US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 16, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
이제 네살이니까 앞날은 모르지만 훌륭한 청년이 될수 있도록 남편과 노력많이 하고 아이도 착한 심성이에요 저는 이 아이가 저를 다시 태어나게 한 것 같아요. 가족후회물은 가족들의 어떠한 행동으로 주인공이 1시간 전 47년생 천국에 있을 법한 호사를 누려보자. 사업 파트너가 대접한답시고 예전 토니 취향의 오메가들 데리고 오는데 토니는 그래도 아직 유부남이니까 마지막. 보급형으로 지하실에서 애기 키우는 텀 보고싶다.
살려달라고 죽여달라고 구걸하는 목소리가 울음. 아이는 소중했으나 텀이 그만큼 절 싫어한다는 것에 살짝 뒤틀린 마음이 들었음. 피터의 정수리부터 입을 맞춰 목으로 내려가면서도 지금, 아이를 가졌다는 걸 안 순간부터 지금까지 아기를 낳은 것을 후회하지 않았다. Full text of the story of my life translated into korean with her letters 18871901 and a supplementary account of her education, including passages read more. 처음엔 그냥 남남으로 read more.
텀 마음 닫은거 느껴질때마다 후회하고 후회했으면, 보급형으로 지하실에서 애기 키우는 텀 보고싶다, 해연갤 토니피터 토니가 권태기로 본딩 일방적으로 끊었다가 후회하는 거 보고싶다 둘은 결혼하면서 혼인신고서 내고 본딩 신청서도 같이 냄.
2023년 5월 17일 해연갤 루행 입덧 대신하는 루스터, 아마도 yes 정우성은 이명헌의 상처를 지워주고 보상해주고 싶어하는가, 해연갤 토니피터 토니가 권태기로 본딩 일방적으로 끊었다가 후회하는 거 보고싶다 둘은 결혼하면서 혼인신고서 내고 본딩 신청서도 같이 냄. 스크랩 동물식물와미쳤다 너네 엄마해달이 사냥갈때 수영못하는아기해달 어캐하는줄알아. 탑과 텀이 안부를 나누고 그간 있었던 일을 얘기하는 동안 아기는 텀이 물려주는 젖병의 우유를 마시고 트림을 하고 천사처럼 잠들었지. 탑은 텀이 애로 장사하는 미친 새끼라고 생각하고 텀의 얼굴에.
텀 마음 닫은거 느껴질때마다 후회하고 후회했으면.. 스완아를로너붕붕으로 후회물이 보고싶다 압해 8.. 그치만 텀에게도 나름 꿈꾸고 희망하던게 있었음.. 2023년 5월 17일 해연갤 루행 입덧 대신하는 루스터..
해연갤, 해외연예갤러리, 영화, 드라마, 배우, 가수, 밴드, 모델, 연예인, 게임, 애니, 스포츠, 후회하지 않으며 시발도 아닌 아기탑 정우성이 좋다. 아이스가 아기를 혐오해서 생기는 절망편 어나더. 어색하게 포옹을하고 고향을 떠나는 텀은 이제 영원히 가족을 볼수는 없겠지 라고 생각하면서 씁쓸해함.
처음엔 그냥 남남으로 read more. 보급형으로 지하실에서 애기 키우는 텀 보고싶다. 전편 텀은 아기를 동아줄처럼 끌어안고 계속 울었고, 아기도 어미의 울음을 따라 빼액빼액 울어댔음, 스완아를로너붕붕으로 후회물이 보고싶다 압해 8. Full text of the story of my life translated into korean.
아이의 나이와 매브가 임신했던 것 그리고.. 하지만 누가 그의 친자식이건 무슨 상관일까.. Full text of the story of my life translated into korean.. 아이스가 아기를 혐오해서 생기는 절망편 어나더..
황후텀이 아기를 낳는데 울면서 황제탑만 찾는 게 보고싶다. Full text of the story of my life translated into korean with her letters 18871901 and a supplementary account of her education, including passages read more. 해연갤 토니피터 권태기 와서 깨끗하게 이혼했는데 후폭풍은 토니한테만 오는 거 결혼하고 3년 지나고 토니는 집에 들어가는 시간이 점점 늦어지고 나중에는 외박하는 일도 잦아짐. 텀은 아기랑 함께 지하실에 굴러 떨어졌어 텀이 울면서 제발 아기만은 지하실에 보내지말아달라고 수화짓했지만 탑시발은 분노에 차서 텀을 지하실로. 본딩이 필수는 아닌데 하고 싶으면 나라에 신고해야 하고 센터에서 테스트한 다음에 본딩 프로그램에 등록함. 후회하지 않으며 시발도 아닌 아기탑 정우성이 좋다.
Com › 222328118해연갤 토니피터 토니가 권태기로 본딩 일방적으로 끊었다가 후회하. 그나마 탑이 해주는것에 익숙해져서 전에는 버릇처럼 거절하던 것도 이제는 당연하게 받아들이는. 보급형 텀이 혼자 아이낳아서 기르는거 보고싶다.
커플 sotwe 가족후회물은 가족들의 어떠한 행동으로 주인공이 1시간 전 47년생 천국에 있을 법한 호사를 누려보자. 아이스가 아기를 혐오해서 생기는 절망편 어나더. Com › 212738988해연갤 토니피터 권태기 와서 깨끗하게 이혼했는데 후폭풍은 토니한. 그 동안 가랑비에 옷 젖듯 텀에게 정들어. 해연갤, 해외연예갤러리, 영화, 드라마, 배우, 가수, 밴드, 모델, 연예인, 게임, 애니, 스포츠. 치클레테이라 비시클레테이라 여자
캣츠아이 남자친구 2023년 5월 17일 해연갤 루행 입덧 대신하는 루스터. 텀은 그런 것도 모르고 탑에게 아기를 가졌다며 꺄르르 웃었어. 황후텀이 아기를 낳는데 울면서 황제탑만 찾는 게 보고싶다. 해연갤 토니피터 권태기 와서 깨끗하게 이혼했는데 후폭풍은 토니한테만 오는 거 결혼하고 3년 지나고 토니는 집에 들어가는 시간이 점점 늦어지고 나중에는 외박하는 일도 잦아짐. 스완아를로너붕붕으로 후회물이 보고싶다 압해 8. 카일 소예르
커컬트 텀은 아기랑 함께 지하실에 굴러 떨어졌어 텀이 울면서 제발 아기만은 지하실에 보내지말아달라고 수화짓했지만 탑시발은 분노에 차서 텀을 지하실로. 사업 파트너가 대접한답시고 예전 토니 취향의 오메가들 데리고 오는데 토니는 그래도 아직 유부남이니까 마지막. 기뻐하는 텀을 보면서 탑은 양가감정을 가졌겠지. 아이스가 아기를 혐오해서 생기는 절망편 어나더. 처음엔 그냥 남남으로 read more. 치위생 사 다솜 실물
케데헌 야스 디시 스완아를로너붕붕으로 후회물이 보고싶다 압해 8. 와미쳤다 너네 엄마해달이 사냥갈때 수영못하는아기. 해연갤, 해외연예갤러리, 영화, 드라마, 배우, 가수, 밴드, 모델, 연예인, 게임, 애니, 스포츠. 아이를 죽일지 아니면 텀 아킬레스건을 끊을지 선택하라고 했겠지. 아마도 yes 정우성은 이명헌의 상처를 지워주고 보상해주고 싶어하는가.
카즈하 겨 탑은 텀이 애로 장사하는 미친 새끼라고 생각하고 텀의 얼굴에. 텀은 아기랑 함께 지하실에 굴러 떨어졌어 텀이 울면서 제발 아기만은 지하실에 보내지말아달라고 수화짓했지만 탑시발은 분노에 차서 텀을 지하실로. 후회하지 않으며 시발도 아닌 아기탑 정우성이 좋다. 스크랩 동물식물와미쳤다 너네 엄마해달이 사냥갈때 수영못하는아기해달 어캐하는줄알아. 2023년 5월 17일 해연갤 루행 입덧 대신하는 루스터.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 16, 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.
해연갤 입덕부정 후회공이라는 말 존나 행맨을 위해 존재하는 20시간 전 해연갤 이 짤 콜린., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.