US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
올해 4월 4박5일 방콕 떡여행을 혼자갔다온 후기를 적을려고해ㅎㅎ이미갔다온지는 반년이 넘었는데도 기억에 너무 잘남아서 추억도 회상할겸 ㅋ. 방콕러스트레이디바근황 문의 @hongbo8288 푸. Com › board › view방콕 떡투어 후기 2 여행동남아 갤러리. 여러분, 방콕 떡집엔 정답이 없습니다.
| 그 외에도 패스트푸드점, 일식점, 투다리 ㅋㅋ 도 있음. | 돈 많으면 비즈니스 타고 편하게 가니 그렇게 까지 힘들지는 않겠지만 브라질 상파울루 기준으로 비즈니스가 300만 중반에서 500만이다. | 오빠방콕 디시 에코걸을 포함해서 방콕 유흥에 대한 정보는 오빠방콕이라는데서 얻을 수 있습니다. | Com › board › view치앙마이 떡투어 정보. |
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| 여튼 저녁에 다시 푸잉집가려고 샤우하고 잠깐 눈좀 붙였는데 일어나니 새벽 1시더라구 푸잉한태 부재중전화 오고 라인오고. | 입장료는 업소마다 제각각이지만 떡 가격은 대체로 동일한 듯해, 남자의 여행기 방콕 떡투어 후기 1남자의 여행기 잭나 필리핀 배낭여행 후기 30 완결. | 2015년 5월 20 일까지 존나게 해먹다가 현지 경찰에5월21일에 검거 되었다 이름은 내가 정한게 아니야. | 방콕러스트레이디바근황 문의 @hongbo8288 푸꾸옥유흥디시 호치민떡지도 방콕밤문화정보 파타야 쿠알라룸푸르유흥추천 댓글목록 관련 글 보기. |
| 저는 지금도 한인떡집 투어를 다니데에 재미를 들렸습니다. | 10 이라는 짧은 일정에 가봣자 우돈타니밖에 못가겟더라구. | Com 정리 깔끔해보여서 놓고감 어디서 본건진 기억 안남 중복이면 ㅈㅅ 5 0. | 30대 초반까지만 통하는 루틴 추천해준다 4박5일 6킬4만원방콕 짠내투어 2021. |
| 관리가 잘되어 있는탓에 보통 클레임건이 발생하더라도 사후 대처가 신속하게 이루어진다. | 6 린캄사거리와 푸캄사거리 중간에 있는 물집 여기도 이름 까먹음. | 여기서 친구들 돈모자란대서 남은거 다줌. | 높은 퀄리티를 좋아하시면 한인 떡집 가시고, 모험심 충만하신 분은 로컬 떡집. |
| 먹고 옷사러 터미널 21 갔음 흐엔므에서 나시 150바트짜리이날 이거랑 호랑이티 삿었나. | 암파와 수상시장 반딧불이 투어 유명한데요물론 지금은 없겠지만11월달이나 되면 반딧불이 많음요 2016. | ⭐방콕 방콕 떡투어 후기 1 잭나이프 2020. | 맨 쏘이혹 rca 이런데 떡여행가지말고 맛있는거 먹고 바이크 렌탈해서 슬렁슬렁 놀러다녀봐 페북 인스타로 놀러가면 가이드해줄 여자사람친구 만들어서 유사연애 하고 떡쳤으면 꼭 집돌아갈때 택시타라고 2천바트 챙겨주는거 잊지말고 그리고 좆텔가면 꼭 침대. |
오늘은 타이 마사지 코스의 종류중에 짭까사이에 대해서 알아보도록 하겠는데요.. 그냥 마사지 받으러만 태국오는 시대는 지났어요.. Com 정리 깔끔해보여서 놓고감 어디서 본건진 기억 안남 중복이면 ㅈㅅ 5 0.. 다낭 황제투어 1인 체험의 자유로움 황제투어를 혼자 이용한다는 건 처음엔 어색했지만, 막상 들어가 보니 혼자가 오히려 편했습니다..맨 쏘이혹 rca 이런데 떡여행가지말고 맛있는거 먹고 바이크 렌탈해서 슬렁슬렁 놀러다녀봐 페북 인스타로 놀러가면 가이드해줄 여자사람친구 만들어서 유사연애 하고 떡쳤으면 꼭 집돌아갈때 택시타라고 2천바트 챙겨주는거 잊지말고 그리고 좆텔가면 꼭 침대, 이거 낼 여유없으면 12시간 넘게 좆만한 좌석에서 있어야, 마이크택시 가격은 10001500밧 으로 구성되고 차량 크기에 따라 가격이 달라짐박군투어는 130. 중요한 건 다양한 경험을 통해 본인 취향을 찾는 거예요. 10 이라는 짧은 일정에 가봣자 우돈타니밖에 못가겟더라구. ☆첫날 저녁에 도착 오일마싸지1시간30분짜리 가격 한국돈으로 담배한값정도 일껄. 파타야 이동수단 먼저 방콕에서부터택시 예약 방콕 파타야 마이크 택시, 박군투어 등이 있다, 방콕러스트레이디바근황 문의 @hongbo8288 푸.
벚꽃을 즐기기 위한 무계획 도쿄 여행의 첫날.. 6 a동 1층 133호 ⏰11002100 연중무휴 ⭐️순대내장전골 ⭐️순살국밥 ⭐️뼈해장국 ⭐️편육 ⭐️수육..태국 방콕 파타야 여행 3박5일 4박6일 일정 코스 자유여행 패키지 왕궁투어 비오비투어 후기 네이버 블로그 태국 53개의 글 목록열기. 2015년 5월 20 일까지 존나게 해먹다가 현지 경찰에5월21일에 검거 되었다 이름은 내가 정한게 아니야, 30대 초반까지만 통하는 루틴 추천해준다 4박5일 6킬4만원방콕 짠내투어 2021.
유디 리액션 30대 초반까지만 통하는 루틴 추천해준다 4박5일 6킬4만원방콕 짠내투어 2021. 2015년 5월 20 일까지 존나게 해먹다가 현지 경찰에5월21일에 검거 되었다 이름은 내가 정한게 아니야. 태국 방콕 파타야 여행 3박5일 4박6일 일정 코스 자유여행 패키지 왕궁투어 비오비투어 후기 네이버 블로그 태국 53개의 글 목록열기. 한 블럭마다 떡집이 널부러져 있는데 방콕은 떡의 신세계 입니다. 여러분, 방콕 떡집엔 정답이 없습니다. 유즈트랜드
유유화 야동 방콕러스트레이디바근황 문의 @hongbo8288 푸꾸옥유흥디시 호치민떡지도 방콕밤문화정보 파타야 쿠알라룸푸르유흥추천 댓글목록 관련 글 보기. 파타야 이동수단 먼저 방콕에서부터택시 예약 방콕 파타야 마이크 택시, 박군투어 등이 있다. ☆이틀째 발마싸지 1시간짜리 read more. 높은 퀄리티를 좋아하시면 한인 떡집 가시고, 모험심 충만하신 분은 로컬 떡집. 한 블럭마다 떡집이 널부러져 있는데 방콕은 떡의 신세계 입니다. 유 튜버 오션 나이
유 튜버 르나 디시 ☆이틀째 발마싸지 1시간짜리 read more. 입장료는 업소마다 제각각이지만 떡 가격은 대체로 동일한 듯해, 남자의 여행기 방콕 떡투어 후기 1남자의 여행기 잭나 필리핀 배낭여행 후기 30 완결. Com › board › view치앙마이 떡투어 정보. 6 a동 1층 133호 ⏰11002100 연중무휴 ⭐️순대내장전골 ⭐️순살국밥 ⭐️뼈해장국 ⭐️편육 ⭐️수육. 10 이라는 짧은 일정에 가봣자 우돈타니밖에 못가겟더라구. 월 배당 100 만원 디시
원피스 번역 디시 ㅋ그런데 친구가 발권도 마쳤는데 갑자기 못가는 바람에 부득이하게 혼자 가게되었어. 저는 지금도 한인떡집 투어를 다니데에 재미를 들렸습니다. 6 린캄사거리와 푸캄사거리 중간에 있는 물집 여기도 이름 까먹음. 6 린캄사거리와 푸캄사거리 중간에 있는 물집 여기도 이름 까먹음. 6 a동 1층 133호 ⏰11002100 연중무휴 ⭐️순대내장전골 ⭐️순살국밥 ⭐️뼈해장국 ⭐️편육 ⭐️수육.
원미령 팬트리 디시 마이크택시 가격은 10001500밧 으로 구성되고 차량 크기에 따라 가격이 달라짐박군투어는 130. 방콕 하루만에 집에 가고싶어요강한 자극이 필요해요전립선. 한국인이 참 대단하게 성매매할 수 있는걸 정리해 놓은 떡지도라는 것도 있습니다. 점심 터미널21 맨윗층 푸드코트 저번에 말했듯이 카드 충전식 푸드코트야. Viewimage 방콕 떡투어보다 20대녀 홈런 가능한 곳 ment9987.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 15, 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.
방콕 떡행기 2부 프리티마사지셔벳 펌 여행동남아 갤러리틀딱 호구의 방콕 떡행기 2부 프리티마사지셔벳 펌 여행동남아., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.