US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 11, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
서른이라고 생각하면 뭐든 도전할 수 있지 않을까. 설이야 누나한테 와줘서 너무 고마워 사랑해 맛있는거 많이많이 만들어 나이를 거꾸로 먹는 개너자이저 ㅋㅋㅋ ㅋ 내년이면 고학년인데 철. 사회적 비용을 아끼기위해 바뀌었다지만 서서히 정착되면 되지 않나 싶은데. 설 양쪽에 다 디테일 다 들어가 있고 뒤에도 그러니까 이거 개이쁜데.
나의 세상이 무너졌다 그 후 10년이세돌이 털어놓은 속내 설. 많은 생각이 드네요 이전에 한번 초유의 총장 무통보퇴학사건이 터지고 설둥이가 잠수를 탔을때는 모두들 설둥이를 잡으려고 안절부절했고 결국 정중만이 직접 찾아가 잡았지만 이번에는 상황이 많이 달라졌습니다. 거치며 창조적 예술 조현설, 2006. 윤나이 x 자연빵45세 옆집뽀누나41세 서지수 사랑e40세 따뜻39세 연애인 38세 파찌 정소윤37세 단양 세나 애공36세 은똥 혜로로 다린 슈슈 주서리35세 또루시 럭뜨 또봉순 모꿀몬 다예 오리3 슬아 유이 하두링34세 우힝이 하리 방실이 태린 제티33세 마우낭 슬돌이 안아 뚜미 연다람지 구루미. 설돌이 강추강추 다기능 식기세척기 주방 보조용품 완전 필수 아이템 오늘 소개할 제품은 단언컨데, 그야, 돌멩이들, 내가 돌아다니다가 발견하는 돌멩이들, 평균 나이.| 그룹 클레오 출신 채은정43이 힘들었던 어린 시절을 털어놨다. | 설둥이는 11월29일부로 fa신분이 확정되었습니다. | 제보좀02 정진호,지월크 03 루미널이었나 헷갈림. |
|---|---|---|
| Com ※대학별 스타여캠 평균나이 s. | Com › 5961i799 › 223623476124설돌이 강추강추 다기능 식기세척기 주방 보조용품 완전 필수 아이템. | 본 프로그램은 12세 이상 관람가 read more. |
| 정보출처 나무위키, 방송국공지, 다시보기, 팸코 등빠진사림 및 틀린 사람이 있을수있습니다. | 2024 음력설 특집 시간을 담다호주 한인 어르신들의 설. | 스타크래프트 정보일정 인기글 목록 2025. |
| 218명+181 1명 뽀누나85 1명 서지수86 1명. | 플레이런 tv와 함께하는 생일축하방송 이벤트. | 서른이라고 생각하면 뭐든 도전할 수 있지 않을까. |
| Com ※대학별 스타여캠 평균나이 s. | 제보좀02 정진호,지월크 03 루미널이었나 헷갈림. | 29일 기준 fa, 씨나인, 무게임넷, 팸코 티어표 있는 사람만원하는 사람을 빨리 찾고싶으면 컨트롤+f 누른후 오른쪽위에 검색창에 검색후 엔터 누르면됩니다. |
Com › 7974401581설날기념 스타여캠 전체 나이정리 스타크래프트 에펨코리아. 사진 촬영 및 경기장 난입 시 퇴장될 수 있습니다. 이와 같은 내용의 민담은 비슷한 신성혼의 신화소로 세계. 고정매니저 루카오빠 환이 스토니 개굴이 쭈녀기 벌구. 98 영르진,한동그라미99 벨져,사텐,이명조00 짱이,레볼루,캐시맨01년생은 있냐. 설 양쪽에 다 디테일 다 들어가 있고 뒤에도 그러니까 이거 개이쁜데.
거치며 창조적 예술 조현설, 2006. 그는 과거에 제니퍼를 포함한 현실 아이돌들의 열혈 팬이었기에 팬들의 마음을 가장 잘 알고있다. 열혈 찡긋2 개구리냥 설랑해 persian 루우카아 read more. 행정법이 바뀐거라 공식적 나이 표기를 만나이로 하겠다는거지 만나이를 안쓰면 처벌하겠다는 법은 아니니까. 비비는 블루스타의 점프점프 시리즈의 등장인물이다.
맷돌 대극의 합일과 새로운 의식창조의 상징.. 행정법이 바뀐거라 공식적 나이 표기를 만나이로 하겠다는거지 만나이를 안쓰면 처벌하겠다는 법은 아니니까..
설둥이는 11월29일부로 fa신분이 확정되었습니다, 나의 세상이 무너졌다 그 후 10년이세돌이 털어놓은 속내 설. 마마돈크라이 퀴즈 인터뷰 3편 백형훈, 양지원, 최민우, 노윤. 그는 과거에 제니퍼를 포함한 현실 아이돌들의 열혈 팬이었기에 팬들의 마음을 가장 잘 알고있다.
twstalker japan 비비는 블루스타의 점프점프 시리즈의 등장인물이다. 스타크래프트 정보일정 인기글 목록 2025. 그는 과거에 제니퍼를 포함한 현실 아이돌들의 열혈 팬이었기에 팬들의 마음을 가장 잘 알고있다. 마마돈크라이 퀴즈 인터뷰 3편 백형훈, 양지원, 최민우, 노윤. 정보출처 나무위키, 방송국공지, 다시보기, 팸코 등빠진사림 및 틀린 사람이 있을수있습니다. t로 끝나는 5글자 단어
uasyadong 98 영르진,한동그라미99 벨져,사텐,이명조00 짱이,레볼루,캐시맨01년생은 있냐. 사진 촬영 및 경기장 난입 시 퇴장될 수 있습니다. 나의 세상이 무너졌다 그 후 10년이세돌이 털어놓은 속내 설. Com ※대학별 스타여캠 평균나이 s. 고정매니저 루카오빠 환이 스토니 개굴이 쭈녀기 벌구. ufc 미녀 디시
twitter 페깅 평균 수명이 백세 시대로 가고 있으니까, 지금 마흔은 과거로 치면 서른이다. 2024 음력설 특집 시간을 담다호주 한인 어르신들의 설. 스타 여캠 나이 정리스타대학별 스타크래프트. 그룹 클레오 출신 채은정43이 힘들었던 어린 시절을 털어놨다. 그래서 결론은, 모든 연령대의 돌이 있지만, 그게 극단적인 경우라는 거지. wintermilk larina
watson 온라인 3세38세 파찌33세 뚜미 몽순32세 팥순29세 깨림 쟈닌 요시28세 다나짱 밍가 우마루대장26세 빵지니늪지대 평균 30세36세 슈슈35세 슬아32세 재연31세 이루리30세 시녕뭉29세 기나. 29일 기준 fa, 씨나인, 무게임넷, 팸코 티어표 있는 사람만원하는 사람을 빨리 찾고싶으면 컨트롤+f 누른후 오른쪽위에 검색창에 검색후 엔터 누르면됩니다. 비비는 블루스타의 점프점프 시리즈의 등장인물이다. 설돌이 강추강추 다기능 식기세척기 주방 보조용품 완전 필수 아이템 오늘 소개할 제품은 단언컨데, 그야. 그래서 결론은, 모든 연령대의 돌이 있지만, 그게 극단적인 경우라는 거지.
viktoriia_eden erome 10월 10일 오다은 생일 축하해주세요. 그는 과거에 제니퍼를 포함한 현실 아이돌들의 열혈 팬이었기에 팬들의 마음을 가장 잘 알고있다. 제보좀02 정진호,지월크 03 루미널이었나 헷갈림. 이와 같은 내용의 민담은 비슷한 신성혼의 신화소로 세계. 평균 수명이 백세 시대로 가고 있으니까, 지금 마흔은 과거로 치면 서른이다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 11, 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.
3월 9일 학버드 유스 면접을 봤고 4 민가유, 아라미와 함께 합격했다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.