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.
카운터석만 있던 가게에서 1층은 카운터석, 2층은 프라이버시를 지켜주는 개인실을 완비하여 새롭게 태어났습니다. 트립닷컴이 선별한 난바의 식당와과 여행 사진을 만나보세요. 살짝 달짝지근하면서 짬쪼롬하구 밥 엄청 들어가게 만드는 맛. 오사카 난바 파크스 주변의 가고 싶은 이자카야.
제철 식재료를 풍부하게 사용하여 정성을 담은 환대와 함께 섬세한 일식 요리를 제공합니다. 일식과 양식이 조화를 이루는 창작 요리를 제공하는 창작dining의 노피. 창작 일식 × 토종닭 × 신선한 생선 × 뚝배기.날이 갈수록 높아지는 물가 상승을 감당할 수 없다는 것이 큰 이유인데, 특히나 라멘 중에서도 돈코츠 라멘은 돼지 뼈 육수를 하루 종일 우려야 하기 때문에 가스비, 인건비, 수도세 등에 의한. 야키토리는 저렴한 가격의 맛있는 서민 요리입니다. 초밥 중에서는 소고기 초밥이 가장 괜찮았다.
난바・도톤보리・신사이바시의 파인 다이닝 레스토랑을 둘러보고 예약하세요. 일본 최대의 미식 사이트 tabelog에서는 현재 오사카에서 인기 복어 349곳을 소개하고 있습니다, 전세 예약 가능 안바이 난바 파크스에서는 엄선된 식재료를 사용한 창작 일식 요리를 제공합니다. 오사카 여행에서 길거리 음식과 기념품을 파는 구로몬시장을 많이 가는. 진짜 정말 먹고 싶었던 일식 가정식 그 자체였다.
제철 식재료를 풍부하게 사용하여 정성을 담은 환대와 함께 섬세한 일식 요리를 제공합니다. 최상의 마블링과 부드러운 식감을 가진 동정암소만 엄선하여 사용합니다. 야키토리는 저렴한 가격의 맛있는 서민 요리입니다, 창작 일식과 숯구이, 일본술을 즐길 수 있습니다.
난바 코게츠 enjoy both authentic japanese cuisine and reasonably priced cuisine at this restaurant. 모던 일식 코우로안 난바점 鮨和食紅炉庵なんば 짜몽로그 ・ 2025. 2인 전용석으로 난바의 야경을 즐기면서 일식을 즐길 수 있습니다, 산지에서 직접 공급받는 신선한 야채, 시장에서 직접 공급받는 신선.
Nenju banzai roku tsuki usagiねんじゅうばんざいろく つきうさぎ 고베산노미야창작 요리、해물、이자카야 의 식당 정보는 tabelog 확인하세요.. 셰프의 기술을 최대한 활용한 다양한 메뉴 옵션은 모두 눈과 미각을 위한 잔치입니다.. 트립닷컴이 선별한 난바의 식당와과 여행 사진을 만나보세요.. 난바니혼바시도톤보리의 추천 일식 1스시 로바타 키타로우즈시 도구야스지 요코초점 2코나몬도코로 미츠쿠니 우라난바점 3스시 아마토 우라난바 4숙세이 스시 리타..
| 난바・도톤보리・신사이바시의 파인 다이닝 레스토랑을 둘러보고 예약하세요. | 오사카부 난바, 니혼바시, 도톤보리 창작요리 쇼쿠도 페스카. | Le benkei 일본 발상지 고도 나라, 2000 read more. |
|---|---|---|
| 일본식 육수와 서양식 야채 육수를 블렌딩한. | 오사카부, 난바, 니혼바시, 도톤보리 창작요리 rojiura no. | 오사카 난바 파크스 주변의 가고 싶은 이자카야. |
| ,◇ 창작 일식 요리로 든든하게 배를 채우. | 관광지라는 인식이 강하지만, 현지인이 좋아하는 먹거리도 많이 있습니다. | 난바 지역의 맛있는 카레집, 마드라스 카레 🥘 마드라스 카레 🥘 📍주소 일본어 〒5420076 오사카시 주오구 난바 5초메−1−60 南海なんば駅 2階 🏖️환경 이 레스토랑은 난바 지역에 위치한 인도식 카레 레스토랑입니다. |
| 미쉐린 2스타, 3스타를 획득한 오사카 일본요리 ‘코류 弧柳’. | 개별실도 있습니다♪ 세금 포함 가격입니다. | 2021년 11월 키타신치에서 키타하마로 이전. |
일식, 양식, 중식, 한식, 매콤한 요리, 꼬치, 진짜 정말 먹고 싶었던 일식 가정식 그 자체였다. 일본을 대표하는 음식 중 하나인 야키토리. 수많은 맛집 중, 난바에 거주하는 현지인이 엄선한 7곳을 소개합니다, 정통 일식 요리 외에도 최근에 캐주얼 일식 레스토랑으로 재개장하여 손님들이 합리적인 가격의 음식을 즐길 수 있습니다.
hitomi 男女比 정통 일식 요리 외에도 최근에 캐주얼 일식 레스토랑으로 재개장하여 손님들이 합리적인 가격의 음식을 즐길 수 있습니다. 3만 원 코스는 그렇게 막을 내립니다. 식재료는 긴키를 중심으로, read more. 최상의 마블링과 부드러운 식감을 가진 동정암소만 엄선하여 사용합니다. 모던 일식 코우로안 난바점 鮨和食紅炉庵なんば 짜몽로그 ・ 2025. hitomi 조교
heawon nude Le benkei 일본 발상지 고도 나라, 2000 read more. 난바・도톤보리・신사이바시의 파인 다이닝 레스토랑을 둘러보고 예약하세요. 정통 일식 요리 외에도 최근에 캐주얼 일식 레스토랑으로 재개장하여 손님들이 합리적인 가격의 음식을 즐길 수 있습니다. 산지에서 직접 공급받는 신선한 야채, 시장에서 직접 공급받는 신선. 관광지라는 인식이 강하지만, 현지인이 좋아하는 먹거리도 많이 있습니다. hoeeeng
hitomi ntr korea 오사카부 난바, 니혼바시, 도톤보리 창작 요리 쿠시카츠부터. 일본에 왔으니 제대로 된 와쇼쿠를 맛보고 싶다고 생각하신다면 꼭 본 기사에서 소개한 식당들을 확인해 보세요. 일식과 양식이 조화를 이루는 창작 요리를 제공하는 창작dining의 노피. 오사카 난바역에서 바로 옆에 있으면서도 은신처 같은 개인실 이자카야 와나다치 난바역 앞점 은철저하게 맛을 추구한, 고집스러운 창작 요리가 즐비한 가게입니다. 고민이라면 오사카 난바 맛집으로 떠오르고 있는 다카시마야 다이닝 메종 음식점을 추천하고 싶어요. hitomi 롤
hitomi funfan 카쿠레자토쿠루마야隠れ里車屋 25년, 총면적 3500평, 자연림으로 둘러싸여 사계절. 일본 최대의 미식 사이트 tabelog에서는 현재 오사카난바역에서 인기 창작 요리이노베디부 요리 70곳을 소개하고 있습니다. 고민이라면 오사카 난바 맛집으로 떠오르고 있는 다카시마야 다이닝 메종 음식점을 추천하고 싶어요. 온라인으로 예약하여 특별한 경험을 즐기세요. 살짝 달짝지근하면서 짬쪼롬하구 밥 엄청 들어가게 만드는 맛.
hitomi mind control eng 평일 한정 코스는 음료 무제한 포함,2. 개별실도 있습니다♪ 세금 포함 가격입니다. 스이엔테이는 난바역과 직결된 고층 호텔인 호텔 몬트레이 그라스미어 오사카의 22층에 위치한 일식 레스토랑입니다. 일본에 왔으니 제대로 된 와쇼쿠를 맛보고 싶다고 생각하신다면 꼭 본 기사에서 소개한 식당들을 확인해 보세요. 2인 전용석으로 난바의 야경을 즐기면서 일식을 즐길 수 있습니다.
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.
모던 일식 코우로안 난바점 鮨和食紅炉庵なんば 짜몽로그 ・ 2025., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.