US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
지난 22일 지기는 유튜브 채널 지기네에 안녕하세요. 지난 2023년 8월 22일 지기는 자신의 유튜브 채널을 통해 오랜만에 인사드린다며 음주운전 판결과 학교폭력 논란에 대해 입을 열었습니다. Youtube 지기네 지기는 음주운전에 대한 판결문이 나왔고, 약식명령 처리가 되었습니다라며 음주 교육을 받으며 경각심을 갖게 됐다고 말했다. 50일 운전 정지와 벌금 200만원이 선고돼 현재는 정지가 끝났으며 벌금도 납부했다고 밝혔다.
| 2023년에 유튜버 지기네가 고등학생 때 학교폭력을 저질렀다는 폭로가 나오면서 논란이 된 사건. | 생애 20대에 대기업, 중소기업, 개인사업자를 모두 겪어 봤다. | Youtube 지기네 지기는 음주운전에 대한 판결문이 나왔고, 약식명령 처리가 되었습니다라며 음주 교육을 받으며 경각심을 갖게 됐다고 말했다. | 그러면서 분명히 가식처럼 보일 수 있겠지만 묵묵히 봉사하면서 진정성 있게. |
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| 음주운전과 학교폭력 논란으로 활동을 중단했던 헬스 유튜버 지기tv임동규가 일상 유튜버로 복귀했다. | 2023년 2월 27일, 디시인사이드 보디. | 헬스 먹방 직장인운동법 웨이트 일반인 몸짱 치팅먹방 다이어트 유지어터 네추럴 운동하는직장인 83부부 지기근황 먹지기 몸짱아빠 근육 웃긴가족 운지기 헬창 마라톤 지기tv 지기 떼아지뚱 지뚱 떼아 달리기 먹방유튜버 지뚱먹방 헬창아빠 운동 가족외식. | Com › smartincome12 › 223753655052음주운전+학폭 논란에 은퇴 선언했던 유튜버가 6개월 만에 전한 근. |
| 24% | 19% | 14% | 43% |
Com › newsview › 20230824506792‘음주운전학폭 논란’ 유명 유튜버 복귀&mldr. 기타 학폭 논란으로 나락갔던 유튜버 지기네 근황. 지기이메일 dirrnrdlqek@gmail, 음주운전과 학교폭력 논란으로 활동을 중단했던 헬스 유튜버 지기tv임동규가 일상 유튜버로 복귀했다. 오랜만에 인사드립니다란 제목의 영상을 게재했다.
Jpg 16 lol 근데 페이커 인비지블 썸띵으로 욕하던 사람들이 50. Com 약국입다@쥐메일 sns인스타그램지기 s, 결국 6개월만에 돌아온 지기tv 채널명 지기네. 학교폭력 논란과 음주운전으로 활동 중단을 선언했던 유튜버 지기가 복귀했다. 음주운전학폭친구 집에서 딸딸이 ㅈㅇ 바닥에 흘림피해자 고소은퇴 한다고 했었음↓ 이분 입니다. 네토라레 얘들 커서 초등학교 입학하는순간 지옥이지 뭐 어린이집 이나 유치원 부터 아빠가 학폭 가해자라는거 다 알려질텐데 자녀들 초등학교 고학년.
재산 중 일부를 플레이그라운드에 투자한.. 23일 지기는 유튜브 채널 ‘지기네’를 통해 복귀 소식을 알렸다.. 50일 운전 정지와 벌금 200만원이 선고돼 현재는 정지가 끝났으며 벌금도 납부했다고 밝혔다.. 50일 운전 정지와 벌금 200만원이 선고돼 현재는 정지가 끝났으며 벌금도 납부했다고 밝혔다..
And its not bullying. 지기, 6개월 만에 복귀 힘들고 숨고 싶었지만&mldr. 기타 학폭 논란으로 나락갔던 유튜버 지기네 근황. 이후 지기는 근황에 대해서 새벽 봉사를 꾸준히 다니고 있다고 전했다.
이후 지기는 근황에 대해서 새벽 봉사를 꾸준히 다니고 있다고 전했다. 헬스 먹방 직장인운동법 웨이트 일반인 몸짱 치팅먹방 다이어트 유지어터 네추럴 운동하는직장인 83부부 지기근황 먹지기 몸짱아빠 근육 웃긴가족 운지기 헬창 마라톤 지기tv 지기 떼아지뚱 지뚱 떼아 달리기 먹방유튜버 지뚱먹방 헬창아빠 운동 가족외식. 암호화폐 공식채널 7k views 모자라지만 착한 친구가 되어버린 지기tv 근황. 23일 지기는 채널 지기네를 통해 복귀 영상을 공개했다. 음주운전학폭 헬스 유튜버 지기 복귀새벽 봉사하며 반성. 재산 중 일부를 플레이그라운드에 투자한.
풀북 다시보기 16 지난 2023년 8월 22일 지기는 자신의 유튜브 채널을 통해 오랜만에 인사드린다며 음주운전 판결과 학교폭력 논란에 대해 입을 열었습니다. 재산 중 일부를 플레이그라운드에 투자한. Kr › page › view음주운전학폭 논란 지기, 6개월 만에 복귀 힘들고 숨고 싶었지만&mldr. 생애 20대에 대기업, 중소기업, 개인사업자를 모두 겪어 봤다. 음주운전학폭친구 집에서 딸딸이 ㅈㅇ 바닥에 흘림피해자 고소은퇴 한다고 했었음↓ 이분 입니다. 페라퓨어 1화
패트리온 야동 학교폭력 논란과 음주운전으로 활동 중단을 선언했던 유튜버 지기가 복귀했다. 암호화폐 공식채널 7k views 모자라지만 착한 친구가 되어버린 지기tv 근황. 오랜만에 인사드립니다란 제목의 영상을 게재했다. Kr › board › webzine학폭 논란으로 나락갔던 유튜버 지기네 근황. 학폭 논란과 음주운전으로 활동 중단을 선언했던 유튜버 지기가 복귀했다. 포포포포 빨간약 디시
패황시후 지난 22일 유튜브 ‘지기네’를 통해 ‘안녕하세요 오랜만에 인사드립니다’라는 제목의 영상이 게재됐다. 오랜만에 인사드립니다란 제목의 영상을 게재했다. 네토라레 얘들 커서 초등학교 입학하는순간 지옥이지 뭐 어린이집 이나 유치원 부터 아빠가 학폭 가해자라는거 다 알려질텐데 자녀들 초등학교 고학년. 학교폭력 논란과 음주운전으로 활동 중단을 선언했던 운동 유튜버 지기본명 임동규가 복귀했다. 지난 22일 지기는 자신의 유튜브 채널을 통해. 펨돔 사이트
패트리온 다운로더 디시 음주운전과 학교폭력 논란으로 활동을 중단했던 운동 유튜버 지기가 복귀 소식을 전했다. 음주운전학폭 헬스 유튜버 지기 복귀새벽 봉사하며 반성. 음주운전과 학교폭력 논란으로 활동을 중단했던 운동 유튜버 지기가 복귀 소식을 전했다. 암호화폐 공식채널 7k views 모자라지만 착한 친구가 되어버린 지기tv 근황. 지난 22일 지기tv는 자신의 채널명 지기tv를 지기네로 바꾼 뒤 6개월 만에 안녕하세요 오랜만에 인사드립니다라는 영상을 통해 근황을 전했다.
팬텀하츠 2기 탈퇴 지난 22일 지기tv는 자신의 채널명 지기tv를 지기네로 바꾼 뒤 6개월 만에 안녕하세요 오랜만에 인사드립니다라는 영상을 통해 근황을 전했다. 음주운전과 학교폭력 논란으로 활동을 중단했던 운동 유튜버 지기가 복귀 소식을 전했다. 학교폭력 논란과 음주운전으로 활동 중단을 선언했던 유튜버 지기가 복귀했다. 음주운전과 학폭 의혹으로 활동을 중지했던 헬스 유튜버 지기tv 현재 채널명 지기네가 유튜브에 복귀했다. 학교폭력 논란과 음주운전으로 활동 중단을 선언했던 유튜버 지기가 복귀했다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 15, 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.
Kr › board › webzine학폭 논란으로 나락갔던 유튜버 지기네 근황., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.