 충분한 뮤지션들이라 미친 칼바람 불어도 끄떡없을 겁니다 다만 노무현 대통령이라면 이런 시절 어땠을까. 662 kb 윤식열 탄핵 찬성 연예인. 나는 찬미 꼭
나띠 꼭노 현장출동 좌파 연예인 총집합 봉준호, 윤종신, 김의성, 장항준. 윤종신은 김구라가 여전히 다른 사람을 불편하게 만든다고 말했다. 하림에 이어 윤종신까지, 좌표 찍혀도 음악만으로 충분한 뮤지션들이라 미친 칼바람 불어도 끄떡없을 겁니다 다만 노무현 대통령이라면 이런 시절 어땠을까. 윤종신 유명한 좌파인데 몰랐냐 올해도 싱어게인4 갤러리. 김미화, 김제동, 강성범, 문성근, 명계남씨 등 자신의 소신을 적극적으로 밝혀온 분들은 물론이고 김규리, 정우성, 김여진, 권해효, 윤종신씨 옳은말 몇마디 했다고윤종신씨의 경우 2022년에 발표된 곡인 마음에 산. 꼴리는 상황
김지연 의사 남편 디시 14일 가요계에 따르면 이들을 포함한 ‘대한민국 음악인 연대’는 전날 시국선언을 내고 탄핵에 반대하는 자가 내란 동조자라며 윤석열의 탄핵과 즉각 체포를. 대한민국 음악인 연대가 시국 선언을 하며 윤석열 대통령의 탄핵을 촉구했다. 가수 겸 기타리스트 조정치 근황이 공개됐다. 윤 종북 좌파때문에 사회 곳곳 무너져청년들, 문제점 인식해 보람 등록 2025. 123 불법계엄 사태 핵심 인물인 김용현 전 국방부 장관의 공소장이 공개됐다.
꼬북녀 로빈 유재석이 2016년 mbc 방송연예대상에서 대상 수상소감으로 한 말이다. 탄핵 반대자가 내란동조자윤종신김이나윤일상 음악인. 🔶️종북친북 좌파 시민단체 참여연대 한국진보연대 진보연대 경제정의실천시민연합 경실련 민주사회를 위한 변호사모임 민변 민주화를위한전국교수협의회 민교협 민주화실천가족운동협의회 민가협 평화와 통일을 여는 사람들 평통사. 윤종신은 4일 자신의 sns에 진보보수 좌우 정치성향의 문제가 아니다. 큰아버지 전무식은 한국의 이론화학자이자 물水 박사로 유명했던 사람이다.
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.
윤 종북 좌파때문에 사회 곳곳 무너져청년들, 문제점 인식해 보람 등록 2025., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.