US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
그런데 2화 19분쯤, 백현 인터뷰에서 이런 말이 나와요. 유식 인스타 환승연애 시즌4 마이너 갤러리. 2010년 1월 13일 디시에는 수감 중인 김유식의 항소심 판결을 앞두고 김유식 탄원서명 갤러리가 개설되었다. 아이디는 @188_yu_sik 이에요.
그리고 결국 그 투자한 80억원은 한 푼도 회수하지. 사랑만으로는 정리되지 않는 현실적인 질문들 앞에서. 심지어 최근에는 유식이의 인스타그램 주소가 유출되었는데요. 디시인사이드의 설립자 겸 대표이사 사장이다. 인스타그램이 막 핫해졌던 시절난 옷을 좋아했기땜에 데일리 룩 올리면서소소하게 포스팅 했었음그러다가 같은지역에 사는.| 바로 디시인사이드dcinside인데요. | 유식이 인스타 공개전까지 인플이랑 존나 놀더만. | Kr › community › misc환승연애4 스포 총정리. |
|---|---|---|
| 인스타 주소 존재하지 않는 이미지입니다. | 개드립 파라다이스 디시인사이드 유식대장의 구치소 체험기 가쎄gasse 2011년 07월. | 그리고 항소심에서 감형이 확정, 2010년 1월 28일 집행유예로 석방되었다. |
| 스크랩 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보처리방침 청소년. | 최근 m&a 시장에 깜짝 매물이 등장했습니다. | 유식이 인스타 공개전까지 인플이랑 존나 놀더만 환승연애. |
| 출연진 인스타, 직업, 나이, 그리고 복잡하게 얽힌 러브라인까지 한눈에 정리했어요. | 2010년 1월 13일 디시에는 수감 중인 김유식의 항소심 판결을 앞두고 김유식 탄원서명 갤러리가 개설되었다. | 코딩을 소통을 위한 글쓰기로 대하며 소개가 문제적인 까닭에 대해 생각하고 인스타그램에서 벗어나 웹사이트를 만들었습니다. |
| 그런데 2화 19분쯤, 백현 인터뷰에서 이런 말이 나와요. | 심지어 최근에는 유식이의 인스타그램 주소가 유출되었는데요. | 유식 민경 인스타 소개글 환승연애 시즌4 미니 갤러리. |
+백현, 현지 인스타는 아직 비공개라고 @@@@환연 보는 친구한테 보내주자.. 내가 추억하는 친근한 음식을 주제로 한 우리 콘텐츠 허브에서는 짧은 영상들을 통해 실베스터 스텔론의 감동적인 반려견 이야기부터..
제 최애가 바로 유식이거든요ㅎ 최근 유식의 인스타그램 계정이 발견되면서 이 궁금증이 조금씩 풀리고 있습니다. 백현 현지, 유식 민경, 인스타,직업 팬플. 과거 아웃스탠딩 인터뷰에서도 소개된 바 있지만 디시인사이드는 국내 인터넷 문화의 성지와 같은 곳이고 이런 디시인사이드를. 커뮤니티 내에서는 보통 유식대장이라는 별명으로 불리며 2010년대 중반에 들어서는 야민정음의 영향을 받아서 숲윾싀머튽金유식대長이라 불리기도 한다. 원래 환승연애는 방영이 끝나기 전에는 인스타그램 주소 공개가 금지인데, 실수로 잠깐 공개된 듯 해요.
2010년 1월 13일 디시에는 수감 중인 김유식의 항소심 판결을 앞두고 김유식 탄원서명 갤러리가 개설되었다. 디시인사이드의 설립자 겸 대표이사 사장이다, 최근 m&a 시장에 깜짝 매물이 등장했습니다. 그리고 결국 그 투자한 80억원은 한 푼도 회수하지. 유식 민경 인스타 소개글 환승연애 시즌4 미니 갤러리.
비호의 선녀 루나샤 그리고 항소심에서 감형이 확정, 2010년 1월 28일 집행유예로 석방되었다. 유식대장이 박시연에 대한 지지를 보이기 시작하면서 생겨난 별명이 유식돌인데, 야민정음의 영향을 받아. 1 키뮤식, 김무식, 기뮤식 등의 별명으로도 불린다. 사진 찍힌거 찍어주는 사람 구도도 맞음. 현재 유식 인스타는 추가 게시물 없이 그대로 유지 중이고, 방송 관련 언급도 없는 상태입니다. 삐부 논란
빌리 아일리시 누드 인스타그램이 막 핫해졌던 시절난 옷을 좋아했기땜에 데일리 룩 올리면서소소하게 포스팅 했었음그러다가 같은지역에 사는. ㄹㅇ심지어 그댓글은 본계고 답글개뚱뚱하게 민경이 내리까는 유식대변인은 부계ㅋㅋ. 유식대장이란 애칭으로 잘 알려진 김씨는 1999년 디지털카메라 커뮤니티 사이트인 디시인사이드를 만들어 한국 인터넷 문화에 리플, 엽기, 패러디, 폐인. 개드립 파라다이스 디시인사이드 유식대장의 구치소 체험기 가쎄gasse 2011년 07월. 바로 디시인사이드dcinside인데요. 사나 미드 디시
비비화보 사과 무료 보기 주식에 관심이 있어서 전부터 디시인사이드의 주식 갤러리를 드나들었고 2008년 10월 17일 화학 업체인 메이드에 80억원을 투자하고 주식 2천만 주를 취득하였으나 때마침 리먼브러더스 사태가 터져 10월 24일 기준, 단 일주일만에 36억원을 날렸다. 그리고 항소심에서 감형이 확정, 2010년 1월 28일 집행유예로 석방되었다. 유식이 인스타 공개전까지 인플이랑 존나 놀더만. 백현현지의 눈물나는 재회부터 유식민경의 7년 러브스토리까지. 현실세계에서 못살고 온라인 세상에서 아자스같은 일본어 밈이나 쓰고있는 급식충들만 그득한거같아서 이런 애들이 연애한번 못해본채로 곽민경한테 read more. 사카에마치 패션헬스
사네 기유 임신 사랑만으로는 정리되지 않는 현실적인 질문들 앞에서. 커뮤니티 내에서는 보통 유식대장이라는 별명으로 불리며 2010년대 중반에 들어서는 야민정음의 영향을 받아서 숲윾싀머튽金유식대長이라 불리기도 한다. 그리고 항소심에서 감형이 확정, 2010년 1월 28일 집행유예로 석방되었다. 코딩을 소통을 위한 글쓰기로 대하며 소개가 문제적인 까닭에 대해 생각하고 인스타그램에서 벗어나 웹사이트를 만들었습니다. 유식이 현지 인스타 염탐하다가 환승연애 시즌4 마이너.
비번 국룰 그리고 결국 그 투자한 80억원은 한 푼도 회수하지. 유식이 인스타 공개전까지 인플이랑 존나 놀더만 환승연애. 그런데 2화 19분쯤, 백현 인터뷰에서 이런 말이 나와요. 사진 찍힌거 찍어주는 사람 구도도 맞음. 현실세계에서 못살고 온라인 세상에서 아자스같은 일본어 밈이나 쓰고있는 급식충들만 그득한거같아서 이런 애들이 연애한번 못해본채로 곽민경한테 read more.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 13, 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.
유식이 현지 인스타 염탐하다가 환승연애 시즌4 마이너., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.