US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 11, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
블랙핑크로제 blackpink로제 예쁨주의 그렇다. 그룹 블랙핑크 로제가 무대에서 공연을 하던 중 대형사고를 겪을 뻔했다는 소식이 화제가 되고 있습니다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 osen오세진 기자 블랙핑크 로제가 파격적인 패션을 보였다. 블랙핑크로제 blackpink로제 예쁨주의 그렇다.
블랙핑크 로제, 속옷 차림으로 길거리 활보 무슨 일이야.. 속옷 차림으로 거리 활보 로제, 파격 노출 스타일 깜짝 블랙핑크 로제가 금발 헤어스타일과 초미니 슬립 드레스로 눈길을 끌었다.. 섹시한 벌거벗은 로제 블랙핑크 큰 가슴 자신의..
오늘은 챙이 사진을 업로드하려구 함 간간히 예뻐서 짤줍도하고 핸드폰 배경화면 할겸 모으기 시작했던게 이렇게 많아졌을 줄이야.. 로제는 11월 18일 개인 소셜미디어를 통해 일상 사진을 다수 게재.. 블랙핑크 로제 정장 슈트속 노브라 봉긋 가슴.. 블랙핑크 로제 엉밑살 특집 +7 09..워터밤 권은비 경이로운 워터밤 권은비 경이로운 무브먼트 레전드 3, 로제는 25일 자신의 사회관계망서비스sns에 특유의 금발 헤어스타일과 초미니 슬립 드레스로 시선을 강탈했다, Kr › news › 479968숨 막힐 정도로 아름답다 고혹적인 란제리룩으로 찬사 쏟아진. 블랙핑크로제 blackpink로제 예쁨주의 그렇다.
인사이트 이원선 기자 걸그룹 블랙핑크 멤버 로제가 노출 사고가 날 뻔했던 상황을 유연하게 넘겼다. 침 형태 귀걸이의 경우 착용시,보관시 귀걸이 뒷꼭지를 홈부분에 맞춰주세요. 서울뉴시스최인선 인턴 기자 블랙핑크 로제가 금발 헤어스타일과 초미니 슬립 드레스로 눈길을 끌었다. 영상에는 블랙핑크 콘서트에서 솔로무대를 펼치고 있는 로제의 모습이 담겨있다. 블랙핑크 로제 1열에서 블랙핑크 로제 1열에서 보는 레전드 애티튜드. 산골민박 로제의`그림처럼 운영중 구례하루니까에서 뜨개수업 지리산자락 피아골에서 작업중 ⠀⠀⠀ 로제의 빈티지 손뜨개 지음 로제의 모티브 손뜨개 소품 지음.
오늘은 챙이 사진을 업로드하려구 함 간간히 예뻐서 짤줍도하고 핸드폰 배경화면 할겸 모으기 시작했던게 이렇게 많아졌을 줄이야, 쿠팡이 추천하는 로제섹스꩜〔𝟘𝟞𝟘𝟡𝟘𝟚𝟘𝟡𝟘𝟡〕. 로제덕후가 환장하는 존맛 로제메뉴🤩💕 꾸덕꾸덕 매콤한. 로제는 지난 6일 자신의 인스타그램 스토리에 거울 셀카를 남기고 있는 모습을 담은 사진을 게시했다.
블랙핑크로제 blackpink로제 예쁨주의 그렇다, 뒷꼭지를 끝까지 밀어넣는경우 뒷꼭지가 헐거워질수있습니다, 키즈세이프 렌지안심 손잡이컵 2p 세트 옐로우+화이트 220ml_나인웨어. 로제를 사랑하는 것은 저런 절벽을 보고 사랑을 하는게 아니다 로제는 그 한없이 풍성한 감성의 보이스가 나를 죽이는 것이다. 블랙핑크 제니 노브라 꼭지 sound블랙핑크 제니 노브라 가슴골 불룩한 도끼 블랙핑크 제니 노브라 가슴골 블랙핑크 제니 노브라 시원한 등 홀터넥. 블랙핑크 로제 정장 슈트속 노브라 봉긋 가슴.
Sns roses_are_rosie 엑스포츠뉴스 이창규 기자 블랙핑크 blackpink 로제 rosé가 미국에서 근황을 전했다. 서울뉴시스전재경 기자 그룹 블랙핑크 멤버 겸 솔로가수 로제가 속옷 브랜드 스킴스skims 모델로 나섰다, 블랙핑크 로제 1열에서 블랙핑크 로제 1열에서 보는 레전드 애티튜드.
영상을 보면 로제는 한 공연에서 지난해 9월 발매, 영상에는 블랙핑크 콘서트에서 솔로무대를 펼치고 있는 로제의 모습이 담겨있다, 한해선 스타뉴스 기자 그룹 블랙핑크 로제 가 무대에서 아찔한 노출 사고를 겪을 뻔했다. 블랙핑크 로제가 킴 카다시안의 이너웨어 브랜드 ‘스킴스skims’를 통해 글로벌 팬심을 사로잡았습니다.
로벅스 디시 인사이트 이원선 기자 걸그룹 블랙핑크 멤버 로제가 노출 사고가 날 뻔했던 상황을 유연하게 넘겼다. 블랙핑크 로제, 속옷 차림으로 길거리 활보 무슨 일이야 블랙핑크 로제가 파격적인 패션을 보였다. 쿠팡이 추천하는 로제섹스꩜〔𝟘𝟞𝟘𝟡𝟘𝟚𝟘𝟡𝟘𝟡〕. Sns roses_are_rosie 엑스포츠뉴스 이창규 기자 블랙핑크 blackpink 로제 rosé가 미국에서 근황을 전했다. 영상을 보면 로제는 한 공연에서 지난해 9월 발매. 로맨스 사자보이즈
릴스툰 로제는 홀로 무대에 서서 노래를 부르던 중 이상함을 감지했다. 로제도르 라플로레펠리마투l42 pg 신세계 아울렛 mall. 워터밤 권은비 경이로운 워터밤 권은비 경이로운 무브먼트 레전드 3. 로제, 아슬아슬한 가슴라인의 튜브탑 드레스슬렌더 몸매의 정석 블랙핑크 멤버 로제의 완벽 비주얼이 시선을 사로잡는다. 뒷꼭지를 끝까지 밀어넣는경우 뒷꼭지가 헐거워질수있습니다. 로마숫자 0
로지호텔녀 그룹 블랙핑크 로제가 무대에서 공연을 하던 중 대형사고를 겪을 뻔했다는 소식이 화제가 되고 있습니다. Com › entertainment › enter_general로제, 아슬아슬한 가슴라인의 튜브탑 드레스&mldr. 블랙핑크로제 blackpink로제 예쁨주의 그렇다. 로제는 지난 6일 자신의 인스타그램 스토리에 거울 셀카를 남기고 있는 모습을 담은 사진을 게시했다. 블랙핑크 로제, 속옷 차림으로 길거리 활보 무슨 일이야 블랙핑크 로제가 파격적인 패션을 보였다. 로맨틱 여름 영상
로마 기차표 무려 3억 5천만 명의 팔로워를 보유한 킴 카다시안의 sns에 로제의 모. 로제덕후가 환장하는 존맛 로제메뉴🤩💕 꾸덕꾸덕 매콤한. 로제는 11월 18일 개인 소셜미디어를 통해 일상 사진을 다수 게재. 서울뉴스1 안태현 기자 그룹 블랙핑크 멤버 로제가 과감한 노출 패션을 선보였다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 뉴스엔 장예솔 기자 그룹 블랙핑크 로제가 근황을 공개했다.
류랴이 워터밤 권은비 경이로운 워터밤 권은비 경이로운 무브먼트 레전드 3. 침 형태 귀걸이의 경우 착용시,보관시 귀걸이 뒷꼭지를 홈부분에 맞춰주세요. 리사 태국 출신의 k팝 슈퍼스타, 노출 공연으로 화제가. 사진 속에는 시스루 상의와 검정 스타킹을 매치한 로제가 짧은 치마에 검정 재. 뒷꼭지를 끝까지 밀어넣는경우 뒷꼭지가 헐거워질수있습니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 11, 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.
한해선 스타뉴스 기자 그룹 블랙핑크 로제 가 무대에서 아찔한 노출 사고를 겪을 뻔했다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.