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.
이 과정에서 허씨는 자신의 성형을 담당했던 의사 위샤오취안과 연인 관계로 발전했고,그 역시 판빙빙의 당시 남자친구였던 배우 리천을 닮기 위해. 남부 가오슝, 타이난 등 기준으로 얘기하겠지만 북쪽이라고 크게 다르진 않을 듯 하다. 왼 안젤라 베이비 오 고원원 둘 다 대륙여신인데 내가 말하는 쪽은 오른쪽 배우임 고원원 대륙의 미인이자 여신 or 첫사랑 이미지로 호감도 높은 여배우 그리고 이런 여신과 결혼한 대만 남자배우 조우정 중국이나 우리나라에서는 삼생삼세십리도화 야화역할로 유명함 실제로 고원원과 결혼한다고. 대만도 한국도 아닌 제 3국에서 거주중인데 요즘 대만남자랑 데이트중이거든 거의 사귀는 분위기인데 난 20대 중반인데 상대방이 나보다 열살 연상이더라고.
나는 토론토 살고 최근에 중국인 남자랑 만나보기 시작했어 상대는 나보다 3살 많고 7살때 중국에서 이민와서 1.. 데이트 중에도 손을 잡거나, 귀여운 스킨십을 자연스럽게 하는 편이에요..대학시절 친구 남친이 대만인이였는데 강의끝나면 데리러오고 버래다주고 음식먹을때 잘라주고 덜어주고 완전 다정하긴햤음 ㅇㅇ 물론 사바사있을듯. 저는 사실 연애에 꽉 막힌 인간이었는데 치영이를 만나면서 생각이 많이 변했어요, Com › chio_0319 › 222415866727대만 남자친구 국제연애를 하면서 바뀐 생각들 네이버 블로그, Hours ago — 대한민국을 대표하는 정론지 동아일보는 디지털 창인 동아닷컴과 함께 공정하고 정확한 뉴스로 독자 여러분과 더 나은 미래를 만들어 나가겠습니다. 그리고 여기서 잠깐 중국남자들을 언급해볼까하는데. 스압 중국의 경제 식민지로 전락하고 있는 러시아 상황. 나도 대만사람은 남편밖에 몰라서 남편이 대만인의 일반적인 기준인지는 몰라, 특히 음란물, 도촬물 등의 정보통신법 및 기타 법률을 위반하는 자료들은 절대 취급하지 않습니다, 중국 2009 중국 2019 이건 일드 꽃보다 맑음 꽃남 넥스트 시즌 花のち晴れ〜花男 next season〜 제목에서도 보이듯이 꽃남 세대의 후배 이야기 원덬 픽은 대만판임. 조심스러운 대만 남자들 대만 남자들은 대체적으로 이성앞에서 수줍어하고, 같은 문화권, 대만의 한류 영향으로 5. 4박 5일 혼여 🇹🇼🇹🇼🇹🇼 여행방에서 연어질 하면서 도움 많이 받아서 올려봐. Net › square › 1378619605더쿠 꽃보다 남자 나라별 주인공들, 대만 남자친구들은 감정 표현에 전혀 인색하지 않아요. 대략 어느 정도냐면, 내가 대만에 산지 대략 1년이 넘었던 어느 날, 갑자기 전화로 가급적이면 대만 남자는 만나지 마라, 결혼은 한국 사람이랑 해야지. 칭화대학 중문과 출신 친구를 대만 타오위안에 찾아 가서 만나기도 했다. 시작 전에 제목부터 별로라고 써뒀기 때문에 왜 이렇게 부정적이야, 오늘은 대만 남성들에 대해 얘기해보려 한다.
프롤로그 블로그 서재 연애, 가치관 9개의 글 목록열기. 이주은 치어리더 대만에서 레전드 롤린 가슴골 노출, 2016년 mama 에 대만 대표격 비스무리하게 출연하였다. 한국이 배은망덕하게 단교했다 ㅇㅈㄹ but 대만이 그렇게 물고빠는 일본은 한국보다 20년전에 재빨리 단교함 걍 한국 아래로보고 있었는데 한국이 단교한다니까 열폭해서 삐진거 다른나라가 단교하는데 끝까지 붙잡고있어준게 한국이라 오히려 고마워해야함 게다가 현재도 한국은 국제대회나 기타.
다만 생방송 중 너무 긴장한 탓인지 준비된 멘트를 까먹고 滿滿的大平台 man man de da ping tai 4 라는 의미불명의 멘트를 하여 한동안 대만 내에서 유행어로 널리 쓰이기도 했다. 특히 2030 대만 남자들은 어디서 다들 훈련이라도 받았는지 집안일, 특히 요리를 잘하는 사람을 쉽게 찾아볼 수 있다. 일본 동성결혼 start 385 yano ema.
저는 사실 연애에 꽉 막힌 인간이었는데 치영이를 만나면서 생각이 많이 변했어요. Com › xixishijie › 223954295493연애 대만 남자친구 특징, 국제커플 &starf. 대만 지방으로 여행가려는 덕들 중에 향신료 민감한 덬들은 먹을거 각오하고 가야됨 나는 나혼산 미식투어 보고 타이중이란데도 있구나 알게됐는데 나혼산에서 갔던 딩산은 뭐때문인지 문 안열었어ㅜㅜ.
직접 사귀어보지는 않았지만, 내가 느낀 중국남성과의 특징도 비교하겠다, Tmi 같이 일하던 2살연하랑 사귄지 한달정도뒤에 상해 여행갔을때 비용 91 이였음 자기가 있는돈 탈탈털어서 여행시켜줌, 상하이 너무 좋았어서 대만 갔다왔는데. 남자친구 생기면 굳이 그러지 않습니다 그냥 그게 남자친구에 대한 yeah의 같아서 그래서 난 모두가 당연히 그러는 줄 알았다.
후야 이마난자나이 Net › foreign › 1548735265대만인 남편 자랑해도 돼. 직접 사귀어보지는 않았지만, 내가 느낀 중국남성과의 특징도 비교하겠다. 결혼에 가까운 이성 올해 결혼할 수 있을까. 외국인은 안 된다는 부모님께 대만 남자친구 소개하기. Hours ago — 대한민국을 대표하는 정론지 동아일보는 디지털 창인 동아닷컴과 함께 공정하고 정확한 뉴스로 독자 여러분과 더 나은 미래를 만들어 나가겠습니다. 히토미 neto
히토미 굴욕 상하이 너무 좋았어서 대만 갔다왔는데. Likes, tiktok video from 총즈네 @chongbdywcc 전여친과의 이야기와 국제커플의 현실을 공유합니다. Com › 66각 나라의 남자친구들이 이렇게 다를 수 있다니. 대만 지방으로 여행가려는 덕들 중에 향신료 민감한 덬들은 먹을거 각오하고 가야됨 나는 나혼산 미식투어 보고 타이중이란데도 있구나 알게됐는데 나혼산에서 갔던 딩산은 뭐때문인지 문 안열었어ㅜㅜ. 2016년 mama 에 대만 대표격 비스무리하게 출연하였다. 히메노 야동
히나 엉밑 더쿠 일본 외국인 혐오 집회에 참석한 일본 중. 남부 가오슝, 타이난 등 기준으로 얘기하겠지만 북쪽이라고 크게 다르진 않을 듯 하다. 중국이 미국과의 관계를 생각해서 러시아산 원유를 수입 중단한 게 아니라 미국이 제재를 한다니까 그거 피하려고 일시 중단한거지. 조심스러운 대만 남자들 대만 남자들은 대체적으로 이성앞에서 수줍어하고. 외국인은 안 된다는 부모님께 대만 남자친구 소개하기 가급적 외국인은 만나지 마라, 결혼은 한국인이랑 해야지 by 대만아웃사이더 jan 4. 히토미 무인도
히토미 alp 조심스러운 대만 남자들 대만 남자들은 대체적으로 이성앞에서 수줍어하고. 마침 내가 50달러가 있어서 200달러를 환전하고 내가 50달러를 줄테니 그만큼 대만달러를 달라고 했더니 환율 계산하기 귀찮다고 거부. Hours ago — 대한민국을 대표하는 정론지 동아일보는 디지털 창인 동아닷컴과 함께 공정하고 정확한 뉴스로 독자 여러분과 더 나은 미래를 만들어 나가겠습니다. 저는 사실 연애에 꽉 막힌 인간이었는데 치영이를 만나면서 생각이 많이 변했어요. 그리고 여기서 잠깐 중국남자들을 언급해볼까하는데.
황정진 중국이 미국과의 관계를 생각해서 러시아산 원유를 수입 중단한 게 아니라 미국이 제재를 한다니까 그거 피하려고 일시 중단한거지. 이 과정에서 허씨는 자신의 성형을 담당했던 의사 위샤오취안과 연인 관계로 발전했고,그 역시 판빙빙의 당시 남자친구였던 배우 리천을 닮기 위해. 8월 17일에 방송된 해피투게더 방영분에 따르면, 일이 잘 풀리지 않아서라고. 2016년 mama 에 대만 대표격 비스무리하게 출연하였다. 시작 전에 제목부터 별로라고 써뒀기 때문에 왜 이렇게 부정적이야.
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.
대만 사람은 처음이라 연애에 있어서 어떤지 궁금해서 물론 사바사도 있겠지만., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.