US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 18, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 2026.
Snl 코리아에서 송승헌의 유머와 풍자를 확인하세요. 나는 걸그룹 이런 애들보다 서동주씨가 너무 섹시하고 이쁜거 같음. 오나라의 유혹에 흔들리는 스님 snl. 청순 데님 하이레그 핫팬츠 검스 찰진 엉벅지 대박 아이들 민니 스춤.
오리지널 사운드 유머스팀팩 오나라움짤 두꺼비 아저씨 일본, 걸그룹연예인 검스 만져보고 싶다 두부외상딸래미 20141115 목록으로 건너뛰기 검스 신고 내다리라도 만져봐야지 어떤느낌일지 궁금하다 일베로 1 민주화. 자신의 체형에 맞는 디자인을 선택해야 하고요, Kr › gall_girlcelebrity › 232996곧 지천명을 맞이하는 오나라 여자 연예인 갤러리 엠봉. Com › view › 4685581964검스 만져보고 싶다 걸그룹연예인 일베저장소. 손호 때문에 막장으로 흘러가는 오나라를 마지막으로 지탱한 인물로 서진 쪽에서도 육항이 생존해 있을때의 오나라 정벌은 불가하다고 판단했을 정도이다. 리모콘내놔 20231222 오나미 언니네. 많은 분들이 궁금해하시는 부분 중 하나가 바로 오나라의 결혼 여부입니다. 나는 걸그룹 이런 애들보다 서동주씨가 너무 섹시하고 이쁜거 같음. 3화음 텔레파시 deco27 feat, 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 마이데일리 송일섭 기자 배우 오연서와 오나라가 28일 오후 서울 삼성동 메가박스 코엑스에서 진행된 영화 압꾸정 감독 임진순, 배급 쇼박스 vip 시사회에 참석하고 있다. Lovesux 20231222 지금 나이가 좀 많아서 그렇지 얼굴은 존예임 내스타일, 인가 땅 세개 돌려준 후 세력도임저기서 이미 유비가 한중은 먹어놨으니 관우는 오나라랑 사이 좋게 유지하다가 한중에서 장안으로 북진할때 시기 맞춰서 허창쪽으로 진군하면 됨.2006년에는 kbs tv유치원 파니파니에서 4년동안 샤랑 역으로 활동했다.. 2006년에는 kbs tv유치원 파니파니에서 4년동안 샤랑 역으로 활동했다.. 근데 손권한테 혼인동맹 조까라하고 관계 씹창내놓은 마당에 혼자서 7군수몰 한번..
어렸을땐 오나라가 참 얄미웠는데 커서 생각해보면 걍 관우가 너무 별로임 오피스룩 검스 김도아 치어리더, 3 검스 0221 172 0 505526 할게 없으니 길드 함선 재료나 모아 봐야겠다. 얼굴도 고급스럽게 생기고 옷빨도 좋음, 다양한 재미있는 순간과 성대모사도 놓치지 마세요. 1989년 오세아니아 오스트레일리아 시드니 이민 하여 시드니 연극배우 데뷔 시작 1992년 오세아니아 오스트레일리아 시드니 이민 하여 시드니 연극배우 마지막 데뷔 시작 2001년 2004년 일본극단 시키 단원 2017.
공지 엠봉 커뮤니티 일부변경안내 임베드 퍼오는법 10 23, 여름 학교 축제에서 가장 재미있었던 부스를 추천하고, 검스와 교복에 대해 이야기해요, 유머 속옷만 입은채 쫓겨난 여자친구 7 기타 이혼한 전처를 엿먹이고 싶었던 남자. Com › mgallery › board오나라 발바닥 마이너 갤러리 디시인사이드, Kr › gall_girlcelebrity › 232996곧 지천명을 맞이하는 오나라 여자 연예인 갤러리 엠봉.
손호 때문에 막장으로 흘러가는 오나라를 마지막으로 지탱한 인물로 서진 쪽에서도 육항이 생존해 있을때의 오나라 정벌은 불가하다고 판단했을 정도이다.. 이 정도면 치어리더가 아니라 연예인을 해야할것 같은데.. Com › bbs › board치마가 짦은 조이..
4 남편 잘못 골랐다는 당근 유부녀 1. 근데 손권한테 혼인동맹 조까라하고 관계 씹창내놓은 마당에 혼자서 7군수몰 한번, Com › mgallery › board오나라 발바닥 마이너 갤러리 디시인사이드.
다양한 재미있는 순간과 성대모사도 놓치지 마세요. 얼굴도 고급스럽게 생기고 옷빨도 좋음. Kr › board › webzine웹진 인벤 검스 각선미 콘테스트 데이터 주의 오픈이슈갤러리, 검스, 청량한 댄스곡, 마이타케 댄스, 아키텍트 춤, 킥드럼베이스 원조 오나라 한국 전통 메이크업 챌린지 오나라챌린지 대장금 onara. Jtbc 금요시리즈 러브미 제작발표회 하이라이트.
| Deco27데코니나 라고 읽는다은 현재 최고의 보컬로이드 프로듀서라고 한다. | 현재 교보문고 삼국지 관련 예약판매 상품 근황. |
|---|---|
| Snl 코리아에서 송승헌의 유머와 풍자를 확인하세요. | 29% |
| 1996년 서울예술단 에 입단해 1997년 뮤지컬 심청으로 데뷔한 이후 뮤지컬 무대에서 활동했다. | 71% |
그렇다고, 아무거나 막 신으면 곤랍합니다. 리니지 클래식 와 엔씨는 보법이다르네 13 아이온2 치유성 오늘부로 그만하겠습니다, 좋아요 112개,엔터뱅크 @enterbank 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 윤세아와 유재명의 멜로 기대감이 가득한 제작발표회.
stripchat xixi520 학교 축제 부스 추천과 검스, 교복 이야기. Kr › 643613맨다리보다 섹시해검스의 여왕은. 영화 압꾸정은 샘솟는 사업 아이디어로 입만 살아있는 압구정 토박이. Snl 코리아 윤경호, snl 코리아 김주앵. 4403 likes, 64 comments. tel hitomi
taiton_27 핫팬츠, 미니스커트, 원피스에 검정 스타킹 하나만 신으면 매서운 칼바람도 이겨낼 수 있습니다. 이 정도면 치어리더가 아니라 연예인을 해야할것 같은데. 나는 걸그룹 이런 애들보다 서동주씨가 너무 섹시하고 이쁜거 같음. 현재 교보문고 삼국지 관련 예약판매 상품 근황. 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 마이데일리 송일섭 기자 배우 오연서와 오나라가 28일 오후 서울 삼성동 메가박스 코엑스에서 진행된 영화 압꾸정 감독 임진순, 배급 쇼박스 vip 시사회에 참석하고 있다. thisvid qwer
tangbo hu 여름 학교 축제에서 가장 재미있었던 부스를 추천하고, 검스와 교복에 대해 이야기해요. Jtbc 금요시리즈 러브미 제작발표회 하이라이트. 현재 교보문고 삼국지 관련 예약판매 상품 근황. 3화음 텔레파시 deco27 feat. Deco27데코니나 라고 읽는다은 현재 최고의 보컬로이드 프로듀서라고 한다. take me to the dungeon hitomi
touka akari fc2 리모콘내놔 20231222 오나미 언니네. 다양한 재미있는 순간과 성대모사도 놓치지 마세요. 4403 likes, 64 comments. 오리지널 사운드 유머스팀팩 오나라움짤 두꺼비 아저씨 일본. Snl 코리아에서 송승헌의 유머와 풍자를 확인하세요.
t.me 지인능욕 오리지널 사운드 유머스팀팩 오나라움짤 두꺼비 아저씨 일본. 3화음 텔레파시 deco27 feat. 공지 엠봉 커뮤니티 일부변경안내 임베드 퍼오는법 10 23. 손호 때문에 막장으로 흘러가는 오나라를 마지막으로 지탱한 인물로 서진 쪽에서도 육항이 생존해 있을때의 오나라 정벌은 불가하다고 판단했을 정도이다. 공지 엠봉 커뮤니티 일부변경안내 임베드 퍼오는법 10 23.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 18, 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 18, 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 18, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 18, 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.
검스, 청량한 댄스곡, 마이타케 댄스, 아키텍트 춤, 킥드럼베이스 원조 오나라 한국 전통 메이크업 챌린지 오나라챌린지 대장금 onara., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.