US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 3, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
이런 가정환경 가진애들은 일단 학업 제대로 안됨 의무교육 조차 제대로 못 이수한 애들은 98퍼 원국 빻은거라 보면된다 아이돌 자퇴한 경우 제외임 학업제대로 안된애들 보면 엄마가 줜나 이상함 가난해도 학교는 무조건 보내고 없는 살림에 반찬은 적어도. 근데 가정환경이 그러면 문제가 큰 경우가 많더라구요. Com › talk › 367956563가정환경 안좋은사람 아무리 숨겨도 티나나요. 일반 인생꿀팁 가정환경 불안한 여자도 걸러라 ㅇㅇ121.
가정환경 안좋은사람 아무리 숨겨도 티나나요. 이런 가정환경 가진애들은 일단 학업 제대로 안됨 의무교육 조차 제대로 못 이수한 애들은 98퍼 원국 빻은거라 보면된다 아이돌 자퇴한 경우 제외임 학업제대로 안된애들 보면 엄마가 줜나 이상함 가난해도 학교는 무조건 보내고 없는 살림에 반찬은 적어도. 백수 고시폐인 히리코모리는 종종 봤는데쟤네는 환경이 좋아서 헝그리정신이 부족한가 싶었는데안좋은 가정의 범죄자보단 나은것같기도. 두번 잔 남자가 남자에게 ㅇㄷ이란 뭔가요 광고 세브란스에이투 전용목장 단백우유 이사람 못붙잡겠지.나이 33이고, 연봉 세전 3,700 전자쪽 중기 연구소 연구원하고 있음부천쪽에 부모님한테 물려받은 20평대 아파트매매가 4억 하나 있고, 차는 없다. 가정환경까지 자식들이 어떻게 할순없지만 안타까움. 바람피는 여자 걸러내는법 첫번째도 술 두번째도 술 새번째도 술이다. Redirecting to sgall. 아버지 좋은 가정환경에서 자란 여자애들 유복한 집 애들. Com › talk › 372711900근데 가정환경 ㄹㅇ좋은애들은 네이트 판.
개인적으로 어플을 한다면 6,7중에서 잘 가려서 만나길 권유하고 15는 만날 사람이 안됨. 일단 이야기하면 나게이는 예쁘고 자존감이 ㅎㅌㅊ인 경우였음. 일반 인생꿀팁 가정환경 불안한 여자도 걸러라 ㅇㅇ121.
장문이지만내가 살면서,연애해오며 생각이든 좋은여자 꼬추형님118.. 21 2338 조회 11,010 톡톡 결혼시집친정 채널보기 목록 이전글 다음글 안녕하세요 29살 여자에요 가정환경 안좋으면 솔직히 티가 많이 나나요.. 연예인 노관심 경제관념 좋음sns 잘 안함드라마 잘 안봄집안이 경상도 특히 경북t성향 강함이면 높은 확률로 우파임그리고 이건 현명한 여자의 조건에도 어느정도 부합함다만 시대가 시대인만큼 찾기는 쉽지..
좋게 말하면 순수하고 애기같음 read more. 내가 겪은 대하기 까다로웠던 애들 다 사정들어보면 가정분위기 안좋음 그리고 걔네들은 그걸 또 자기입으로 여기저기 말하더라 3시간 전 익인6 나도 가정환경 안 좋은데 맞말임 아니라고 하면 눈가리고 아웅임 일단 불안지수부터 남다르게 높아서ㅋㅋㅋ 3시간 전, 전 세계에서 성분을 따지고 토대가 나쁘면 짐승보다 못한 대우를 받는 나라는 북한밖에 없습니다.
5살 여자 아이 장난감 12 235943 조회 7478 추천 210 댓글 72 문란해지는 거 맞는 듯. 학자금이나 기타 다른 대출같은 거 일절 없음. 일반 결혼할때 좋은 여자 고르는 방법이라고 합니다. 저랑 정말 친한 사람중에서도 가정환경 안좋으신 분이 있거든요. 근데 미안하지만 확실히 가정환경 안좋은 애들은 피하는게 맞다 ㅇㅇ104. 65g녀 디시
99일 생존 스피드런 여자친구 가정환경 알고나서 만나는거 고민되는데. 사귄지 두달정도 되었는데 어제 여자친구랑 저녁먹다가 여자친구 가정사를 알게 되었어. 여자가 가정환경 씹창이면 매력있긴 함 국내지하아이돌. 요즘 러시아 국제연애에 관심 있는 게이들이 많은 것 같아서 끄적인다. 학자금이나 기타 다른 대출같은 거 일절 없음. 9세 장난감 선물
99와이프 디시 요즘 러시아 국제연애에 관심 있는 게이들이 많은 것 같아서 끄적인다. 엄마가 냉정하고 차가우면 집안 분위기도 차가워집니다. 그리고 가정환경이 좋지 않았던 여자들은 안타깝게도 팔자가 안 좋은 여자들 있더라고. 여기서 왜 중상층이라고 했냐면 내가 어렸을때 살았던 집이 빌라였는데 방이 3개인당시 동네에서도 제일 넓은 집이였음. 상대하다보면 성격같은데서 티가 나나요. 85po.com xxx
adina luna (adinascozylife) latest 가장 내편이 되어야 하는 사람과 극적인 상황까지 가며 싸운걸 봤을 가능성이 높고 배우자에 대한 신뢰가 좋은 가정 환경보다 낮기가 쉬워요. 이혼가정은 절대 불가라는 남녀가 대부분. Com › talk › 367956563가정환경 안좋은사람 아무리 숨겨도 티나나요. 나이 33이고, 연봉 세전 3,700 전자쪽 중기 연구소 연구원하고 있음부천쪽에 부모님한테 물려받은 20평대 아파트매매가 4억 하나 있고, 차는 없다. 돈에 대한 인지성 자체가 기본적으로 없거나 아예 다름 2.
@chubecubu 남자는 가정환경, 여자는 경제력 많이 보면 결혼성공. 내가 겪은 대하기 까다로웠던 애들 다 사정들어보면 가정분위기 안좋음 그리고 걔네들은 그걸 또 자기입으로 여기저기 말하더라 3시간 전 익인6 나도 가정환경 안 좋은데 맞말임 아니라고 하면 눈가리고 아웅임 일단 불안지수부터 남다르게 높아서ㅋㅋㅋ 3시간 전. 대개 성적으로 문란한 여자들보면 가정환경 안좋은 애들이 죄다 그러던데 편부모가정이라던지 고아라던지 부부가정불화가 심하거나. 가정환경 별로인 애들이 남자에 집착하고 ㅇㅇ117. 결혼 상대로 여자 볼때 다른건 안봐도 집안은 봐라여자 집안 환경, 분위기, 가치관 진짜 중요하다노후대비 등 경제적인거 외에도 화목한 가정에서 자랐는지 사랑을 많이 받았는지 이런거 너무너무너무너무너무 중요하다여자 직.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 3, 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.
가장 내편이 되어야 하는 사람과 극적인 상황까지 가며 싸운걸 봤을 가능성이 높고 배우자에 대한 신뢰가 좋은 가정 환경보다 낮기가 쉬워요., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.