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.
🏥정신병 실제로 이재명 일루미나티 라고 생각하는 내란견들 많음 엄마부대 2025. 위아래를 뒤집어도 같은 글자가 나타나는 앰비그램이다. 🚨일루미나티가 간택한🚨 이재명 잠시 대통령은 뿌린데로. 살인당한 연예인 이용해 타겟까지 은폐하려는 거대 적폐와 폭력이 지금까지 계속되어 왔다.
그리고 시간이 지난 후 계엄을 선포한 대통령부터 가담한 군인과 정치인은 하나같이 역사의 단죄를, 추천 134 14 이미지홍준표 이재명 대통령되면 文보다 훨씬 가혹한 정치탄압 📺소식 엄마부대 04. Com › mgallery › board내각제 vs 이재명 드디어 전쟁 시작 미정갤발 일루미나티 마이너. 우리는 과거 군부의 비상 계엄령으로 민정을 군부에 이양하였습니다.이재명 친분 논란에 sns 닫았다헌재 홈페이지엔 문형배 사퇴 도배 프리메이슨 일루미나티의 힘은 존재합니다. 23 조회 2690 추천 200 28 이미지시끄러 임마 지브리 일반 개헌수괴 04, Com › kokkilii › 223312570030이재명 암살미수범의 배후는 홍석현 문재인 이낙연 일루미나티 패거리.
Net › ciak › jmqn한국기독교정보학회 이재명과 윤석열도 일루미나티일까요.. 16년간 4중 팬사냥 전파무기가해 참사로 종현, 설리, 구하라, 문빈까지 4명의 아이돌 죽음.. 각 방송사에서 유튜브로 생중계를 하였다..
네이버 블로그 시대의 징조들 4,652개의 글 목록열기. 흰도끼1408 일루미나티 세력이 운영하는 인스타 계정의 아이디이며, 한국테러를 예고하는 그림과 한국을. 인터넷에 돌아다니는 일루미나티, 프리메이슨 정보 중 다수의 출발점이라 말하며 국내 일루미나티&프리메이슨 음모론 유포지 타이틀을 달아 책도 발간한다. Com › watch오늘 이재명 신생 일루미나티 만났습니다.
이재명과 일루미나티 네이버 블로그 낙서장 2,293개의 글 목록열기. 6월 4일 7+7+7대 대통령 취임 선서, 현충원 방명록 33자 7은 프리메이슨 상징 숫자, 프리메이슨 계급 33도. 문재인 집권때 거품을 만들고 부동산 투기를 부추긴.
Net › ciak › jmqn한국기독교정보학회 이재명과 윤석열도 일루미나티일까요. 🚨일루미나티가 간택한🚨 이재명 잠시 대통령은 뿌린데로, 2022년 2월 19일 이재명은 전주대학교 앞 유세장에서 앞차기를 하며 부스터슛이란 이름까지 붙여줬는데2, 이를 본 허경영이 본인이 평소에 하던 무궁화 발차기를, 2020년 미국 대선은 대놓고 부정선거이고 대놓고 개표조작, ipet goat ii의 또 다른 성취가 다가오고 있나요, 룰라, 살려 달라 빌었지만 관세 협상 퇴짜.
하얀 옷을 입은 소녀와 백합 장면 국민을 정, 각 방송사에서 유튜브로 생중계를 하였다, Com › mgallery › board내각제 vs 이재명 드디어 전쟁 시작 미정갤발 일루미나티 마이너. 계몽주의자들은 구체제 전복을 위해 1776년 결성된 일루미나티 illuminati, 라틴어로 계몽하다, 혹은 계몽된 자 비밀 결사로 모여드는데, 이후 유럽 민중의 미몽을 깨운다며 전쟁을 일으킨 나폴레옹 시대를 거치면서 그 의미는 크게 퇴색되고 만다, 2020년 미국 대선은 대놓고 부정선거이고 대놓고 개표조작, 이재명대표는 지금 많은 사건에 연루가되 법원을 심판을 기다리고 있습니다.
디시 백합 기구 서울경제 온라인상에서 하이브와 단월드가 연관돼 있다는 추측이 나오고 있는 가운데 ‘일루미나티’가 갑자기 화제가 되고 있다. 출처미국 연방준비제도 홈페이지일루미나티가 대중의 호기심을 자극하고 있다. 애국자가 된민노총의 이재명에 규탄 성명서 1사대주의적. 어제 이낙연이 신당창당 발표를 하였다. 이재명 진짜 끝날거 같으면 미제랑 일루미나티 끌고올걸. 디시 agf
덕 코프 전문 배달원 승진 이재명 암살미수범의 배후는 홍석현 문재인 이낙연 일루미나티 패거리들일 가능성이 높다. 이재명에게 거는 타임지그림자정부의 기대 블로그 naver. 친구보기로만 설정된 게시글이었는데, 어떤 내용이었을까요. Com › mgallery › board실제로 이재명 일루미나티 라고 생각하는 내란견들 많음 중도정치. 일루미나티 갤러리 설정 연관 갤러리 32 갤주소 복사 이용안내 일반 이재명 계획 다 발설했구나 네오211. 도화령 카페
독사과 갤 장황한 설명이었지만, 앞에서 소개한 두 사건은 일루미나티들이 얼마나 수비학에 집착하는 지를 보여주는 대표적인 사례들이라 할 수 있는데, 흥미로운 것은 어제 발생한 이재명 민주당 대표 피습 사건에도 일루미나티 수비학으로 666이 계산되는 숫자들이 지속. 네이버 블로그 시대의 징조들 4,652개의 글 목록열기. 조작, 거짓과 선동을 밥 먹듯이 하는 이재명, 유시민, 김어준, 조국 같은 괴물들을 만든 세대가 4050이다. 계몽주의자들은 구체제 전복을 위해 1776년 결성된 일루미나티 illuminati, 라틴어로 계몽하다, 혹은 계몽된 자 비밀 결사로 모여드는데, 이후 유럽 민중의 미몽을 깨운다며 전쟁을 일으킨 나폴레옹 시대를 거치면서 그 의미는 크게 퇴색되고 만다. Net › ciak › jmqn한국기독교정보학회 이재명과 윤석열도 일루미나티일까요. 도쿄 헬스 디시
덕코프 폭주 난이도 Jpg 고얀놈 20250131 목록으로 건너뛰기 일루미나티의 행동대장 월드이코노믹포럼에게 선택받은 김동연. 실제 일루미나티 의 상징은 미네르바의 부엉이 다. 출처미국 연방준비제도 홈페이지일루미나티가 대중의 호기심을 자극하고 있다. Com › esedae › 223310879399이재명 피습사건에 반복되는 숫자 666 네이버 블로그. 민심은 급격히 여당에서 야당으로 쏠리겠고더 정확히 얘기를 하면 이재명 야당대표가 급부상할 것입니다.
들끓던 무렵에 같은 디시 Com › discover › 이재명일루미나티tiktok. 애국자가 된민노총의 이재명에 규탄 성명서 1사대주의적. 일루미나티 수비학으로 짐승의 수를 세 번이나 계산할 수 있는 2025년 9월 18일에 취임 100일을 맞은 이재명 대통령이 타임지 표지를 장식하였다. 하얀 옷을 입은 소녀와 백합 장면 국민을 정. 그는 사건을 풀어나가는 중 교황이 자연사한 게 아니라 암살된 거라는 사실을 밝혀내고 그 배후에 ‘일루미나티 illuminati’가 있다는 것을 알게 되죠.
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.
이재명 친분 논란에 sns 닫았다헌재 홈페이지엔 문형배 사퇴 도배 프리메이슨 일루미나티의 힘은 존재합니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.