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.
제작발표회에 앞서 진행된 포토타임에서 이세희가 포즈를 취하고 있다. 막바지 화보 촬영에 임하는 세희 배우. 키 163cm이며 가족 관계는 부모님 아버지, 어머니, 언니 2명이 있다고 하네요. 오늘은 배우 이세희에 대해서 알아보는 시간을 가져보려고 하는데 이세희 프로필 정보와 나이 과거.
고등학생 때 본격적으로 연기학원에 다니며 배우를 준비했다고 한다.. 더쿠 여자 스타들의 화이트 수트 화보.. Com › entry › 이세희프로필이세희 프로필 나이 학력 과거얼굴 몸매 키.. 나이 1991년 12월 22일 29세 신체 163cm45kg 혈액형 o형 학력 천안여자고등학교 치위생사 학사 소속사 가족엔터테이너먼트 취미 자전거타기 특기 수영, 댄스, 서핑, 피아노, 중국어, 서예 데위 2015년..
마이데일리 양유진 기자 배우 이세희31가 근황을 공개했다, 12일 오후 서울 상암동 스탠포드 호텔에서 jtbc 새 예능 ‘혼자는 못 해’ 제작발표회가 열렸다. 사진 속 이세희는 전시회장을 찾은 모습, 2021년 kbs 2tv 주말드라마 신사와 아가씨 에서 박단단 역할을 맡으며.
2025년 만 나이 기준으로 3334세의 나이가 되었습니다. 이세희, 박단단에게 이런 모습이배꼽+쇄골 노출 스포츠조선. ⸻이세희 배우, 전주 이씨 본관과 데뷔 이야기배우 이세희는 1991년 12월 22일 충남. Com › view › 20220920n01168이세희, 한줌 허리 드러내고 활짝&mldr.
오늘은 배우 이세희에 대해서 알아보는 시간을 가져보려고 하는데 이세희 프로필 정보와 나이 과거, 키 163cm이며 가족 관계는 부모님 아버지, 어머니, 언니 2명이 있다고 하네요, Comsrsgirls 💖 안녕 이세희야, 더쿠 여자 스타들의 화이트 수트 화보.
이번 방송에서 식이요법과 운동을 실시하고 전문가들과 함께 비만치료를 병행한 결과 4개월여 만에 38㎏을. 키 163cm에 몸무게는 45kg이며 혈액형은 o형입니다, 더 깊고 비밀스럽고 감미로운 화보들은 여기로 s.
혼자는 못 해는 마음속에 꼭꼭 숨겨둔 나만의 위시 리스트, 혼자 하기엔 버겁고. 오늘은 이세희의 고향 학력 성형전 몸매 집안 남자친구 인스타 키 등 다양한 정보들을 알아보도록 하겠습니다, 공개된 사진 속 이세희는 화이트 크롭톱에 데님팬츠를 입고 거울 셀카를 찍고 있는 모습이다, 허리사이즈도 52인치로 심각한 복부비만에 항아리 몸매였다.
올 여름 크롭티 대열에 합류하며 그간 관리해온 탄탄한 몸매를 한번 더 뽐냈다. Com › 2307이세희 프로필 나이 성형전 몸매. 지난 렛미인5에서 항아리 같은 몸매 이세희씨가 38kg 체중감량 후 여신급 외모로 변신한 풀스토리가 전파를 탔다. 여배우의 조금 특별한 수영복 스포츠경향. 츄chuu, nice to meet chuu. 츄chuu, nice to meet chuu.
특히 수영장에서 비키니 수영복등을 입고 늘씬한 몸매를 뽐내는 여배우들과는, Bbullpen&id202412280100262019 url복사 url주소가 복사되었습니다, 키 163cm에 몸무게는 45kg이며 혈액형은 o형입니다, 이세희는 주말드라마 신사와 아가씨에 대해 밝혔다, 그래서 오늘은 박단단 역의 이세희님의 프로필에 대해서. 한편 이 세인은 최근 mbc 전제적 참견 식전에 출연해 털들한 매력을 자랑.
중학교 시절 학교생활에 적응하지 못하고 방황을 시작하면서 모든 스트레스를 음식으로 풀어왔던 이세희씨는 점점 몸무게가 늘어 160cm에 102kg 초고도비만 상태에 이르렀다, 츄chuu, nice to meet chuu. 163cm의 키에 45kg의 몸무게로 날씬한 몸매를 자랑하며, 특히 베이비 페이스로 10대 후반으로 보이는 외모를 가지고 있습니다, Comsrsgirls 💖 안녕하세요 여러분. 이세희 배우 프로필 이름 이세희 나이 1991년 12월 22일 만 32세 고향 충청남도 천안시 신체 키 163cm, 몸무게 45kg, 혈액형 o형 가족. 혼자는 못 해는 마음속에 꼭꼭 숨겨둔 나만의 위시 리스트, 혼자 하기엔 버겁고.
아이온2 공격력 디시 그 중 단연 박박단 역할의 배우 이세희님에 대한 관심이 가장 핫하지 않을까 싶어요. 이세희는 2015년 나윤권의 뮤직비디오 364일의 꿈을 통해 데뷔하였으며, 팬들 사이에서는 ‘단단이’라는 애칭으로 불리고 있습니다. 중학교 시절 학교생활에 적응하지 못하고 방황을 시작하면서 모든 스트레스를 음식으로 풀어왔던 이세희씨는 점점 몸무게가 늘어 160cm에 102kg 초고도비만 상태에 이르렀다. 163cm의 키에 45kg의 몸무게로 날씬한 몸매를 자랑하며, 특히 베이비 페이스로 10대 후반으로 보이는 외모를 가지고 있습니다. 자랑할 수밖에 없는 이세희 미모 네이버 블로그. 아이온2 마이너갤
아이온2 살성 디시 이 세이의 늘씬한 몸매와 특유의 청소년 분위기가 시선을 사로잡습니다. 오늘은 이세희의 고향 학력 성형전 몸매 집안 남자친구 인스타 키 등 다양한 정보들을 알아보도록 하겠습니다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 헤럴드pop김나율기자배우 이세희가 탄탄한 몸매를 자랑했다. Com › view › 20220920n01168이세희, 한줌 허리 드러내고 활짝&mldr. 2021년 kbs 2tv 주말드라마 신사와 아가씨 에서 박단단 역할을 맡으며. 아이돌 젖
아줌마 가슴골 한편 이 세인은 최근 mbc 전제적 참견 식전에 출연해 털들한 매력을 자랑. 그래서 오늘은 박단단 역의 이세희님의 프로필에 대해서. 163cm의 키에 45kg의 몸무게로 날씬한 몸매를 자랑하며, 특히 베이비 페이스로 10대 후반으로 보이는 외모를 가지고 있습니다. 12일 오후 서울 상암동 스탠포드 호텔에서 jtbc 새 예능 ‘혼자는 못 해’ 제작발표회가 열렸다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 헤럴드pop김나율기자배우 이세희가 탄탄한 몸매를 자랑했다. 아이돌 보털
아이온2 최적화 디시 오는 27일 밤 방송되는 jtbc ‘혼자는 못 해’에서는 연예계 대표 운동 마니아들이 모여. 이세희는 2015년 나윤권의 뮤직비디오 364일의 꿈을 통해 데뷔하였으며, 팬들 사이에서는 ‘단단이’라는 애칭으로 불리고 있습니다. 마이데일리 양유진 기자 배우 이세희31가 근황을 공개했다. 고등학교 졸업후 인천대학교 공연예술과에 진학한 뒤에 170cm의 큰 키와 8등신의 read more. 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 헤럴드pop김나율기자배우 이세희가 탄탄한 몸매를 자랑했다.
아이온 천족 마족 디시 그래서 오늘은 박단단 역의 이세희님의 프로필에 대해서. 혼자는 못 해는 마음속에 꼭꼭 숨겨둔 나만의 위시 리스트, 혼자 하기엔 버겁고. 배우 이세희가 바지 버튼을 풀고 잘록한 몸매를 과시했다. 배우 이세희가 청순한 미모를 자랑했다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 헤럴드pop김나율기자배우 이세희가 탄탄한 몸매를 자랑했다.
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.
12일 오후 서울 상암동 스탠포드 호텔에서 jtbc 새 예능 ‘혼자는 못 해’ 제작발표회가 열렸다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.