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.
사건 당시 부산 부산진구 서면 한 오피스텔 1층 복도에서 가해자 이모씨가 쓰러진 피해자 김진주필명씨를 발로 차며 폭행하는 모습. Com › entry › 박진주프로필박진주 과거얼굴 성형 몸매 작품활동 필모그래피 키. Wsg워너비 블라인드 오디션 참가자 중 나문희 정체를 배우 박진주로 추측하고 있습니다. 놀면뭐하니에 나오는 박진주 이쁜지 보통인건지 애매 얼굴로 연예인 할 수준은 아니죠.
| Wsg워너비 블라인드 오디션 참가자 중 나문희 정체를 배우 박진주로 추측하고 있습니다. | 박진주 는 7일 인스타그램에 제가 받았던 잊지 못할 마음과 사랑, 더 큰 사랑으로 성실하게 보답하겠다는 인사와 함께 웨딩사진을 게시했다. | ‘국민가수’ ‘국민타자’ ‘국민여동생’ 등 ‘국민’이 붙는 용어들은 삽시간에 유행이 퍼져 열병처럼 모두가 앓는 과몰입의 증상 그 증거다. |
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| Wsg 워너비 오아시소 멤버로 활약하며 뛰어난 가창력을 보여줬고, 예능 속 꾸밈없는 매력 덕분에 팬층이 크게 늘었어요. | 세계관 얼굴까지 포함해서 5명의 얼굴이 추가되었다. | 배우 박진주가 최근 영화, 드라마, 예능에서 활발한 활동을 보여주고 있습니다. |
| 어제 가장 웃겼을때 ㅋ 박진주 마이너 갤러리. | 어제 가장 웃겼을때 ㅋ 박진주 마이너 갤러리. | 그래서 이번에는 박진주 나이 몸매 인스타 성형에 대해 알아보도록 하겠습니다. |
확정했다는 보도가 나오고 엄청난 관심을 받고 있는데요.. 사진 속 박진주는 주우재와 연습실에서 거울 셀카를 찌고 있는 모습이 담겨있다.. 7위 컨퍼런스 플레이옵 진출리그컵 맨시티가 우승으로 인해..황제펭귄20220716 1932ip 106, Com › board › view싱글벙글 남자들은 예쁘다고 생각하지 않는 연예인 실시간 베스트. 어제 가장 웃겼을때 ㅋ 박진주 마이너 갤러리.
방송에서 enfp와 infp가 번갈아 나온다고 언급되었다.. 부산 돌려차기 사건 피해자 김진주필명 씨가 2차 가해자로부터 협박 혐의로 고소당해 맞고소를 했다.. 한국인처럼 과몰입에 능하고, 과몰입을 즐기는 민족이 또 있을까 싶다..31 유아 영어유치원 조기교육, 효과와 논란 100. 프로미스나인 보컬 투탑이 말아주는 너에게 닿기를 원곡에서 6키 높여도 편하게 부르는 그녀들 프로미스나인 fromis_9 너에게 닿기를 read more. 가을 나들이 특집에 박진주 찐친으로 나왔다, 30 1921 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보처리방침 청소년. 박진주 박진주 우비소녀 박진주 동안미모 photo 사진 박진주 인스타그램 지난해 mbc 복면가왕에 우비소녀 복면을 쓰고 나와 시청자들을 놀래킨 배우 박진주가 동안 미모로 새삼 눈길을 끌고 있다, 목차 박진주 나이 프로필 박진주 나이 프로필 이름 박진주 출생 1988년 12월 24.
특이점이 온 epl프리미어리그 상황 유머움짤이슈, 하나의 상황에 몰입해 감정적으로 편을 들고, 박진주 박진주 우비소녀 박진주 동안미모 photo 사진 박진주 인스타그램 지난해 mbc 복면가왕에 우비소녀 복면을 쓰고 나와 시청자들을 놀래킨 배우 박진주가 동안 미모로 새삼 눈길을 끌고 있다. 황제펭귄20220716 1932ip 106.
도쿄 프린스 호텔 고객의소리 1m followers, 192 following, 301 posts 박진주 @jinjoo1224 on instagram. Com › mgallery › board갤주님 움짤 ㅎ 박진주 마이너 갤러리. Com › board › view싱글벙글 남자들은 예쁘다고 생각하지 않는 연예인 실시간 베스트. 배우 박진주가 최근 영화, 드라마, 예능에서 활발한 활동을 보여주고 있습니다. 한국인처럼 과몰입에 능하고, 과몰입을 즐기는 민족이 또 있을까 싶다. 덴지 레제 만화 디시
드라이 오르가즘 여자 카리나 하위호환 박진주 상위호환임박진주보단 미간 가까워서 그나마 낫고. 박진주 배우는 오는 11월 30일에 결혼한다는 기쁜 소식을 전했습니다. 박진주 각종 영화와 드라마에서 신 스틸러로 나와서 안정적인 연기를 보인 배우이며, 팬들을 유쾌하고 친절하게 대해준다. Com › talk › 373291959놀면뭐하니 박진주, 예능만 하기 아까운 미모 네이트 판. 채수빈은 얼굴이 점점 박진주스러워지네 기타 국내 드라마. 독감 전염 디시
도박랜드야동 박진주는 최근 드라마 뿐만 아니라 영화와 예능에서도 활발한 활동을 이어가고 있는데 이번 드라마 뿐 아니라 영화 영웅도 개봉을 앞두고 있는. 그래서 많은 분들이 박진주에게 대해 많은 관심을 갖고 있는 상황입니다. Com 좋아요 4 박진주 박진주 결혼 박진주 고향 박진주 과거 박진주 나이 박진주 써니 박진주 언니 박진주 키 박진주 프로필 배우 박진주. Org › wiki › 박진주박진주 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 현재 놀면 뭐하니에서 예능인으로서도 빠지지 않는 개그감을 선보이지만, 그의 드라마 퀸으로서의 복귀도 기다려지는 바이다. 돈다발남 조유라 porn
돈다x남 야동 어제 가장 웃겼을때 ㅋ 박진주 마이너 갤러리. 인생의 새로운 시작을 알린 박진주에게 팬들의 축하가 이어지고 있습니다. 김정현 김현주 박준호 박지현 박진영 박진주 백두현 서현제 홍명보 유한결 유룡 이신명 장다운 이재형 조인철 정재형 조준래 심영보 kbs sbs보다는 kbs에서 주축으로 활동하거나 kbs 공채 및 특채로 재데뷔 한으뜸 14기 2014. 가을 나들이 특집에 박진주 찐친으로 나왔다. 사건 당시 부산 부산진구 서면 한 오피스텔 1층 복도에서 가해자 이모씨가 쓰러진 피해자 김진주필명씨를 발로 차며 폭행하는 모습.
뒷구멍 야동 인생의 새로운 시작을 알린 박진주에게 팬들의 축하가 이어지고 있습니다. Com › mgallery › board갤주님 움짤 ㅎ 박진주 마이너 갤러리. 세계관 얼굴까지 포함해서 5명의 얼굴이 추가되었다. 박진주나이는 1988년생으로 올해 32살의 나이가 되었는데요. 분명 많이 본 얼굴이고 알려진 배우인데, 이름이 잘 알려지지 않은 경우가 많습니다.
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.
Com 좋아요 4 박진주 박진주 결혼 박진주 고향 박진주 과거 박진주 나이 박진주 써니 박진주 언니 박진주 키 박진주 프로필 배우 박진주., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.