US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 2, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 2026.
흑백사진 속 민한나는 아찔한 가슴골과 쇄골라인으로 눈길을 끌었다. Mbn 뉴스센터 mbnreporter01@mbn. 대한성형외과의사회 2025년 최우수회원 성형외과전문의 손형빈 피부과 직통 0314647575 모발센터 직통 0314415008 모발 이식 예쁜게답이야 앙코르눈밑지방재배치 코재수술 세미아웃눈성형 가슴성형 안면거상 지방흡입 피부과 모발이식. 특히 박민영의 특징인 또렷한 눈매를 성형 전 모습에서는 찾아볼 수 없습니다.
Is포토오토살롱위크 레이싱모델 민한나, 이 구역 섹시퀸.. 인스타 스토리 올리는거 보면 자꾸 솔로라고 고양이랑 둘이 산다고 하긴 하는데 ㅎㄷㅇ이랑 결혼해서 딸 낳은거 아님.. 그렇게 7년의 헬로비너스 데뷔겸 마지막 팬미팅을 2019년 5월 6일 가졌으며, 그 다음날인 5월 8일 전속.. 쌍커풀 수술을 한 사람을 주변에서 쉽게 찾아볼 수 있을만큼 성형은 우리에게 많이 대중화되었습니다..
中연구팀, 원숭이 목에 칩 이식해 로봇팔 조종영장류 뇌기계 실험 성공한 이유 원숭이가 두뇌에 연결된 로봇 팔을 움직이는 영상이 누리꾼들에게 주목받고 있다.. 지금보니 다들 키가 170cm 이상은 되어 보인다.. 나에게 10cm만 떼어줬으면 좋겠구나.. 허안나는 재수술에서 자가늑을 선택했는데, 이는 안전성 면에서 긍정적인 결정으로 평가받습니다..민한나, 사실 골반이 젤 자신있어요유혹중골반 깡패. 문화뉴스 mhn 이충희 기자 아프리카티비 tv bj 한나가 가슴성형에 대한 지인의 후기를 들려줬다. 김민지 육상선수 프로필과 연관 키워드 정리 최근 방송과 온라인 커뮤니티에서 주목받고 있는 육상선수 김민지. 중국 연구팀이 원숭이 목에 반도체 칩을 연결해 로봇팔을 조하는 데 성공했다고 밝혔다. Com › fstdevil › 222105130562민한나 레이싱걸 모델 네이버 블로그.
아름다움을 위해 성형수술 거듭했다가 그 결과, 성형중독자가 돼버린 사람들이 화제에 올랐다, 문화뉴스 mhn 이충희 기자 아프리카티비 tv bj 한나가 가슴성형에 대한 지인의 후기를 들려줬다. 톱스타뉴스 유혜지 기자 헬로비너스 출신 권나라의 성형 전 모습이 네티즌 사이 화제다.
nostalijia 허안나는 재수술에서 자가늑을 선택했는데, 이는 안전성 면에서 긍정적인 결정으로 평가받습니다. 대한성형외과의사회 2025년 최우수회원 성형외과전문의 손형빈 피부과 직통 0314647575 모발센터 직통 0314415008 모발 이식 예쁜게답이야 앙코르눈밑지방재배치 코재수술 세미아웃눈성형 가슴성형 안면거상 지방흡입 피부과 모발이식. 예고편 메인 예고편 시놉시스 군살은 없다. Mbn 뉴스센터 mbnreporter01@mbn. Com › board › view민한나 초개념 갤러리 디시인사이드. okaasan itadakimasu xxx
nene hentai 공개된 사진 속 민한나는 브이포즈를 취하며 사진을 촬영하고 있다. 코리아데일리 박영희 기자할리우드에서 가장 아름다운 여배우로 오스카상까지 받았던 대릴 한나와 세계 최초 슈모델이자 배우인 제니스 디킨슨도 성형중독자가 이름에 올랐다. Com › iii19191414 › statusx. 포토 레이싱모델 민한나, 선명한 복근 시선강탈. 지금보니 다들 키가 170cm 이상은 되어 보인다. nzjina
nell fisher erome 노브라로 이정도 볼륨감이라니 ㅠㅠㅠ 허리라인 들어가니 골반도 있어보이구 다이어트. 지난 9일 한 온라인 커뮤니티에 올라온 김민지 선수의 성형 전 사진으로 추측되는 몇 장의 사진으로 인해 게시판 전체가 떠들썩 했습니다. 1,085 followers, 173 following, 455 posts 한나이브성형외과 @hannaeve_ps on instagram since 2011, 압도적 퀄리티 안양성형외과 성형외과 피부과 모발이식 두피문신 🩷dm문의 환영 🩷카톡플친 @한나이브성형외과의원 🩷전화상담 15220333 👇한나이브 바로가기. 지난 9일 한 온라인 커뮤니티에 올라온 김민지 선수의 성형 전 사진으로 추측되는 몇 장의 사진으로 인해 게시판 전체가 떠들썩 했습니다. 권나라는 데뷔 초 모습과 사뭇 달라진 모습으로 성형 논란에 휩싸인 바 있다. nuruyama
phim sex araki noa 코리아데일리 박영희 기자할리우드에서 가장 아름다운 여배우로 오스카상까지 받았던 대릴 한나와 세계 최초 슈모델이자 배우인 제니스 디킨슨도 성형중독자가 이름에 올랐다. 1,085 followers, 173 following, 455 posts 한나이브성형외과 @hannaeve_ps on instagram since 2011, 압도적 퀄리티 안양성형외과 성형외과 피부과 모발이식 두피문신 🩷dm문의 환영 🩷카톡플친 @한나이브성형외과의원 🩷전화상담 15220333 👇한나이브 바로가기. 민한나는 13일 자신의 인스타그램에 사실 골반이 젤 자신있어요 8,9월은 주말마다 촬영에 집중하고 있으니꺄 그동안 못뵈신 분들 많이 만나요민한나. 작성자 a씨가 몇 장의 사진을 공개했지만 일부 누리꾼들은 동명이인이다 주장 하기도 했는데요. 스압 공대여신 e컵 이라는 모델 민한나.
panga 영화 예고편 메인 예고편 시놉시스 군살은 없다. 사실 헬로비너스의 노래무대를 본 적이없다. 민한나min hanna기본 정보본명 박채희출생 1995년 9월 14일 29세출생지 대한민국 서울특별시국적 🇰🇷 대한민국신체 172cm, 52kg, 발 사이즈 245mm가족 부모님, 반려묘 푸르학력 숭실대학교 공과대학 졸업mbti istjp종교 무종교직업 모델, 유튜버 1. 문화뉴스 mhn 이충희 기자 아프리카티비 tv bj 한나가 가슴성형에 대한 지인의 후기를 들려줬다. 예전과 달리 요즘은 연예인들도 성형사실을 숨김없이 당당하게 얘기하는 추세입니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 2, 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 2, 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 2, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 2, 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.
중국 연구팀이 원숭이 목에 반도체 칩을 연결해 로봇팔을 조하는 데 성공했다고 밝혔다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.