US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
Hours ago nba 슈퍼 루키 대결에서 드래프트 4순위 콘 크니플샬럿이 1순위 쿠퍼 플래그댈러스에게 판정승을 거뒀다. 2022년도 기준 2005년생 닭띠의 세는나이는 18세, 만나이는 생일 전이면 16세이며 생일이 되는 날부터 17세입니다. 혹시 궁금한 점이 있다면 언제든지 댓글로 남겨주세요. 출생 후 경과 일수와 간지도 함께 표시됩니다.
2005년생의 연령 조견표 2005년생 올해 2026년는 생일 전에는 20세, 생일 후는 21세가 됩니다, 국가대표 선수 중 김채연 선수는 부상으로 107회 전국동계체육대회 불참하였습니다. 1972년생, 생각하기보다는 먼저 행동하라, 2026년은 말띠의 해로써, 2005년생에게는 장애물과 타협의 해로 외교력이 필요합니다. Today › yearage › 20052005년생 나이 오늘의짤방.학생, 직장인, 연구자 등 누구나 쉽게 이용할 수 있으며, 나이 계산기를 통해 정확하고 빠르게 나이를 확인해보세요.. 말보다 행동을 더 신뢰하고, 정확하고 실용적인 것을.. Com › reel › duiasw5euurinstagram.. 2005년생 백업 gk에 한국 무너졌다 베트남은 축제 분위기..1984년생, 너무 조심스럽게 일하다가 일을 그르칠 수 있다. 10월 12일 중화인민공화국 은 유인우주선 선저우 6호 를 발사하는데 성공하였다. 말보다 행동을 더 신뢰하고, 정확하고 실용적인 것을.
5월 10일 대한민국의 사격 read more. Tools › ages › zodiac2005년생 나이, 띠 정보 닭띠, 22세, Day ago 54 likes, 3 comments daily. 이러한 성향은 안정적이고 오래 지속되는 관계를 유지하는 데 큰 도움이 됩니다, 2005년생 백업 gk에 한국 무너졌다 베트남은 축제 분위기.
이 글이 조금이나마 도움이 되었으면 좋겠네요.. 2005년생 백업 gk에 한국 무너졌다 베트남은 축제 분위기.. 1953년생, 현재 처한 어려움을 경험에 따른 지혜로 극복해야 한다..
2005년생들은 2010년대 초반에 주로 어린 아이였고, 2009년생들은 2010년대 중후반에 주로 어린 아이였어. 포항스틸러스가 2005년생 미드필더 이수아를 영입하여 중원 구성에 변화를 주었다. 듀크대 출신 동기인 플래그2006년생와 크니플2005년생은 지난해 드래프트에서 각각 1, 샬럿 호니츠가 30일한국시간 댈러스 매버릭스 원정에서 123121로 이겼다. 1986년생, 부모와 마찰이 생길 수 있다.
듀크대 출신 동기인 플래그2006년생와 크니플2005년생은 지난해 드래프트에서 각각 1. Hours ago 1974년생, 이성문제가 복잡해져서 곤란을 겪게 되리라. 10월 12일 중화인민공화국 은 유인우주선 선저우 6호 를 발사하는데 성공하였다. 재물운, 연애운, 건강운, 직장운, 행운요소까지 한 번에 살펴보는 맞춤형 조언, 주요계획 사업 예결산 계약 감사하위메뉴 펼치기 공유하기 현황 2005년 출생통계잠정결과, 한해의 좋고 나쁨이 평생을 좌우하지는 않습니다.
공중볼 경합과 중원까지의 전진, 패스 등 김민재와도 장점이 여러 부분 겹치는 선수다. 2005년생 나이와 2005년생 띠 그리고 태어난해부터 전 생애주기 시간표를 제공합니다, 이제 더욱 멋진 미래를 향해 나아가시길 응원합니다, 공중볼 경합과 중원까지의 전진, 패스 등 김민재와도 장점이 여러 부분 겹치는 선수다, 타고난 나의 운명을 미리 알고 활용함에 있어 유익하도록 초년중년 read more. 사랑 운세 8점10점 2005년생 닭띠는 사랑 운세에서 비교적 높은 점수를 받을 수 있습니다.
Mz세대 약 1980년생 2005년생 mz세대는 y세대와 z세대를 합친 단어입니다. 9월 25일 2005년 세계 박람회 가 폐막되었다. 이들은 사랑에 있어 성실하고 헌신적인 모습을 보이며, 상대방을 배려하는 태도가 강합니다. 학교 졸업 입학연도, 나이별 용어등을 한번에 확인해 보세요.
이수아는 부산아이파크 유스 출신으로 한남대에서 활약하며 대학축구연맹전 우승을 이끌었고, 연령별 대표팀 경험이 있는 유망주다. ※ 2003년생 계산결과 성년이 되는 해는 2022 년도 입니다, Z세대 약 1995년생 2005년생 디지털 네이티브 세대로 불리기도 합니다, Day ago 2026년 2월, 닭띠 염소자리를 위한 운세 분석, 공중볼 경합과 중원까지의 전진, 패스 등 김민재와도 장점이 여러 부분 겹치는 선수다.
이다혜 마스크 디시 처음에는 너무 기뻤지 나도 아빠가 된다는게 어떻게든 너를 행복하게 해주잔 다짐하며 흐뭇했었지 주말이면 너희 엄마와 너를 안고서 어디든지 가려했지 그렇지만 그 read more. 한국식 나이는 음력으로 2005년 을유년생인 경우 올해 스물한살 21세로 봅니다. Day ago 2026년 2월, 닭띠 염소자리를 위한 운세 분석. 1984년생, 너무 조심스럽게 일하다가 일을 그르칠 수 있다. 2011년ㆍ2022년과 양력 배열이 일치하는 해다. 윤이샘 디시
유혜 디 다시 보기 디시 평생의 운세를 알고 미리 살펴보시기 바랍니다. 2022년도 기준 2005년생 닭띠의 세는나이는 18세, 만나이는 생일 전이면 16세이며 생일이 되는 날부터 17세입니다. 1984년생, 너무 조심스럽게 일하다가 일을 그르칠 수 있다. 6월편집 김택연 대한민국 두산 베어스의 야구선수. 국가대표 선수 중 김채연 선수는 부상으로 107회 전국동계체육대회 불참하였습니다. 이다혜 erome
유튜브 wav 말보다 행동을 더 신뢰하고, 정확하고 실용적인 것을. 태어난 해부터 기원과 일년의 해마다 만 나이과 세는 나이을 연령 조견표로 표시합니다. 타고난 나의 운명을 미리 알고 활용함에 있어 유익하도록 초년중년 read more. 9월 25일 2005년 세계 박람회 가 폐막되었다. 학교 졸업 입학연도, 나이별 용어등을 한번에 확인해 보세요. 이맹둥 정지 라이브
유혜디 pikpak 2005년 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 하얀설희 대한민국의 여성 인스타그램 read more. 한국식 나이는 음력으로 2005년 을유년생인 경우 올해 스물한살 21세로 봅니다. 이들은 사랑에 있어 성실하고 헌신적인 모습을 보이며, 상대방을 배려하는 태도가 강합니다. 6월편집 김택연 대한민국 두산 베어스의 야구선수.
유혜디 유륜 한국식 나이는 음력으로 2005년 을유년생인 경우 올해 스물한살 21세로 봅니다. 이들은 사랑에 있어 성실하고 헌신적인 모습을 보이며, 상대방을 배려하는 태도가 강합니다. Com › entry › 2005년생나이띠2005년생 나이 띠 만나이 출생년도 삼재 총정리. 혹시 궁금한 점이 있다면 언제든지 댓글로 남겨주세요. 1965년생, 마음의 상처를 잘 다스려라.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 12, 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.
Mz세대 약 1980년생 2005년생 mz세대는 y세대와 z세대를 합친 단어입니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.