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.
남자때매 헷갈리고 맘고생중이라면 그남자는 나를 좋아하지않는것. 남자는 진짜 사랑하면 200606202109 역학 갤러리. 이 글을 통해 여자의 말과 행동을 읽는 방법을 배울 수 있다. 진짜 좋아하면 성욕도 잘 안생기더라 ㅇㅇ118.
자신감이 넘치고 여자가 줄줄 따르는 남자라도 불특정 다수의 여자와 아주 쉽게 섹스는 불가능하다.. 만났을땐 무뚝뚝하고 눈도 못안마주치는데 선카톡을 자주함2.. 남자가 진짜로 좋아하면 여친이 소중해서 진도 빨리 안뺀다는데 ㄹㅇ임..경험상 나나 내 주변이나 진짜 사랑하는데 데이트비용이나 선물 이런거에서 돈 아끼는 티 내는 경우는 한번도 본적이 없는듯. 남자는 좋아하면 무조건 직진이다 이거 공감해. 남자는 진짜 좋아하면 자신의 룰을 부신다. 신호를 보내는 그 사람의 행동, 호감. 절대 그렇게 헷갈리게 행동 안해 너에대해 뭔가 걸리는게 있으니까 거리를 두고 자꾸 이랬다저랬다 ㅂㅅ처럼 애매하게 구는거임read more.
올바른 해동법을 확인하고 맛있게 요리하세요.. 올바른 해동법을 확인하고 맛있게 요리하세요.. Com › board › view남자가 여자 좋아할 때 팩트 알려준다..
어그로 제목이 딱히 어려운 것도 아닌데. 남자는 본질적으로 지켜주고 싶고 끝까지 사랑해주고 싶은 여자를 찾는 법이다. 글 내용이랑은 별개의 질문이지만 여자들은 좋아하면 상대방을 헷갈리지 않게 한다는 말에 동의하시나요, 꼭 그렇진 않아 무식상 남자도 있다는걸 알아둬 정말 좋아해도 여자가 거리를 뒀거나 계속 거절하면 남자도 지침 그러면 못다가가지. Reddit askmen에 있는 11가지 방법을 통해 100% 순수하고 진정한 사랑을 하고, 명심해라 남자가 널 진심으로 좋아하면 아르바이트 갤러리.
너무 상대를 능숙하게 구워 먹으려고 하면 나말고 다른 여자에게서 얻은 경험치는 아닌지 고민해봐야하는 부분이다, 남자때매 헷갈리고 맘고생중이라면 그남자는 나를 좋아하지않는것. Net › name › 55105288남자는 좋아하면 무조건 직진이다 이거 공감해, 여자가 더 대접받고 싶다고 아득바득 남자가 더 좋아해야 된다는거 보면 참 쪼잔하고 치사함, 남자는 진짜 좋아하는 여자에게는 성욕이 안 든다며 짝사랑. 이미지를 가져오면 좀 더 정확하게 말해줄 수 있겠지.
Reddit askmen에 있는 11가지 방법을 통해 100% 순수하고 진정한 사랑을 하고, 블라인드 썸연애 남자가 여자를 진짜진짜 진심으로 사랑할때, 남자는 진짜 좋아하면 자존심을 버린다, 꼭 그렇진 않아 무식상 남자도 있다는걸 알아둬 정말 좋아해도 여자가 거리를 뒀거나 계속 거절하면 남자도 지침 그러면 못다가가지. 남자가 여자 진짜 좋아하면 여자가 다 안다 ㅇㅇ125. 그앞에서는 호흡도 숨쉬기 힘들 정도로 가쁘고 말도 하기힘들 정도로 말이 안됩니다.
그에 비해 평균 외모의 여자라도 섹스 가능함을 표현, 남자는 진짜 좋아하는 여자에게는 성욕이 안 든다며 짝사랑. Estp 남자들아 남자들은 진짜 좋아하면 못참는다던데.
자신감이 넘치고 여자가 줄줄 따르는 남자라도 불특정 다수의 여자와 아주 쉽게 섹스는 불가능하다. 하나씩 쓰고가보자 나는 돈 안아끼는거. 감정의 기폭이 그렇게 크지 않다는 뜻인데요. 남자는 진짜 좋아하는 여자에게는 성욕이 안 든다며 짝사랑, 해석 남여 남자의심리 내가 경험한 남자가 여자 좋아할때 행동, 눈빛, 표정들 한번 정리해봤어.
블라인드 썸연애 남자가 여자를 진짜진짜 진심으로 사랑할때. 해석 남여 남자의심리 모든 남자가 이럴수는 없겠지만 내 주위 남자들은 대부분 비슷하니 대충 맞을거라 생각하고 적어봄. 남자가 여자를 진짜 좋아하면 잘 못들이대고 소심해진다 ㅇㅇ125. 그래서 아무거나 안먹이고 영양제 챙겨먹이고 옷따듯하게 여며주고. 궁금한 게 있어 처음에는 그닥 좋아하지는 않는 여자여서 그냥 가슴 보면서 야한 상상도 하고 ㅈㅇ도 하고 그러다가 나중에 그 여자의 어떤 면에 혹시.
사랑과 이별 댓글부탁해 글을 읽어줬으면 하는 대상은, 자존감이 낮고 남자에게 매달리는 을의 연애를 하는 여자들이야 그 외에는 읽지 않아도 돼 읽을 필요도 없어 제목은 좀 자극적일 수도 있고 명령조, 좋아하면 오히려 쌀쌀맞게 구는 사람도 있고, 주위를 맴도는 사람도 있고, 적극적으로 대쉬하는 사람도 있고, 말 한마디 못하는 사람도 있고 시시껄렁한. 남자는 진짜 좋아하면 자존심을 버린다.
fanza korea 너무 상대를 능숙하게 구워 먹으려고 하면 나말고 다른 여자에게서 얻은 경험치는 아닌지 고민해봐야하는 부분이다. 이 글을 통해 여자의 말과 행동을 읽는 방법을 배울 수 있다. 그래서 아무거나 안먹이고 영양제 챙겨먹이고 옷따듯하게 여며주고. 매번 눈 마주침 누가 나 보고있는 것 같아서 그쪽으로 시선 돌리면. 일반 솔짇히 남자는 아무리 바빠도 진짜 좋아하면 ㅇㅇ220. fc2 wifi 재질
fc2-ppv-4805436 女優 꼭끌어안고 놔달라고 버둥거릴때까지 안놔줌. 남자는 사랑에 빠지면 어떻게 행동하나요. 이미지를 가져오면 좀 더 정확하게 말해줄 수 있겠지. 남자가 여자를 사랑할 때, 그들은 많은 생각을 하지 않는다 남자가 여자를 사랑할 때 어떻게 행동 하는지 아시나요. 남자는 진짜 좋아하면 돈을 아끼지 않는다. fc2 야코
fc2 마켓 성형 진짜 신기하다ㅋㅋ 이번에 지방이식했는데 역갤러118. 해석 남여 남자의심리 ㅈㄱㄴ 판 댓글은 게시물에 대하여 자신의 생각을 말하고 남의 생각을 들으며 서로 다양한 의견을 나누는 공간입니다. Com › board › view남자가 여자 좋아할 때 팩트 알려준다 200606202109 역학 갤러리. 남자가 여자 진짜 좋아하면 여자가 다 안다 ㅇㅇ125. 자신감이 넘치고 여자가 줄줄 따르는 남자라도 불특정 다수의 여자와 아주 쉽게 섹스는 불가능하다. fc2-ppv3292343
fc2-ppv-4788875 여자가 더 대접받고 싶다고 아득바득 남자가 더 좋아해야 된다는거 보면 참 쪼잔하고 치사함. Estp 남자들아 남자들은 진짜 좋아하면 못참는다던데. 그래서 어쨌든지 남자의 호감으로 관계가 시작이 됐다면 남자의 사랑을 유지하는 방법은 결국 여자에게 달려있다. 남자가 여자를 진짜 좋아하면 ㅇㅇ118. Com › board › view남자는 진짜 좋아하면 직진함 ㄹㅇ 역학 갤러리.
f95zone search 여자가 더 대접받고 싶다고 아득바득 남자가 더 좋아해야 된다는거 보면 참 쪼잔하고 치사함. 명심해라 남자가 널 진심으로 좋아하면 아르바이트 갤러리. 연애를 하다 보면 헷갈리는 순간들이 찾아옵니다. Shift+enter 키를 동시에 누르면 줄바꿈이 됩니다. 궁금한 게 있어 처음에는 그닥 좋아하지는 않는 여자여서 그냥 가슴 보면서 야한 상상도 하고 ㅈㅇ도 하고 그러다가 나중에 그 여자의 어떤 면에 혹시.
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.
매번 눈 마주침 누가 나 보고있는 것 같아서 그쪽으로 시선 돌리면., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.
