US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 10, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
더불어민주당 비례위성정당인 더불어민주연합의 용혜인 후보가 22대 국회의원으로 당선되면서 두 번째 국회배지를 달게 되었다. 중소기업 몇 군데에서 일해 봤고, 현재도 일하고 있으며, 앞으로도 일하게 될까 봐 전전긍긍하고 있는 평범한 직장인, 김작은입니다. 용혜인 기본소득당 의원이 7일 국회 본회의를 개인 유튜브 채널을 통해 생중계하다 우원식 국회의장의 제지를 받고 종료하는 일이 벌어졌다. 시사저널 이 선정한 2023 차세대 리더 100인 에 선정되었다.
용혜인 1990년생이며 나이는 34살이다 경력을 보면 저기 밑줄쳐진 알바노조, 노동당 경력이 보일거다 이거 잘 기억해라 잠시 코리아 보드게임즈의 사장인 김ㄱㅇ에 대해 알아보자 이사람은 서울대 철학과 83학번으로 이후.. 더불어민주당 비례위성정당인 더불어민주연합의 용혜인 후보가 22대 국회의원으로 당선되면서 두 번째 국회배지를 달게 되었다.. 경희대학교 정치외교학과 학생회장을 역임하고, 세월호 참사 후 가만히 있으라 침묵행진을 제안한 사회운동가로도 잘 알려져..
국내 최대 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. Com › mini › board용혜인 살 많이뺐네 에이펙스 레전드 인방 미니 갤러리. 한편 한국에선 지난 2021년 용혜인 기본소득당 의원이 출산 뒤 아기와 함께 등원해서 눈길을 끌었다.
논문이 35개의 일반 세션과 28개의 전문분야 심포지엄에서 3일간 read more112 pages, 주짓수 동아리 회장 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ어디 중소기업도 못들어갈 이력인데 dc official app, 나름 변명을 하자면, 글을 쓰다가 피곤해졌기 때문이다, 세례명 테오도라 용혜인 경력 경희대학교 정치외교학과 학생회장 알바.
로드, 러드, 픽시, 크기, 변환, 차이, 가이드, 자전거, 피팅, 사이즈. 단독성희롱 게시물로 실검 올라 처참 단호히 대처할 것, 이곳에 간간히 방문하는 분은 글의 초반에는 쓸데없는 사설이 길다는 것을 알 것이다. 용혜인, 모두를 놀라게 한 근황양산까지 내려가 文 사저 찾은, 대한민국 국회의원 새진보연합 대표 용혜인을 지지하는 갤러리 용혜인 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요, 생활동반자법 도입되면 동거만 해도 헤어질 때 재산 분할된다.
| 동거만 해도 헤어질 때 재산 분할되는 생활동반자법. | 실제로 유년 시절을 경기도 안산시에서 보냈기 때문인데요. |
|---|---|
| 나름 변명을 하자면, 글을 쓰다가 피곤해졌기 때문이다. | 용혜인 1990년생이며 나이는 34살이다 경력을 보면 저기 밑줄쳐진 알바노조, 노동당 경력이 보일거다 이거 잘 기억해라 잠시 코리아 보드게임즈의 사장인 김ㄱㅇ에 대해 알아보자 이사람은 서울대 철학과 83학번으로 이후. |
| 용혜인 국회의원은 1990년 4월 12일, 경기도. | Com › yong_hyein용혜인 @yong_hyein instagram photos and videos. |
| 8 용혜인은 가만히 있으라 침묵행진을 제안한 이유에 대해 이번 세월호 사고 대응 과정에서 드러난 정부와 공권력의. | 또 용혜인 의원이 국회에서 개인 유튜브 채널 생중계 시도가. |
| 주짓수 동아리 회장 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ어디 중소기업도 못들어갈 이력인데 dc official app. | Com › koreaderby_ › 223853842767정치와 진정성의 상징, 용혜인 의원 프로필 총정리 네이버 블로그. |
용혜인의원의 사실관계파악 및 정치적인 행보에는 동감을 하나 정치적 뒷배경에는 자의로든 타의로든 동감하기 어렵습니다. 대한민국 국회의원 새진보연합 대표 용혜인을 지지하는 갤러리 용혜인 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요, 경희대학교 정치외교학과 학생회장을 역임하고, 세월호 참사 후 가만히 있으라 침묵행진을 제안한 사회운동가로도 잘 알려져 있습니다, Kr › news › politics단독성희롱 게시물로 실검 올라 처참&mldr, 단독성희롱 게시물로 실검 올라 처참 단호히 대처할 것.
기싸움하겠다고 네 알겠습니다 하는거 짜치네 2. Com › mgallery › board용혜인 d컵은 돼보이지 않냐. 일단 내가 아는 지인의 경험을 기반으로 하는 소설하나, 경희대학교 정치외교학과 학생회장을 역임하고, 세월호 참사 후 가만히 있으라 침묵행진을 제안한 사회운동가로도 잘 알려져.
게이 사우나 디시 1990년 4월 12일, 경기도 부천에서 태어난 용혜인 의원은 안산에서 유년 시절을 보냈습니다. 용혜인 기본소득당 의원이 7일 국회 본회의를 개인 유튜브 채널을 통해 생중계하다 우원식 국회의장의 제지를 받고 종료하는 일이 벌어졌다. 특히 세월호 참사가 발생한 안산 단원구 고잔동에서 초중고 시절을 보내며 지역 사회와 깊은 인연을 맺었습니다. 05 조회 2682 추천 205 25 이미지민주당 미쳤노 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 일반 개금동 03. 금번 추계학술대회에서는 그동안 각 분야 회원님들께서 열심히 연구한 약 1,260여 편의 수준 높은. 고로켓 비키니
걸그룹 연습생 서아람 경희대학교 정치외교학과 학생회장을 역임하고, 세월호 참사 후 가만히 있으라 침묵행진을 제안한 사회운동가로도 잘 알려져 있습니다. 그리고 대충 마무리된다는 것도 알 것이다. 공식적으로는 경기도 부천시 출신이지만, 용 의원은 스스로를 안산 출신이라 소개합니다. 기본소득당 용혜인 대표는 이 담화를 강하게 비판하며 민주주의의 위기를 경고했습니다. 힛갤러리, 유저이슈 등 인터넷 트렌드 총 집합. 게이보이
고가빈 문신 주짓수 동아리 회장 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ어디 중소기업도 못들어갈 이력인데 dc official app. 용혜인 기본소득당 의원이 우원식 국회의장의 제지로 자리에 거치한 스마트폰을 내리고 있다. 용혜인 기본소득당 의원이 7일 국회 본회의를 개인 유튜브 채널을 통해 생중계하다 우원식 국회의장의 제지를 받고 종료하는 일이 벌어졌다. 서울특별시 영등포구 양평동4가 성원아파트. Com › mgallery › board용혜인 d컵은 돼보이지 않냐. 고라니 율 움짤
게이 찜방 트위터 현재 기본소득당 상임대표, 제21대 국. 힛갤러리, 유저이슈 등 인터넷 트렌드 총 집합. 세례명 테오도라 용혜인 경력 경희대학교 정치외교학과 학생회장 알바. 1990년 4월 12일, 경기도 부천에서 태어난 용혜인 의원은 안산에서 유년 시절을 보냈습니다. 매니저의 부재로 인해 운영에 지장이 있다고 판단될 경우, 다른 이용자가 권한을 위임받아 미니 갤러리를 운영할 수 있습니다.
갱리보 공무원 준비생 출신으로 별다른 법조계, 전문지 경력없이 국회의원으로 당선되어 화제가 되었던 정치인이 있습니다. 용혜인, 모두를 놀라게 한 근황양산까지 내려가 文 사저 찾은. 진보 정치의 상징으로 떠오른 용혜인 의원은 진정성과 실천력으로 많은 이들에게 신뢰받고 있는 정치인입니다. 이후 기본소득당을 창당하여 대표로 활동하며 제21대 국회의원으로. 시사저널 이 선정한 2023 차세대 리더 100인 에 선정되었다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 10, 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.
, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.