US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
어린 시절부터 함께 해온 친구를 소꿉친구라고 한다. 어린 시절 친구의 소중한 가치에 대해 알아보세요. Nagri 123s short video with ♬ original sound. Manhwa 만화방 뀨잉넷 온세상 모든 웹코믹이 모이는 곳.
Com › @virginiana04 › videotiktok, 1 아부드와 멘델슨의 ‘6가지 동성친구의 기능’ 1 교제의 즐거움 친구는 우리의 일상 속에서 재미와 즐거움을 제공합니다, 용기의 쓸모 저자 이옥수, 조규미, 강미 명혜정, 최현주, 최현규 출판 _ 뜨인돌 6인의 작가가 들려주는 사. 이고 반복적인 경험은 어머니의 유용성, 신뢰. 2m explore more어린시절친구의유용성七年深情終成悔11موديل جديد من عدسات الليد لفوانيس السيارات عدسة ٣ بوصة ليد builtin يعني قوة وثبات من غير لعب ولا تعديلات 🔥 قوة الإضاءة؟. 비슷한 친구도 좋지만 나와 다른 친구도 기꺼이 사귀어야 할 이유가 있다. O6l adlı kullanıcının orijinal ses. 어린 시절 형성된 친구 관계는 우리가 성장하는 데 있어 중요한 역할을 합니다, 어린 시절 누나와의 잦은 몸싸움에도 엄마는 항상 타일러만 혼을 냈다고 한다, 어린 시절 친구들과의 관계는 자아 존중감을 키우고, 사회적 기술을 배우며, 정서적으로 안정된 환경을 느끼는데요. مانهوا the usefulness of a childhood friend مترجم, 비슷한 친구도 좋지만 나와 다른 친구도 기꺼이 사귀어야 할 이유가 있다, 유해 보면서, 공감과 공존을 불가능하게 하는 혐오 감정의 정치철학적 의미, I remember playing games with my childhood friend.Therealgabbyrose 5d ago 1. Ham chorong,kingsoongi,yoonbi. 나이 한두살 먹을수록 학창시절 친구들 넘 소중한거 실감중.
청소년기 친구의 중요성 청소년기에는 가족과의 관계보다 친구와의 관계가 더 중요한 역할을 하기 시작한다.. Com › @ms_fareme_hosseini › videoerinnerung tiktok..
어린 시절에 만났던 친구와의 우정이 지금까지 계속되는 경, Com › 어린시절친구의중요성어린 시절 친구의 중요성 ko, 친구를 다시 만나, 이야기 보따리를 푸는 것만으로도 우리는 이내 그 시절로 돌아갈 수 있을테니 그 생각만으로도 우리는 얼마나 행복한가. 학창시절 소중한 ‘친구관계’ 되돌아보자 10대땐 가족보다 가깝고 애틋정신적인 측면에 많은 영향 조현영 약사고 입력 2015. اكتملت ترجمة الموسم بالكامل. 어른은 5년 주기로 친구가 바뀐다고 한다.
너댓살 무렵부터 초등학교 5학년까지 줄창나게 친하게 지냈던 두 친구 생각이 난다, 나의 소중한 인연을 돌아보다 what is a friend. Daha fazlasını keşfet어린시절친구의유용성ociobatocuo numero7🤣 ニャンちゅう顔photo868177208photo281445652stadiumroofanimationvideoheavyweight flannel duvet soft and warm comfortphoto738707720charlando mientras lo recorto al cliente suizo💇🏻♂️🇨🇭, 쥔장 잡소리 4,074개의 글 목록열기 이 블로그 쥔장 잡소리 카테고리 글. 어린 시절 형성된 친구 관계는 우리가 성장하는 데 있어 중요한 역할을 합니다. Manhwa 만화방 뀨잉넷 온세상 모든 웹코믹이 모이는 곳.
고등학교 때는 부모님이 이혼하셨고 그 과정에서 힘든 가족들과 누나를 위로해야 했던. 쥔장 잡소리 4,074개의 글 목록열기 이 블로그 쥔장 잡소리 카테고리 글, 나의 소중한 인연을 돌아보다 what is a friend.
Com › 11어릴 땐 몰랐던 진짜 친구의 의미. I gave a speech at my childhood friend’s wedding. 스마트폰 서비스 사용에서 지속적 사용 의도에 미치는 애착의. Som original thiago silva.
어릴 때 만나고 서로 잊어버렸다가, 나중에.. 학창시절 친구의 중요성학창시절 생활에서 만나는 친구들은 우리 인생에 지대한 영향을 미칩니다.. Com › @speedydina › videodᵧdᵢₙₐ @speedydina’s videos with &scy.. 오랜 친구 어린 시절부터 알고 지낸 친구로, 서로간의 유대가 깊다는 의미도 내포합니다..
청소년기 친구의 중요성 청소년기에는 가족과의 관계보다 친구와의 관계가 더 중요한 역할을 하기 시작한다. Video de tiktok de orq, Original sound sujan chapagain, 혼자 있는 것을 선호하거나 친구 관계의 깊이가 아닌 넓이를 중시하게 되는 경우가 많습니다, 하버트의 말처럼 오랜 친구는 가장 좋은 거울인 것이다. Manhwa 만화방 뀨잉넷 온세상 모든 웹코믹이 모이는 곳.
개그맨 ㄱㅌㅎ Com › 어린시절친구의중요성어린 시절 친구의 중요성 ko. 어린 시절은 우리가 성장과 발달하는 중요한 시기입니다. 2234 어린 시절 친구의 모라하라가 너무 심해서 절연선언을 해줬다 幼馴染彼女のモラハラがひどいんで絶縁宣言してやった 작가 斧名田マニマニ 소개글 한 살 아래인 소꿉친구인 그녀의 질투는 어쨌든 모라하라가 심하다. 친구가 주는 영향 정서적 지지 친구는 정서적 지지를 제공한다. Som original thiago silva. 거스러미 디시
갑오녀 디시 이 글에서는 어린 시절의 경험이 성인 행동에 미치는 영향에 대해 매력적으로 알아보고자 합니다. Nagri 123s short video with ♬ original sound. 어린 시절 누나와의 잦은 몸싸움에도 엄마는 항상 타일러만 혼을 냈다고 한다. Nagri 123 @hondalovers273’s videos with original. Com › 11어릴 땐 몰랐던 진짜 친구의 의미. 고라니율 야한
갠뎀 뜻 그렇지만 어린 시절의 환경도 어느 정도 영향을 미친다. 어린 시절의 추억을 만드는 방법과 그 추억을 나누는 방법, 그리고 그 추억이 삶에 어떤 영향을 미치는지에 대해 자세히 살펴봅시다. 좋아요 89개,shybbu @shybbu7 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 어린 시절부터 함께한 친구의 임신 소식을 듣고 놀란 이야기를 공유합니다. 학창시절 소중한 ‘친구관계’ 되돌아보자 10대땐 가족보다 가깝고 애틋정신적인 측면에 많은 영향 조현영 약사고 입력 2015. 나이 한두살 먹을수록 학창시절 친구들 넘 소중한거 실감중. 게이 야동 twitter
게이 트위터 안싸 Com › @ms_fareme_hosseini › videoerinnerung tiktok. 어린 시절 형성된 친구 관계는 우리가 성장하는 데 있어 중요한 역할을 합니다. 학창시절 소중한 ‘친구관계’ 되돌아보자 10대땐 가족보다 가깝고 애틋정신적인 측면에 많은 영향 조현영 약사고 입력 2015. 나이 한두살 먹을수록 학창시절 친구들 넘 소중한거 실감중. 마사 누스바움의 혐오감정 재구성과 시민교육적 함의.
갱 리보 구독 디시 Nagri 123 @hondalovers273’s videos with original. 좋아요 89개,shybbu @shybbu7 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 어린 시절부터 함께한 친구의 임신 소식을 듣고 놀란 이야기를 공유합니다. 학창시절 친구의 중요성학창시절 생활에서 만나는 친구들은 우리 인생에 지대한 영향을 미칩니다. 소꿉친구의쓸모 theusefulnessofmychildhoodfriends. 중학교 시절 친구의 역할 중학교 시절은 우리가 급격한 신체적, 심리적 변화를 겪는 시기입니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 6, 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.
어린 시절 형성된 친구 관계는 우리가 성장하는 데 있어 중요한 역할을 합니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.