US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 14, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
또한 여성이 억울하게 해고 당했으니 남성도 해고 당해. 남성혐오 표현 의혹에 휘말린 아라하시 타비의 영상 썸네일 사진. 종합해보면 강지의 타비 죽이기로 밖에 보이지 않음 초대부터 할려던 히나가 갑자기 뻘짓으로 시간때우고 타비가 갑자기 멋봉리 안하겠다 선언하고 초대속도 조절하라면서 리제 나나는 초대를 받음 강지는 오피셜도 없어서 초대안하는 히나만 욕을 처먹는 상황. 갤주라 불리는 아라하시 타비를 비롯한 스텔라이브 소속 멤버들에 대한 조롱, 억떡, 갈드컵을 일으킨다.
34 굴서운 이야기통나무단 갤러리 통갤은 타비 깔려고 굴단이 만든 갤러리였다, 강지 발언 회사는 모르고 타비가 개인적으로 노래 구매하고 진행한거라 마치 개인세나 다름없는 짓이었다 그래서 화났다끗, 일반 아라하시 타비 논란 휴방을 어기고 방송을 열심히 함 ㅇㅇ 2025.타비 사과문 버츄얼 스나 미니 갤러리.. +안자고있어서다행이다 자고있었으면 ㅈ될뻔 ㅇㅇ.. 타비 강지 갈등 시간대별로 정리 버츄얼 스나 미니 갤러리..타비 강지 갈등 시간대별로 정리 버츄얼 스나 미니 갤러리. 아라하시 타비 설문 논란된 스타들 이미지 세탁 그만 해줬으면 하는 프로그램은. 버추얼 스트리머 그룹 스텔라이브 소속 아라하시 타비가 최근 유튜브 영상에 사용된 썸네일 손동작과 관련해 남성혐오 표현 논란이 제기되면서 입장을 발표했다, 아라하시 타비 설문 논란된 스타들 이미지 세탁 그만 해줬으면 하는 프로그램은, 근데 날짜상 히나가 자기를 초대한다 했다면 그건 24일 본인 불참선언 이후가 됨. 15 7374 타비는 어제 하루종일 도네맞으면서도 방송텐션 유지하는거보면 경력오짐 ㅋㅋ. Com › board › view이번 타비 논란보고 느낀점 스트리머 갤러리. 디시에서 욕먹기 싫다는 병신같은 이유로 티나게 스갤 피드백 받아들인 시점에서 이미 좆된거임 ㅋㅋㅋ 타비랑 뿡댕이로 지랄하는거 스갤 밖에. 23 조회 27775 추천 376 137 이미지케리아 마갤에 대해 알아보자, 근데 날짜상 히나가 자기를 초대한다 했다면 그건 24일 본인 불참선언 이후가 됨. 사실 중간부터는 가챠에 미쳐있어서 타비 초대도 생각을 안한것같아요 이건 개인적인 추측이긴 하지만. 24 212112 조회 37134 추천 348 댓글 82 히나가 처음 들어온날 타비 초대하겠다며 수단을 안가리고 돈을 벌기 시작함 악어 농장알바 그러다가 좀 있으면 섭종이니까 다음날 바로 초대하겠다 선언함.
히나 타비 리제 타임라인과 타비의 해명 sm. +안자고있어서다행이다 자고있었으면 ㅈ될뻔 ㅇㅇ, 아시아타임즈황수영 기자 버추얼 유튜버 그룹 스텔라이브 멤버 아라하시 타비 이하 타비가 남성혐오 표현이 담긴 일러스트를 영상 썸네일로 사용했다는 논란에 휘말렸다.
방송보다 타비든 갤주든 좆같으면 좆같다고 하는거지 누굴 눈치보는데. Com › community › boardㅇㅇㄱ음습하게 초식쓰는 10년짜리 이파리 적발. 강지 발언 회사는 모르고 타비가 개인적으로 노래 구매하고 진행한거라. 아시아타임즈황수영 기자 버추얼 유튜버 그룹 스텔라이브 멤버 아라하시 타비 이하 타비가 남성혐오 표현이 담긴 일러스트를 영상 썸네일로 사용했다는 논란에 휘말렸다. 갤주라 불리는 아라하시 타비를 비롯한 스텔라이브 소속 멤버들에 대한 조롱, 억떡, 갈드컵을 일으킨다. 결국 서버 종료에 가지고 있던 돈은 81000원 6만원을 빼면 타비를 초대할수 없는 돈이에요 12시까지 히나는 실제로 35만원을 벌었어요.
Com › board › view정리 타비 초대사건의 진상 스트리머 갤러리. 아라하시 타비 설문 논란된 스타들 이미지 세탁 그만 해줬으면 하는 프로그램은. 타버였구나 근데 타비 아직도 하네 dc official app. 강지 발언 회사는 모르고 타비가 개인적으로 노래 구매하고 진행한거라.
여자래퍼 마약 디시 결국 서버 종료에 가지고 있던 돈은 81000원 6만원을 빼면 타비를 초대할수 없는 돈이에요 12시까지 히나는 실제로 35만원을 벌었어요. 히나 타비 리제 타임라인과 타비의 해명 sm. 결국 서버 종료에 가지고 있던 돈은 81000원 6만원을 빼면 타비를 초대할수 없는 돈이에요 12시까지 히나는 실제로 35만원을 벌었어요. Kirinuki killer hanako nana choki, chona finally opens. 타비는 논란이 발생한 직후 커뮤니티 공지를 통해 해당 썸네일에는 어떠한 상징적 의도도 없었다고 밝히며, 사과와 함께 조치 방안을. 역강간 히토미
여군 스타킹 울 마시로쨩은 아니라서 다행임ㅋㅋ dc official app. 디시에서 욕먹기 싫다는 병신같은 이유로 티나게 스갤 피드백 받아들인 시점에서 이미 좆된거임 ㅋㅋㅋ 타비랑 뿡댕이로 지랄하는거 스갤 밖에. 시간으로 보나, 마크 경력으로 보나 타비 초대는 리제가 아닌 히나가 했어야 정상적인 상황이다. 아라하시 타비 설문 논란된 스타들 이미지 세탁 그만 해줬으면 하는 프로그램은. Go to channel 타비, 등장했습니다. 오네쇼타 태그
여장 트위터 27 211323 조회 23219 추천 180 댓글 162 어제 타비의 해명을 듣고 저뿐만 아니라 많은 스붕이들이 이상함을 느꼈어요 왜냐하면 타임라인을 맞췄을때 앞뒤가 맞지 않았거든요. 회사는 모르고 타비가 개인적으로 노래 구매하고 진행한거라 마치 개인세나 다름없는 짓이었다 그래서 화났다 끗. 남성혐오 표현 의혹에 휘말린 아라하시 타비의 영상 썸네일 사진. 히나 타비 리제 타임라인과 타비의 해명 sm. 의도성이 있는지도 모르는데 너무 성급하게 사과했네. 여르미 빨간약
여친 친구 따먹 사실 중간부터는 가챠에 미쳐있어서 타비 초대도 생각을 안한것같아요 이건 개인적인 추측이긴 하지만. Days ago 영상을 보면 정말로 서럽게 우는데, 타비 본인의 말로는 그 날 자체가 좀 우울했다고 했다. 23 조회 27775 추천 376 137 이미지케리아 마갤에 대해 알아보자. 30일동안 삭제 글이 7400개, 계정 차단이 2000개 가까이 될 정도로. Go to channel 타비, 등장했습니다.
옆집사람은 유명방송인 스텔라이브 소속 버츄얼 스트리머 아라하시 타비를 중심으로 치지직의 모든 방송을 전반적으로 다루는 디시인사이드의 미니 갤러리. 그런데 마크 초보에, 초대 받은지도 하루밖에 안 된 리제가 타비를 초대했다는 것은 도무지 이해가 되질 않는다. 타버였구나 근데 타비 아직도 하네 dc official app. ㅆㅂ 굴짱깨 학살자 하나 튀어나왔노 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. 24 212112 조회 37134 추천 348 댓글 82 히나가 처음 들어온날 타비 초대하겠다며 수단을 안가리고 돈을 벌기 시작함 악어 농장알바 그러다가 좀 있으면 섭종이니까 다음날 바로 초대하겠다 선언함.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 14, 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.
아시아타임즈황수영 기자 버추얼 유튜버 그룹 스텔라이브 멤버 아라하시 타비 이하 타비가 남성혐오 표현이 담긴 일러스트를 영상 썸네일로 사용했다는 논란에 휘말렸다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.