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.
머싯는 궁도부 엉아들도 있어서 허락받고 사진찍음 흰티 엉아는 내가 사진찍어서 그런지 빗나감ㅋㅋ 정면에서 화살날아오면 못피할듯 꽤빠르더라 방패 read more. 2022년 한 해 1129만명이 다녀간 한국의 대표 관광지 전주시. 박물관 같은곳 괜찮긴한데 2시간 환승 2번 하면서 갈만한 곳은 아닌듯. 실종된 윤세준의 상세 신상 정보는 나이는 1996년생이며, 사건 당시 26세로 175cm의 키에 마르지 않은 체형이고 오른쪽 볼에 작은 흉터가 있다고 한다.
Com › mgallery › board오카야마 갈만한곳 일본여행 관동이외 마이너 갤러리. Check out our happy hour from 36pm mondayfriday. 과일의 왕국 오카야마 여행기 1 일본여행 디시인사이드. 미나상콘니치왈츠。구라시키 시에 있는 돈카츠 캇파에 다녀왔다. 너무 더워서 사진을 몇장 안 찍었네요.혼슈 동부 지방 간토평야에 위치한 일본 수도권의 핵심 도시로 일본 정치, 경제, 문화의 중심지이다. Pho, ramen, cocktails, munchies and more. 승무원이 지정석에 그냥 앉고 가라해서 무사히 탑승했다. Com › mgallery › board오카야마 여행온 한국인들은 일본여행 관동이외 마이너 갤러리.
오카야마성이 까마귀성이라는 별칭으로 불리는 이유는 검은 성벽 때문입니다.. 미나상콘니치왈츠。구라시키 시에 있는 돈카츠 캇파에 다녀왔다.. 혼슈 동부 지방 간토평야에 위치한 일본 수도권의 핵심 도시로 일본 정치, 경제, 문화의 중심지이다..
오카야마 여행에 관한 모든 정보와 여행기, 사진 등을 공유할 수 있으며, 오카야마와 관련된 이야기라면 누구라도. 공항버스에서 내리자마자 다 미관지구,오카야마성으로 빠지는듯 일주일동안 이온몰이든 역앞이든 한국인을 본적이없네 dc official app, 작년에는 자유석이 있었는데 이번에는 전지정석이었음, 키비츠 신사 추천 이쁘고 일찍 가면 북적이지 않아 좋음 이동시간 좀 걸리고 배차 간격 주의해야함 독특한 양식의 지붕이 있는 신사, 신오사카역에서 신칸센을 타고 오카야마역에 도착해 구라시키로 이동한 뒤, 구라시키 여행을 마치고 다시 오카야마 여행을 하는 일정이었어요.
광고 속 모델은 나카마 유키에 로, 현재 22년째 서일본의 모델을 맡고, 너무 더워서 사진을 몇장 안 찍었네요. 뉴스 디시미디어 디시이슈 1 2 충남아산fc, 골 득점마다 여성용품 기부하는 kick for change 시작 또 중국에서 전염 시작 전세계 비상 걸렸다치료제도 없다는 이 전염병 경기도의회 김선희 의원, 유아기부터 사회성 발달 위한 ‘마음교육’ 중요, Jpg resizeimage_820232. 4박5일 다카마쓰 + 근교 시코쿠, 오카야마 여행 일본여행.
한국식 한자 독음으로 동경東京이라고도 부른다. 오카야마는 일본 혼슈 서부에 위치한 도시로, 역사적인 명소와 아름다운 자연 경관이 조화를 이루는 곳입니다. Jpg resizeimage_720252, 일반 간사이 와이드로 뽕뽑기 오카야마 vs 다카마쓰 vs 돗토리 어디가 남. 2022년 한 해 1129만명이 다녀간 한국의 대표 관광지 전주시.
Com › mgallery › board오카야마 여행온 한국인들은 일본여행 관동이외 마이너 갤러리. 실종된 윤세준의 상세 신상 정보는 나이는 1996년생이며, 사건 당시 26세로 175cm의 키에 마르지 않은 체형이고 오른쪽 볼에 작은 흉터가 있다고 한다, 전역하고 모은 돈으로 일본여행 더 길게 다녀올 생각임, 오카야마역에도착하고슈퍼이나바를 타고 돗토리역으로 가자. 강 건너편에는 아름다운 고라쿠엔이 있습니다. 활동 초등학생이었던 2010년, 앞으로는 유튜브의 시대가 올 것 이라는 아버지의 권유로.
청바지 거리 인디고 테마의 독특한 명소 오카야마 현 구라시키 시 고지마 마을은 언뜻 한가로운 해안 지방처럼 보이지만, 사실은 일본의 텍스타일 생산을 좌우하는 막대한 영향력을 지닌 곳입니다. 대한항공 기내식 전혀 예상치 못했는데 맛있었다 돌아오는 비행기에선 소고기 줬는데 해산물이 3배정도 맛있었음 다만 좀 짭니다. 머싯는 궁도부 엉아들도 있어서 허락받고 사진찍음 흰티 엉아는 내가 사진찍어서 그런지 빗나감ㅋㅋ 정면에서 화살날아오면 못피할듯 꽤빠르더라 방패 read more. 청바지 거리 인디고 테마의 독특한 명소 오카야마 현 구라시키 시 고지마 마을은 언뜻 한가로운 해안 지방처럼 보이지만, 사실은 일본의 텍스타일 생산을 좌우하는 막대한 영향력을 지닌 곳입니다, 전역하고 모은 돈으로 일본여행 더 길게 다녀올 생각임. 백팩, 그리고 64일 day 20 in 오카야마 岡山 일본여행.
김피비갤 20일차는 시코쿠를 떠나 오카야마로 넘어가는 날이었음. 한국인에게는 잘 알려져 있지 않지만 2021년 한 해 1099만명이 다녀간 일본 추코구지역 대표 관광지 오카야마현. 시리즈 스압 수오미와 떠나는 오카야마 여행 스압 수오미와 떠나는 오카야마 여행 1일차 사실 오카야마 라는 곳을 간다고 결정 했을때 부터 1순위는 히메지성 2순위가 바로 이 온천이였음. Com › board › view스압 수오미와 떠나는 오카야마 여행 2일차 실시간 베스트 갤러리. Com › board › view오카야마 2박3일 여행기 2일차 1 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 나비녀 정체
김유연 쌩얼 2022년 한 해 1129만명이 다녀간 한국의 대표 관광지 전주시. Redirecting to sgall. 일반 간사이 와이드로 뽕뽑기 오카야마 vs 다카마쓰 vs 돗토리 어디가 남. Jpg resizeimage__160202. 오카야마 2박3일 여행 2일차2 일본여행 관동이외 마이너. 나카의 악마
깐숙 쌩얼 오카야마 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. Com › board › view스압 수오미와 떠나는 오카야마 여행 2일차 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 작년에는 자유석이 있었는데 이번에는 전지정석이었음. Com › board › view전역선물 서일본 여행기 1 오카야마 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 작년에는 자유석이 있었는데 이번에는 전지정석이었음. 꼭노 방송
나는 찬미 꼭지 노출 박물관 같은곳 괜찮긴한데 2시간 환승 2번 하면서 갈만한 곳은 아닌듯. 일본의 간사이와 주고쿠 지방을 잇는 관문, 오카야마는 조용하지만 그 속에 다채로운 매력을 품고 있는 도시입니다. 오카야마성이 까마귀성이라는 별칭으로 불리는 이유는 검은 성벽 때문입니다. Jpg resizeimage_820232. 시리즈 오카야마여행기 오카야마 여행기1일차 오카야마 여행기2일차 오카야마 여행기3일차 오카야마여행기4일.
나히아 바쿠고 오카야마 거점 근교 관광지 평가 일본여행 관동이외. 키비츠 신사 추천 이쁘고 일찍 가면 북적이지 않아 좋음 이동시간 좀 걸리고 배차 간격 주의해야함. Jpg resizeimage_620248. 머싯는 궁도부 엉아들도 있어서 허락받고 사진찍음 흰티 엉아는 내가 사진찍어서 그런지 빗나감ㅋㅋ 정면에서 화살날아오면 못피할듯 꽤빠르더라 방패 read more. Jpg resizeimage_920223.
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.
오카야마 오기 전까지는 구라시키를 몰라서 근교 도시인 오카야., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.