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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
그래서 페이커는 제록스 프린터를 쓰지만 어준이는 극혐하고 타 제품을 이용하는 거임. 잘나가는 연예인 정치인이라도 웬만해선 진실은 모르고 그냥 여기저기 불려다니는 꼭두각시 용도일것같긴한데확실한건 이수만 방시혁같은 유명엔터대표 부류는 알것같다자신의 엔터사업이 밑바닥에서부터 아시아와 전세계로 성공해나갔고. Samrna 백신이 자가증폭형selfamplified mrna 백신이고지금 임상에서 심장질환 등 부작용도 훨씬 심각한데일본은 그냥 도입한다는 거 같은데면약학 교수를 필두로 시위하고커뮤니티에서 우리보다 많이 언급. Com › mgallery › board유럽에 이어 이스라엘도 작살난다 2편 일루미나티 마이너 갤러리.
마두로 터지니 바로 갤리젠 훅 느는거 보라 일단 미스터리는 갤떡밥 화두가 중요 미스터리 분야는 거진 다 파묘할거 다 해짜나.. 그것은 ‘인류를 통제하고 재편하기 위한 거대한 설계’의 일부입니다.. Com › mgallery › board소름돋는거 발견 일루미나티 마이너 갤러리.. 그래서 페이커는 제록스 프린터를 쓰지만 어준이는 극혐하고 타 제품을 이용하는 거임..여기서 뿐이 아니고성경에서도 심판의 날,,지하에서 올라오는 생명체들이 있는데메뚜기랑 비슷하다는 말이 요한계시록에 나오고디스트릭트9이라는 영화의 외계인다른 영화들도 많지만도 곤충처럼 만들어 놓음엣지오브 투모로, 엔. 잘나가는 연예인 정치인이라도 웬만해선 진실은 모르고 그냥 여기저기 불려다니는 꼭두각시 용도일것같긴한데확실한건 이수만 방시혁같은 유명엔터대표 부류는 알것같다자신의 엔터사업이 밑바닥에서부터 아시아와 전세계로 성공해나갔고. Net › tags › 일루미갤일루미갤の人気イラストやマンガ pixiv, 어차피 1%가 99%를 관리함 99%는 시대를 발전할 생각이 거의 없는 사람들임1% 엘리트들도 은근 말함 99%는 발전성이 없다고 그래서 정반합으로 계속 흔들어서 자연의 법칙 적자생존을 강요 하잖아실제로 한국 보셈, Vqf9o6tvtgq석판에 봉인되어버린 물질세계 지배자와 한 소년의 만남the man in the wall 물질계에 갇혀버린, 816일 이후 자동차 보험약관에 대한 변경내용중 대체부품 인증제도의 기준을 바꿈.
No_humans, animal_focus, animal, realistic, read more.. Vqf9o6tvtgq석판에 봉인되어버린 물질세계 지배자와 한 소년의 만남the man in the wall 물질계에 갇혀버린.. Com › mgallery › board네오 글의 문제점 일루미나티 마이너 갤러리.. 국제 정치에 조예가 떨어지고음모론에 매몰된 초짜라는 걸 증명하는 거야..
그래서 본인은 기본소득을 만들어줄 인공지능 개발에, 이 민족은 자본주의체제를 수용할 유전적 역량이 안됨 ㅇvㅇ. 저 맨밑1티어들은 아직도 지네 세상이라 생각하나봐그러니 맨날 하수인노릇만하지. No_humans, animal_focus, animal, realistic, read more.
벨라 러비 합방 마두로 터지니 바로 갤리젠 훅 느는거 보라 일단 미스터리는 갤떡밥 화두가 중요 미스터리 분야는 거진 다 파묘할거 다 해짜나. 13 151 1 22896 공지 일루미갤 공지를 하겠습니다 후후훗6 사이토하지메 26. No_humans, animal_focus, animal, realistic, read more. 제수잇에서 전향한 프리메이슨 문재인이 김정은보다 서열이 낮은거같다는 생각이 드네 dc official app. 일반 일루미갤 운영자분들께 간곡히 부탁드립니다노. 뷰러 현지
보우 데리헤루 2차세계대전 이후 세계는 협의, 협치, 공존 속의 경쟁체제로 전환되었어. 파나마 운하는 홍콩최고재벌 리카싱꺼 리카싱은 덩샤오핑장쩌민후진타오 비호를 받으면서 성장한 일. 러우전쟁 진짜 목적은 로스차일드로 대표되는 유럽 세력에 대한 공격이라고 했음 그래서 러우전쟁은 유럽으로 확전될. Com › mgallery › board코인으로 3억 날린 일루미나티 마이너 갤러리. 민주주의는 ‘인간이 스스로 옳고 그름을 결정할 수 있다’는 전제 위에 세워진 신앙 체계입니다하지만 그것은 에덴동산에서 인간이 ‘선악과’를 따먹은 순간부터 시작된 교만의 재현이지요즉, 신의 권위를 버리고인간이 스스로 법. 버릇없는 샵
브레인롯 훔치기 1×1×1×1 걍 일은 인공지능이하고 배급받으면서 사는게 어쩌면 이 민족들에게 가장 행복 결말인거같음 ㅇvㅇ. 20 7 일반 통일한국의 키를 프리메이슨 김정은이 쥐고있나봐 9 yah 09. 국제 정치에 조예가 떨어지고음모론에 매몰된 초짜라는 걸 증명하는 거야. 101 백신강,간이는 아이피 밴좀 때려달라 이기야. 천연두, 인플루엔자, 코로나19 백신 심근염 관련된거고 투여시 특정 이상현상을 지속모니터링을 해야함 근데 최근 정부의 뱡침은. 벨 깁슨 근황
북 지직 뜻 거기도 가두리갤이엿네 재밋네 재밋어 운영자 250922 이슈 ‘용원게이’를 넘어 배우 장용원으로 운영자 250923 4443 공지 일루미나티 갤러리는 글 삭제를 하지 않습니다. 뉴월드오더 설계자의 자질이 없습니다 저는 ㅇvㅇ. 제수잇에서 전향한 프리메이슨 문재인이 김정은보다 서열이 낮은거같다는 생각이 드네 dc official app. 일루미갤이 망했네 어쩌내 하는 찐따들아 일루미나티. Com › mgallery › board코인으로 3억 날린 일루미나티 마이너 갤러리.
브레인롯 훔치기 디스코드 이벤트 13 151 1 22896 공지 일루미갤 공지를 하겠습니다 후후훗6 사이토하지메 26. Net › tags › 일루미갤일루미갤の人気イラストやマンガ pixiv. 민주주의는 ‘인간이 스스로 옳고 그름을 결정할 수 있다’는 전제 위에 세워진 신앙 체계입니다하지만 그것은 에덴동산에서 인간이 ‘선악과’를 따먹은 순간부터 시작된 교만의 재현이지요즉, 신의 권위를 버리고인간이 스스로 법. 20 7 일반 통일한국의 키를 프리메이슨 김정은이 쥐고있나봐 9 yah 09. 여기서 뿐이 아니고성경에서도 심판의 날,,지하에서 올라오는 생명체들이 있는데메뚜기랑 비슷하다는 말이 요한계시록에 나오고디스트릭트9이라는 영화의 외계인다른 영화들도 많지만도 곤충처럼 만들어 놓음엣지오브 투모로, 엔.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 7, 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.
Com › mgallery › board코인으로 3억 날린 일루미나티 마이너 갤러리., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.
