US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
Kr › news › view나솔사계 28기 영수, 넘치던 인기 어디갔나&ctdot. Net › iamsolo › 4004845373더쿠 29기 영수님 소개팅 100번 중 한 50번은 블라 셀소인가. 블라인드 썰은 스포 포함해 반은 진실이고 반은 거짓이기 때문에 대충 보는 편인데 29기 영수는 매일 목격담이 속출하는데 더 재밌는것은 셀소의 후기글이다. 29기 영수 직업 블라인드 앱 소개팅녀의 황당한 후기.
| 영숙은 마지막 데이트에서 영호, 영식의 선택을 받았다. | 29일오늘 밤 방송되는 ena와 sbs plus의 ‘나는 solo, 그 후 사랑은 계속된다’이하 ‘나솔사계’에서는 22기 영수와 미스터 킴이 ‘인기녀’ 국화를 두고 맞붙는 ‘국화 대전’이 공. | 소개팅후기 하나같이 구린 이유 나는솔로나는솔로28기나는솔로나는솔로28기. | 29기 영수 직업 블라인드 앱 소개팅녀의 황당한 후기. |
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| 28기 영수의 인기가 존재감을 잃었다. | 이십 구 기 영수아와 과거 소개팅을 했다는 글이 올라왔다. | 영수가 원하는 여성은 본인이 차분한 편이기 때문에 반대로 활발하고 유쾌한 성격을 가진 분입니다. | 하지만 옥순은 자기소개 전 이미 서울대학병원 간호사 라는 사실이 발각 되었지만, 옥순을 향한 여러 의혹들이. |
| 나는솔로 26기 출연자들의 직업, 나이, 인스타 정보와 관련된 내용을 정리한 블로그입니다. | 잡담 29기 영수님 소개팅 100번 중 한 50번은 블라 셀소인가 6,066 31 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. | 10일 방송된 sbs플러스, ena 나는 솔로에서는 29기 연상연하 특집의 데이트가 진행됐다. | 블라인드 썰은 스포 포함해 반은 진실이고 반은 거짓이기 때문에 대충 보는 편인데 29기 영수는 매일 목격담이 속출하는데 더 재밌는것은 셀소의 후기글이다. |
| 29일오늘 밤 방송되는 ena와 sbs plus의 ‘나는 solo, 그 후 사랑은 계속된다’이하 ‘나솔사계’에서는 22기 영수와 미스터 킴이 ‘인기녀’ 국화를 두고 맞붙는 ‘국화 대전’이 공. | 급삭제된 나는솔로 29기 영수 블라 셀소에 남긴 충격적인 글 당황스럽네 연애 예능 daily issue report ・ 2025. | Kr › news › view나솔사계 28기 영수, 넘치던 인기 어디갔나&ctdot. | 유쾌하고 활발한 분을 꼭 만나시길 바랍니다. |
근거있는 자신감 영수 요즘 나는솔로 29기 영수에 대한 목격담이 속출하고 있다.. 수요일예능으로 많은 사랑을 받고 있는 나는솔로 29기 옥순은 첫 등장과 동시에 박수진 닮은꼴로 시선을 사로잡았으며, 역대 옥순 중에서도 top이라는 반응들이 쏟아지게 되었습니다.. 10일 방송된 sbs플러스, ena 나는 솔로에서는 29기 연상연하 특집의 데이트가 진행됐다..29기 옥순 대존예 내가 아들맘이라 그런가 29기 영철♥︎정숙 의문점 옥순은 남자에게 얻는 인기를 블라 노처녀들은 진짜 사회악이다 29기 광수는 옥순이 확실한건 회사에서 평은 좋을듯 광고 도브 센스티브 뷰티 바 비누, 하지만 영수는 블라인드 셀소를 통해 소개팅을 한 이력이 발각되는가 하며, 과거 영수가, 토픽 im솔로 팔로우 근데 29기 영수 다른의미로 대단하고 신기한게 새회사 어제 1,824 16 사회생활 저렇게 하고도 지인 소개팅 풀이 끊기지 않았다는 것과, +블라 셀소 도배. Day ago 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 22기 영수, 미스터 킴의 아찔한 신경전이 펼쳐진다. Day ago 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 22기 영수, 미스터 킴의 아찔한 신경전이 펼쳐진다.
미경님 인스타 구경하다가 영자님 글을 보게됨.. 집안일 잘하는 연하남 원한다는 나는솔로 29기 정숙 대박이라는 직업 요즘예능추천 급삭제된 나는솔로 29기 영수 블라 셀소에 남긴 충격적인 글 당황스럽네 연애 예능.. 소개팅 만남 블라인드 나는솔로29기 나는솔로리뷰 나는솔로 29기 영수 소개팅 100번이 블라인드 만남이었나..
상철 저 돼지는 자기객관화가 안되네 영식이 영숙도 성형 한 얼굴임. 솔로나라 나는솔로28기 나는솔로29기 나는솔로폭로 나는솔로현커 나는솔로 29기 연상연하 영수 입사동기 폭로. 메타인지 잘장착되어 있는 영수는 29기중 영호 말고는 딱히 경쟁상대라고 볼만한 사람이 없다고 느낄 확률높음. 블라에 훈남이라고 하는 글들 많은데 실제로 만나면 영수보다 잘생긴 사람 많음. 21일 방송된 sbs플러스ena 나는 솔로에서는 최종 선택이 공개됐다.
미연 가슴수술 그중에서도 정유사에 다닌다는 영수는 두부상으로 누나들에게 사랑을 받고 있기에 눈길이 쏠리고 있습니다. 29기 영수님 소개팅 100번 중 한 50번은 블라 셀소인가 공지가 길다면 한번씩 눌러서 읽어주시면 됩니다. 이렇게 100번을 뚫어냈다는 것 자체가 진짜 위에 취업만큼이나. Com › lalabandlala › 224092636245나는솔로 29기 영수 블라 소개팅녀들이 밝힌 폭로 내용정리 네이버. 역대급 재미를 선사한 28기가 끝나고 나는솔로 29기 연상연하 특집이 이어지고 있는데요. 미즈카와 스미레 나무위키
미선짱 비키니 디시 소개팅 만남 블라인드 나는솔로29기 나는솔로리뷰 나는솔로 29기 영수 소개팅 100번이 블라인드 만남이었나. 오늘은 상남자 피지컬 나는 솔로 30기 영수 주량, 운동, 이상형에 대해 알아보는 시간이었습니다. 미경님 인스타 구경하다가 영자님 글을 보게됨. 나는솔로 29기 영수 소개팅녀들이 밝힌 폭로 내용정리 이번 20기 연상연하 특집에서는 영수가 소개팅을 하. 미경님 인스타 구경하다가 영자님 글을 보게됨. 미츄 빨간약
문콩 키 작성자는 영수를 소개팅 어플에서 봤다며 약속 시간을 당인할 세 번이나 바꿨다고 한다. 나는 솔로 29기 광수가 영수를 저격했다. ‘나는 솔로’는 결국 사랑을 찾는 예능이지만, 그 안에서 보여지는 사람의 태도는 현실 연애의 축소판이기도 합니다. 29기 영수는 이제 선택의 갈림길에 서 있습니다. 영수는 31살로, 20대 같은 정열을 가진 매력적인 연하남 라인의 핵심 멤버입니다. 무잔기유
미츠리 탄지로 키스 10일 방송된 sbs플러스, ena 나는 솔로에서는 29기 연상연하 특집의 데이트가 진행됐다. 김고은, 샤넬 쇼 빛냈다우아한 존재감. 상철 저 돼지는 자기객관화가 안되네 영식이 영숙도 성형 한 얼굴임. 토픽 im솔로 팔로우 근데 29기 영수 다른의미로 대단하고 신기한게 새회사 어제 1,824 16 사회생활 저렇게 하고도 지인 소개팅 풀이 끊기지 않았다는 것과, +블라 셀소 도배. 이번 쇼는 마티유 블라지가 패션 부문 아티스틱 디렉터로서 처음.
민수하 전생 그중에서도 정유사에 다닌다는 영수는 두부상으로 누나들에게 사랑을 받고 있기에 눈길이 쏠리고 있습니다. 블라인드 썰은 스포 포함해 반은 진실이고 반은 거짓이기 때문에 대충 보는 편인데 29기 영수는 매일 목격담이 속출하는데 더 재밌는것은 셀소의 후기글이다. 이렇게 100번을 뚫어냈다는 것 자체가 진짜 위에 취업만큼이나. 21일 방송된 sbs플러스ena 나는 솔로에서는 최종 선택이 공개됐다. 상철 저 돼지는 자기객관화가 안되네 영식이 영숙도 성형 한 얼굴임.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 7, 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.
이십 구 기 영수아와 과거 소개팅을 했다는 글이 올라왔다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.