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.
2025년 10월 20일, 온라인 커뮤니티에 배우 이이경으로 추정되는 인물의 음담패설 내용이 담긴 메시지 캡처. Com › newscomingsoon › 224048806898이이경 ‘음담패설 논란 정리’ 1편 네이버 블로그. 223애초에 저 여자가 여지를 줬고 서로 음담패설도 잘 나눴는데 그걸 깐거잖아. 여자들이 힐신은거 감안해도 181이면 유의미한 차이가 나야 하는데 그렇지 않음 이이경도 높은 신발 신고.
음담패설 이미지 여러 장을 공개했습니다, 전체 기사는 프로필 링크에서 사진 출처 뉴스1 이이경 음담패설 허위사실유포 법적대응. Com › bk2755695 › 224047854466이이경 음담패설 폭로 블로그 주소 계정 소속사 법적대응 카톡 인스타.그냥 수위높은 음담패설을 하고 놀았구나 하고 말겠지 멍청아.. 230ㅋㅋ너도 더럽게 노는 새끼라 다 이해.. Com › newscomingsoon › 224048806898이이경 ‘음담패설 논란 정리’ 1편 네이버 블로그.. 20일 이이경 소속사 상영이엔티는 최근 온라인 커뮤니티와 sns를..현재로서는 확인되지 않은 대화 캡처만으로 진실을 단정하기 어렵다. 여성에게 신체 사진을 요구하고 욕설, 성희롱, 음담패설한 내용이 담겼다. 사진을 공개한 여성은 이이경으로 받았다는 사진도 공개했다. 이이경으로 추정되는 인물과 한 여성이 나눈 카카오톡, 인스타그램 dm 메시지다, 내용 신체 사진 요구, 욕설성희롱음담패설 등 19금 사생활 폭로 이이경 본인은 아직 별다른 입장을 내지 않았지만, 소속사의 강력한 법적 조치가 예고된 만큼, 이번. 230ㅋㅋ너도 더럽게 노는 새끼라 다 이해, 현재로서는 확인되지 않은 대화 캡처만으로 진실을 단정하기 어렵다, 2025년 10월 20일, 온라인 커뮤니티에 배우 이이경으로 추정되는 인물의 음담패설 내용이 담긴 메시지 캡처. Com › newscomingsoon › 224048806898이이경 ‘음담패설 논란 정리’ 1편 네이버 블로그. 사진을 공개한 여성은 이이경으로 받았다는 사진도 공개했다. 배우 이이경 측이 음담패설 의혹 등 사생활 관련 루머가 확산되자 공식 입장을 밝혔다.
이이경 소속사는 강경 대응을 예고했고, a씨는 억울하다고 맞서며 양측의 공방은 당분간 이어질 것으로 보인다.. 배우 이이경이 음담패설 메시지를 보냈다는 비연예인 a씨의 주장에 전면 반박했지만, 이이경의 sns에는 그를 향한 악플이 쏟아지고 있다, 사생활 루머에.. 이 지사 캠프의 이경 대변인이 이 지사와 윤 전 총장의 어린 시절 사진을 비교한 게시물을.. 이이경 음담패설 디시 전설의 움짤녀 야동..이이경 사생활 유출 폭로자 작성자 a씨는 이경배우님이라고 저장된 인물과 나눈 카톡 인스타 디엠 캡처를 공개하며 대화를 나눈 상대가 이이경이라고 주장했다고 하네요, 이이경 소속사 상영이엔티는 3일 입장문을 내 최근 온라인상에 확산된 이이경 관련 허위사실명예훼손 사건에 대해 깊은 유감을 표한다며 관련 게시물 작성자유포자들을 명예훼손 혐의로 서울 강남경찰서에 고소했다고, 스포츠서울 서지현 기자 배우 이이경을 둘러싼 사생활 폭로가 제기됐으나 허위사실로 선을 그었다, 스포츠서울 서지현 기자 배우 이이경을 둘러싼 사생활 폭로가 제기됐으나 허위사실로 선을 그었다, 이이경 소속사 상영이엔티는 3일 입장문을 내 최근 온라인상에 확산된 이이경 관련 허위사실명예훼손 사건에 대해 깊은 유감을 표한다며 관련 게시물 작성자유포자들을 명예훼손 혐의로 서울 강남경찰서에 고소했다고, 2025년 10월 20일, 온라인 커뮤니티에 배우 이이경으로 추정되는 인물의 음담패설 내용이 담긴 메시지 캡처.
최근 배우 이이경 씨를 둘러싼 폭로 논란이 온라인을 뜨겁게 달구고 있어요. 내용 신체 사진 요구, 욕설성희롱음담패설 등 19금 사생활 폭로, 이이경 사생활 루머 발칵소속사 허위사실 법적 대응. 이이경 촬영장 사진과 셀카 등도 포함했으나, 진위 여부는 확인되지 않은 상태다. 음담패설 이미지 여러 장을 공개했습니다.
실화일까_ 무료보기 7 이이경으로 추정되는 인물과 한 여성이 나눈 카카오톡, 인스타그램 dm 메시지다. 이데일리 스타in 김가영 기자 배우 이이경이 여성들과 음담패설을 했다는 의혹이 제기됐으나 이를 부인했다. 음담패설 이미지 여러 장을 공개했습니다. 이이경, 음담패설 폭로글 발칵 네이트 판. 230ㅋㅋ너도 더럽게 노는 새끼라 다 이해. 시아칭즈
쌍베 인성 디시 20일 이이경 소속사 상영이엔티 측은 공식 사회관계망서비스sns에 이이경 배우에게 항상 많은 응원. Com › bk2755695 › 224047854466이이경 음담패설 폭로 블로그 주소 계정 소속사 법적대응 카톡 인스타. 223애초에 저 여자가 여지를 줬고 서로 음담패설도 잘 나눴는데 그걸 깐거잖아. 이이경 만약 사실 가정해도 음담패설 아님. Com › bk2755695 › 224047854466이이경 음담패설 폭로 블로그 주소 계정 소속사 법적대응 카톡 인스타. 아리 히토미
실시간 100 음담패설 이미지 여러 장을 공개했습니다. Com › newscomingsoon › 224048806898이이경 ‘음담패설 논란 정리’ 1편 네이버 블로그. 230ㅋㅋ너도 더럽게 노는 새끼라 다 이해. 이 지사 캠프의 이경 대변인이 이 지사와 윤 전 총장의 어린 시절 사진을 비교한 게시물을. 배우 이이경이 음담패설 메시지를 보냈다는 비연예인 a씨의 주장에 전면 반박했지만, 이이경의 sns에는 그를 향한 악플이 쏟아지고 있다, 사생활 루머에. 아리엘 디시
아길라 220 내용 신체 사진 요구, 욕설성희롱음담패설 등 19금 사생활 폭로. 이이경 사생활 루머 발칵소속사 허위사실 법적 대응. 230ㅋㅋ너도 더럽게 노는 새끼라 다 이해. 배우 이이경 측이 음담패설 의혹 등 사생활 관련 루머가 확산되자 공식 입장을 밝혔다. 여성에게 신체 사진을 요구하고 욕설, 성희롱, 음담패설한 내용이 담겼다.
신가혜 풀팩 메시지에는 수위 높은 음담패설, 욕설 등이. 배우 이이경이 음담패설 메시지를 보냈다는 비연예인 a씨의 주장에 전면 반박했지만, 이이경의 sns에는 그를 향한 악플이 쏟아지고 있다, 사생활 루머에. 이이경 소속사는 강경 대응을 예고했고, a씨는 억울하다고 맞서며 양측의 공방은 당분간 이어질 것으로 보인다. 현재로서는 확인되지 않은 대화 캡처만으로 진실을 단정하기 어렵다. 223애초에 저 여자가 여지를 줬고 서로 음담패설도 잘 나눴는데 그걸 깐거잖아.
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.
배우 이이경이 음담패설 메시지를 보냈다는 비연예인 a씨의 주장에 전면 반박., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.