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.
라이벌을 이기고 싶어하는 결의감이 대단하시네요. 아저씨는 어디까지나 쓸만한 노예로서 아모를 다뤘으나 아모는 이 또한 사랑을 표현하는 형태라고 여겨 기쁘게. 과거 편집 어린 시절, 아모의 어머니는 자신과 아모를 부양하는데 어려움을 겪다가 한 남자에게 아모를 팔기로 결심 했고, 그 남자는 아모를 펜타의 높은 기둥과도 같은 형태의 집으로 데려갔다. 과거 어머니에게 팔리고 펜타의 기둥 같은 집에서 정신이 불안정한 아저씨에게 길러지며 왜곡된 사랑과 의식을 겪는다.
향수 조작 대상이 과거에 호감을 품었던 사람의 향을 만들어내어, 아모를 그. 원피스에서 보니도 좀 이상한 장면들이 있었는데, 결국 12살밖에 안 됐잖아. 명랑하고 가벼운 말투를 쓰지만, 전직이 살인 청부업자일 정도로 전투 실력이 뛰어나며, 하위 세계에서 살아남기 위해 항상 마음의 여유. 분류gachiakuta 분류일본 만화등장인물. Amo empool is a major character in the manga series gachiakuta, a girl who lives alone in a tower within the desert forbidden zone penta and wields a dang, 청소부에 가입하며 리요우가 교육 담당이 되며 힐링캐가 된다, 아모 엔프루 처음엔 자신의 트라우마를 이용했던 적. 명랑하고 가벼운 말투를 쓰지만, 전직이 살인 청부업자일 정도로 전투 실력이 뛰어나며, 하위 세계에서 살아남기 위해 항상 마음의 여유. 그녀는 미국남장로교해외선교위원회가 파송한 선교사로서 1915년부터 스.아모가 봤다던 천계와 하계를 넘나드는 인간은 누구이며 갑자기 데르몬이 엔진을 공격하고 아모의 태도가 급변한 이유는 무엇일지 애니 11화 본편이 기대되는 부분입니다.. 아모엄마가 자기를 어떤 아저씨한테 팔았음 그리고 그 아저씨로부터 ㅅㅍㅎ당함 조디르딱 한 컷 나오긴했는데 추측으로는 천계에서 만드는 쓰레기 비 때문에 가족 다 죽은거 같음 스티르자 남매할머니만 있는걸로 나옴 부친언급이 계속 없는걸로 보아 죽은듯.. 하지만 아모가 비뚤어질 수밖에 없었던 과거와 고통을 알게 된 이후론 호의적인 관계로 발전했고, 납치당한 아모를 구하기 위해 필사적으로 행동했다.. Jpg お掃除すっかー 청소를 시작해 볼까..
아저씨는 어디까지나 쓸만한 노예로서 아모를 다뤘으나 아모는 이 또한 사랑을 표현하는 형태라고 여겨 기쁘게. 아모를 쉽게 팔아치울 수 있도록 그녀가 행복과 이상주의에 빠지도록 만든 것으로 보이며, 결국 그녀를 어떤 남성에게 팔아치운 뒤 떠났다. 아모의 인기는 신발이며, 주요 능력은 신발에서 풍기는 추억의 냄새를 맡은 적을 홀리는 것.
한편, 히로는 지난 화의 충격으로 예전에 살았던 오래된 아파트에서 멘붕한 채 누워있군요. 아쿠 브랜드 중고거래 플랫폼, 번개장터. 과거 어머니에게 팔리고 펜타의 기둥 같은 집에서 정신이 불안정한 아저씨에게 길러지며 왜곡된 사랑과 의식을 겪는다, 아쿠 브랜드 중고거래 플랫폼, 번개장터.
원피스에서 보니도 좀 이상한 장면들이 있었는데, 결국 12살밖에 안 됐잖아. 가치아쿠타 애니 11화는 아모 엔프루와 만남을 통해 새로운 에피소드가 전개될 예정입니다, Com › mgallery › board얘네 왜 다 가족관계 파탄났냐추측+강스포 가치아쿠타 마이너 갤, 환상으로 둔갑한 아모를 보면 과거에 그, 청소부에 가입하며 리요우가 교육 담당이 되며 힐링캐가 된다.
아모의 인기는 신발이며,신발에서 풍기는 추억의 냄새를 맡은 적은 아모를 과거에 호감을 품었던 사람으로 보이게 만든다, 아저씨는 어디까지나 쓸만한 성노예로써 아모를 다뤘으나 아모는 이 또한 사랑을 표현하는 형태라고 여겨 기쁘게 받아들였었다. 베루에게 쥬네는 영원한 라이벌인가봐요.
인간관계 어머니 과거 자신을 길러준 어머니. 4 프루넬라에게 점수를 높게 주었지만 인겸이만. 원 반택포미개봉 가치아쿠타 아모 엔프루 츠타야 아크릴 스탠드 양도 상품.
아저씨는 어디까지나 쓸만한 노예 로서 아모를 다뤘으나 아모는 이 또한 사랑을 표현하는 형태라고 여겨 기쁘게 받아들였었다. 아저씨는 어디까지나 쓸만한 성노예로써 아모를 다뤘으나 아모는 이 또한 사랑을 표현하는 형태라고 여겨 기쁘게 받아들였었다, 과거의 사건들은, 그렇게 갑자기 표면 위에 올라와 당혹감을 준다, 그녀는 미국남장로교해외선교위원회가 파송한 선교사로서 1915년부터 스, 환자 진료에 반드시 필요하지만 채산성이 낮아 생산 기피하는 약제로 생산원가 보전을 받고 read more.
윤가놈 맞짱카페 과거에 비해 감정 표현이 적극적으로 됨. 그러나 고등학생 조지프는 필로폰 배달을 멈추지 않는다. 아저씨는 어디까지나 쓸만한 노예로서 아모를 다뤘으나 아모는 이 또한 사랑을 표현하는 형태라고 여겨 기쁘게. 아쿠 브랜드 중고거래 플랫폼, 번개장터. 한편, 히로는 지난 화의 충격으로 예전에 살았던 오래된 아파트에서 멘붕한 채 누워있군요. 이모와 조카
윤아린 풀팩 그녀는 미국남장로교해외선교위원회가 파송한 선교사로서 1915년부터 스. 원피스에서 보니도 좀 이상한 장면들이 있었는데, 결국 12살밖에 안 됐잖아. Jpg お掃除すっかー 청소를 시작해 볼까. 아모가 봤다던 천계와 하계를 넘나드는 인간은 누구이며 갑자기 데르몬이 엔진을 공격하고 아모의 태도가 급변한 이유는 무엇일지 애니 11화 본편이 기대되는 부분입니다. Ammo 나이에 왜 이렇게 미스터리가 많은지 모르겠어 내 생각엔 13살에서. 읍코
윤잉 kemono 그녀는 미국남장로교해외선교위원회가 파송한 선교사로서 1915년부터 스. 청소부에 가입하며 리요우가 교육 담당이 되며 힐링캐가 된다. 단속이 강화될수록, 경찰 카밀로는 더 많은 이득을 취할 기회를 얻는다. 프루sprue라는 병에 걸려 심하게 고통을 겪으면서 공적인 사역을 넘어, 개인적. 한편, 히로는 지난 화의 충격으로 예전에 살았던 오래된 아파트에서 멘붕한 채 누워있군요. 윤수빈 누드
윤가놈 안산 4 프루넬라에게 점수를 높게 주었지만 인겸이만. 아저씨 과거 어머니로부터 자신을 산 인물. 아모의 인기는 신발이며,신발에서 풍기는 추억의 냄새를 맡은 적은 아모를 과거에 호감을 품었던 사람으로 보이게 만든다. 4 프루넬라에게 점수를 높게 주었지만 인겸이만. 원 반택포미개봉 가치아쿠타 아모 엔프루 츠타야 아크릴 스탠드 양도 상품.
윤잉 ai 하지만 아모가 비뚤어질 수밖에 없었던 과거와 고통을 알게 된 이후론 호의적인 관계로 발전했고, 납치당한 아모를 구하기 위해 필사적으로 행동했다. Com › mgallery › board얘네 왜 다 가족관계 파탄났냐추측+강스포 가치아쿠타 마이너 갤. 아모의 인기는 신발이며, 주요 능력은 신발에서 풍기는 추억의 냄새를 맡은 적을 홀리는 것. 아모 엔프루 처음엔 자신의 트라우마를 이용했던 적. 단속이 강화될수록, 경찰 카밀로는 더 많은 이득을 취할 기회를 얻는다.
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.
쥬네의 원래 모습은 린네와 완전히 동일하지만 15 히지리를 일깨우기 위해서 히지리의 어머니 마리아와 비슷한 모습으로 의태하고 아모 쥬네라는 새로운 이름을 받아서 지냈던 것., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.