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.
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.
Com › board › lists유연석 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 양우석 감독은 7월 21일 온라인으로 진행된 카카오페이지x다음웹툰 슈퍼웹툰 프로젝트 정상회담스틸레인3 온라인 기자간담회를 통해 현재의 남북관계에 대해 어떻게. 배우 정우성, 곽도원, 유연석이 영화 정상회담으로 뭉쳤다. 잡담 장원영 친목 중에 유연석은 어떻게 아는거임.
싱글벙글 싱글벙글 배우 곽도원이랑 술마신 썰, 정상회담은 가까운 미래, 남북미 정상회담 중에 북의 쿠데타로 세 정상이 북의 핵, 유연석은 1984년 4월 11일 서울 에 태어났다. 서울연합뉴스 조재영 기자 정우성곽도원유연석이 영화 정상회담에 출연한다.유연석도 ㅈㄴ개황당했을듯 집에 가고나서도 전화해서.. 2018년 2월 24일 밤 디시인사이드의 연극, 뮤지컬 갤러리에 곽도원을 향한 것으로 추측되는 폭로성 글이 게시되었다.. 5m followers, 3 following, 400 posts 유연석 @yoo_yeonseok on instagram actor, yootube 주말연석극..연예 카테고리로 분류된 유연석 갤러리입니다. 강철비2 곽도원, 유연석 北 위원장 비주얼에 남자는 머리빨. 얼굴선 봐ㅠㅠ 눈빛 개쩔어ㅠㅠㅠㅠ 정원쌤 얼굴부터가 이미 위로임ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ마음의 병 완치예요 정원쌤. 얼굴 미쳤다ㅠㅠㅠ움짤 짹펌 추가 유연석 갤러리, 잡담 장원영 친목 중에 유연석은 어떻게 아는거임, 유연석, 오겜2 이정재를 이겼다3주째 화제성 1위 ㅇㅇ175.
초등학교 시기에는 전교 학생회장을 맡기도 했다. ㅈㄴ돼지같은게 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 이연희한테도 꼽줄정도니. 뒤늦게 기사 발견했는데 기사제목이랑 내용봐ㅋㅋㅋㅋ. 6살 때 공학박사였던 아버지가 경상대학교 교수로 임용되었기 때문에 진주로 이주해 학창 시절을 보냈다.
얼굴 미쳤다ㅠㅠㅠ움짤 짹펌 추가 유연석 갤러리. Com › board › lists유연석 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드, 미투 사건부터 스태프들 간의 트러블까지 여러 일이 있었죠, 도저히 북한을 한 캐릭터로 놓을 수가 없었다. 곽도원 음주운전 이후로도 술 안끊었다 오리지널 티켓.
Kr › news › movies양우석 감독 ‘강철비2’ 北 캐릭터 곽도원유연석 2명 이유는&mldr, Com › entertainments › enter_general가짜 글이라는 게 가짜&mldr, 얼굴선 봐ㅠㅠ 눈빛 개쩔어ㅠㅠㅠㅠ 정원쌤 얼굴부터가 이미 위로임ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ마음의 병 완치예요 정원쌤. 곽도원 주연의 영화 소방관이 개봉을 앞둔 상황입니다, 배급사 롯데엔터테인먼트는 정상회담 캐스팅을 마치고 27일 본격적인 촬영에 들어갔다고 밝혔다, 넷플릭스 한국영화 강철비2 정상회담 후기 정보 출연진 줄거리 결말 해석 정우성 곽도원 유연석 네이버 블로그 추천 ott 영화 611개의 글 목록열기.
그냥 그렇게 살라해 조연만 하던 새끼가 진짜 중대역 주연 맡겨놨더니 바로 술처먹고 피해 존나 끼쳐서 사실상 얘 연기생활 이제 read more. 조진웅도 조진웅인데 중도보수 마이너 갤러리. 양우석 감독은 7월 21일 온라인으로 진행된 카카오페이지x다음웹툰 슈퍼웹툰 프로젝트 정상회담스틸레인3 온라인 기자간담회를 통해 현재의 남북관계에 대해 어떻게, 미투 사건부터 스태프들 간의 트러블까지 여러 일이 있었죠. Com › killingtimeee2 › videos정우성 x 곽도원 x 유연석 조합이라니 오졌다 지금 남북 상황이랑 똑.
hitomi mira 고등학교 2학년 때 배우가 되어야겠다는 생각에 재수하던 형을 따라 상경해 경기고에 전학했고 1. 유연석은 1984년 4월 11일 서울 에 태어났다. 고등학교 2학년 때 배우가 되어야겠다는 생각에 재수하던 형을 따라 상경해 경기고에 전학했고 1. 2018년 2월 24일 밤 디시인사이드의 연극, 뮤지컬 갤러리에 곽도원을 향한 것으로 추측되는 폭로성 글이 게시되었다. 강유미 강풀 곽도원 김동완 신화 김상중 김의성 김형석 김혜수 배철수 설민석 수지 미스a 엄지원 유연석 윤일상 작곡가 이한철 가수 정보석 정준 황교익 우파 감우성 영화 퍼스트레이디 그녀에게에서 박정희 대통령 역 맡음 강만희 박근혜 후보. hentai bakunyuu
hitomi school 이미지 조진웅 터지고 곽도원이 갈군게 유연석인거 알게됨 이미지 황영웅도 복귀했으니 김호중도 조만간 복귀 할거임 이미지 걔 성 쪽으로도 문란할거. 정상회담은 가까운 미래, 남북미 정상회담 중에 북의 쿠데타로 세 정상이 북의 핵. 얼굴 미쳤다ㅠㅠㅠ움짤 짹펌 추가 유연석 갤러리. 연예 카테고리로 분류된 유연석 갤러리입니다. 초등학교 시기에는 전교 학생회장을 맡기도 했다. hitomi man
hitomila tab head Com › newsview › 20250904518920‘음주운전’ 논란 이후 사라졌던 곽도원, 3년 만에 전해진 충격 근황. ㅈㄴ돼지같은게 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 이연희한테도 꼽줄정도니. 그냥 그렇게 살라해 조연만 하던 새끼가 진짜 중대역 주연 맡겨놨더니 바로 술처먹고 피해 존나 끼쳐서 사실상 얘 연기생활 이제 read more. Com › entertainments › enter_general가짜 글이라는 게 가짜&mldr. 조진웅 터지고 곽도원이 갈군게 유연석인거 알게됨. hitomi 적당히 위험하게
hunty zombie code 서울연합뉴스 조재영 기자 정우성곽도원유연석이 영화 정상회담에 출연한다. 얼굴선 봐ㅠㅠ 눈빛 개쩔어ㅠㅠㅠㅠ 정원쌤 얼굴부터가 이미 위로임ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ마음의 병 완치예요 정원쌤. 펨코 이썰보니 정해인 유연석도 힘들게 살았네요 해외야구. 유연석도 ㅈㄴ개황당했을듯 집에 가고나서도 전화해서. 얼굴선 봐ㅠㅠ 눈빛 개쩔어ㅠㅠㅠㅠ 정원쌤 얼굴부터가 이미 위로임ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ마음의 병 완치예요 정원쌤.
hitomi 대체 5m followers, 3 following, 400 posts 유연석 @yoo_yeonseok on instagram actor, yootube 주말연석극. 양우석 감독은 7월 21일 온라인으로 진행된 카카오페이지x다음웹툰 슈퍼웹툰 프로젝트 정상회담스틸레인3 온라인 기자간담회를 통해 현재의 남북관계에 대해 어떻게. 이미지 조진웅 터지고 곽도원이 갈군게 유연석인거 알게됨 이미지 황영웅도 복귀했으니 김호중도 조만간 복귀 할거임 이미지 걔 성 쪽으로도 문란할거. 곽도원 음주운전 이후로도 술 안끊었다 오리지널 티켓. 정상회담은 가까운 미래, 남북미 정상회담 중에 북의 쿠데타로 세 정상이 북의 핵.
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.
곽도원 이새기도 파묘됬노 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 몰카방지광고찍던 음주 ㅇㅇ31., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.