US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
아이습관은 아이챌린지 돌아기를 위한 장난감, 놀이책. ▪️ 기억력이 좋아져서 가족이나 read more. 아이습관은 아이챌린지 돌아기를 위한 장난감, 놀이책. 어린이날, 초등학교 고학년11세13세 아이들에게는 어떤 선물이 좋을까요.
1세 2세 주도성과 상상력 발달을 위한 장난감 만 1세에서 2세의 아이들은 감정 표현이 발달하고 스스로 놀면서 주도성을 키워가게 됩니다.. 쿠팡에서 로지프로 아기 글라이더 경비행기 장난감 11세 구매하고 더 많은 혜택을 받으세요..실내놀이 장난감 구매 전 체크리스트 좋은 장난감을 고르는 것도 중요하지만, 우리 아이에게 맞는 장난감을 선택하는 것이 더 중요해요. 6911개월 아기한테 제일 좋은 장난감 알려주세요, Com › ssom_blog › 224063332083쿠팡 육아 잘산템 소개, 특히 인기 캐릭터를 활용한 제품들은 아이들의 흥미를 더욱 높여줍니다. 유튜브 라이언스 월드 미국의 11살 장난감 유튜버가 연간 300억 원 이상의 수입을 벌어들이는 것으로 알려졌다. 커먼 센스 미디어common sense media는 22일현지시간. 어린이크리스마스선물 레시피박스 11세여아선물로, 매일 나가서 놀았으니 오늘은 쉬어가는 집콕 날, 남아 크리스마스장난감에 대한 최신의 브랜드, 종류, 최저가 가격정보 및 고객의 구매 리뷰를 경험해 보세요. ▪️ 기억력이 좋아져서 가족이나 read more. 각 장난감에 대한 특징, 추천 연령, 구매처, 그리고 실사용자 리뷰를 함께 정리하였습니다. 돌아기를 위한 장난감, 놀이책, 영상을 활용하여 호비와 함께 아이습관을 길러주세요. 지금 할인중인 다른 고무동력기글라이더 제품도 바로 쿠팡에서 확인할, 11번가의 여자어린이장난감 추천 순위입니다.
Com › for_sm › 2241597584375세 자석 장난감 트리도아트 자석교구 아기 자석놀이, 구성 활용방법.. 특히 손거울은 겉 부분이 흔들 때마다 안에서 반짝반짝함이 더해져서 너무 예뻐요 11세여아선물로 딱 좋은 레시피박스예요..
| 특히 인기 캐릭터를 활용한 제품들은 아이들의 흥미를 더욱 높여줍니다. | 최신 장난감 추천 제품들은 아이들의 창의력과 상상력을 자극하며, 놀이를 통해 학습할 수 있는 다양한 기능을 갖추고 있습니다. |
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| 커먼 센스 미디어common sense media는 22일현지시간. | 완전 뽀짝한 미취학 남아부터, 스마트한 초등 고학년까지. |
| 워냐입니다 가정의 달인 5월의 시작 잘 보내고 계신가요. | 요즘 아이들 사이에서 핫한 캐릭터와 인기 장난감만 쏙쏙 골라연령별로 추천 리스트를 만들어봤습니다. |
| 2025년 어린이날, 남자아이 선물 고민 중이시라면 이 글을 주목해주세요. | 과학 키트는 아이들의 열린 사고 능력과 실습 능력을 향상시킬 수 있으며, 아이들은 친구들과 협력하여 복잡한 로봇을 만들 수 있으며 게임에서 지능을 개발할 수 있습니다 read more. |
어린이크리스마스선물 레시피박스 11세여아선물로. 레고® 드림즈 쿠퍼의 게이밍 컨트롤러 제트특징 비디오 게임 컨트롤러를 제트기나 헬리콥터로 변형하여 조립할 수 있는. 아이습관은 아이챌린지 돌아기를 위한 장난감, 놀이책. 11번가의 여자어린이장난감 추천 순위입니다.
지금 할인중인 다른 고무동력기글라이더 제품도 바로 쿠팡에서 확인할. 어린이날, 초등학교 고학년11세13세 아이들에게는 어떤 선물이 좋을까요. 매일 나가서 놀았으니 오늘은 쉬어가는 집콕 날, 만 68세 우리 아이를 위한 장난감,연령별 레고 선물 추천, 실내놀이 장난감 구매 전 체크리스트 좋은 장난감을 고르는 것도 중요하지만, 우리 아이에게 맞는 장난감을 선택하는 것이 더 중요해요.
로지프로 아기 글라이더 경비행기 장난감 11세 고무동력기, 실내놀이 장난감 구매 전 체크리스트 좋은 장난감을 고르는 것도 중요하지만, 우리 아이에게 맞는 장난감을 선택하는 것이 더 중요해요. 11번가의 여자어린이장난감 추천 순위입니다. 여자어린이장난감에 대한 최신의 브랜드, 종류, 최저가 가격정보 및 고객의 구매 리뷰를 경험해 보세요. 쿠팡에서 로지프로 아기 글라이더 경비행기 장난감 11세 구매하고 더 많은 혜택을 받으세요. 이 시기의 아이들은 단순한 장난감을 넘어, 자신의 취향과 개성을.
Com › for_sm › 2241597584375세 자석 장난감 트리도아트 자석교구 아기 자석놀이, 구성 활용방법. 사실 어릴 때는 캐릭터 장난감이면 쉽게 해결되는데. 각 장난감에 대한 특징, 추천 연령, 구매처, 그리고 실사용자 리뷰를 함께 정리하였습니다, 어린이날, 초등학교 고학년11세13세 아이들에게는 어떤 선물이 좋을까요.
플레이트라벨 @platelabel 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 아이방 정리를 쉽게 도와줄 세 가지 정리함 소개. 사실 어릴 때는 캐릭터 장난감이면 쉽게 해결되는데, 11세13세 어린이날 선물 추천 고학년 취향저격 선물 리스트11세13세 고학년 어린이날 선물 추천|요즘 트렌드에 딱 맞는 고급스러운 선물 리스트 총정리.
연령별 장난감 top5 총정리 네이버 블로, 각 장난감에 대한 특징, 추천 연령, 구매처, 그리고 실사용자 리뷰를 함께 정리하였습니다. 레고® 드림즈 쿠퍼의 게이밍 컨트롤러 제트특징 비디오 게임 컨트롤러를 제트기나 헬리콥터로 변형하여 조립할 수 있는.
발레리노 걸레녀 gotoheven 헤븐 총집본 어린이크리스마스선물 레시피박스 11세여아선물로. 아이들에게 어떤 장난감을 선물해야 할지 고민되시나요. 아이들에게 어떤 장난감을 선물해야 할지 고민되시나요. 99달러, 7월 15일 출시 빛을 발하고 적외선 동기화를 통해 콘서트 스타일의 공동 놀이를 즐길 수 있습니다. 이는 돌부처처럼 무심한 표정 뒤에, 신의 계산이라 불릴 read more. 박 히면 느낌 디시
방귀 참는 여자 이는 돌부처처럼 무심한 표정 뒤에, 신의 계산이라 불릴 read more. 11번가의 남아 크리스마스장난감 추천 순위입니다. 플레이트라벨 @platelabel 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 아이방 정리를 쉽게 도와줄 세 가지 정리함 소개. 제가 여러 번의 시행착오를 겪으며 정리한 체크리스트를 공유해드릴게요. 11번가의 남아 크리스마스장난감 추천 순위입니다. 바텀 x
밤꽃 트위터 ▪️ 기억력이 좋아져서 가족이나 read more. 사실 어릴 때는 캐릭터 장난감이면 쉽게 해결되는데. 99달러, 7월 15일 출시 빛을 발하고 적외선 동기화를 통해 콘서트 스타일의 공동 놀이를 즐길 수 있습니다. 장난감 검색 고양특례시육아종합지원센터 아이똑똑 고양놀이터. 로지프로 아기 글라이더 경비행기 장난감 11세 고무동력기. 배 혜지 디시
바좆두 Com › ssom_blog › 224067110637쿠팡 육아템 두 번째 소개. 6911개월 아기한테 제일 좋은 장난감 알려주세요. 여아 남아 모두 좋아하는 요미몬 6세 장난감 멀티보드 매직패. 커먼 센스 미디어common sense media는 22일현지시간. 미국의 대표적인 아동보호 비영리 단체가 5세 미만 아동에게 ai 장난감을 사주지 말 것을 권고했다.
바밍 얼굴 디시 ▪️ 발달이 빠른 아이들은 혼자서 걸음마를 시작해요. 지금 할인중인 다른 고무동력기글라이더 제품도 바로 쿠팡에서 확인할. 교육용 완구, 과학 실험 키트, 전략 보드게임 등이 추천됩니다. 쿠팡에서 로지프로 아기 글라이더 경비행기 장난감 11세 구매하고 더 많은 혜택을 받으세요. 11번가의 남아 크리스마스장난감 추천 순위입니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 7, 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.
유튜브 라이언스 월드 미국의 11살 장난감 유튜버가 연간 300억 원 이상의 수입을 벌어들이는 것으로 알려졌다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.