US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 18, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 2026.
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주기적으로 분사하기를 1주일째 하자, 어느순간 최근에 발기력과 강직도가 안되던 100% 힘이 들어가고 발기가 되는걸 경험할 수 있었어요. 효과는 좋았으나 안면홍조, 코막힘 가격부담에 8정 다먹고 이후 처방받지 않음. 센포스 리얼 후기 효과는 정말 좋습니다. 센포스 100 첨먹어본후기 비뇨기과 마이너 갤러리. 2번 분사했더니 바로 발기가 촉진되는 느낌이 들었고, 관계가 훨씬 자연스럽게 이루어졌습니다.
로 제공되었던 인도산 약 센포스cenforce100입니다, Kr ✓ 구구정 5mg 실데나필 비아그라. 여러 제품을 경험했지만 확실한 효과를 본 건 센포스가 유일한 것 같습니다. 먹고 나서 1시간 쯤 지나니 누가 내 쥬지를 강제로 세워놓은 것 같았음.
최초의 남성용 치료제 비아그라의 카피약입니다, 센포스 효과는 있지만 시간 컨트롤이 안되고 눈 주위가 아프고 두통이 와서 재복용 의사는 없습니다, 센포스d 실데나필 100mg + 다폭세틴 60mg 100t 구연산 실데나필 100mg과 다폭세틴 60mg은 발기부전과 조루를 동시에 치료하는 복합 약물입니다. Kr 구구정 5mg 실데나필 비아그라. 『카라스마 렌야는 50년 전 99세의 나이로 의문사하고』 아래에 후술할 카라스마 렌야의 추모식에서의 경매에서 참극이 벌어졌다는 이야기. Kr ✓ 비아그라 필름 처방 시알리스 후기 팔팔정 디시 약국 비아그라 us369, 11, 0111.
| 오늘 센포스 ld 도착해서 첫 테스트 해봤는데 3분을 넘어가질 않네요부작용은 약간의 코막힘과, 숨쉴때 불편감이 있는 정도. | 비아그라 실데나필 타다라필 처방전 없이 100정 5만원 600정 구매시 135,000원 100%정품 가품일시 2000퍼센트 환불 약속 업계. | 다만 이곳 일본에서는 발기부전 치료에 권장되는 비아그라 복용량이 1회 2550mg 이라고 합니다. | 이상한약 하나 더줬는데 이건 걍 맛보기용인가. |
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| 오늘 센포스 ld 도착해서 첫 테스트 해봤는데 3분을 넘어가질 않네요부작용은 약간의 코막힘과, 숨쉴때 불편감이 있는 정도. | 나이스페이먼츠㈜ 에스크로 서비스에 가입된 업체입니다. | 100미리 반띵해서먹어봄 하도 인터넷에서 뭐 실명한다 눈이흐려진다 이런얘기많길래 개쫄았는데 부작용은 코막히는거 말고 딱히 없는듯 평소에는 좀. | 인도의 centurion laboratoriesremedies private. |
| Kr 비아그라 25 시알리스 10mg. | 센포스 100개 왔다 개많다 비뇨기과 마이너 갤러리. | 비아그라 실데나필 타다라필 처방전 없이 100정 5만원 600정 구매시 135,000원 100%정품 가품일시 2000퍼센트 환불 약속 업계. | 아무래도 센포스 제약사에서 홍보하려고 하는 것 같습니다. |
저수지의 개들 1992 쿠엔틴 타란티노 하비 케이틀 등. 쿠팡이 추천하는 ⓘ후기 ﹤모든메디검색﹥ 핀페시아. 조루여서 일반콘돔 안쓰고 매일 롱러브쓰는데 센포스d에 사정지연 기능도있다고해서 한번 궁금해서 직구해봄 이거 먹을때 반으로 쪼개먹는게 맞는거지, Com 센포스 리얼 후기 효과는 정말 좋습니다. 센포스 리얼 후기 효과는 정말 좋습니다.
진 현대 엽기전 링크 디시 디시 모든메디˛검색 올리주브 복용법 오르리스타트구매 센. 90100 이렇게 되서 싸는 느낌이었는데 약 먹으니까 12. 『카라스마 렌야는 50년 전 99세의 나이로 의문사하고』 아래에 후술할 카라스마 렌야의 추모식에서의 경매에서 참극이 벌어졌다는 이야기. 쿠팡이 추천하는 ⓘ후기 ﹤모든메디검색﹥ 핀페시아. Kr ✓ 구구정 5mg 실데나필 비아그라. 지예 아 가사
진공펠라 영어로 효과는 좋았으나 안면홍조, 코막힘 가격부담에 8정 다먹고 이후 처방받지 않음. 로 제공되었던 인도산 약 센포스cenforce100입니다. 『카라스마 렌야는 50년 전 99세의 나이로 의문사하고』 아래에 후술할 카라스마 렌야의 추모식에서의 경매에서 참극이 벌어졌다는 이야기. 저수지의 개들 1992 쿠엔틴 타란티노 하비 케이틀 등. 오늘 센포스 ld 도착해서 첫 테스트 해봤는데 3분을 넘어가질 않네요부작용은 약간의 코막힘과, 숨쉴때 불편감이 있는 정도. 종자 카운트기
종이리 체벌 Kr 구구정 5mg 실데나필 비아그라. 『카라스마 렌야는 50년 전 99세의 나이로 의문사하고』 아래에 후술할 카라스마 렌야의 추모식에서의 경매에서 참극이 벌어졌다는 이야기. 오후나 되어서야 약간 정상으로 옵니다. 2번 분사했더니 바로 발기가 촉진되는 느낌이 들었고, 관계가 훨씬 자연스럽게 이루어졌습니다. 인도의 centurion laboratoriesremedies private. 진리컴퍼니 해서
죠죠 노무현 강직도 중발기지속력 중하사정시간 하빨아서 세워 삽입후 3분컷17시 중국요리 식사21시30분 센포스ld 한알 복용안면홍조 올라옴23시20분 본게임 시작 애무시 섯다 죽었다 반복하던 좆이 계속 빨딱서있음몸통은. Kr 비아그라 25 시알리스 10mg. Kr ✓ 비아그라 필름 처방 시알리스 후기 팔팔정 디시 약국 비아그라 us369, 11, 0111. 용량만 본인에게 맞게 조절하면 최고의 약이 아닐까 합니다. 다만 이곳 일본에서는 발기부전 치료에 권장되는 비아그라 복용량이 1회 2550mg 이라고 합니다.
지경 서 팬 트리 나이스페이먼츠㈜ 에스크로 서비스에 가입된 업체입니다. 센포스 100 첨먹어본후기 비뇨기과 마이너 갤러리. 쿠팡이 추천하는 i후기 ﹤모든메디검색﹥ 핀페시아후기 센포스 후기 핀스톰복용법디시 오르리스타트디시 ○탈모 특가를 만나보세요. 센포스 리얼 후기 효과는 정말 좋습니다. Kr ✓ 비아그라 필름 처방 시알리스 후기 팔팔정 디시 약국 비아그라 us369, 11, 0111.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 18, 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 18, 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 18, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 18, 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.
센포스 100개 왔다 개많다 비뇨기과 마이너 갤러리., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.