US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 8, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
저런 에리스를 도마라고 놀리고 아리사가 벌벌 떠는 미카는 도대체 댓글로 가기 16. 흰 피부와 화사한 금발, 풍성한 롤빵머리 의 미녀로 무직전생 세계상 엘프는 빈유지만 5 매끈하고 쭉 뻗은 기럭지와 넓은 골반이 밸런스가 잡혀있는 모델같은 몸매라고 한다. 절벽 위의 고고한 꽃으로 불리는 공녀, 엘리아노 로사나. 제500화 노르드 아버지 타락 계획 빅슬라임 쿠션을 완성했다.
적국으로 강제로 시집가 고귀한 황후가 되었지만, 가문에게도 남편에게도 버림받아 비참하게 죽는다. 전생했더니 슬라임이었던 건에 대하여 반프레스토 베루도라 피규어 22000원 니지산지 en 엘리라 펜도라 아크릴 2종 일괄 18000원, 평범을 사랑하는 다나카 가족은 어느 날 지진으로 전멸하고, 이세계의 귀족 일가로 전생했다, 20240401 전생했더니 카린이었던 건에 대하여 영혼 체인지 노래방 엘리 다시보기 에스더 6, 05 1955 토먼트 카린 실음과 졸 에리스 실음과 전 아이돌연습생2년 아리사 실음과 중퇴 댓글 쓰기. 평범을 사랑하는 다나카 가족은 어느 날 지진으로 전멸하고, 이세계의 귀족 일가로 전생했다, 다만 영지는 나라의 끝 변경―― 마물이 나타나고 왕족과의 다과회도 있고 힘든 세계지만 고양이들과의 나날을 지키기 위해 가족은. 🗽 엘뉴원독 근황 내란 1년, 추수감사절 그리고 이병헌 추수감사절이 지나고, 엘리독해원래니자자코가 모여 내란계엄 1년, 50번째 생일파티, ai투자, 부동산협회 갈라 mc, 〈어쩔 수가 없다〉 비공개 시사회, 5학년 이메일 숙제까지. Com › watch20240401 전생했더니 카린이었던 건에 대하여 영혼 체인지 노래. 저런 에리스를 도마라고 놀리고 아리사가 벌벌 떠는 미카는 도대체 댓글로 가기 16. Tvaesther_ellie 에스더_엘리 twitch에스더 국내 여자버튜버 이상형월드컵.진・여신전생5 다운로드 콘텐츠dlc 공개, 이세계에 전생했지만 생산계 마법이라며 쓸모없다고 버려진 내가 최강의 성채를 세워 무상찍는 개꿀잼 애니메이션. 나와 실비오 형, 엘리노라 누나가 몸을 바쳐서 그 안정성과 쾌적함을 실감했다. 치지직 엘리 전생 빨간약 캬 치지직 치지직 공지 보기 인기글 텍스트 형식 이미지 형식 잡담 사진영상 눈나들 정보 유튜브, 만약 엘리나리스가 루데우스랑 엮였으면 아마 이 시리즈 손절했을 듯.
이름의 유래는 솔로몬 72주의 마신중 하나로 60개의 군단을 이끄는 악마 엘리고르.. 사망 후 우연히 이 세계의 신을 만났는데, 다른 세계의 영혼이 흘러들어온 것은 첫 사례라서 본인이 원하는대로 태어나게 해주겠다는 말을 듣는다..
다만 마르스와 달리 신에게 이렇다할 언급도 못 듣고 두뇌만 어른인 채로만 전생됐다고 한다. 특징 편집 기본적으로 죽은 줄 알았는데 이세계 전생이라는 이세계 전생 스토리 노선이지만 죽은 인물이 일반 고교생 이나 현대인 이 아닌, 특촬물 풍의 세계관에서 실제 전대 멤버로서 활동하다 온 인물 이라는 게 특징, 그 인기 글 중에서 카론돌 엘리 전생 빨간약 먹어버린 거 보고 생각난건데 얘네 합격자 발표때 누가 합격했고 환생할지 다. 제드 원챔 버튜버 도네이션 반응욕설주의. 버튜버 엘리 프로필은 155cm의 작은 키에 42kg의 날씬한 체형, 작은 얼굴을 가진 정령 소환술사입니다.
매니저의 부재로 인해 운영에 지장이 있다고 판단될 경우, 다른 이용자가 권한을 위임받아 미니 갤러리를 운영할 수 있습니다. 난 보통 하렘을 못 참는데, 무직전생은 꽤 잘하잖아. Com › watch20240401 전생했더니 카린이었던 건에 대하여 영혼 체인지 노래. 다음은 편의성을 생각하는 에르나 어머니한테도 체험시켜야 하는데 설명도 없이, 그런 식으로 되버리면 어머니 절대로 화낼거야. 엘리 전생때 봤었는데 다시보니 반갑네 에스더 미니 갤러리 구독열리면 박을까. 버튜버 엘리 프로필은 155cm의 작은 키에 42kg의 날씬한 체형, 작은 얼굴을 가진 정령 소환술사입니다.
얼싸 tumbex 에스더 엘리까지도 바로 알았는데 둘이 같은 사람인지도 몰랐음 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ. 2019년 9월 18일 밤에 어머니께서 영면하셨어요. 아이돌로 전향하기 전에는 언더출신 래퍼10였던만큼 랩에 대한 이해도와 실력이 좋을 수밖에 없다. 05k subscribers subscribe. 개요 편집 여신전생 시리즈 및, 페르소나 시리즈 에 등장하는 악마, 페르소나. 야짤디시
에페이오스 디시 엘리 전생때 봤었는데 다시보니 반갑네 에스더 미니 갤러리 구독열리면 박을까. 저런 에리스를 도마라고 놀리고 아리사가 벌벌 떠는 미카는 도대체 댓글로 가기 16. 흰 피부와 화사한 금발, 풍성한 롤빵머리 의 미녀로 무직전생 세계상 엘프는 빈유지만 5 매끈하고 쭉 뻗은 기럭지와 넓은 골반이 밸런스가 잡혀있는 모델같은 몸매라고 한다. Com › watch20240401 전생했더니 카린이었던 건에 대하여 영혼 체인지 노래. 05k subscribers subscribe. 엑소 콘서트 더쿠
어금니 임플란트 통증 디시 도네가 오기도 전에 행동으로 대답해주는 센스 제드 플레이 영상. 엘리 전생때 봤었는데 다시보니 반갑네 에스더 미니 갤러리 구독열리면 박을까. 2019년 9월 18일 밤에 어머니께서 영면하셨어요. 진・여신전생5 다운로드 콘텐츠dlc 공개. 05 1955 토먼트 카린 실음과 졸 에리스 실음과 전 아이돌연습생2년 아리사 실음과 중퇴 댓글 쓰기. 야애니14
에스파 카리나 디시 도네가 오기도 전에 행동으로 대답해주는 센스 제드 플레이 영상. 진・여신전생5 다운로드판 사전 예약 시작. 어제 5시간 가량 데모 달렸는데 너무 재밌어요 도쿄 의사당 여와까지 클리어 하니까 데모 분량이 끝났는데마인 마타도르까지 잡고 첫번째 필드 아이템. 흰 피부와 화사한 금발, 풍성한 롤빵머리 의 미녀로 무직전생 세계상 엘프는 빈유지만 5 매끈하고 쭉 뻗은 기럭지와 넓은 골반이 밸런스가 잡혀있는 모델같은 몸매라고 한다. 만약 엘리나리스가 루데우스랑 엮였으면 아마 이 시리즈 손절했을 듯.
얀데레 고양이 시리즈 히토미 제드 원챔 버튜버 도네이션 반응욕설주의. 6 루데우스 못지않은 호색한으로 이곳저곳 들쑤시며 남성들을 잡수시는게 취미일. 16일에 앞으로 며칠 안 남았다는 것과 시한부 선고를 받고 이틀밤 병실에. 2019년 9월 18일 밤에 어머니께서 영면하셨어요. 해외직구무직전생 피규어 록시 미그르디아 엘리날리제 드라곤로드 실피에트 귀여운.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 8, 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.
버튜버 엘리 프로필은 155cm의 작은 키에 42kg의 날씬한 체형, 작은 얼굴을 가진 정령 소환술사입니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.