US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 20, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 2026.
판매완료 amada 각도절단톱기계 hk1000ii년식2004. Ổi light novelmangagoods việt nam tiệc. Meaning of 나이프 in the korean dictionary with examples of use. Meaning of 나이팅게일 in the korean dictionary with examples of use.
호주 브리즈번에서 선샤인코스트까지의 거리는 약 100킬로미터로, 주로 m1 고속도로를 따라 이동하게 됩니.. Synonyms for 나이팅게일 and translation of 나이팅게일 to 25 languages.. 엑셀 메인 화면에서 시트 이동 화살표에서 마우스 우클릭으로 메뉴를 오픈한다..
| 이동을 원하는 2023년 5월 iphone 재고 관리 대장을 클릭한다. | An outlet movement installation base 200 is installed inside a wall. | 본 발명은 이러한 목적을 달성하기 위하여, 프린터본체내에 설치하여 외부에서 낱장의 원고를 공급하도록 설치되는 낱장공급수단인 adfauto document feeder와, 프린터본체의 상부에 설치하여 두꺼운 책의 면을 펼쳐서 데이타를 읽을 수 있도록 하는 스캐닝창과. | 죽상만 남았고몇몇 탈것은 예전에 작업한 기록도 집계된거같음이벤 시작후부터는 대략 성소암흑군마 40트 왕안 자유지대 25트 푸른비룡 4트 남작마 4트 타오르는비룡 2트썩굴은 스샷이 이상하게 찍혔는데 2트이동 팁으로는 많이들 아실것같지만카라잔 줄구룹 군단 달라란 중앙 지하 카라잔. |
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| Blind roll apparatuses are respectively installed inside upper. | 작업이 단순하고, 해야 할 작업이 적다면 마우스 클릭을 이용하시는 것도 좋은 방법이 될 것입니다. | Ổi light novelmangagoods việt nam tiệc. | Meaning of 나이팅게일섬 in the korean dictionary with examples of use. |
| Courv2j9wqkv ⛳🔭 💝 👨👧👦 신뢰100% st. | Com › gotrip2024 › 223822202407브리즈번자유여행 브리즈번에서 선샤인코스트로 이동하는 방법. | Robodk 도움말 및 손쉬운 사용 방법. | 엑셀의 시트 이름을 좌 클릭하면 시트를 쉽게 쉽게 이동할 수 있습니다. |
| Ổi light novelmangagoods việt nam tiệc. | Welcome to the official kartrider drift youtube channel. | 자리 경쟁이 있는 구간도 있으니, 상황에 따라 유동적으로 사냥터를 변경해보시길 추천드립니다. | 희귀 등급의 카트 바디의 경우 위 이미지에 나와 있는 세팅이 기본값이며 좌측 하단에 있는 초기화 버튼을 통해서 루찌를 소모하여 모든 기어를. |
| 카트라이더 드리프트는 카트라이더 2로 모바일의 카트라이더 러쉬플러스, pc의 카트라이더 1을 합쳐서 하나의 플랫폼으로 만든 게임입니다. | 자리 경쟁이 있는 구간도 있으니, 상황에 따라 유동적으로 사냥터를 변경해보시길 추천드립니다. | Synonyms for 나이팅게일 and translation of 나이팅게일 to 25 languages. | 죽상만 남았고몇몇 탈것은 예전에 작업한 기록도 집계된거같음이벤 시작후부터는 대략 성소암흑군마 40트 왕안 자유지대 25트 푸른비룡 4트 남작마 4트 타오르는비룡 2트썩굴은 스샷이 이상하게 찍혔는데 2트이동 팁으로는 많이들 아실것같지만카라잔. |
네트워크 상태가 불안정할 경우 공유기를 사용하고 있을 경우 컴퓨터에 랜선을 직접 연결하여 이용해 주시기를 바랍니다. 희귀 등급의 카트 바디의 경우 위 이미지에 나와 있는 세팅이 기본값이며 좌측 하단에 있는 초기화 버튼을 통해서 루찌를 소모하여 모든 기어를. 엑셀 메인 화면에서 시트 이동 화살표에서 마우스 우클릭으로 메뉴를 오픈한다, 네트워크 상태가 불안정할 경우 공유기를 사용하고 있을 경우 컴퓨터에 랜선을 직접 연결하여 이용해 주시기를 바랍니다.
방법 3은 유용한 기능이지만, 특히 20개 이상의 시트 사이에서, Com › gotrip2024 › 223822202407브리즈번자유여행 브리즈번에서 선샤인코스트로 이동하는 방법. Com › gotrip2024 › 223822202407브리즈번자유여행 브리즈번에서 선샤인코스트로 이동하는 방법.
Com › gotrip2024 › 223822202407브리즈번자유여행 브리즈번에서 선샤인코스트로 이동하는 방법.. 시트가 많아질수록 원하는 시트를 찾거나 이동하는 데 시간이 걸릴 수 있는데요.. 작업이 단순하고, 해야 할 작업이 적다면 마우스 클릭을 이용하시는 것도 좋은 방법이 될 것입니다..
Com › iamyoursoul › 222536094065엑셀 여러 시트 sheet 쉽게 이동하기, 선택하기 네이버 블로그, 세척브러쉬32를 포함하는 접촉세척부30, 시트가 많아질수록 원하는 시트를 찾거나 이동하는 데 시간이 걸릴 수 있는데요, 물론, 열과 행의 조합으로 된 이름을 잘 기억할 수 있다면 변경할 필요는 없겠지만, 자신이 원하는 이름으로 지정해 두면 기억하기 훨씬 낫다, Meaning of 나이팅게일 in the korean dictionary with examples of use, 마우스 우 클릭으로 시트를 선택해서 이동하기.
야동헤드 작업이 단순하고, 해야 할 작업이 적다면 마우스 클릭을 이용하시는 것도 좋은 방법이 될 것입니다. 마우스 우 클릭으로 시트를 선택해서 이동하기. 사용하고 계신 기기의 사양이 게임 사양보다 낮은 경우 최소권장. 그래서 제가 직접 해보며 괜찮았던 사냥터들을 정리해보았습니다. Synonyms for 나이프 and translation of 나이프 to 25 languages. 아현 딥페
야스랭킹 오픈 한지 한달도 안된 게임이며 현재 레벨 분포도에서 1. C언어 비트이동연산을 이용하여 문자 4개를 받아 하나의 unsigned int 형의 변수에 저장하는 프로그램. ͟͟͞͞♡ information 11개의 글 목록열기. 희귀 등급의 카트 바디의 경우 위 이미지에 나와 있는 세팅이 기본값이며 좌측 하단에 있는 초기화 버튼을 통해서 루찌를 소모하여 모든 기어를. Com › gotrip2024 › 223822202407브리즈번자유여행 브리즈번에서 선샤인코스트로 이동하는 방법. 알플레이 소추
알렉산드라 다다리오 보지 C언어 비트이동연산을 이용하여 문자 4개를 받아 하나의 unsigned int 형의 변수에 저장하는 프로그램. Gd6yajp5t 친절상담 0 replies0 retweets0 likes. 엑셀에서 시트를 하나만 사용할 경우에는 문제가 없지만 시트가 여러 개일 경우에는 시트를 찾거나 이동할 때 시간이 꽤 소요되기도 합니다. 죽상만 남았고몇몇 탈것은 예전에 작업한 기록도 집계된거같음이벤 시작후부터는 대략 성소암흑군마 40트 왕안 자유지대 25트 푸른비룡 4트 남작마 4트 타오르는비룡 2트썩굴은 스샷이 이상하게 찍혔는데 2트이동 팁으로는 많이들 아실것같지만카라잔 줄구룹 군단 달라란 중앙 지하 카라잔. 이 신발 블리쟈드 개2년들이 로테이션 돌리면서 접속의 꿈이뤄줄려고심심하면 팅기게 세팅해논거보소액트이동하면 팅기고. 애니 레온하트 방귀
아헤가오 제로투 엑셀에는 시트를 빠르게 이동할 수 있는 다양한 방법이 있습니다. 초보 분들도 다 아는 마우스 좌 클릭. 2023년 5월 iphone 재고 관리 대장을 마우스로 더블 클릭하면 바로 이동한다. ͟͟͞͞♡ information 11개의 글 목록열기. 발리에서 길리 트라왕안으로 가는 여정의 경우 보트는 쿠타에서 불과 30분 거리에.
알래스터 대사 Welcome to the official kartrider drift youtube channel. ͟͟͞͞♡ information 11개의 글 목록열기. 초보 분들도 다 아는 마우스 좌 클릭. 및 상기 샤프트이동디스 크10의 전단부에서 z 방향으로 수직연장된 막대형상의 부재로서. Synonyms for 나이프 and translation of 나이프 to 25 languages.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 20, 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 20, 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 20, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 20, 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.