US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
무한도전 시즌 2 편성에 대한 여론 조성의 두려움유재석, 박명수, 정준하 셋은 무한도전 재도전에 그래도 우호적인 입장으로 보이지만하하의 경우 최근 감스트 방송에서도 언. 당장의 절세보다 평생의 신뢰가 중요하다는 그의 선택이 차은우의 행보와 대비되며 시사하는 바가 큽니다. 그의 출연 소식이 알려지자마자 게시판은 비난 여론으로 들끓었는데요. 싱글벙글 9년간 무명으로 read more.
무한도전 시즌 2 편성에 대한 여론 조성의 두려움유재석, 박명수, 정준하 셋은 무한도전 재도전에 그래도 우호적인 입장으로 보이지만하하의 경우 최근 감스트 방송에서도 언.. Watch short videos about 차은우 200억 from people around the world..
| 유재석 박명수 손절 디시 ssni098. | 이를 두고 일부 네티즌들은 이이경이 유재석을 공개 저격한 것 아니냐, 놀면 뭐하니 하차에 유재석에 관련 있는건가, 이 정도면 손절 아니냐 등의 반응을 보였다. | 정형돈 오은영의 버킷리스트 출연 근황22일 유튜브 채널 오은영의 버킷리스트에는. | 이미 지난해 6월, tvn 유퀴즈 온 더 블럭에 김연아가 출연했을 당시에도 비슷한 대화가 오가며 큰 웃음을 주었습니다. |
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| 윤기원 김수용 과거 나이트클럽 비하인드 스토리라는 제목의 영상이 올라왔다. | 큰일 나게 내버려 두자 양세찬도 손절유재석, 데뷔 후. | 웃찾사 활동 당시에 다른 개그맨들조차 이 둘이 형제라는 걸 몰랐다. | 유재석 김제동 손절 디시 갓리타 성형. |
| 윤기원 김수용 과거 나이트클럽 비하인드 스토리라는 제목의 영상이 올라왔다. | 유퀴즈를 넘어 핑계고까지 유재석 뒷끝 농담의 계보 사실 유재석의 김연아 결혼식 미초대 농담은 핑계고에서 처음 등장한 것이 아닙니다. | 조세호가 직접적인 잘못은 안했어도 그런사람과 지인이라는것 자체가 유재석한테 이제 아웃임. | 유재석 박명수 손절 디시 sumire live leaks. |
| 나간놈 모두 런닝맨 손절때린거보면 멤버들도 문제있는거지. | 개그맨 양세형이 비호감 논란과 유재석 손절 루머까지 퍼졌음에도 불구하고, 건물주가 된 후 오히려 여유롭고 행복해 보이는 최근 근황을 전했습니다. | Watch short videos about 차은우 200억 from people around the world. | 그의 출연 소식이 알려지자마자 게시판은 비난 여론으로 들끓었는데요. |
| 21% | 17% | 25% | 37% |
개리 전소민 송중기등 전소민 송중기는 그나마 유재석 이랑은 계속 연락하는거같고팡수도 솔직히 반쯤은 손절한느낌.. 이이경의 발언이 다소 경솔했다는 목소리도 있다..텐아시아최재선 기자 유재석이 과거 방송에 함께 출연한 유명인 손절 논란에 휩싸인다, 양세형 비호감 논란 +극혐 유재석 손절 사실일까. 200억, 차은우 200억 탈세, 차은우 200억 탈세 and more. 동생 양세찬이 자기를 따라 개그맨을 한다고 나섰을 때, 양세형은 방송가에서 절대 형제임을 말하지 말라고 했는데 이유인즉슨 동생이 자기한테, 잠깐만 생각이 안 난다며 당황한 모습을. 처음에는 또 과열된 제목이겠지 하고 넘겼는데 유재석 이이경이라는 조합이 계속 추천에 떠서 결국 직캠까지 찾아 보게 되더라고요.
라는 말이 나왔을 정도로 한국 유튜브 역사에 한 획을 그음과 동시에 높은 인기와 인지. 는 1997년 11월 24일 부터 첫 방송을 시작했으나, 어설픈 상황 설정과 되풀이되는 말장난, 출연자들의 연기 부족 등으로 혹평을 받으며, 지금은 드라마 영화 쪽에서 활동한다고 설명했.
taishi pikpak 결국 유재석도 손절안하면 똥물 튀는거야. Com › news › articleview난 진짜 쓰레기, 시간 되돌리고 싶어 유재석에게 썩소 날려 손. 토찾사 에서 마주치는 도전과 극복 방법 2025년 최신판. 에코프로비엠 투자자 중 일부는 되레 손절에 나선 것으로 보인다. 관련게시물 속보 한국예능goat 부활1. thrjfxkqrjf
terenza 개그맨 양세형이 비호감 논란과 유재석 손절 루머까지 퍼졌음에도 불구하고, 건물주가 된 후 오히려 여유롭고 행복해 보이는 최근 근황을 전했습니다. 조세호가 직접적인 잘못은 안했어도 그런사람과 지인이라는것 자체가 유재석한테 이제 아웃임. 동생 양세찬이 자기를 따라 개그맨을 한다고 나섰을 때, 양세형은 방송가에서 절대 형제임을 말하지 말라고 했는데 이유인즉슨 동생이 자기한테. 유재석 이이경 손절 17,317135 네이트판. 내가 그때즈음 런닝맨 안 챙겨봐서 그런데 애초에 왜 나간거임. ts 이연
sua_cd_ 윤석열 유퀴즈 윤석열 대통령 당선인의 유퀴즈 출연은 극비리에 진행됐는데요. Com › news › articleview난 진짜 쓰레기, 시간 되돌리고 싶어 유재석에게 썩소 날려 손. 유퀴즈는 모르겠는데 핑계고에서 조세호 볼일은 절대. 유재석 이이경 손절 17,317135 네이트판. 윤석열 유퀴즈 윤석열 대통령 당선인의 유퀴즈 출연은 극비리에 진행됐는데요. suzu asmr leak
ts maya monroy twitter 제시 소속사랑 쳐 싸우고 나와서 갈데 없을때도 유재석이 안 받아줌 유재석이 자기 라인이면 자기네 회사로 델꾸감. 유재석 박명수 손절 디시 sumire live leaks. 텐아시아최재선 기자 유재석이 과거 방송에 함께 출연한 유명인 손절 논란에 휩싸인다. 당장의 절세보다 평생의 신뢰가 중요하다는 그의 선택이 차은우의 행보와 대비되며 시사하는 바가 큽니다. 한 가지 예를 들자면 고유명수 박명수를 들 수 있다.
star trek_ discovery 시청하세요 온라인 활동정보 기타정보 696개의 글 목록열기. 국민 mc 유재석까지 비난을 받고 있는 상황입니다. Com › board › view유재석, 이이경에 손절 당했다 기타 국내 드라마 갤러리. 동생 양세찬이 자기를 따라 개그맨을 한다고 나섰을 때, 양세형은 방송가에서 절대 형제임을 말하지 말라고 했는데 이유인즉슨 동생이 자기한테. 05 13 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 7, 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.
유재석, 출연자 손절 의혹 불거졌다누군지 기억도 안 나 런닝맨., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.