US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
국제앰네스티 편지쓰기 캠페인을 통해 6개월 동안 전 세계에서 박경석 사례자를 응원하고 서울시에 탄원하는 편지가 46만 통 모였습니다. 박경석朴敬石, park kyungsuk 프로필 정보 박경석은 장애인 인권운동가로, 전국장애인차별철폐연대 상임공동대표 및 여러 장애인 권익 관련 단체의 대표직을 맡고 있는 인물입니다. 정치인 전장연 상임대표 오징어 게임 2 등장인물 분류동명이인. 박경석에 대한 정보를 영상으로 정리하였습니다.
회원사로는 bnf테크놀로지, kles, 켐써치, 포미트, 동서산업 등이 기술개발협의회를, 코네스코퍼레이션, 성신엔지니어링, 한국화이바, 효림산업, 아이스기술 등이 해수담수화협의회로 구성했다. 1983년 8월8일, 경주 토함산에서 열린 행글라이딩 대회에서 행글라이딩을 타려고 기다리던 모습, 남대문경찰서는 지난 16일, 혜화역 선전전에 참석한 박 대표에게 다가와 ‘17일까지 출석하라. 박경석이 상임공동대표를 맡은 전국장애인차별철폐연대라는 단체 이름은 몰라도 이를 줄인 전장연을 아는 사람은 많다.
Kr › article › 202411242153025아침을 열며박경석의 운동이 초래하는 진정한 시민의 불편 경향신. 성명서 박경석 대표 일본_2차 강제 소환조치 감추려, 발악, 판결 박경석 전장연 대표 유죄 확정 위험성 높고 시민.
박경석 전국장애인차별철폐연대전장연 공동대표는 해병대 수색대 출신이다.. 18일 오전 8시, 전국장애인차별철폐연대아래 전장연 회원 100여 명이 5호선 광화문역 승강장에서 출근길 지하철 시위를 벌였다..
판결 결과 박경석 전국장애인차별철폐연대전장연 공동대표의 집회 및 시위에 관한 법률집시법 위반과 업무방해 혐의에 대해 유죄가 확정됐다. 18일 오전 8시, 전국장애인차별철폐연대아래 전장연 회원 100여 명이 5호선 광화문역 승강장에서 출근길 지하철 시위를 벌였다. 박경석 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 시선집중 전국장애인차별철폐연대, 노르웨이와 베를린에서.
고인은 지난 1959년 동아일보에 기자로 입사해 도쿄특파원정치부장논설위원을 지낸 뒤 1980년 민주정의당 대변인으로. 본관은 밀양密陽이며 일제강점기 충청남도 연기군. 246번 참가자, 경석 ‘노을’이 일하는 놀이공원에서 초상화를 그려주는 화가.
박 대표는 그간 경찰 출석을 거부해 왔다. Kr › article › 202411242153025아침을 열며박경석의 운동이 초래하는 진정한 시민의 불편 경향신, 드라마 오징어 게임 시리즈의 등장인물, 뉴스1 장애인 단체들과 국제 연대 활동을 하려고 일본으로 출국한 박경석 전국장애인차별철폐연대 전장연 대표가 국내 집시법 위반 전력을 이유로 현지 나리타 공항에서 입국을 거부당했다. 장애인 을 대상으로 한 대안학교 성격의 교육기관.
intraday tips for today nse 전국장애인차별철폐연대 박경석 상임공동대표가 지난 2021년 11월 17일, 장애인 교육권 보장 등을 요구하며, 여의도 일대를 행진하던 도중 경찰의 과잉 대응으로. 장애인 을 대상으로 한 대안학교 성격의 교육기관. 박경석朴敬石, park kyungsuk 프로필 정보 박경석은 장애인 인권운동가로, 전국장애인차별철폐연대 상임공동대표 및 여러 장애인 권익 관련 단체의 대표직을 맡고 있는 인물입니다. 그는 1983년 여름 경북 경주시 토함산에서 행글라이더를 타다 추락했다. 출근길 지하철 박경석 국내도서 교보문고. jangwonyoung deep
ibuki aoi (aoi__ibuki) latest 박경석 64 전국장애인차별철폐연대 전장연 상임공동대표에게 인생의 다섯 가지 장면을 꼽아달라고 하자, 이런 답이 돌아왔다. 그는 1983년 여름 경북 경주시 토함산에서 행글라이더를 타다 추락했다. 이름과 달리 정식 교육기관으로 인가를 받지 않은 교육기관이다. 같은 시각 4호선 길음역에서도 전장연 활동가 20여 명이 4호선 동대문역사문화공원역 방면 지하철을 타고 국회의사당역까지 이동하면서 지하철 운행을 지연시켰다. ‘기훈’과 참가자들에게 예언인지 저주인지 모를 의미심장한 말을 늘. iqos 3 duo erstes aufladen
itshannah kemono 박경석朴敬石, park kyungsuk 프로필 정보 박경석은 장애인 인권운동가로, 전국장애인차별철폐연대 상임공동대표 및 여러 장애인 권익 관련 단체의 대표직을 맡고 있는 인물입니다. 박경석朴敬石, 1960년 9월 29일은 대한민국의 장애인 인권 운동가이다. 박경석 전국장애인차별철폐연대 전장연 상임공동대표가 8년 전인 2014년 12월 서울 지하철 5호선 광화문역에서 전철역에 엘리베이터를 설치해달. 뉴스1 장애인 단체들과 국제 연대 활동을 하려고 일본으로 출국한 박경석 전국장애인차별철폐연대 전장연 대표가 국내 집시법 위반 전력을 이유로 현지 나리타 공항에서 입국을 거부당했다. 1 2009년 10월 발족한 한국남동발전 중소기업 이업종 협의회 회원사들로 구성됐다. igay.69
instapv.c9m 9 또 전시에 육군 수색대는 상급 부대의 전선. 15 시즌 1부터 체격이 큰 성인남성 참가자인 조상우 를 혈투 끝에. 박경석 인권 운동가 박경석 朴敬石 1, 1960년 9월 29일 은 대한민국 의 장애인 인권 운동가이다. 장애인 을 대상으로 한 대안학교 성격의 교육기관. 246번 참가자, 경석 ‘노을’이 일하는 놀이공원에서 초상화를 그려주는 화가.
javrank 다리 Kr › article › 202411242153025아침을 열며박경석의 운동이 초래하는 진정한 시민의 불편 경향신. 전장연과 박경석, 정창조의 출근길 지하철 투쟁은 이 비인간적 추방에 맞서는 투쟁이다. 이준석 국민의힘 대표 왼쪽와 박경석 전국장애인차별철폐연대 상임공동대표 오른쪽가 13일 오후 서울 마포구 에서 시사프로 ‘썰전라이브’에. 현재 전국장애인차별철폐연대 대표와 노들장애인야학 교장, 한신대학교 사회복지학과 겸임교수를 맡고 있다. 박경석 군인 박경석朴慶錫, 1933년 1월 26일은 대한민국의 군인 출신 정치인이다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 6, 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.
246 박경석 편집 우리 나연이 좀 제발, 제발 부탁드립니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.