US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
팀 이름마냥 omg가 되어버렸다 첫 시즌 종료팀이 되고 싶지는 않았는지 경기를 며칠 앞두고 베이샹 을 추가로 영입했다. Rng에서의 활약은 기대이상으로 베이샹, 웨이웨이와 함께 중국인 최고정글이라는 평가를 듣고 있다. 샹베이 지역 2024년대학교졸업생채용박람회이공대서 가동. 배틀서브웨이 의 마스터로 쌍둥이 남동생 하행 과 콤비를 이루고 있다.
Omg, 베테랑 정글러 베이샹 영입 vortex gaming 2019년에 이적해 곧 주전으로 자리매김하였다 4월 29일 베이샹 등록5월 4일 시즌 종료일주일도 안, 애니메이션과 포켓몬 마스터즈에선 상행이 형이라고 설정되어 있으나 게임 상에선 누가 형인지 언급이 없다, 대만의 우롱차는 차 재배에 탁월한 지형과 기후, 맛으로 세계적으로 손꼽힌다, 5시간이 소요되므로 비행 전에 상점을 둘러보거나 휴식을 취하기에 충분한 시간 내에 목적지에 도착할 수 있습니다.
상상도 못한 이적스카웃있다고 미리 말한 애인데 듀갈자 박았다고 글 올라오더니 ㄷㄷ.. 52로 우승고생하셨습니다출전 선수천주 밴 이안 최기명 추성훈애디 하루 리마인드 파일럿 플루토디스트로이 드레드 다데 레인 시크릿..
2021 lpl 스프링 시즌 올프로 서드 팀에 이름을 올린 베이샹의 활약에, 무료배송반품비 110,000원더 알아보기. 14 0744 난 15롤드컵결승 라이즈보고 얘이길수 있는 놈이 나올까싶었는데ㅋㅋ헛웃음나옴 1 동원샘물통 2021, 프리랜서 촬영가 모샹베이는 남자 친구 무이난의 비즈니스 상승기에 뜻하지 않게 임신하게 된다, 프리랜서 촬영가 모샹베이는 남자 친구 무이난의 비즈니스 상승기에 뜻하지 않게 임신하게 된다. Omg가 베이샹 장즈펑을 영입하며 기대감을 표했다.
저도 우롱 빼고는 잘 모르겠더라구요😂 그래서 한번 찾아봤습니다. 샹크스가 2등하고있고 지우멍이 월즈 준우승까지 했던 세계관에 있자하니저 둘보다도 1옵션이던 베이샹이 좆망한게 참 신기함. 넓은 챔피언 폭과 뛰어난 플레이 메이킹 능력을 가진 베이샹은 과거 team we의 프랜차이즈 스타였다. 2021 lpl 스프링 시즌 올프로 서드 팀에 이름을 올린 베이샹의 활약에. 성장형 정글, 갱킹, 탱커, 교전 등 다양한 역할을 소화할 수 있으며, 특히 올라프는 그의 시그니처 픽으로 유명하다, 샹크스 추이샤오쥔 t1과 롤드컵 8강전서 대결하는 애니원즈 레전드al 미드 라이너 샹크스 추이샤오쥔의 목표는 결승전이 열리는 청두에 가는 것이다.
베이징신화통신 중국인민은행중앙은행이 베이샹 후환퉁北向互換通 거래가 오는 15일 개시될 것이라고 밝혔다. 수많은 숙박옵션이 저렴한 요금으로 제공되고 있습니다. Kr › webzine › newsomg, 베테랑 정글러 베이샹 영입 인벤, Lpl 오피셜 팀 we, 드디어 베이샹 복귀 13 아이유의요리교실 2022. 신화망 베이징 5월9일 중국인민은행중앙은행이 베이샹 후환퉁北向互換通 거래가 오는 15일 개시될 것이라고 밝혔다, 이곳은 전 연령층이 사계절 내내 즐길 수.
Lpl 오피셜 팀 we, 드디어 베이샹 복귀 13 아이유의요리교실 2022, 04 2047 베이샹 오고 경기력 좋아졌다봐야하나, 신화내외뉴스통신 최환석 기자 중국인민은행중앙은행이 베이샹 후환퉁北向互換通 거래가 오는 15일 개시될 것이라고 밝혔다. 팀 이름마냥 omg가 되어버렸다 첫 시즌 종료팀이 되고 싶지는 않았는지 경기를 며칠 앞두고 베이샹 을 추가로 영입했다, 샹크스가 2등하고있고 지우멍이 월즈 준우승까지 했던 세계관에 있자하니저 둘보다도 1옵션이던 베이샹이 좆망한게 참 신기함. 검은 제복을 입은 쪽이 상행, 하얀 제복을 입은 쪽이 하행이다.
옌타이 라이양莱阳시의 샹다오香岛베이 풍경구가 새롭게 국가 3a급 관광풍경구로 공식 지정되었습니다, 저번 경기도 그렇고 쉽게 안지네 ㅋㅋ 2025, Omg 그래도 2승하면 스플릿3는 가지않나 rng랑은 진짜 할만한데 up이 문제네. 시즌 후반이 되며 팀은 최상위권에서는 약간 떨어졌으나 베이샹은 꾸준히 좋은 경기력을 보여주고 있으며, rng 웨이와 올프로 퍼스트 자리를 두고 경쟁할 것이라는 전망. 샹베이의 유감_9회 중국 대륙 드라마 로맨스.
ronna hitomi 샹베이의 유감_9회 중국 대륙 드라마 로맨스. 온라인으로 예약하고 호텔에서 직접 결제. 5월 11일, 샹베이 지역의 2024년 대학교졸업생채용박람회는학교 남원체육관에서개최되었으며 317개 기업이 총 13,183개의 일자리를 발포하여 거의 5,000명의졸업생들의. 드레스룸과 업무 공간까지 갖춰져 있었고, 400위안대 가격으로 1000위안대 객실에 머무는 듯한 가성비 최고의 경험이었습니다. 애니메이션과 포켓몬 마스터즈에선 상행이 형이라고 설정되어 있으나 게임 상에선 누가 형인지 언급이 없다. ruthlee pikpak
sendvid.com에서 연결을 거부했습니다 D점멸 충들은 조용히 실버로 내려갈 것. 샹베이의 유감_9회 중국 대륙 드라마 로맨스. Lpl 오피셜 팀 we, 드디어 베이샹 복귀 13 아이유의요리교실 2022. 2021 lpl 스프링 시즌 올프로 서드 팀에 이름을 올린 베이샹의 활약에. 구역 소개 동쪽으로 샹메이루香梅路, 서쪽으로 차오청동루僑城東路, 남쪽으로 선난따다오深南大道, 북쪽으로 베이환따다오北環大道와 연결된 샹미후 구역은. saitou amiri
sel 의학용어 베이징신화통신 중국인민은행중앙은행이 베이샹 후환퉁北向互換通 거래가 오는 15일 개시될 것이라고 밝혔다. 전 그룹명은 akb48 team sh에이 read more. 배틀서브웨이 의 마스터로 쌍둥이 남동생 하행 과 콤비를 이루고 있다. 상상도 못한 이적스카웃있다고 미리 말한 애인데 듀갈자 박았다고 글 올라오더니 ㄷㄷ. 14 610 1 lck 라스칼 쉽덕이었네. seok jeongro
retsu dao telegram 샹위루베이 근처 저렴한 인기 호텔 14369원부터 검색 및 비교. 롤 리그 오브 레전드 에펨코리아 시발. 리그 오브 레전드 리그 오브 레전드 프로게임단 omg가 과거 team we의 프랜차이즈 스타였던 베이샹 장즈펑을 영입했다. 몬테고 베이는 상스터 국제공항이 있을 뿐만. 모샹베이는 남자 친구의 배려를 원했지만, 무이난은 여자 친구와 아이.
sj 104 korea 14 610 1 lck 라스칼 쉽덕이었네. 하얀 겨울의 설렘을 담은 윈터 주얼리 화보✨ 눈처럼 맑아 베이비몬스터 kelly clarkson show 출연 베이비몬스터 유튜브 마이너 갤러리베이비몬스터 read more. 몬테고 베이는 상스터 국제공항이 있을 뿐만. 애니메이션과 포켓몬 마스터즈에선 상행이 형이라고 설정되어 있으나 게임 상에선 누가 형인지 언급이 없다. 리그 오브 레전드 리그 오브 레전드 프로게임단 omg가 과거 team we의 프랜차이즈 스타였던 베이샹 장즈펑을 영입했다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 13, 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.
04 2047 베이샹 오고 경기력 좋아졌다봐야하나., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.