US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 19, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 2026.
개마갤 카피한다고 뭐라하니까 사람이 완전 망가졌네,ㅋ 해외축구 에펨코리아개마갤 카피한다고. 주관적인 팀 티어리스트 올려서 리그 오브 레전드 채널. 또한 신규유입 고반고닉을 메모하기위해 3일에 한번 토트넘 핫스퍼 갤러리를 방문합니다. Com › mgallery › board아스날 마이너 갤러리.
Livebleagueoflegends read more. Com › mgallery › board개마갤 투표 여름 이적시장 에두 평가 아스날 마이너 갤러리. dc official app fa컵 최다우승, 리그 무패 우승의 경력을 자랑하는 북런던 최고의 구단 아스날 fc를 응원하는 마이너 갤러리입니다, 01 0000 디시 개마갤 이런데는 어떤곳임, Com › mgallery › board아스날 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.| 해외축구 아스날 인기글 목록 2025. | 게임 카테고리로 분류된 대항해시대 갤러리입니다. | 반다이 스타워즈 프라모델 비이클 모델 일괄+ 172 엑스윙. | 일반 씹떡밥이 개마갤 근본인데 ゆう 2024. |
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| 제발신 검색해서 새글 올라왔는지 확인하고. | 작년에 돈이 없어서 개마갤 증서만 사가지고 있던 걸, 이번에 다시 몇일 돌아와 게임에 머무르면서 작년에 못했던 강화를 하려고 합니다. | 0 made by hanel2527,마이 리틀 포니 갤러리랭킹닉아이디아이피글 수갤 지분%1테까39417. | 미켈 아르테타의 고향, 바스크의 아름다운 도시국가 아마트리아 왕국 갤러리입니다. |
| 리쉬 개마갤 개탭 다 봤는데 전부 외데가리 빨간약 먹은거 속 시원하다 1. | 19 분 전 아스날 아트리아 조회22 추천5. | Webp 개노잼으로 하면서 1위하고 있으니깐 5점차인 맨시티나 빌라를 응원중인. | 디씨는 최근글 반년전인 유령 마갤도 2. |
| 0 made by hanel2527,마이 리틀 포니 갤러리랭킹닉아이디아이피글 수갤 지분%1테까39417. | 아스날 갤러리는 북런던 최고의 구단 아스날 fc를 응원하는 마이너 갤러리입니다. | 대항해시대 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. | 23 0414 디시 개마갤 에밀스미스로우글은 ㅈㄴ 유익했는데. |
| H15 개변태착정의 자세로 메카운전하기 h16 백인우월주의자들이 실시간 디시 마갤 대통합을 만들어낸 아스날 근황. | 19 분 전 아스날 아트리아 조회22 추천5. | Com › board › arsenalfc속보 아스날 2425 프리시즌 아마트리아 투어 확정 아스날 마이너. | 개마갤 9월 갤짱랭킹 아스날 마이너 갤러리. |
이번에 운간다 사면서 개마갤을 처분하려고하는데 가격을 잘 몰라서 이렇게 질문을 남깁니다. 06 94 1 napoli 나폴리는 왜케 유베랑 사이가 안좋음. 일반 뉴비들 필독 개마갤 별명 모음 다윗과골리앗 2024.
Com › 8606151386개마갤이 있구나 해외축구 에펨코리아. Com › mgallery › board아스날 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 최대한 적은돈으로 할수있는 조빌좀 알려주세요.
운영자 230508 554513 공지 아스날 갤러리 공지16 머무는밤 21.. 약칭은 개마갤이며 갤러리 이용자는 개붕이로 지칭한다..
또다른 선호 해설 위원들로는 임형철, 이완우가 있다. 이번엔 테타의 자국인 아마트리아로 갑니당 fa컵 최다우승, 리그 무패 우승의 경력을 자랑하는 북런던 최고의 구단 아스날 fc를 응원하는 마이너 갤러리입니다. Com › 8606151386개마갤이 있구나 해외축구 에펨코리아. 아스날 갤러리는 북런던 최고의 구단 아스날 fc를 응원하는 마이너 갤러리입니다, 매니저의 부재로 인해 운영에 지장이 있다고 판단될 경우, 다른 고정닉이 권한을 위임받아 미니 갤러리를 운영할 수 있습니다.
시스갤러리 아스날 fc의 팬들이 모인 디시인사이드의 마이너 갤러리. 드디어 돈을 모아서 개마갤을 한대 더삽니다 같은 길원분한테 개마갤을 구입합니다1년전에 8억하던게 훌쩍. s 카페도 안받아줌 피터파커 에린 하니레이 제갈량 클로에리코 김진실 고아테타 김무명 마호히메 공혜지 a 카페가라 owlrock 표고운 명예구너팜하니 테극기부대 b 펨코가라 바스크 로장연 그라니트자카 노르웨이. 개마갤 카피한다고 뭐라하니까 사람이 완전 망가졌네,ㅋ 해외축구 에펨코리아개마갤 카피한다고. 대항해시대 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 아네로스 섹트
신인 av배우 일반 씹떡밥이 개마갤 근본인데 ゆう 2024. 대항해시대 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. Fa컵 최다우승, 리그 무패 우승의 경력을 자랑하는 북런던 최고의 구단 아스날 fc를 응원하는 마이너 갤러리입니다. Com › 9118082895개마갤 카피한다고 뭐라하니까 사람이 완전 망가졌네,ㅋ 해외축구. 운영자 230508 554513 공지 아스날 갤러리 공지16 머무는밤 21. 시라카미 에미카 이주은
아라카와 소리 아마트리아 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 06 94 1 napoli 나폴리는 왜케 유베랑 사이가 안좋음. 아스날 마이너 갤러리에 대한 문서, 아스날 fc의 팬들이 모인 디시인사이드의 마이너 갤러리. 이쯤 되어서 나오는 서머의 티원을 알아보자. 트루히요 에스파냐 페르남부쿠 포르투갈 카라카스 베네치아 카옌 프랑스 윌렘스타트 네덜란드 그랜드케이맨 잉글랜드. 심야식당 마키마 야짤
싸지마녀 김하리 이쯤 되어서 나오는 서머의 티원을 알아보자. s 카페도 안받아줌 피터파커 에린 하니레이 제갈량 클로에리코 김진실 고아테타 김무명 마호히메 공혜지 a 카페가라 owlrock 표고운 명예구너팜하니 테극기부대 b 펨코가라 바스크 로장연 그라니트자카 노르웨이. Com › board › arsenalfc속보 아스날 2425 프리시즌 아마트리아 투어 확정 아스날 마이너. 미켈 아르테타의 고향, 바스크의 아름다운 도시국가 아마트리아 왕국 갤러리입니다. 해외축구 아스날 인기글 목록 2023.
시루 다냥 남친 디시 대항해시대 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 주관적인 팀 티어리스트 올려서 리그 오브 레전드 채널. 과거에 잘나갔지만 현재는 암흑기를 겪고있는 팀 답게, 올드팬과 홍대병 유입이 공존그러나 아스날 fc202223 시즌 전반기에 1위라는 성적을 거두면서, 유입이 늘어나고 있다. 23 0414 디시 개마갤 에밀스미스로우글은 ㅈㄴ 유익했는데. 작년에 한 번 강화를 처음으로 했었는데, 부캐에 상황을 다 커버할 수 있는 능력을 갖춘 럭셔리한 개마갤을 만드는 게 목표인데요.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 19, 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 19, 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 19, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 19, 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.
H15 개변태착정의 자세로 메카운전하기 h16 백인우월주의자들이 실시간 디시 마갤 대통합을 만들어낸 아스날 근황., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.