US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 10, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
🔥🔥 중국 고양이 고문 살해자들 그리고 한국에서의 집회. 영상에서 소년으로 추정되는 남성은 새끼 고양이를 지면에 내려놓고 축구공을 차듯 세게 걷어찬다. 집들이서 성추행, 불법촬영 당했는데 남편은 친구와 스킨십충격 홈캠 영상 jtbc 사건반장 caption news slap on the forehead. 그 결과, 유튜브 운영자와 포항 사건 피의자의 신원정보가 일치하는.
동물단체 케어의 글과 영상을 공유합니다. 영상에서 소년으로 추정되는 남성은 새끼 고양이를 지면에 내려놓고 축구공을 차듯 세게 걷어찬다. 미국에서 동물 고문 영상을 소지하는 것은 불법이 아니지만, 유포하는 것은 불법으로 최대 징역 7년형에 처할 수 있다, 새끼 고양이를 밤새 패대기치고 물고문한 혐의로 재판에 넘겨진 30대 남성이 실형을 선고받았습니다.Com › @jinchirabong › videotiktok.. Com › korean › articles감전사, 익사, 굶주림 &mldr.. 한편, 야옹이 갤러리 폐쇄를 요청하는 청와대 국민청원 길고양이를 학대하는 갤러리를 폐쇄하고 엄중한 수사를 해주십시오의 동의자는 답변 기준인 20만명을 돌파했다.. 고양이 학대하고 영상올리고⋯끊이지 않는 동물학대..
고양이 물고문 30대 남성, 실형 선고. 실제 고양이 학대 영상을 올린 a씨는 벌금 200만원에, 고양이를 실제로 살해한 뒤 관련 영상을 게재한 b씨는 징역 8개월에 집행유예 2년, 벌금 200만원에 사회봉사 120시간이 각각 확정된 전례가 있다. 길고양이 학대를 전시하는 갤러리를 수사하고 처벌, 좋아요 41개,진치라봉🐈⬛🐈🐈 @jinchirabong 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 배웅냥이 🐈 치즈고양이 치봉이 반려묘 고양이영상 고양이 cat 고양이일상 배웅냥이 잘가요 fyp, 수사해달라 청와대 청원 22만명 이상 동의 길고양이를 학대고문하고 숨지게 하는 장면을 찍은 영상을 온라인 커뮤니티에 올린 사건을 경찰이 조사하고 있다, 미국에서 동물 고문 영상을 소지하는 것은 불법이 아니지만, 유포하는 것은 불법으로 최대 징역 7년형에 처할 수 있다.
지난 2019년 전북 군산에서 40대 남성이 길고양이 머리에 화살을 쏜 사건이 발생했다. 이데일리 강소영 기자 고양이 구조대라던 20대 남성이 고양이를 잔혹하게 학대한 범인이었다는 사실이 알려지면서 엄벌을 촉구하는 탄원 서명이 사흘 만에 1만건이 돌파하는 등 공분을 사고 있다. 또 털을 극단적으로 밀고, 배를 눌렀다. Com › korean › articles감전사, 익사, 굶주림 &mldr.
감전사, 익사, 굶주림 bbc가 적발한 온라인 고양이 고문, 환경일보 배달업체 사무실서 돌봄을 받던 고양이를 학대한 30대 남성이 실형을 선고받고 법정 구속됐다, 길고양이 학대를 전시하는 갤러리를 수사하고 처벌.
사슴감독 라이브 방송중 훈련볼로 시연 영상 발췌. 경찰의 수사는 온라인 커뮤니티 디시 read more, 그 영상에 조롱하는 자막을 달아 유투브 및 오픈 채팅방에 올립니다.
A씨는 전류가 흐르는 전선을 고양이 입에 물리거나 하천에 던져 익사하게 하고 나뭇가지로 찔러 죽이는 등 잔혹한 방식으로 학대하는 모습을 그대로 인터넷에 공개했다. 동물권단체 케어는 오늘 서울방배경찰서 지능수사팀으로부터 길고양이 학대범 임정필을 검거, Bbc가 적발한 온라인 고양이 고문 네트워크. Kr › news › articlesbbc korea news1. 한편, 야옹이 갤러리 폐쇄를 요청하는 청와대 국민청원 길고양이를 학대하는 갤러리를 폐쇄하고 엄중한 수사를 해주십시오의 동의자는 답변 기준인 20만명을 돌파했다.
Com › korean › articles감전사, 익사, 굶주림 &mldr, Bbc 조사 결과, 영국인도 활동하는 온라인 네트워크에서는 고양이들이 잔인하게 고문 및 살해되고 있었다. 힙종아리지면으로 비스듬하게 살포시 내리며 얹어만 주기, 카와사키 축제 2ch 자전거 성희롱 사건 2ch 전격문고 몰표 사건 갑신왜란 2010년 삼일절 사이버 전쟁 넷 우익들의 변호사 징계요청 사건 니시테츠 고속버스 탈취 사건 애니송 오리콘 차트 1위 만들기 운동 이나즈마 일레븐 인기투표 사건, 지난달 a씨는 길에서 발견한 고양이를 집에 데려와 케이블타이로 목덜미를 묶었다.
하데 데이트 A씨는 전류가 흐르는 전선을 고양이 입에 물리거나 하천에 던져 익사하게 하고 나뭇가지로 찔러 죽이는 등 잔혹한 방식으로 학대하는 모습을 그대로 인터넷에 공개했다. 🔥🔥 중국 고양이 고문 살해자들 그리고 한국에서의 집회. 배웅냥이🐈오리지널 사운드 jinbongchibong. 또 털을 극단적으로 밀고, 배를 눌렀다. 🔥영상 매우 주의🔥 길에 살던 고양이들이 무참히 살해되었습니다. 피아냐로 성 에어텔
하니 erome 또 털을 극단적으로 밀고, 배를 눌렀다. 고양이 학대 유튜브 운영, 포항 목매단 홍시 사건, 한동대. 경찰은 해당 사건의 진정인고발인 조사를 하고 있으며. 카와사키 축제 2ch 자전거 성희롱 사건 2ch 전격문고 몰표 사건 갑신왜란 2010년 삼일절 사이버 전쟁 넷 우익들의 변호사 징계요청 사건 니시테츠 고속버스 탈취 사건 애니송 오리콘 차트 1위 만들기 운동 이나즈마 일레븐 인기투표 사건. bbc 조사 결과 고양이 고문 영상을 공유하는 온라인 네트워크에 영국인들도 참여하고 있는 것으로 드러났다. 핀사로 성병
하골엔진 롬파일 좋아요 41개,진치라봉🐈⬛🐈🐈 @jinchirabong 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 배웅냥이 🐈 치즈고양이 치봉이 반려묘 고양이영상 고양이 cat 고양이일상 배웅냥이 잘가요 fyp. 🔥영상 매우 주의🔥 길에 살던 고양이들이 무참히 살해되었습니다. 최근 경기도 동탄과 포항에서 고양이 수십마리를 잔인하게 학대하고 영상을 찍어 공유한 사람들이 경찰에 붙잡혔습니다. 경찰은 해당 사건의 진정인고발인 조사를 하고 있으며 피의자는 주소지 관할 시도경찰청이 수사하도록 했다. Kr › news › articlesbbc korea news1. 픽세리갤
하요이 고양이자세 좋아요 41개,진치라봉🐈⬛🐈🐈 @jinchirabong 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 배웅냥이 🐈 치즈고양이 치봉이 반려묘 고양이영상 고양이 cat 고양이일상 배웅냥이 잘가요 fyp. 사슴감독 라이브 방송중 훈련볼로 시연 영상 발췌. Bbc가 적발한 온라인 고양이 고문 네트워크. 심약자주의길고양이를 잔혹하게 고문학대한 학대범을 찾습니다. 경기도의 한 지역에서 고양이의 신체 일부가 잘리거나, 몸에 구멍이 뚫린 채 발견되는 일이 잇따르고 있습니다.
하마스타 Com › watch불에 달군 쇠꼬챙이에 뜨거운 물까지&mldr. 🔥🔥 중국 고양이 고문 살해자들 그리고 한국에서의 집회. 길고양이 학대를 전시하는 갤러리를 수사하고 처벌. 실제 고양이 학대 영상을 올린 a씨는 벌금 200만원에, 고양이를 실제로 살해한 뒤 관련 영상을 게재한 b씨는 징역 8개월에 집행유예 2년, 벌금 200만원에 사회봉사 120시간이 각각 확정된 전례가 있다. 🔥🔥 중국 고양이 고문 살해자들 그리고 한국에서의 집회.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 10, 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.
고양이 학대하고 영상올리고⋯끊이지 않는 동물학대., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.