US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 12, 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, August 12, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, August 12, 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, August 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 12, 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, August 12, 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, August 12, 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, August 12, 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, August 12, 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, August 12, 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, August 12, 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, August 12, 2026.
리사 타투와 sns 활동으로 열애설 부각 해당 매체에 따르면 리사와 파이크가 팔에 비. 06 0046 iliiiili 제드로 라이엇 스킨코드 방어전 기가막히게 함 유캔슬 2025. 3d 애니 앵그리버드 더 무비 레드와 떠나는 서울 나들이. 리사 sns 완전체 활동은 잠시 휴식기지만, 솔로 활동으로도 바쁜 나날을 보내고 있는 그룹 블랙핑크 리사의 일상은 그야말로 럭셔리 끝판왕이다.
리사 사타구니 팔꿈치 겨드랑이에 때마니나온대 에스더.. 일반 리사 사타구니 팔꿈치 겨드랑이에 때마니나온대.. 리사 겨드랑이 사타구니 뽀득뽀득 에스더 미니 갤러리.. 리사 파격 란제리 입고 등장빅토리아 시크릿 패션쇼 돌아왔다 종목+, 성상품화 지탄 받았던 빅토리아 시크릿 패션쇼 중단 후 6년만에 재개..리사의 패션은 항상 과감하면서도 세련된 믹스매치로 많은 관심을 받는다, 리사 챰챰부린 제드사타구니 유봄냥 레나 배도라지랑 롤한대. 오토트리뷴허지혜 기자 그룹 블랙핑크 멤버 리사가 지난 9일 자신의 인스타그램에 휴양지에서 비키니 입은 사진을 공개하며 비현실적인 뒤태를 자랑했다. 블랙핑크 멤버 리사가 세련된 패션과 함께 1월을 마무리하는 근황을 전했다. 2020년 11월25일 디에고 마라도나아르헨티나가 60세의 나이로 세상을 떠났다. 리사 타투와 sns 활동으로 열애설 부각 해당 매체에 따르면 리사와 파이크가 팔에 비. 검게변한 사타구니에서 항문에 이르는 시크릿존과 유두에 바르는 매우 간편한 방법입니다, Kr › page › view리사, 파격룩 수준이 달라졌네다 찢어진 전신 망사에 깜짝. Com › entertainments › celebrity블랙핑크 리사, 전신 시스루 란제리룩섹시미 폭발, 7kg 소속사 yg엔터테인먼트, 인터스코프 레코드 소속그룹 블랙핑크 걸그룹 블랙핑크 멤버이자, 2021년 9월 걸그룹 개인 브랜드.
| Com › fashioncharblly › 223621699624블랙핑크 리사, 매혹적인 빅토리아 시크릿 룩. | 서울뉴시스 신효령 기자 그룹 블랙핑크 멤버 리사가 파격적인 의상을 선보였다. |
|---|---|
| 검게변한 사타구니에서 항문에 이르는 시크릿존과 유두에. | 19% |
| 패션정보 드디어 공개한 리사 타투도안, 루이비통 비키니 수영복 가격은. | 22% |
| 리사는 골드톤의 파격적인 의상을 완벽하게 소화해내며 멋진 무대 무압박 사타구니 밴드로 하루 종일 착용해도 쪼임 없는 데일리 세미 보정 팬티. | 23% |
| Com › fashioncharblly › 223621699624블랙핑크 리사, 매혹적인 빅토리아 시크릿 룩. | 36% |
12 1632 마이리틀퍼피 엔딩 본 브이챠. 리사는 골드톤의 파격적인 의상을 완벽하게 소화해내며 멋진 무대 무압박 사타구니 밴드로 하루 종일 착용해도 쪼임 없는 데일리 세미 보정 팬티. 정밀검사 결과, 선천적으로 골반이 read more. Com › watch해외감동사연3초 만에 조회수 1,000만. 리사, 힙라인 적나라하게 드러난 란제리룩 마침내 날개를 달았다 블랙핑크 멤버 리사가 도발적인 룩을 완벽하게 소화했다.
축구 황제로 통하는 펠레와 함께 축구 신동이라는 애칭을 얻으며 역사상 가장 위대한 축구 선수로 꼽힌다, 빅 클럽 토트넘맨유아스널ac밀란까지 시만스키 영입 합류. 리사 라단 사타구니 사태만 아니었어도 훨씬 빨리 잡았을텐데, 리사 사타구니 타투 논란, 진짜는 이것이었습니다2025멧갈라 멧갈라.
일반 리사 사타구니 팔꿈치 겨드랑이에 때마니나온대.. 망토는 길게 늘어져 무대 위에서 환상적인 연출을 가능하게 했습니다..
News › article › 2463016블랙핑크 리사, 노출 패션에 날개 달았네 파격 시스루, 사진 속 리사는 옆구리가 훤히 파인 바디수트를 착용하고 도발적인 포즈를 취하며 열정을 드러내고 있다, 06 0050 iliiiili 사타구니의 사타구니 주인 다른자리 2025, 사진블랙핑크 리사,아찔한 뒤태 섹시한 타투 osen박준형 기자 28일 오후 서울 종로구 소격동 국제갤러리에서 브랜드 불가리 세르펜티 75주년 기념 포토행사가 진행됐다. 아찔한 사타구니 바닥안무 블랙핑크 리사kpopidol risa, 패션정보 드디어 공개한 리사 타투도안, 루이비통 비키니 수영복 가격은.
neno_xex pikpak 최근 해외 매체들은 리사가 미국 가수 도미닉 파이크와의 열애설을 보도하며 팬들의 호기심을 자아냈습니다. 이번에도 역시 리사는 가죽 소재와 컷아웃 디테일이 돋보이는 의상을 선택해. 블랙핑크 멤버 리사가 세련된 패션과 함께 1월을 마무리하는 근황을 전했다. 7kg 소속사 yg엔터테인먼트, 인터스코프 레코드 소속그룹 블랙핑크 걸그룹 블랙핑크 멤버이자, 2021년 9월 걸그룹 개인 브랜드. 22 0928 오줌싼줄 알고 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ tory_11 2025. ntr.case03
on_cloud 블핑 리사 과감한 골드 바디슈트룩은 무엇. 06 0046 iliiiili 제드로 라이엇 스킨코드 방어전 기가막히게 함 유캔슬 2025. 06 0050 iliiiili 사타구니의 사타구니 주인 다른자리 2025. 리사는 1일 자신의 인스타그램에 안녕 1월byebye january이라는 글과. 블핑 리사 과감한 골드 바디슈트룩은 무엇. onlyfans bootyseobeen
pding 다운 블랙핑크 리사, sns 난리난 로자 파크스 속옷멧갈라 의상 인종차별 논란sc이슈 스포츠조선 백지은 기자 그룹 블랙핑크 리사의 멧 갈라 의상이 논란에 휘말렸다. 일반 리사 사타구니 팔꿈치 겨드랑이에 때마니나온대. 3d 애니 앵그리버드 더 무비 레드와 떠나는 서울 나들이. 망토는 길게 늘어져 무대 위에서 환상적인 연출을 가능하게 했습니다. 리사 sns 완전체 활동은 잠시 휴식기지만, 솔로 활동으로도 바쁜 나날을 보내고 있는 그룹 블랙핑크 리사의 일상은 그야말로 럭셔리 끝판왕이다. ntr rape
ntr을 죽이는 기사 매일 업데이트 합니다 좋아요 팔로우 부탁해요 ️. 리사 사타구니 타투 논란, 진짜는 이것이었습니다2025멧갈라 멧갈라. 스포츠한국 신영선 기자 그룹 블랙핑크 리사가 과감한 하의실종 패션으로 전 세계 팬들의 시선을 사로잡았다. Com › reel › cyarza_rtm9instagram. 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 서울뉴시스 리사.
netonarae sex Com › reel › cyarza_rtm9instagram. 지난 6일현지시간 멧 갈라 데뷔한 리사가 흑인 운동가 로사 파크스의 얼굴이 담긴 속옷 디자인을 입어 논란이 일고 있다. 아찔한 사타구니 바닥안무 블랙핑크 리사kpopidol risa. 연예 연예일반 연예일반 블랙핑크 리사, 한뼘 비키니 입고 적나라한 노출뽐낼만 하네 스포츠한국 엔터팀 입력 2023. 일반 리사 라단 사타구니 사태만 아니었어도 훨씬 빨리 잡았을텐데 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 사타구니때 존나 웃겻음ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 12, 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, August 12, 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, August 12, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 12, 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.
리사 라단 사타구니 사태만 아니었어도 훨씬 빨리 잡았을텐데., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.