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.
일러만 봤는데 왜 아랫도리가 저려오죠. pantyhose 팬티스타킹 foot job 풋잡 crossdressing 여장,남장 haigure 짱구 극장판 1기에 하이그레 자세 하는거 magical girl 마법소녀 piercing 피어싱 시켜줌 nun 수녀. pantyhose 팬티스타킹 foot job 풋잡 crossdressing 여장,남장 haigure 짱구 극장판 1기에 하이그레 자세 하는거 magical girl 마법소녀 piercing 피어싱 시켜줌 nun 수녀. The launch of the satellite was planned for 2013 as of 2008, 17 later revised to 2015 as of 2013.
손바닥 보이면서 눈 가리기 뉴스 라스트오리진 채널 채널위키알림알림 중구독구독 중구독 취소 구독자 39600명알림수신 267명 @포카텔로.. 소꿉친구 로잘린 베디체 .
히토미번호 히토미 발사성공후 시험관측이 끝나갈 무렵 위성운영을 맡은 nec의 오퍼레이터의 실수로 자세 제어에 문제가 생겨 고속으로 회전.. 일러만 봤는데 왜 아랫도리가 저려오죠.. 자세제어에 문제가 생겨 고속으로 회전, 태양전지판이 떨어져나가 작동도 못해보고 수명을 마감했다..일본과 nasa가 공동으로 개발한 x선 우주망원경 히토미. 소꿉친구 로잘린 베디체 . 일본과 nasa가 공동으로 개발한 x선 우주망원경 히토미.
| Org › wiki › hitomi_satellitehitomi satellite wikipedia. | 댓글 작성 ㅇㅎ 흠잡을데 없는 플랭크 자세 5 동영상 첨부파일. | |
|---|---|---|
| 자세제어에 문제가 생겨 고속으로 회전, 태양전지판이 떨어져나가 작동도 못해보고 수명을 마감했다. | Pornhat 차 통통 브루넷 1년 전 0423 real caregiver strokes wheelchair cutie in bed manysex 차 핸드잡 페티쉬 1년 전 015647 간병사, 히토미 카타세, 카타세 히토미 faphouse 차 자세 일본. | 10 the circular orbit had an orbital period of around 96 minutes. |
| 메인 스토리에서는 메지로 맥퀸의 팀 시리우스에 합류하며 주요 조연으로 등장한다. | 11 as of early february 2016, it was planned for 12 february, but was delayed due to poor weather forecasts. | 18 hitomi launched on 17 february 2016 at 0845 utc 67 into a low earth orbit of approximately 575 km 357 mi. |
| 히토미번호 히토미 발사성공후 시험관측이 끝나갈 무렵 위성운영을 맡은 nec의 오퍼레이터의 실수로 자세 제어에 문제가 생겨 고속으로 회전. | pantyhose 팬티스타킹 foot job 풋잡 crossdressing 여장,남장 haigure 짱구 극장판 1기에 하이그레 자세 하는거 magical girl 마법소녀 piercing 피어싱 시켜줌 nun 수녀. | The launch of the satellite was planned for 2013 as of 2008, 17 later revised to 2015 as of 2013. |
Org › wiki › hitomi_satellitehitomi satellite wikipedia, 지옥의 후부키의 5살 터울 친언니이며 둘이 함께 에스퍼 계의 마녀 자매라고 불린다. 여기서는 맥퀸에게 좀 많이 까불대지만 맥퀸이 머뭇거릴때 등을 떠밀며 용기를 내게 하거나, 번쩍 들어 안아주면서 솔직하게 본심을 말해보라고 응원하는 등 남자 주인공이 할법한 포지션에 위치해있고, 라이스, 댓글 작성 ㅇㅎ 흠잡을데 없는 플랭크 자세 5 동영상 첨부파일.
화학물질을 양도하거나 제공하는 사업장의 주의 사항에 대한 설명이다. 적절하지 않은 것은_ 18 hitomi launched on 17 february 2016 at 0845 utc 67 into a low earth orbit of approximately 575 km 357 mi. 지옥의 후부키의 5살 터울 친언니이며 둘이 함께 에스퍼 계의 마녀 자매라고 불린다. 히토미번호 히토미 발사성공후 시험관측이 끝나갈 무렵 위성운영을 맡은 nec의 오퍼레이터의 실수로 자세 제어에 문제가 생겨 고속으로 회전. 여기서는 맥퀸에게 좀 많이 까불대지만 맥퀸이 머뭇거릴때 등을 떠밀며 용기를 내게 하거나, 번쩍 들어 안아주면서 솔직하게 본심을 말해보라고 응원하는 등 남자 주인공이 할법한 포지션에 위치해있고, 라이스. 소꿉친구 로잘린 베디체 히토미 다운로더 베타
히또 나무위키 11 as of early february 2016, it was planned for 12 february, but was delayed due to poor weather forecasts. 자세제어에 문제가 생겨 고속으로 회전, 태양전지판이 떨어져나가 작동도 못해보고 수명을 마감했다. 손나은이 선택한 운동인 요가는 코어 근육을 활성화해 자세를 바르게 하고 몸매 라인을 정돈하는데 효과적이다. 댓글 작성 ㅇㅎ 흠잡을데 없는 플랭크 자세 5 동영상 첨부파일. 11 as of early february 2016, it was planned for 12 february, but was delayed due to poor weather forecasts. 히토미 갱
후진타오 근황 일본과 nasa가 공동으로 개발한 x선 우주망원경 히토미. 일러만 봤는데 왜 아랫도리가 저려오죠. 손바닥 보이면서 눈 가리기 뉴스 라스트오리진 채널 채널위키알림알림 중구독구독 중구독 취소 구독자 39600명알림수신 267명 @포카텔로. 지옥의 후부키의 5살 터울 친언니이며 둘이 함께 에스퍼 계의 마녀 자매라고 불린다. 일본과 nasa가 공동으로 개발한 x선 우주망원경 히토미. 히어하트 비슷한
환승연애4 재형 대학 자세제어에 문제가 생겨 고속으로 회전, 태양전지판이 떨어져나가 작동도 못해보고 수명을 마감했다. 손나은이 선택한 운동인 요가는 코어 근육을 활성화해 자세를 바르게 하고 몸매 라인을 정돈하는데 효과적이다. 댓글 작성 ㅇㅎ 흠잡을데 없는 플랭크 자세 5 동영상 첨부파일. 일러만 봤는데 왜 아랫도리가 저려오죠. 일러만 봤는데 왜 아랫도리가 저려오죠.
흑인 sotwe 히토미번호 히토미 발사성공후 시험관측이 끝나갈 무렵 위성운영을 맡은 nec의 오퍼레이터의 실수로 자세 제어에 문제가 생겨 고속으로 회전. pantyhose 팬티스타킹 foot job 풋잡 crossdressing 여장,남장 haigure 짱구 극장판 1기에 하이그레 자세 하는거 magical girl 마법소녀 piercing 피어싱 시켜줌 nun 수녀. Org › wiki › hitomi_satellitehitomi satellite wikipedia. 메인 스토리에서는 메지로 맥퀸의 팀 시리우스에 합류하며 주요 조연으로 등장한다. Org › wiki › hitomi_satellitehitomi satellite wikipedia.
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.
댓글 작성 ㅇㅎ 흠잡을데 없는 플랭크 자세 5 동영상 첨부파일., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.