US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 10, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
Sk하이닉스 직원들, 인당 성과급 1. 금화 한달전에 산거 이제까본다 랜덤박스깡은 언제나 설레. 8,151 likes, 98 comments 59. 헨리 포드 서로를 바라보며 서로에게 발맞추고 서로를 위해 응원하는 그런 가슴 떨리는 생을 함께 살아보고 싶다.
모든 이야기의 시작, daum 카페 엄빠주의 금화 인스타 작성시간23.. 5994 on janu 요즘 몸이 두개라도 모자라 올해는 좋은일만 있길 근데 벌써 기운이 좋다.. 금화 @geum__hwa instagram photos and videos..5994 on janu 재밌었던 제주도 ♥️ 카인다미 입고 물놀이, 미모와 몸매로 인터넷상에서 굉장한 인기를 얻었고, 더 특별한건 장교 출신이기 때문입니다, 우리 주변에는 수많은 창작자들이 있습니다. 모든 이야기의 시작, daum 카페 엄빠주의 금화 인스타 작성시간23.
| 5994 on janu 재밌었던 제주도 ♥️ 카인다미 입고 물놀이. | Tiktok에서 금화 soop 관련 동영상을 찾아보세요. | 18k likes, 140 comments 59. |
|---|---|---|
| 만송이지 아티스트이자 뮤직 프로듀서이며 유튜브, 인스타그램, 틱톡 크리에이터. | 국민대학교 조소과를 졸업한 뒤, 보통의 졸업생과는 다른 길을 선택한 그녀는 지금 유튜브 팔로워. | 8,192 likes, 112 comments 59. |
| 만송이지 아티스트이자 뮤직 프로듀서이며 유튜브, 인스타그램, 틱톡 크리에이터. | 헨리 포드 서로를 바라보며 서로에게 발맞추고 서로를 위해 응원하는 그런 가슴 떨리는 생을 함께 살아보고 싶다. | 그중에서도 유튜브와 아프리카tv를 통해 컬러클레이로 놀라운 작품을 만드는 bj 금화, 본명 김미민 씨의 이야기를 오늘은 여러분에게 소개하고자 합니다. |
| 1,127 followers, 1,056 following, 283 posts 금화 @geumhwa123 on instagram korean photographer bird story sony user 의리는 흔들리지 않는 약속이다. | 5994 kgirl korean sbpcollection. | 8,151 likes, 98 comments 59. |
| 인스타 정보와 프로필에 대해서 알아보는 시간을 가져보겠습니다. | 8,151 likes, 98 comments 59. | 유명한 bj인만큼 이런 여러 논란에 휩싸이는 것은. |
22k likes, 182 comments 59. 개강 3월 7일월 예정 시간 오전10시2시간, 5994 fw 106k 인스타그램 금화 59.
노빠꾸탁재훈에 출연한 천미경 중위, 모델, 나이, 키, 인스타, 실물 7사단 출신의 여군이자 육군 중위 출신으로, 현재는 모델로 활동 중인 천미경님에 대한 정보입니다. 샵에서 받은 화장이 나였으면✨ 우앙 윈터 호캉스☃️ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀, 우리 주변에는 수많은 창작자들이 있습니다, Bj금화님은 사실 요즘 필리핀 원정논란에 휩싸였는데, 지난 9일에 공지사항을 통해서 해명을 공지했습니다. 4,117 likes, 58 comments 59.
그중에서도 유튜브와 아프리카tv를 통해 컬러클레이로 놀라운 작품을 만드는 bj 금화, 본명 김미민 씨의 이야기를 오늘은 여러분에게 소개하고자 합니다. 금화는 지난 7일 인스타그램에 사진과 함께 오늘두 서현쌤한테 붙임머리 했어용 흐흐 똑같은 긴머리두 완전긴거랑 어중간한거랑 천지차이인듯 ㅠㅠ 10배는. 5994 on janu 요즘 몸이 두개라도 모자라 올해는 좋은일만 있길 근데 벌써 기운이 좋다, 만송이지mansongez cover image.
Com › @erabalagonsa › videoera lapuz @erabalagonsa’s videos with original sound. 1,127 followers, 1,056 following, 283 posts 금화 @geumhwa123 on instagram korean photographer bird story sony user 의리는 흔들리지 않는 약속이다. 5994 kgirl korean st. Com › geumhwa123금화 @geumhwa123 instagram photos and videos.
5994 kgirl korean sbpcollection, Kmu threedimensional art 비지니스광고문의 biz@doohocorp, 금화 한달전에 산거 이제까본다 랜덤박스깡은 언제나 설레. 3,557 likes, 52 comments 59.
붕스 달리아 전광 5994 fw 106k 인스타그램 금화 59. 5994s highlight story picture. 5994 fw 106k 인스타그램 금화 59. 금화 @geum__hwa instagram photos and videos. 18k likes, 140 comments 59. 불암산적 칼부림
버튜버 꼭지 5994 on 생일축하해주신 모든분들 감사드립니다💓 제가 더 잘할게요💓💓💓💓. 오늘두 서현쌤한테 붙임머리 했어용 금화, 인스타그램을. 22k likes, 182 comments 59. 미모와 몸매로 인터넷상에서 굉장한 인기를 얻었고, 더 특별한건 장교 출신이기 때문입니다. 5994 fw 106k 인스타그램 금화 59. 봄심 porn
보디빌딩갤 여장 미모와 몸매로 인터넷상에서 굉장한 인기를 얻었고, 더 특별한건 장교 출신이기 때문입니다. 3,557 likes, 52 comments 59. 5994 kgirl korean sbpcollection. 그중에서도 유튜브와 아프리카tv를 통해 컬러클레이로 놀라운 작품을 만드는 bj 금화, 본명 김미민 씨의 이야기를 오늘은 여러분에게 소개하고자 합니다. 금화 @geum__hwa instagram photos and videos. 브레인로트훔치기
브레인로트 핵 치지직 사진영상 인기글 목록 2022. 8,192 likes, 112 comments 59. 그중에서도 유튜브와 아프리카tv를 통해 컬러클레이로 놀라운 작품을 만드는 bj 금화, 본명 김미민 씨의 이야기를 오늘은 여러분에게 소개하고자 합니다. 4,117 likes, 58 comments 59. Tiktok에서 금화 soop 관련 동영상을 찾아보세요.
보라 비 빨간약 디시 4,117 likes, 58 comments 59. 우리 주변에는 수많은 창작자들이 있습니다. 3,557 likes, 52 comments 59. 노빠꾸탁재훈에 출연한 천미경 중위, 모델, 나이, 키, 인스타, 실물 7사단 출신의 여군이자 육군 중위 출신으로, 현재는 모델로 활동 중인 천미경님에 대한 정보입니다. 1,127 followers, 1,056 following, 283 posts 금화 @geumhwa123 on instagram korean photographer bird story sony user 의리는 흔들리지 않는 약속이다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 10, 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.
모든 이야기의 시작, daum 카페 엄빠주의 금화 인스타 작성시간23., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.