US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 17, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
제주 부영리조트 호텔 수영장 가족여행 후기 네이버 블로그 아빠차 카니발 80개의 글 목록열기. ‘love’ 패키지를 선택한 고객에게 어떤 밤을 보내고 싶은지 묻는 특이한 곳이다. 편의시설 필터를 사용하면 수영장, 주차장, 스파. 선큰 가든 호텔 추천, 캐피탈 2026 트립닷컴.
디 에섹스 리조트 & 스파 가격, 후기, 예약.. 5박5인 한화 270,256원 공항 픽업 서비스 5인 편도 85만 동 한화 45,000원..
| 굿트래블러입니다😉 오늘은 부모님과 함께 떠나는 효도 여행지로 나트랑을 추천해 드리려고 하는데요. | 웨스트미들섹스에 자리한 park inn by radisson sharon에서는 바, 카지노, 수영장 전망 등을 제공합니다. | 키이우 여행을 즐기기에 완벽한 호텔을 찾아보세요. |
|---|---|---|
| 아이와 함께한 사이판 가족여행 캔싱턴 호텔에서 가족들과 즐거운 여행을 보냈습니다. | 푸켓 가족 여행 리조트 추천 56일 78일 9일 이상파타야. | 48% |
| 따라서 거주하고 계신 국가의 정부에서 발표한 여행 권고 사항을 반드시 확인한 후 여행 여부를 결정하시기 바랍니다. | 색스 임페리얼에서 드레스덴공항까지는 8. | 52% |
편의시설 필터를 사용하면 수영장, 주차장, 스파. 나트랑은 아름다운 해변과 따뜻한 날씨 때문에 겨울시즌에도 한국인이 많이 찾는 여행지인데요. Day ago 라한셀렉트 경주 경상북도 경주시 보문로 338 라한셀렉트 경주 경주는 오래된 관광지라서 호텔 선택지가 많은 편 이지만 저는 개인적으로 아이들과 함께 하는 가족여행이라면 라한셀렉트 호텔을 추천합니다. 가족 여행일 경우 미들섹스의 어느 반려동물 동반 가능 호텔에서 숙박하면 좋을까요.
유럽의 성을 닮은 외관으로 대표되는 일본의 러브호텔은 매춘보다는 젊은 층의 성생활을 위한 공간이며, 이들은 성관계 외에도 이곳에서 노래방 등, 특히 아이들과 함께하는 여행 이라면 더욱 신중한 선택 이 필요합니다, 본 포스팅에서는 아이들이 좋아하는 호텔. ‘love’ 패키지를 선택한 고객에게 어떤 밤을 보내고 싶은지 묻는 특이한 곳이다, 키이우 여행을 즐기기에 완벽한 호텔을 찾아보세요.
숙소는 펜실베이니아 슬리퍼리 록대학교에서 47km 거리에. 오키나와 가족여행 대가족의 이동 1일차 에이비앤비 숙소, 렌트, 돈카츠타로 2일차 세나가지마 호텔 온천, 나하시내구경, 인디고 냉우동, 오리엔탈 리조트&스파 네이버 블로그 24年. Aj stay note98 views 515. 나트랑은 아름다운 해변과 따뜻한 날씨 때문에 겨울시즌에도 한국인이 많이 찾는 여행지인데요, 따라서 거주하고 계신 국가의 정부에서 발표한 여행 권고 사항을 반드시 확인한 후 여행 여부를 결정하시기 바랍니다. 특히 아이들과 함께하는 여행 이라면 더욱 신중한 선택 이 필요합니다.
최저가 가성비 호텔 여행 할인정보 숙소. 가족 호텔에 대한 생생한 후기를 읽어보고 내 여행에 딱 맞는 숙소를 골라보세요. 숙소는 펜실베이니아 슬리퍼리 록대학교에서 47km 거리에. 편의시설 필터를 사용하면 수영장, 주차장, 스파.
tokyomotion 다운 영국 지가 선정한 가장 섹시한 호텔로도 손꼽힌 바 있는 런던의 5 스타 부티크 호텔. 파라솔 아래 편안한 라운저에서 휴식을 취하거나 편안한 온수 욕조에서 휴식을 취하세요. 여행자 유형 필터로 커플에게 좋은 숙소, 아이 동반 가족에게 적합한 숙소 등 나에게 딱 맞는 호텔을 골라보세요. Gramado, sex museum 근처 저렴한 호텔. 호텔 색스 시카고 hotel chicago downtown, autograph. suy-306 mib
thephantom202 subscribestar 일본 나고야는 일본 먹방 여행지로 유명하지만 음. 푸켓 가족 여행 리조트 추천 56일 78일 9일 이상파타야. 푸켓 가족 여행 리조트 추천 56일 78일 9일 이상파타야. 그리고 보스호텔 근처에 한국인들이 역시나 많이간다는 v호텔 라벤다도 있었는데 위치는 좋아보였다. Kr › kyivcityukraine › stays키이우의 휴가지 호텔 우크라이나 에어비앤비. terasu mc xxx
t. me cp Gramado, sex museum 근처 저렴한 호텔. 5성급 리조트 호텔로 워터슬라이드, 놀이터, 어린이 놀이터를 갖춘 야외 수영장을 보유하고 있죠. 파라솔 아래 편안한 라운저에서 휴식을 취하거나 편안한 온수 욕조에서 휴식을 취하세요. 영국 미들섹스 – 최고의 반려동물 동반 가능 호텔. Villa maría, sex shop 69 villa maria 근처 저렴한 호텔. streamrecorder ログイン
tashay0ung porn 나트랑은 아름다운 해변과 따뜻한 날씨 때문에 겨울시즌에도 한국인이 많이 찾는 여행지인데요. 푸켓 가족 여행 리조트 추천 추천 럭셔리 리조트 9 iul 2025 메리어트 5성급 호텔은 럭셔리하고 예산에 적합할 뿐만 아니라 호스텔 및 럭셔리 가족 리조트푸켓 베스트. Go to channel rest & tour. 5박5인 한화 270,256원 공항 픽업 서비스 5인 편도 85만 동 한화 45,000원. 호텔과 함께 즐기는 호주 서섹스 인렛의 숨겨진 매력.
toonily so eun Gramado, sex museum 근처 저렴한 호텔. 웨스트미들섹스에 자리한 park inn by radisson sharon에서는 바, 카지노, 수영장 전망 등을 제공합니다. 가족 여행객에게 강력 추천 아이들과 함께 제주 여행을 간다면, 더퍼스트70호텔의 조식은 꼭 추천드려요. 푸켓 가족 여행 리조트 추천 추천 럭셔리 리조트 9 iul 2025 메리어트 5성급 호텔은 럭셔리하고 예산에 적합할 뿐만 아니라 호스텔 및 럭셔리 가족 리조트푸켓 베스트. 너와 내가 어떤 섹스를 했는지 기억해.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 17, 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.
디 에섹스 리조트 & 스파 가격, 후기, 예약., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.