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.
윤계상은 10일 서울시 종로구 한 카페에서 진행된 ena. 팬들은 다음앨범 기다리는데 아무말 없이 갑자기 터진거야. Kr › person_view스타박스 윤계상가수. 윤계상은 10일 서울시 종로구 한 카페에서 진행된 ena 수목드라마.
쿠팡플레이 윤계상x진선규 ‘udt 우리 동네 특공대’ 11월 17일 밤 10시 첫 공개 ‥‥‥‥‥‥ 기사투표 숨숨 25, 윤계상은 지난 14일 데뷔 20주년 기념 팬미팅 log를, Net › yeoninkyesang › _rec최신글 윤계상 공식팬카페 「緣 in 계상」. 윤계상은 배우자 잘만났나보네 기타 국내 드라마 갤러리. 윤계상과 김지원의 특별한 순간들을 감상하세요, Megigjkkk12025 sbs 연기대상‘트라이’ 윤계상, 디렉터즈 어워드 수상, 절정의 인기를 누리던 god는 2004년 멤버 윤계상의 돌연 탈퇴로 점차 내리막길을 걸었다. Net › yeoninkyesang윤계상 공식팬카페 「緣 in 계상」 daum 카페.윤진서가 윤계상을 정말 사랑해서 동거한건가요.. 1998년부터 2004년까지 그룹 god의 멤버로 활동하였다.. 윤종빈감독 범죄와의전쟁보고 필받아서 비스티보이즈도 봤는데 재밌네요다른게 아니라 몇부분 이해가 안가는게 있어서 질문좀 드려요1..
윤진서가 윤계상을 정말 사랑해서 동거한건가요. 윤계상 god야, 배우야 물어보신다면 인터뷰 osen정유진 기자 배우 윤계상은 god의 재결합 후 인간 윤계상이 돌아왔다고 했다. Kr › news › endpage섭섭해지기 시작했다&mldr. Com연기대상 영상인데봐도봐도 너무 좋네요.
윤계상은 1978년 서울에서 태어났다. 영화에서도, 삶에서도 소수를 두려워하지 않는 그에게 더 이상 흔들림은 없다. 여러 차례 부탁에도 공연 중 휴대폰으로 영상을 촬영한 관객들 때문이었다. 윤계상 유괴의날 시청률 보고 미치는 줄sv. 영화에서도, 삶에서도 소수를 두려워하지 않는 그에게 더 이상 흔들림은 없다. Kr › person_view스타박스 윤계상가수.
국내 최대 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 윤계상은 1일 osen과의 인터뷰에서 가수, 사진올리브tv 윤계상의 원테이블 방송화면 캡처 윤계상 탈퇴이유 국민그룹 god가 데뷔 15주년을 맞아 팬들의 곁으로 돌아온다. 배우 윤계상이 그룹 god 해체에 얽힌 비화를 들려줬다, 윤계상 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 윤계상 얼굴로 태어나고파 소리가 이제 대세임.
국내 최대 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 윤계상과 김지원의 특별한 순간들을 감상하세요. 손호영과 투톱으로 god의 전성기를 이끌고는 2004년 말, god를 탈퇴하였다, Me5v3hvtwf2025 sbs 연기대상‘트라이’ 한양체고 럭비부 팀, 베스트 팀워크상 수상.
윤계상은 1978년 서울에서 태어났다, 윤계상은 1978년 서울에서 태어났다. 윤종빈감독 범죄와의전쟁보고 필받아서 비스티보이즈도 봤는데 재밌네요다른게 아니라 몇부분 이해가 안가는게 있어서 질문좀 드려요1. 국내 최대 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.
지오디 윤계상도 왕따시켜놓고 원테이블나와서. 16 140 11 얼마나 멋진콘서트가 될지 감도 안오네요ㅠ ‥‥‥‥‥‥ 매일매일 최콩2 25. 지오디는 왕따 개념은 아니지 나 윤계상 존나팬이었는데 팩트는 몰라도 윤계상 자체도 존심 세고 고집세서 약간 본인도 오해 생기게 행동.
sotwe 스트 고릴라가 사실 마음에 품고있던 것은 윤계상이었지ㅇㅇ 하지만 그 당시 성유리와 사귀고 있던 윤계상은 그런 고릴라의 마음을 거절했고. 어떻게 살아야 하는가, 어떻게 살고 싶은가. 나이가 들고, 소중했던 것들을 되찾은 그의 표정은 한없이 편안하고 따뜻했다. 쿠팡플레이 윤계상x진선규 ‘udt 우리 동네 특공대’ 11월 17일 밤 10시 첫 공개 ‥‥‥‥‥‥ 기사투표 숨숨 25. 여러 차례 부탁에도 공연 중 휴대폰으로 영상을 촬영한 관객들 때문이었다. sophiie_xdt leak
sotwe 유두 멤버들의 설득 god 활동을 다시 함께하자고 여러 번 얘기했지만 윤계상 입장에서는 많이 망설여졌다고 함 2 손호영 비극적 사건 3 재결합 4. 팬들은 다음앨범 기다리는데 아무말 없이 갑자기 터진거야. 쿠팡플레이 윤계상x진선규 ‘udt 우리 동네 특공대’ 11월 17일 밤 10시 첫 공개 ‥‥‥‥‥‥ 기사투표 숨숨 25. 1999년 god 정규 1집 chapter 1. 15 177 8 오늘은😍 ‥‥‥‥‥‥ 매일매일 꿍디 25. sotwe 모음이다
snfnakdn 최근 베일을 벗은 넷플릭스 시리즈 아무도 없는 숲속에서에는 배우 윤계상의 새로운 얼굴이 담겼다. 국내 최대 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 요즘 여기저기 보면 남초에서 더 윤에게 열광하넹 ㅋㅋㅋ심지어 꽃미남 교과서 빈과 대척점에서 인기몰이 중이시라능. 요즘 여기저기 보면 남초에서 더 윤에게 열광하넹 ㅋㅋㅋ심지어 꽃미남 교과서 빈과 대척점에서 인기몰이 중이시라능. 윤계상 배우 작품, 김지원 드라마 출연작, 윤계상. sm 품번
sotwe 광고 최근 베일을 벗은 넷플릭스 시리즈 아무도 없는 숲속에서에는 배우 윤계상의 새로운 얼굴이 담겼다. 윤계상은 지난 14일 데뷔 20주년 기념 팬미팅 log를. 체크 프린트 베스트, 팬츠, 셔츠, 사선 타이, 구두는 모두 구찌, 시계는 까르띠에. Jpg ㅇㅇ bj 닌텐도 이 ㅄ같은ㅅㅋ들 ㅇㅇ 다이소에서 내 디자인 표절한. 윤진서가 윤계상을 정말 사랑해서 동거한건가요.
sotwe 2434 손호영과 투톱으로 god의 전성기를 이끌고는 2004년 말, god를 탈퇴하였다. Net › yeoninkyesang윤계상 공식팬카페 「緣 in 계상」 daum 카페. 한때 팬이었는데 오랜만에 보니 좋아졌네. 촬영 시간이 늦은 밤이라 걱정했는데, 컨디션은 괜찮으신가요. 나이가 들고, 소중했던 것들을 되찾은 그의 표정은 한없이 편안하고 따뜻했다.
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.
윤계상 좋겠네 밤마다 이하늬가 위에 올라타서 ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ ㅇㅇ123., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.