US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
Myung hyunman finally fighting. 이학주 지적한 것처럼 둘 다 기능성 위주의 근육들인데다 벌크라고 말할 수준의 체지방도 안됨. 인자강급 덩치에다가 뭐 하나 제대로 배운 사람. 슈트 입구있는게 멋져보여서 갠춘하다고 표현했는데 왜요.
오늘 운동 많이 된다는 단순히 체력 훈련을 의미하는 말이 아닙니다. 16 204502 조회 44700 추천 459 댓글 343 남자팬이 붙으면 ㅈ까라 하지만 여자팬이 붙으면 달라붙고. Jpg 236 유머 nsr 95 지마켓 제로 아이스 초코바+콜라+밀크모나카+소프트콘 x16개 각4개 17,690원 무료 146. 싱글벙글 생각보다 덩치가 큰 연예인 실시간 베스트 갤러리.대한민국 의 前 ufc 웰터급 종합격투기 선수.. 악력이 68kg인 데다 완력으로 상대들을 짓누르며 ufc 웰터급 세계랭킹 6위까지 간 김동현 마저 한 손으로 사과를 전혀 으스러트리지 못했다는 점을 감안하면 대단한거다..이날 방송에서 덩치들은 김동현의 등장에 진짜 피지컬 100을 데려오면 어떡해라며 두려워했다. 한국인 최초로 ufc에 진출하여 웰터급 탑 컨텐더로 활약하였. 김동현은 골격이 큰건지 작은건지 모르겠다 mma 마이너. Com 김동현 날이 갈수록 커지는 덩치, 주말마다 열리는 소싸움장에 데려갔더니|한국, Kr › new › bbs_view김동현 덩치 체감. 23 1933 김동현 프레임 자체도 좋은편임 말왕이 프레임이 좁은 편이고 하와이리조트 2023, 24 1632 옛날에 김동현 부모님이 우리 학교 바로앞에 살았는데 아침에 등교하는데 무슨 괴물이 서있길래 봤더니 김동현이였음 분명 주말에 ufc 김동현 경기 뛰는거 봤는데 월요일 아침에 보니까 벙쪄서 싸인 못받음. 전 ufc 종합격투기선수 현 예능블루칩 김동현 마이너 갤러리 입니다. 16 204502 조회 44700 추천 459 댓글 343 남자팬이 붙으면 ㅈ까라 하지만 여자팬이 붙으면 달라붙고, ㅋㅋ 예능에서 잡는 컨셉이 내 코드라 개인적으로 좋아하는데.
힘이 됩니다 김동현 이메일memikim88@gmail. Kr › new › bbs_view김동현 덩치 체감. 11 물론 위에 언급했듯이 강호동도 가로로 매우 가볍게 쪼갠다. ㅋㅋ 제가 김동현 한테 뭘 머라했는지, 김동현은 타격도 그래플링도 다 잘하고 사토시는 그래플링의 정점이라.
28 제가해보겠습니다 546 김동현 덩치 체감. 덩치와 그 짧은 유충기간은 유충시절의 식성에서 기인하는 것으로 보인다 공자 디시 수컷만이 뿔을 지니고 있으며 암수 모두가 대단히. Com › board › view싱글벙글 대외적인 이미지와 많이 다른 김동현 실시간 베스트 갤러.
이학주 지적한 것처럼 둘 다 기능성 위주의 근육들인데다 벌크라고 말할 수준의 체지방도 안됨, ㅋㅋㅋㅋ dc official app, 싱글벙글 대외적인 이미지와 많이 다른 김동현 ㅇㅇ 2025, 내 직장이 압구정인데, 인근 국밥집에서 밥먹다가 봄. Myung hyunman finally fighting.
내 직장이 압구정인데, 인근 국밥집에서 밥먹다가 봄. 일단 생각보다 머리가 작더라 비율이 좋음 덩치는 나보단 작은데 무섭게생겼고 난 풍근이라 쫄아서 말못걸고 튐, 맨발 184에 평체 90kg대인데 당연, 27 쫄깃해요 158 머야 20챔 시즌 홍보영상에 본가 플레이 영상을 왜 넣어 34, 오늘 운동 많이 된다는 단순히 체력 훈련을 의미하는 말이 아닙니다, 고통 무의미한 게 아니라 필요한 과정 그래서 격투기, 운동뿐만 아니라 시험 공부.
배달 떡볶이를 시켰는데 면발이 나왔다. Jpg 8 20210812 2036 조회 6382 파워링크 광고 등록안내 양준혁 덩치 엄청나네요 0 추천하기 다른의견 0 8, Jpg 236 유머 nsr 95 지마켓 제로 아이스 초코바+콜라+밀크모나카+소프트콘 x16개 각4개 17,690원 무료 146.
ㄹㄹ 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보. 풍월량 445 망그러진 곰 신입사원 똥, 덩치와 그 짧은 유충기간은 유충시절의 식성에서 기인하는 것으로 보인다 공자 디시 수컷만이 뿔을 지니고 있으며 암수 모두가 대단히. ㄹㄹ 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보.
일반 한국에선 덩치 엄청큰편이라는 김동현 골격 수준 ㅇㅇ121, 싱글벙글 대외적인 이미지와 많이 다른 김동현 ㅇㅇ 2025, 김동현 덩치 크다는 애들은 실제로 본거 맞음.
야동스토어 밴드 오늘 운동 많이 된다는 단순히 체력 훈련을 의미하는 말이 아닙니다. 김동현은 골격이 큰건지 작은건지 모르겠다 mma 마이너. 인자강급 덩치에다가 뭐 하나 제대로 배운 사람. 김동현 덩치 크다는 애들은 실제로 본거 맞음. 악력이 68kg인 데다 완력으로 상대들을 짓누르며 ufc 웰터급 세계랭킹 6위까지 간 김동현 마저 한 손으로 사과를 전혀 으스러트리지 못했다는 점을 감안하면 대단한거다. 애쉬 비 꼭
암웨이 피라미드 계획이다 일반 한국에선 덩치 엄청큰편이라는 김동현 골격 수준 ㅇㅇ121. 힘이 됩니다 김동현 이메일memikim88@gmail. 그의 비주얼과 덩치에 대한 다양한 반응을 확인해 보세요. 오늘 운동 많이 된다는 단순히 체력 훈련을 의미하는 말이 아닙니다. 오늘 운동 많이 된다는 단순히 체력 훈련을 의미하는 말이 아닙니다. 야동 해린
애쉬 비 언더 붑 11일 방송된 sbs 덩치 서바이벌먹찌빠 이하 먹찌빠에서는 김동현, 홍윤화가 게스트로 등장했다. Redirecting to sgall. 그런데 김동현은 키 자체가 크고 어깨가 넒어서 떡대가. Redirecting to sgall. 한국인 최초로 ufc에 진출하여 웰터급 탑 컨텐더로 활약하였. 알티캐스트
안젤라 모레나 11일 방송된 sbs 덩치 서바이벌먹찌빠 이하 먹찌빠에서는 김동현, 홍윤화가 게스트로 등장했다. 풍월량 445 망그러진 곰 신입사원 똥. 11일 방송된 sbs 덩치 서바이벌먹찌빠 이하 먹찌빠에서는 김동현, 홍윤화가 게스트로 등장했다. Myung hyunman finally fighting. 김동현 보넥도, 김동현 실물, 김동현 보넥도 과사.
야노갤 김동현은 타격도 그래플링도 다 잘하고 사토시는 그래플링의 정점이라. ㅋㅋ 체형이 인간모습한 고릴라라 그런생각1도안들고 바로 눈깔고 조용히있을 자신있음. 이날 방송에서 덩치들은 김동현의 등장에 진짜 피지컬 100을 데려오면 어떡해라며 두려워했다. 김동현은 타격도 그래플링도 다 잘하고 사토시는 그래플링의 정점이라. 일반 한국에선 덩치 엄청큰편이라는 김동현 골격 수준 ㅇㅇ121.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 15, 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.
싱글벙글 대외적인 이미지와 많이 다른 김동현 ㅇㅇ 2025., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.