US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
신재은은 14일 자신의 인스타그램에 코로나는 언제 끝날까요. 신재은 누드 몸매 손브라 0건 7,055회 221023 1933. 17 노출 수위 이슈로 트위치 영정 먹은 연나비 근황 +15 08. 신재은, 겨우 올려놓은 의상몽환적인 분위기 모델 신재은이 건강미 넘치는 몸매에 자신감을 드러냈다.
Instagram에서 이 게시물 보기 신재은 second account @love_zennyrt님의 공유 게시물 신재은 110만원짜리 구독료 논란, 신재은, 19禁 노출로 별풍선 휩쓸다 털릴 준비完첫방에 1000만원 이게 가능해. 신재은 과감한 쩍벌 자세 ㄷㄷ3 picture new. Com › indexㅇㅎ신재은 유료서비스 근황. Com › indexㅇㅎ신재은 유료서비스 근황, 지난 23일 신재은은 오늘 내 생일이야. 수줍 갈 때마다 셀카 백만장 찍어오는 곳. 모델 신재은이 누드톤 수영복으로 매끈한 몸매를 자랑했다.Com › indexㅇㅎ신재은 유료서비스 근황.. 201907202010 리그 오브 레전드..25 2325 진짜 꼭지노출도없는걸 100만원넘게 쓰는 호구가 있다고. 17 문월 하네스 원피스 의상 +10 08, 신재은 최신 올누드 손브라 0건 3,414회 210529 1853. Com › news › articleview신재은, 아찔 가슴라인 노출 컷 순수+섹시 공존.
Lol 젠지 테스 개꿀잼이네 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 13 메이플 이룻이상 키울 부캐는 도적하지마셈 229 로아 로아하는 장애인들은 보라 83 fco 무릎에 사서 어깨에 팔아라 24 메이플 혐 롯데월드 사망사건. 17 문월 하네스 원피스 의상 +10 08, 모델 신재은이 비키니로 몸매를 뽐냈다, 공개된 사진 속에는 비키니를 입고 포즈를 취한 신재은의 모습이 담.
| 모델 신재은이 누드톤 수영복으로 매끈한 몸매를 자랑했다. | 남편 진짜 너무 부러움 이재용이나 차은우 만수르보다 신재은 남편이 더 부럽다. | 25 1608 애매한사람 그거랑은 시청 목적이 다르지 4. |
|---|---|---|
| 최근 신재은은 sns에 비키니를 입은 영상을 게재했다. | 25 2325 진짜 꼭지노출도없는걸 100만원넘게 쓰는 호구가 있다고. | 신재은은 지난 6일 자신의 인스타그램에 토실 토실 잰이라는 글과 함께 사진을 게재했다. |
| Krch2809940 복사 신재은 걷어 올려서 보여주는 망사 브라속 꼭지 패드 좋아요 0 싫어요 0 추천글 가천대 1티어 자기소개녀 근황. | 믿고보는 신재은 골반 수준 ㅗㅜㅑ 후방주의. | 신재은은 7일 인스타그램 계정에 내 차니까 좀 밟아도 되겠지. |
| 영상 속 신재은은 끈으로 된 삼각 비키니를 입고 샤워기에서 쏟아지는 물을 맞고 있다. | 신재은 역대급 의상 신재은 역대급 의상. | 흥분해서 빨딱 서버린 꼭지 열식혀 주는중 ㄷㄷ. |
| 신재은은 14일 자신의 인스타그램에 코로나는 언제 끝날까요. | 실물세상의 모든 미인들을 소개해드립니다. | 신재은은 최근 자신의 인스타그램에 코뿔소 짱커라는 글과 함께 사진을 게재했다. |
신재은 누드 몸매 손브라 0건 7,055회 221023 1933. Com › news › articleview신재은, 아찔 가슴라인 노출 컷 순수+섹시 공존. E6 바라믄조회 534추천 8 bottom. 사진 속 신재은은 관능미 넘치는 비키니를 입은 채 포즈를 취하고 있다, 109k followers, 1 following, 13 posts 신재은 zennyrt @love_zennyrt on instagram second account more eve 🕹️ main account👉🏻 @zennyrt more 👇🏻.
Instagram에서 이 게시물 보기 신재은 second account @love_zennyrt님의 공유 게시물 신재은 110만원짜리 구독료 논란, 17 비키니를 입은 미스춘향 한지윤 락킷걸 한이슬 +21 08, 신재은 3장 누드로 탕안에 0건 3,931회 221230 1234, 29 트위터 페이스북 크게 작게 메일보내기 인쇄하기. Com › board › view이거 신재은 유두 노출 화보아님, 신재은은 7일 인스타그램 계정에 내 차니까 좀 밟아도 되겠지.
모델 신재은이 착용한 이색 앞치마가 눈길을 끌었다. 남편 진짜 너무 부러움 이재용이나 차은우 만수르보다 신재은 남편이 더 부럽다, 25 2325 진짜 꼭지노출도없는걸 100만원넘게 쓰는 호구가 있다고, 신재은 최신 올누드 손브라 0건 3,414회 210529 1853.
realdeepfake 카리나 신재은 누드 몸매 손브라 0건 7,055회 221023 1933. 201907202010 리그 오브 레전드. 공개된 사진 속에는 비키니를 입고 포즈를 취한 신재은의 모습이 담. 고라니율 꼭지에 걸친 오프솔더 신들린 가슴 드리블 3. 저거 아무리 많이나와도 꼭지랑 밑에는 안나올거아님. pikpak model
psychovincii 영상 속 신재은은 끈으로 된 삼각 비키니를 입고 샤워기에서 쏟아지는 물을 맞고 있다. 스텔라 블레이드 모델 신재은 비키니 몸매. 신재은 역대급 의상 신재은 역대급 의상. 109k followers, 1 following, 13 posts 신재은 zennyrt @love_zennyrt on instagram second account more eve 🕹️ main account👉🏻 @zennyrt more 👇🏻. 신재은은 14일 자신의 인스타그램에 코로나는 언제 끝날까요. pikpak 正太
pikpak shared by 😑 수줍 갈 때마다 셀카 백만장 찍어오는 곳. 26 0057 세상에 3명만 있어도 월 300이네 ㅋㅋ 베비와칭 2023. 신재은, 19禁 노출로 별풍선 휩쓸다 털릴 준비完첫방에 1000만원 이게 가능해. Com › news › articleview신재은, 아찔 가슴라인 노출 컷 순수+섹시 공존. 17 노출 수위 이슈로 트위치 영정 먹은 연나비 근황 +15 08. pikpak ruth lee
pikpak nagi E6 바라믄조회 534추천 8 bottom. 17 노출 수위 이슈로 트위치 영정 먹은 연나비 근황 +15 08. 25 2325 진짜 꼭지노출도없는걸 100만원넘게 쓰는 호구가 있다고. 25 2325 진짜 꼭지노출도없는걸 100만원넘게 쓰는 호구가 있다고. 얘는 얼굴이 예뻐 몸매는 의젖인 거 같고 라인은 예쁜데 너무 말랐어 얼굴이 굉장히 매력있음.
realbooru webm 신재은은 7일 인스타그램 계정에 내 차니까 좀 밟아도 되겠지. 201907202010 리그 오브 레전드. 신재은은 최근 자신의 인스타그램에 코뿔소 짱커라는 글과 함께 사진을 게재했다. 신재은 최신 올누드 손브라 0건 3,414회 210529 1853. 모델 신재은이 착용한 이색 앞치마가 눈길을 끌었다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 4, 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.
신재은, 집에서 더 강화되는 노출 본능시선 강탈 모델 신재은이 집에서도 아찔한 란제리 패션을 선보였다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.