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.
백종원 요식 사업가, 그에 대해 알아보자. 동문이야기 세상을 바꾸는 연세인들 ① 백종원 더본코리아. 사촌동생은 백승엽 白承燁 치안감 이며, 배우자는 영천 이씨 이의춘 李儀春의 딸 이경숙 李慶淑이며, 장남은 음식사업가인 백종원 白種元 더본코리아 대표이사이다. 라이벌 대학 백종원×성시경, 미묘한 신경전 발생.
| 처음 자신의 가게를 가지고 요식업에 뛰어든 것은 대학 1학년 시절, 아르바이트 삼아 일한 치킨집을 한달만에 인수하고 3년간 가게 3개를 운영하며 15억원대의 자산가가 된다. | 이하 kbs2 대화의 희열2 최근 온라인 커뮤니티에서는 백종원이. | 학력은 졸업 기준이 원칙 1995년에 사회과학대학 사회. | 이상으로 백종원의 소개와 함께 고향, 학력, 군대 등에 대해서 알아보았다. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 잘못된 정보가 있을 시 댓글로 수정요청을 부탁드립니다. | 서울고등학교를 졸업한 후 연세대학교 사회복지학과에 진학하였으며, 대학 시절부터 다양한 아르바이트와 소규모 사업을 통해 사업 감각을 키워나갔습니다. | 1994년부터 더본코리아 대표이사로 활동하고 있다. | 백종원은 대학 시절 운영했던 가게를 치킨집 혹은 나중에는 치킨을 팔던 호프집이라고 순화 내지는 미화해서 설명하고 있지만, 21 1996년 목재 사업 인터뷰에서 백종원은 대학 시절 본인이 했던 사업을 물장사 라고 인터뷰했다. |
| Kr › news › 214072연세대 나온 백종원이 졸업 후 3년은 대학에 안 가야 한다라고 주장. | Kr › news › 214072연세대 나온 백종원이 졸업 후 3년은 대학에 안 가야 한다라고 주장. | 백종원과 성시경은 라이벌 대학의 미묘한 신경전을 보이며 보는 이로 하여금 웃음을 유발한다. | Com › ioimax › 222156571744백종원 대학시절부터 성공 스토리 살펴보기 더본코리아 대표 네이. |
사촌동생은 백승엽 白承燁 치안감 이며, 배우자는 영천 이씨 이의춘 李儀春의 딸 이경숙 李慶淑이며, 장남은 음식사업가인 백종원 白種元 더본코리아 대표이사이다.. 前 군인, 現 기업인, 방송인, 요리연구가, 유튜버..
오늘은 백종원의 인생 일대기 이제는 백종원이 누군지 모르는 사람이 없을 정도로 유명한 요리 전문가 과거 빚더미에 쌓여 자살하려고 했던 이야기부터 현재 그의 모습이 되기까지의 과정 백종원의 이야기 지금 시작합니다, 물론 애초에 백종원의 직업은 요리사도. 금오국민학교 졸업 예산동중학교 전학8 방배중학교 졸업 서울고등학교 졸업 연세대학교 신과대학 사회사업학 학사9. 백 대표는 우리대학 문화예술대학원 및 학부생 대상의 강의는 물론.
서울고등학교를 졸업하고 연세대학교에서 사회복지학을 전공했다. Com › ioimax › 222156571744백종원 대학시절부터 성공 스토리 살펴보기 더본코리아 대표 네이, 10일 방송된 sbs ‘한밤의 tv연예’에서는 요리로 대한민국을 평정한 외식사업가 백종원의 매력을 파헤쳤다.
사실 나는 원하지 않았던 길이었다라고 입을 열었다, 제89대 충청남도교육감, 초대 청양대학 학장, 참고로 그의 군복무 당시 선임 장교가 現 오뚜기 회장인 함영준이라고.
육군 학사 14기 출신으로, 1년만 더 있었으면 대위로 진급할 수 있었다고 알려져 있습니다. Kr › news › 214072연세대 나온 백종원이 졸업 후 3년은 대학에 안 가야 한다라고 주장. 사진동국대 제공 김봉구 기자 요리연구가 겸 외식경영전문가 백종원 더본코리아 대표사진가 대학. 육군 학사 14기 출신으로, 1년만 더 있었으면 대위로 진급할 수 있었다고 알려져 있습니다. 백종원 학력 백종원은 서울고등학교를 졸업, 연세대학교 사회복지학과를 졸업하였다.
1994년부터 더본코리아 대표이사로 활동하고 있다, 포병 장교로 군대를 마친 뒤 외식업에 뛰어들었습니다. 백종원 학력 백종원은 서울고등학교를 졸업, 연세대학교 사회복지학과를 졸업하였다. 백종원 더본코리아 대표는 1966년 9월 4일 충청남도 예산에서 태어나 그의 충청도 사투리 말투가 유행어가 되기도 하였는데요.
812mmc020 이하 kbs2 대화의 희열2 최근 온라인 커뮤니티에서는 백종원이. 라이벌 대학 백종원×성시경, 미묘한 신경전 발생. 포병 장교로 군대를 마친 뒤 외식업에 뛰어들었습니다. 그의 학력은 서울대학교 인문대학에서 동양사학을 전공한 후, 일본 게이오기주쿠대학 대학원에서 경영학 mba를 취득하고, 하버드 대학교 경영대학원에서. 백종원은 누구인가 요리하는 ceo로 불릴 정도로 요리 업계 거인이며 현재. ahoo 141
@havly_47 골목식당 백종원 프로필 어린시절 공병팔던 어린이에서 예덕학원 이사장이 되다. 육군 학사 14기 출신으로, 1년만 더 있었으면 대위로 진급할 수 있었다고 알려져 있습니다. 백종원과 성시경은 라이벌 대학의 미묘한 신경전을 보이며 보는 이로 하여금 웃음을 유발한다. 골목식당 백종원 프로필 어린시절 공병팔던 어린이에서 예덕학원 이사장이 되다. 백종원이 졸업할 당시는 신과대학 소속의 사회사업학과였다. 4k댄스팀
@444snm 백종원이 졸업할 당시는 신과대학 소속의 사회사업학과였다. 육군 학사장교 포병병과로 군복무를 마쳤다. 학력은 졸업 기준이 원칙 1995년에 사회과학대학 사회. 백종원의 어린 시절은 그의 성공을 예견하는 단서들로 가득했습니다. 백종원 더본코리아 대표는 아마 현존하는 연세인 중 전공과목 성적은 좋았지만 1학년 때 학사경고학사근신을 받아 서머스쿨을 들어야 했죠. @eee_ssrr00
@yuumtx 動画 동문이야기 세상을 바꾸는 연세인들 ① 백종원 더본코리아. 내 친구 연대 사복인데, 백종원이 과에 매년 기부하고 그 돈으로 장학금도 준다고 함 여러모로 과에서 제일 존경받는 성공한 선배 중 한명이라고 자랑함ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. 방배중학교 졸업 서울고등학교 졸업 연세대학교 사회사업학 학사7. 학교에서 자격증을 세 개나 취득해서 도움이 많이 되었고. 골목식당 백종원 프로필 어린시절 공병팔던 어린이에서 예덕학원 이사장이 되다.
@niizuma_cmore 동문이야기 세상을 바꾸는 연세인들 ① 백종원 더본코리아. 백종원과 성시경은 라이벌 대학의 미묘한 신경전을 보이며 보는 이로 하여금 웃음을 유발한다. 백종원과 성시경은 라이벌 대학의 미묘한 신경전을 보이며 보는 이로 하여금 웃음을 유발한다. 저는 현재 상암 mbc 제작기술부에서 일하고 있습니다. Com › ioimax › 222156571744백종원 대학시절부터 성공 스토리 살펴보기 더본코리아 대표 네이.
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.
Com › ioimax › 222156571744백종원 대학시절부터 성공 스토리 살펴보기 더본코리아 대표 네이., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.