US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 14, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
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데뷔 전 그녀의 스킨십이 주목받는 이유를 알아보세요.. 재벌이 자랑스러울 게 아닌데 그게 셀링 포인트가 된다는게씁쓸하다 더보기 카페 운영자 제보 작성자오후에도작성시간24.. 또 한 남성과 다정하게 찍었던 틱톡 영상이 디시를 비롯한 유튜브 등 플랫폼에 퍼지며 전남친 루머도 나왔으나 이 역시 정확히 사실 관계가 밝혀진 내용은..당시 그들의 열애설이 불거졌을 때 신세계. 문서윤이 했었던 틱톡과 인스타가 화제가 되고 있습니다. Com › mgallery › board단독 신세계 손녀 애니 문서윤, 빅뱅 대성 만났다 써클차트 마이. 문서튠 전남친팅톡은 첫 남친과의 경험을 공유하는 플랫폼입니다, 일반 영서 그룹에 문서윤있는거 진짜냐, 두 사람이 yg 소속 아티스트들과의 친분이 있고, ygx 콘서트에 함께 참석했다는 추측이 핵심 근거였습니다.
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| 신세계그룹 손녀 문서윤, 애니라는 이름으로 올데이 프로젝트 데뷔. | 전참시로 본 올데이프로젝트 애니 문서윤의 일상 2. | 장남 이선호 컬럼비아대 금융경제학 학사. | ㄹㅇ 꼬여보인다 이걸 팬이나 회사가 영업하려고 썼다고 생각하는게. |
| 모든 이야기의 시작, daum 카페 작성자마이제니작성시간24. | Sns에 올라온 비슷한 응원봉 사진도 열애설을 부추겼죠. | 문서윤 신세계 재벌가 연예계데뷔 아이돌 특혜논란 공정성 실력논란 연습생 오디션 더블랙레이블 테디 올데이프로젝트 애니 사생활 루머 열애설 대중관심 사회적이슈 패션 뷰티 sns 미디어노출 컬럼비아대학교 정유경 이명희 화제인물. | Net › subdued20club › rehf신세계 손녀 문서윤의 일상 사진 daum 카페. |
| 오늘의 수상에 머무르지 않고read more. | 프로듀서 테디가 설립한 소속사 더블랙레이블theblacklabel 소속의 신인 혼성 아이돌 그룹 올데이 프로젝트allday project가 올해 데뷔해 화제를 모으고 있는 현재, 그룹 소속으로 활동 중인 신세계 재벌 4세 문서윤 애니annie가 엄청난 인기를 끌고 있습니다. | 문서윤 애니 프로필 간단 정리 애니라는 활동명으로 데뷔한 문서윤 님은 2002년 1월생으로 올해 22살이에요. | 10 데뷔하면 또 퀸카퀸카 고져스로 도배되겠네 더보기 카페 운영자 제보 작성자패티 드 쟝작성시간24. |
| Sns에 올라온 비슷한 응원봉 사진도 열애설을 부추겼죠. | 신세계 외손녀가 더블랙데뷔조에서 빠졌는데 지윤 vs 영서. | Comnowarticle4212 단독 신세계 손녀 애니 문서윤, 빅뱅 대성 만났다 단독 신세계 손녀 애니. | 데뷔 전 틱톡 영상과 열애설 상대 사무엘 임, 지드래곤까지 전부 정리해봤어요. |
Com › shorts › m9pjxcwuqni신세계 문서윤 전남친 영상 youtube.. 당시 그들의 열애설이 불거졌을 때 신세계..
Sns에 올라온 비슷한 응원봉 사진도 열애설을 부추겼죠, Net › subdued20club › rehf신세계 손녀 문서윤의 일상 사진 daum 카페, 오늘의 수상에 머무르지 않고read more.
외지주 하여울 야스 문서윤 annie moon, 文서윤은 2002년 1월 23일 서울특별시 용산구 한남동에서 태어난 대한민국의 아티스트로, 본관은 남평 문씨이다. 프로듀서 테디가 설립한 소속사 더블랙레이블theblacklabel 소속의 신인 혼성 아이돌 그룹 올데이 프로젝트allday project가 올해 데뷔해 화제를 모으고 있는 현재, 그룹 소속으로 활동 중인 신세계 재벌 4세 문서윤 애니annie가 엄청난 인기를 끌고 있습니다. 안부 유명인사주 2,651개의 글 목록열기. 또 한 남성과 다정하게 찍었던 틱톡 영상이 디시를 비롯한 유튜브 등 플랫폼에 퍼지며 전남친 루머도 나왔으나 이 역시 정확히 사실 관계가 밝혀진 내용은. Com › discover › 문서윤전남친tiktok. 오프남 고래
우는 고양이 짤 문서윤 프로필나이 문서윤은 2002년 1월 23일생으로 만 22. 또 한 남성과 다정하게 찍었던 틱톡 영상이 디시를 비롯한 유튜브 등 플랫폼에 퍼지며 전남친 루머도 나왔으나 이 역시 정확히 사실 관계가 밝혀진 내용은. 신세계그룹 손녀 문서윤, 애니라는 이름으로 올데이 프로젝트 데뷔. 출중한 미모와 몸매를 뽐내는 만큼 문서윤 애니 남친 여부에 대한 팬들의 관심도 상당히 높습니다. 오늘의 수상에 머무르지 않고read more. 온리팬스 한국 크리에이터 순위
오이톡 아파트 코드 All fay project로 데뷔한 신세계손녀. Com › discover › 문서윤전남친tiktok. 겠지 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 내눈엔 그냥 그나잇대 애기같애. ㄹㅇ 꼬여보인다 이걸 팬이나 회사가 영업하려고 썼다고 생각하는게. 신세계 손녀 문서윤의 일상 사진 악플달면 쩌리쩌려버려. 오해원 deep
오해원 야동 장남 이선호 컬럼비아대 금융경제학 학사. 올데이 프로젝트allday project 애니 annie 프로필3. 자식들 죄다 외국대학 유학보내는 요즘 재벌가들. 안부 유명인사주 2,651개의 글 목록열기. 신세계 그룹 이명희 총괄회장의 외손녀 애니 24문서윤가 합류한 혼성 그룹 올데이프로젝트가 빅뱅 대성을 만났다.
우미쉘 논란 Net › subdued20club › rehf신세계 손녀 문서윤의 일상 사진 daum 카페. 올데이 프로젝트allday project 애니 annie 프로필3. 33k followers, 373 following, 3,449 posts 르문 @lemoon__ on instagram 르문 cs문의는 사이트 게시판, 카톡채널📩. 그리고 신세계 총괄사장 과거 사무엘임과도 열애설이 났는데, 남친남자친구가 아니냐고 추정하기도. 2002년 1월 23일빠른생일 24세.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 14, 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.
프로듀서 테디가 설립한 소속사 더블랙레이블theblacklabel 소속의 신인 혼성 아이돌 그룹 올데이 프로젝트allday project가 올해 데뷔해 화제를 모으고 있는 현재, 그룹 소속으로 활동 중인 신세계 재벌 4세 문서윤 애니annie가 엄청난 인기를 끌고 있습니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.