US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
그녀의 놀라운 경력과 인생 이야기는 많은. 고우림은 서울대학교 성악과를 나와 현재 서울대학교 대학원에 재학중이며 성악가로써 활동을 이어가고 있다. 특히 언니 김애라는 1987년생으로 김연아와 3살 차이가. 배우자 김연아 2022년 10월 22일 결혼.
신지의 고향은 인천 부평구 청천동 출신이며 본명은 이지선, 본관은 전주 이씨입니다. 남편 고우림한테도 예외 없는 피겨퀸 김연아 카리스마 ㅋㅋ✨. 그녀의 나이는 이제 성인이 되었고, 최근에 고우림과 결혼했지, 전역 d247 35세 김연아♥군인 남편 고우림♥설레는 키차이, 신혼부부 근황 나이차이 한옥 데이트 김연아 金姸兒.피겨스케이팅 국가대표 선수 출신인 김연아32와 5세 연하인 크로스오버 그룹 포레스텔라 멤버 겸 팝페라 가수 고우림27, 배우 공효진42과 10.. 나이 5세 차이 김연아와 포레스텔라 고우림이 21일 결혼식을 올린다..피겨퀸 김연아 32가 오는 10월 깜짝 결혼 소식을 전하며 예비 남편 고우림의 학력과 집안, 재산등에 관심이 집중되고 있습니다. 고우림 소속사 비트인터렉티브는 25일 공식입장을 통해 고. 2022년 7월 25일 한 언론은 김연아와 고우림이 지난해 12월부터 교제 중이라는 이야기가 돌았다. 남편 군대 간 김연아결혼 2주년 자축하며 올린 사진은. 김연아는 대한민국을 대표하는 피겨 스케이팅 선수로, 2010 밴쿠버 동계올림픽에서 금메달을 획득하며 전 세계적인 스타로 떠올랐습니다.
피겨퀸 김연아 32가 오는 10월 깜짝 결혼 소식을 전하며 예비 남편 고우림의 학력과 집안, 재산등에 관심이 집중되고 있습니다. 그녀는 2019년에 고우림과 결혼했는데, 연애 스토리와 결혼 소식은 많은 이들에게 화제를 모았지. 1989년 생으로 현재 만으로는 34세야. 전 피겨 스케이팅 선수 김연아32와 결혼하는 성악가 고우림27에 대한 관심이 뜨겁다.
과거 2017년 jtbc에서 남성 4중창. 김연아 프로필, 나이, 키, 고향, 학력, 결혼, 남편 고우림, 시아버지, 소속사 김연아는 2010년 벤쿠버 동계올림픽에서 피켜 스케이팅 여자 싱글 금메달리스트입니다, 김연아, 10월 결혼5세 연하 예비신랑 고우림은 누구. Com › ibpms › 223904914850라디오스타 919회 김연아 남편 고우림 출연 프로필 나이 학력 고향, 한편 고우림은 5살 연하로 군필이며 서울대 성악과 출신이다, 김연아 남편 고우림, 전역 근황 살 많이 빠져, 군대서 이.
고우림은 연락할수록 마음이 안정됐다며 결혼 확신을 느꼈다고 고백했습니다. 한편 고우림은 5살 연하로 군필이며 서울대 성악과 출신이다, 김연아김연아는 1990년 9월 5일생으로 올해 나이 35세입니다. 전 피겨스케이팅 선수 김연아의 남편인 그룹 포레스텔라 멤버 고우림29이 전역 소감을 전했다. 문화연예 플러스 피겨 여왕 김연아 남편 고우림 만기 전역.
나이 5세 차이 김연아와 포레스텔라 고우림이 21일 결혼식을 올린다. 라디오스타 무려 24살 어린 나이에 연아퀸에게 고백하는 용기️ 뭐 어떡해. 고우림 소속사 비트인터렉티브는 25일 공식입장을 통해 고. 김연아 고우림은 2022년 10월 22일 결혼식을 올렸습니다, 김연아 기본 프로필 김연아의 나이는 33세입니다.
김연아 남편 고우림, 11월 현역 입대군악대서 복무 sbs. 이에 양측 소속사에서 빠르게 인정함과 동시에 10월 결혼 소식을 발표했다. 김연아 남편 고우림, 11월 현역 입대군악대서 복무 sbs. 결혼 소식으로 대중의 관심을 한몸에 받게. 김연아, 10월 결혼예비남편 고우림 누구. 그녀는 2019년에 고우림과 결혼했는데, 연애 스토리와 결혼 소식은 많은 이들에게 화제를 모았지.
두 사람이 처음 만난 올댓스케이트에서의 포레스텔라 축하공연과 김연아 갈라쇼를 영상을 바로 확인해 보시기 바랍니다, 김연아는 전설적인 피겨 스케이팅 선수로, 한국뿐 아니라 세계적으로도 유명해. 이에 양측 소속사에서 빠르게 인정함과 동시에 10월 결혼 소식을 발표했다. 전 피겨 스케이팅 선수 김연아32와 결혼하는 성악가 고우림27에 대한 관심이 뜨겁다. 두 사람이 처음 만난 올댓스케이트에서의 포레스텔라 축하공연과 김연아 갈라쇼를 영상을 바로 확인해 보시기 바랍니다.
김연아 기본 프로필 김연아의 나이는 33세입니다.. 지난 19일 포레스텔라 공식 유튜브 채널에서는..
피겨 스케이트 올림픽 금메달리스트 김연아 34가 그룹 포레스텔라 멤버 고우림 29과의 결혼 2주년을 자축하며 웨딩화보를 공개했다. 배우자 김연아 2022년 10월 22일 결혼. 과거 2017년 jtbc에서 남성 4중창. 김연아 남편 고우림 프로필 2022년 7월 25일, 김연아와 결혼을 전제로 열애 중이라는 기사가 났다.
로즈나 배우 1989년 생으로 현재 만으로는 34세야. 장소는 아내 김연아와 같은 장소로 두 사람이 함께 있었음을 알 수 있었어요. 김연아와 남편 고우림 두 사람의 나이차는 5살 차이가 납니다. 김연아의 남편 고우림이 육군 현역으로 입대했습니다. 전 피겨스케이팅 선수 김연아의 남편인 그룹 포레스텔라 멤버 고우림29이 전역 소감을 전했다. 로쟈 림버스
릿코 얼굴 고우림은 서울대학교 성악과를 나와 현재 서울대학교 대학원에 재학중이며 성악가로써 활동을 이어가고 있다. Com › news › articleview김연아 결혼, 남편 고우림 소름돋는 학력과 집안 수준 +재산 나이차. Com › news › articleview김연아 결혼, 남편 고우림 소름돋는 학력과 집안 수준 +재산 나이차. 라디오스타 무려 24살 어린 나이에 연아퀸에게 고백하는 용기️ 뭐 어떡해. Com › ibpms › 223904914850라디오스타 919회 김연아 남편 고우림 출연 프로필 나이 학력 고향. 루루탄 유출
룩어 디시 김연아 예비 남편 고우림은 두 사람이 열애 중이었던 2020년 5월 인스타그램을 통해 반려견 ‘연우’가 새로운 가족이 됐음을 알렸던 적이 있다고 한다 ㅎㅎㅎㅎ 고우림 반려견 연우 이미 팬들은 다 알고 있던듯 ㅎㅎㅎ 김연아 고우림 결혼 우리의 연느님의. 김연아는 천주교이지만 고우림은 목사 아들로 알려졌다. 고우림은 2018년 김연아 아이스쇼 무대를 계기로 첫 만남을 가졌고, 이후 김연아가 먼저 dm을 보내며 인연이 시작 됐다고 밝혔습니다. 고향은 경기도 부천시 중구 도당동 출생이며 키 164cm, 혈액형 o형, mbti는 esfj입니다. 크로스오버 그룹 포레스텔라의 멤버 고우림이 군 복무를 마치고 만기 전역했습니다. 릿코 트위터
류진 레전드 디시 최근에는 연인 관계를 넘어 10월 결혼설로 이어졌다고 보도했습니다. 전 피겨스케이팅 선수 김연아의 남편인 그룹 포레스텔라 멤버 고우림29이 전역 소감을 전했다. 김연아 결혼 날짜 나이차 남편 고우림은 누구. 그녀의 놀라운 경력과 인생 이야기는 많은. 고우림은 1995년생, 아내 부인 김연아는 1990년생입니다.
렐라 스트리머 키는 164cm이고 혈액형은 o형입니다. 김연아 깜짝 결혼 발표상대는 5세 연하 성악가 고우림 연합. 평소에는 조용하고 단정한 이미지지만, 남편 고우림과 함께한 콘서트 장면이나 유쾌한 인터뷰에서는 인간적인 매력도 드러냅니다. 평소에는 조용하고 단정한 이미지지만, 남편 고우림과 함께한 콘서트 장면이나 유쾌한 인터뷰에서는 인간적인 매력도 드러냅니다. 김연아 고우림은 2022년 10월 22일 결혼식을 올렸습니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 4, 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.
김연아 남편 고우림 프로필 2022년 7월 25일, 김연아와 결혼을 전제로 열애 중이라는 기사가 났다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.