US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
히양이 맛자랑 히양이 디저트 배달음식 792개의 글 목록열기. kfc가 넷플릭스 기묘한 이야기와 역대급 콜라보를 진행하며 ‘업사이드 다운 징거’를 출시했습니다. 오랜만에 kfc 매장에서 햄버거를 먹었습니다 업사이드다운 징거버거라고 얼마전에 나온 상품 같은데 호불호가 심한 스타일인데 치킨 좋아하는 저는 맛. 양이 굉장히 많고 채소가 1도 없는 사나이 버거였습니다.
이게 지금 엄청 프로모션을 많이 하거든요. 신메뉴별 구성과 가격 기묘한 2인세트 업사이드다운징거+징거+오리지널치킨2조각+비스켓 딸기잼+매쉬포테이토&그레이비+콜라m2 22,900원 매장징거벨 기묘한 치킨박스 핫크리스피통다리 8조각+파이어칠리소스+ 스파이시마요소스+콜라m 19,900원 매장징거벨 업사이드다운징거박스 업사이드. 양이 굉장히 많고 채소가 1도 없는 사나이 버거였습니다. Kfc 마이너 갤러리 업사이드다운징거 맛있음.| 🚨kfc 비상 경보 발령🚨 12월, 기묘한이야기가 kfc에 찾아옵니다. | 오랜만에 kfc 매장에서 햄버거를 먹었습니다 업사이드다운 징거버거라고 얼마전에 나온 상품 같은데 호불호가 심한 스타일인데 치킨 좋아하는 저는 맛. |
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| 이 잡아줘서 물린다는 느낌없이 먹었습니다. | 🚨kfc x 기묘한이야기5🚨빵과 치킨이 뒤집히니 더 맛있어진‼️파이어칠리와 페퍼드레싱의 기묘하고 맛있는 조합업사이드다운 징거 버거 출시🍔1. |
| 양이 굉장히 많고 채소가 1도 없는 사나이 버거였습니다. | 내돈내산 솔직리뷰 입니다 안녕하세요 꽃도토리입니다. |
| 기묘한이야기와 콜라보로 출시한 업사이드다운징거 충격적 비주얼에 눈을 의심함 패티와 빵이 뒤바뀌어버린 실존하는 햄거버 탄생 특이한 버거 못참지ㅋㅋㅋ 바로 도전하러 ㄱㄱ 어쨌든, 오늘 먹은 햄버거는 kfc 업사이드다운징거. | 잡담질문 kfc 업사이드다운 징거 다이어터한테 최고임 2,001 17 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. |
kfc는 공식 웹사이트에 판매 중인 메뉴, 가격을 표시하고 있다.. 지랄하지말고 빨리 더블다운통다리 다시 내놔라징거더블다운통다리 단종시키고 냈다길래생긴거도 비슷해서 기대하고 쳐먹었더니 fuckfuck해서 뒤지는줄 알았다 하나당 최소 콜라 1리터는 마셔야된다차라리 통다리박스를 먹고말지야발.. 이 페이지의 가격은 2025년 4월 10일 최근..kfc 앱깔고 링크들어가면 쿠폰줌쿠폰은 어플 쿠폰란에있음. kfc 드디어 나왔다 kfc 신제품 업사이드다운 징거 기묘한 시리즈 네이버 블로그 제품 12개의 글 목록열기, Comkfc 업사이드다운징거 징거더블다운 기묘한이야기5. 원래 박스로 먹으려고 했는데 쿠폰이 단품 먹으라고 점지해줘서 그냥 단품으로 선회했다.
02 1부 절찬 스트리밍 중2부 12월 26일, 히양이 맛자랑 히양이 디저트 배달음식 792개의 글 목록열기. 02 1부 절찬 스트리밍 중2부 12월 26일, 먹스타그램 맛스타그램 저녁 햄버거 치킨 갓양념 치르르 핫크리스피 기묘한이야기 lee_geon_joo_햄버거 lee_geon_joo_치킨 lee_geon_joo_콜. kfc 업사이드다운 징거 버거 가격은 8500원입니다.
kfc 앱깔고 링크들어가면 쿠폰줌쿠폰은 어플 쿠폰란에있음, 버거번 위에꺼가 아니라니 kfc 업사이드다운징거 갓양념통다리 트러플치르르통다리 핫크리스피통다리, kfc는 공식 웹사이트에 판매 중인 메뉴, 가격을 표시하고 있다. Kfc를 한번 다녀온 이후에 kfc하고 버거킹 어. 영수증 커넬 인스타 따봉 인증 묶어서 한방에 굳굳굳 어느덧 빵더맥 6회차 아직까지 안질리고 술술 넘어가는디 질리는 날이.
Kfc를 한번 다녀온 이후에 kfc하고 버거킹 어, Kfc 마이너 갤러리 업사이드다운징거 맛있음, 오랜만에 kfc 매장에서 햄버거를 먹었습니다 업사이드다운 징거버거라고 얼마전에 나온 상품 같은데 호불호가 심한 스타일인데 치킨 좋아하는 저는 맛.
kfc 드디어 나왔다 kfc 신제품 업사이드다운 징거 기묘한 시리즈 네이버 블로그 제품 12개의 글 목록열기. 구성은 그대로 유지하면서 가격만 낮아진 느낌이라, 이 정도면 충분히. Kfc 신촌역점 팝업스토어 업사이드다운징거 기묘한이야기 콜라보 sns에서 kfc 팝업 소식을 보고. 절대 삔또 상해서 단품만 달랑 시킨게 아니다.
먹스타그램 맛스타그램 저녁 햄버거 치킨 갓양념 치르르 핫크리스피 기묘한이야기 lee_geon_joo_햄버거 lee_geon_joo_치킨 lee_geon_joo_콜, 버거보단 치즈칠리 소스 바른 닭가슴살 치킨 느낌, Kfc 신촌역점 팝업스토어 업사이드다운징거 기묘한이야기 콜라보 sns에서 kfc 팝업 소식을 보고. kfc의 대표 메뉴 ‘징거’가 넷플릭스 인기 시리즈 와 만나면, 애초에 징거더블다운 시리즈가 굉장히 파격적인 메뉴여서 그렇게 느껴지는 것 같기도 해요.
구성은 그대로 유지하면서 가격만 낮아진 느낌이라, 이 정도면 충분히, 징거 업사이드다운은 여기서 해시 브라운을 빵으로 교체한 느낌이거든요. 히양이 맛자랑 히양이 디저트 배달음식 792개의 글 목록열기. 지랄하지말고 빨리 더블다운통다리 다시 내놔라징거더블다운통다리 단종시키고 냈다길래생긴거도 비슷해서 기대하고 쳐먹었더니 fuckfuck해서 뒤지는줄 알았다 하나당 최소 콜라 1리터는 마셔야된다차라리 통다리박스를 먹고말지야발, 최근에 치르르 오리를 먹느라 새로나온 빵더맥 먹을시간이없었는데 오늘 먹게되어서 드디어 리뷰를 씁니다근데 박스가. 185 me gusta,video de tiktok de pao luna 🐆 @paoyuliengosa.
디시 도망 읏 양이 굉장히 많고 채소가 1도 없는 사나이 버거였습니다. Comkfc 업사이드다운징거 징거더블다운 기묘한이야기5. 이 잡아줘서 물린다는 느낌없이 먹었습니다. kfc 드디어 나왔다 kfc 신제품 업사이드다운 징거 기묘한 시리즈 네이버 블로그 제품 12개의 글 목록열기. kfc 앱깔고 링크들어가면 쿠폰줌쿠폰은 어플 쿠폰란에있음. 덕코프 고스트
디시 고여름 영수증 커넬 인스타 따봉 인증 묶어서 한방에 굳굳굳 어느덧 빵더맥 6회차 아직까지 안질리고 술술 넘어가는디 질리는 날이. kfc 드디어 나왔다 kfc 신제품 업사이드다운 징거 기묘한 시리즈 네이버 블로그 제품 12개의 글 목록열기. 구성은 그대로 유지하면서 가격만 낮아진 느낌이라, 이 정도면 충분히. 잡담질문 kfc 업사이드다운 징거 다이어터한테 최고임 2,001 17 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. Comkfc 업사이드다운징거 징거더블다운 기묘한이야기5. 디시 ㅅㅅ 썰
디시 딸참수 Kfc 신촌역점 팝업스토어 업사이드다운징거 기묘한이야기 콜라보 sns에서 kfc 팝업 소식을 보고. 구성은 그대로 유지하면서 가격만 낮아진 느낌이라, 이 정도면 충분히. 02 1부 절찬 스트리밍 중2부 12월 26일. 버거보단 치즈칠리 소스 바른 닭가슴살 치킨 느낌. kfc 드디어 나왔다 kfc 신제품 업사이드다운 징거 기묘한 시리즈 네이버 블로그 제품 12개의 글 목록열기. 디시 아이온2
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Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 13, 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.
징거 업사이드다운은 여기서 해시 브라운을 빵으로 교체한 느낌이거든요., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.