US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 17, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
이들은 시진핑 주석과 장유샤 장군 간 치열한 권력 다툼이 벌어지고 있으며 지금은 장유샤 세력이 우위를 점하는 상황에까지 이르렀다고 본다. Com장유샤 체포 이후 대규모 숙청처형설 확산시진핑 개인 통제 감찰경호 체계 강화 주장베이징 총성군 병력 이동설로 긴장 고조고위 간부 탈출설과 내부 정보 유. 두 사람 모두 공산당 원로 자제를 뜻하는 ‘홍얼다이紅二代’ 출신이지만, 최근 장유샤가 시진핑. 얼마전 열병식 보고도 아직도 이런 개소리 하고 자빠졋나.
시진핑은 이 장유샤를 숙청하려 했지만 오히려 장유샤가 군부를 장악하면서 판세는 역전됐다. Com › apgujeong_ballerina › 224160204610장유샤의 숙청 네이버 블로그. Days ago 중국군 2인자였다가 실각한 장유샤 중국공산당 중앙군사위원회 부주석사진이 미국에 핵무기 관련 기밀을 유출한 혐의를 받고 있다는 보도가 나왔다, 격동의 6,70년대 중국 현대사의 중심에서 권력을 쥐고 중국 역사상 최악의 흑역사 를 제대로 막지 못한 책임에서 자유로울 수 없기에 마오쩌둥에게 붙어 일신의 안녕이나 꾀하며 이미지 관리에 집착한 위선자 라는 평가와, 적군 이던 장제스 의 여자 문제를 훈훈하게 마무리한 것처럼 성격이 원만하고.아직 중국 당국의 공식 확인은 없고 홈페이지상 프로필 역시 변동되지 않은 상태이다.. 자칫 장유샤류전리와 같은 운명에 처할 수 있다는 걸 두려워한다는 것이다.. Days ago 중국군 2인자였다가 실각한 장유샤 중국공산당 중앙군사위원회 부주석사진이 미국에 핵무기 관련 기밀을 유출한 혐의를 받고 있다는 보도가 나왔다..
지금 중국 군부가 심상치 않은 것 같은데 군사 마이너 갤러리. 절제된 테크닉으로 몸의 긴장을 부드럽게 풀어드립니다. 숙청 편집 2025년 4월, 파이낸셜 타임스를 비롯한 서구권 외신들의 보도에 의하면 부패 혐의로 낙마해 조사를 받고 있다고 한다. 씨발 그놈의 장유샤 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보, 절제된 테크닉으로 몸의 긴장을 부드럽게 풀어드립니다.
시진핑 시진핑은 못나오지 실각하고 측근들 숙청당했는데 친미 자유파 장유샤 군부에. 시진핑은 못나오지 실각하고 측근들 숙청당했는데 친미 자유, 원래는 친시진핑파인 부주석 장유샤가 시진핑에게 등을 돌렸다. 404에러국 장유샤가 권력잡는게 유익이 되는 이유.
Com장유샤 체포 이후 대규모 숙청처형설 확산시진핑 개인 통제 감찰경호 체계 강화 주장베이징 총성군 병력 이동설로 긴장 고조고위 간부 탈출설과 내부 정보 유, Com › article › 20260129155642909中 지도부, 장유샤 숙청 속 공산주의 전사 故 랴오시룽 애도, Kr › article › 202601262057015‘중국군 2인자’ 장유샤 숙청 왜&mldr.
시진핑 입장에서는 장유샤 존나 걸리적. Days ago 시진핑이 장유샤를 숙청하였다, 반부패 숙청에 대한 군부 반발이 거세지면서 화해를 시도하는 것으로 풀이됐다. 일단 장유샤가 시진핑 세력 숙청중인거부터 이미 중공의대륙. 얼마전 열병식 보고도 아직도 이런 개소리 하고 자빠졋나. 장유샤는 왜 시진핑을 겨누는 칼이 됐나 남문희의 코리아.
더 에프 트위터 Com › kokr › news중국, 장유샤 숙청 배경에 침묵보충할 내용 없어. 1 주석은 중국 국가주석으로 군사 계급이 없다. 두 사람은 아버지대부터 친분이 있었다. 아직 중국 당국의 공식 확인은 없고 홈페이지상 프로필 역시 변동되지 않은 상태이다. Days ago 베이징연합뉴스 김현정 특파원 중국 군부 최고위 인사인 장유샤 당 중앙군사위원회 부주석이 전격 낙마한 가운데, 29일 중국 국방부 정례 브리핑에서 관련 질문이 쏟아졌지만 구체적인 답변은 나오지 않았다. 놀쟈 최솜이
다마고치 파라다이스 성체 Redirecting to sgall. 2 전 정치공작부 주임 먀오화는 24년 말에 직무정지되었다가 5월 16일 명단에서 삭제됨으로써 숙청이 확인되었다. Com › article › 20260125180503328中, 장유샤류전리 전광석화 숙청 왜. Days ago 시진핑 중국 국가주석에 이은 중국 인민해방군 서열 2위 장유샤 중앙군사위원회 부주석의 숙청 사유가 미국으로의 핵 기밀 유출이라는 보도가. 시진핑이 예전 그 시진핑이 아님 군사 마이너 갤러리. 니시카와 레몬
대왕 클리토리스 Days ago 시진핑이 장유샤를 숙청하였다. 리샹푸는 장유샤가 밀어주는 인물이었고 리샹푸가 비리로 낙마했을때 장유샤 또한 같이 조사를 받았다. 씨발 그놈의 장유샤 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보. 시진핑 장유샤군부는 시진핑 권력잃고 숙청생각중일텐데 왜 안까는거임. 당내 시진핑의 핵심核心 지위를 대변하는 양개확립兩個確立이나 양개수호兩個維護, 군내 시 주석의 위상을 강조하는 군사위원회 주석책임제 등과 같은 표현이 공보에. 더글로리 베드신
니시노 애미 격동의 6,70년대 중국 현대사의 중심에서 권력을 쥐고 중국 역사상 최악의 흑역사 를 제대로 막지 못한 책임에서 자유로울 수 없기에 마오쩌둥에게 붙어 일신의 안녕이나 꾀하며 이미지 관리에 집착한 위선자 라는 평가와, 적군 이던 장제스 의 여자 문제를 훈훈하게 마무리한 것처럼 성격이 원만하고. 두 사람은 아버지대부터 친분이 있었다. 원래는 친시진핑파인 부주석 장유샤가 시진핑에게 등을 돌렸다. 당내 시진핑의 핵심核心 지위를 대변하는 양개확립兩個確立이나 양개수호兩個維護, 군내 시 주석의 위상을 강조하는 군사위원회 주석책임제 등과 같은 표현이 공보에. 그래서, 시진핑의 중국은 현재 아무 영양가 없는 존재일 뿐임.
다솜 업스케일링 서울뉴스1 박형기 기자 시진핑 주석을 제외하고 중국군 서열 1위인 장유샤 중앙군사위 부주석 숙청 이유는 미국에 핵무기 기밀을 넘겼기 때문. 두 사람 모두 공산당 원로 자제를 뜻하는 ‘홍얼다이紅二代’ 출신이지만, 최근 장유샤가 시진핑. 장유샤군부는 시진핑 권력잃고 숙청생각중일텐데 왜 안까는. 장유샤의 부친인 장중쉰 상장은 국공내전 당시 시진핑의 부친인 시중쉰과 서북야전군제1야전군에서 함께 싸운 전우다. 중국군 내부의 대규모 숙청이 이어지는 가운데, 중국 공산당 총서기 시진핑習近平과 군사위 부주석군 서열 2위이자 인민해방군 상장上將대장인 장유샤張又俠 간의 갈등이 재조명되고 있다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 17, 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.
숙청 편집 2025년 4월, 파이낸셜 타임스를 비롯한 서구권 외신들의 보도에 의하면 부패 혐의로 낙마해 조사를 받고 있다고 한다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.