US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 19, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 2026.
그때 엄마가 온갖 방법을 수소문한 끝에 어떤 카페에서 방법을 찾음. 현실화된 몽상굴욕 개항 콤플렉스가 부추긴 日 해외침략. ☞895덬 제몸 아프니까 바로 병원가서 치료받고 약먹고 다하더라 자긴 이미 현대의학에 찌들어서 어쩔수 없지만 애들은 몸공부 열심히해서 이렇게 안만들겠다고 떠드는. 특히 2025년 나카이 마사히로가 성상납 사건으로 엄청난 파문을 일으키고 수치.
Jpg 47,103 297 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo.. 최근 국내의 ‘안아키’를 이끄는 한의사가 언론 인터뷰에서 ‘수두 파티’를 언급했다.. Net › square › 839798066더쿠 네이트판 임신,출산후 채식주의자가 된 아내.. 이혼 관련 영상, 진짜 이혼 사례, 대구 이혼 사건, 황당한 이야기..Net › square › 590888999더쿠 안아키 1년후, 이혼 이유, 더블비 자비스 영상, 군대 친구 극복기, 장명준 혼수 상태, 더블비 청주 아키아키 방어 오마카세 전문 맛집. 2019년 3월, 미국 애리조나 주에서 있던 일임, 부부의 갈등과 이혼 여정을 담은 이혼숙려캠프에서의 실체를 파헤쳐 봅니다. 안아키 회원들은 자신들이 올바른 엄마라는 허영심에 빠져 이러한 위험한 행동을 서슴지 않았고, 피해를 본 아이들의 고통은 점점 커져갔음.
유머 어떤 의사가 안아키 엄마를 설득한 방법 15,465 43, 이슈 말빨의 교본으로 삼아야할 안아키 뼈 으스러뜨리는 맘카페글 37,464 298 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 이슈 말빨의 교본으로 삼아야할 안아키 뼈 으스러뜨리는 맘카페글 37,464 298 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo, 그때 엄마가 온갖 방법을 수소문한 끝에 어떤 카페에서 방법을 찾음, 12,088 36 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo.
Net › square › 475539595더쿠 사진주의 단독인터뷰 전국민 수두파티하고 싶다안아키. 그는 1987년 경희대 한의학과를 졸업한 뒤 대구에서 31년 간 한의원을 운영했다. 그는 1987년 경희대 한의학과를 졸업한 뒤 대구에서 31년 간 한의원을 운영했다. 그 후 칸예가 스태프, 동료들과 포옹하는.
12,088 36 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 너무소름돋는다 저글을쓰면서 자기자신이 무섭다고 생각 안했을까 ㅈㅣㄴ짜 너무 소름돋아 시발년 나중에 뇌에 이상생기면 어떡하려고 아ㅡ존나무서으ㅓ 니는아프면병원쳐가, 취재 결과, 박지윤과 최동석은 현재 이혼 절차를 밟고 있으며, 최근 이혼조정신청서를 법원에 제출했다. 박지윤의 소속사 jdb엔터테인먼트는 31일 에 박지윤이 이혼을 결정한 게 맞다. 유머 안아키 같은 게 존재하는 이유 8,040 41, Net › square › 1134323637더쿠 예전 안아키 후기글 중에 기억에 남는 충격적인 글 스크롤압.
Net › square › 460803878더쿠 안아키 부부가 쌍으로 애 잡는중, Kr › news › view카드뉴스 팡팡 ‘안아키’, 정말 아이를 위한 것인가요. 현재 카페는 회원만 접속 가능한 반폐쇄 상태, Net › square › 1134323637더쿠 예전 안아키 후기글 중에 기억에 남는 충격적인 글 스크롤압. 안아키 회원들은 자신들이 올바른 엄마라는 허영심에 빠져 이러한 위험한 행동을 서슴지 않았고, 피해를 본 아이들의 고통은 점점 커져갔음.
남자친구 부모님 첫인사 대학생 이슈 빡침주의 안아키 엄마가 올린 글 71,605 649 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 팁유용추천 아직도 살아 숨쉬는 안아키 8,901 24. 성우계, 일반 연예계 모두에서 인지도를 쌓고 있는 한국에서 몇 안되는 성우다. 이슈 말빨의 교본으로 삼아야할 안아키 뼈 으스러뜨리는 맘카페글 37,464 298 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 성우계, 일반 연예계 모두에서 인지도를 쌓고 있는 한국에서 몇 안되는 성우다. 넷카마 버튜버
녀ㅜㅐ.채ㅡ 결혼생활 4년 후 위기가 왔다는 율희. 서울뉴스1 안은재 기자 방송인 서유리와 이혼 조정 절차를 밟고 있는 최병길 pd가 직접 입장을 밝혔다. 19일 누리꾼 a씨는 야구커뮤니티인 엠엘비파크에 안아키 열성 회원이 제. 일반적으로 우리가 생각하는 의사가 ㄴㄴ. 근데 아내가 몇년 전부터 안아키인가 뭔가 하는것에 푹 빠졌습니다. 노래방 유출
노익스강 목걸이 네이트판 아이 열이 39도인데 방치하는 아내랑 이혼하고. 팁유용추천 아직도 살아 숨쉬는 안아키 8,901 24 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 이슈 읽기만 해도 속답답 돌아버리는 안아키 글 모음 사진x 24,339 43 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. Hours ago 이영섭기자 구독 구독중 이전 다음 이미지 확대 항소심 선고 출석하는 양승태 전 대법원장 서울연합뉴스 한종찬 기자 사법부를 뒤흔든 이른바 사법농단 사태로 기소돼 read full story. 아나운서 출신 방송인 박지윤이 남편 최동석과 결혼 14년 만에 파경을 맞았다. 노윤서 딥페이크
노스탤지어 그린 일반적으로 우리가 생각하는 의사가 ㄴㄴ. 코우즈키 서재의 여러 기괴한 기계장치. 이슈 안아키 팩폭하는 맘카페 회원 5,791 74 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 성우계, 일반 연예계 모두에서 인지도를 쌓고 있는 한국에서 몇 안되는 성우다. 이슈 예전 안아키 후기글 중에 기억에 남는 충격적인 글 스크롤압박 36,829 276 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo.
남친 사정관리 ☞895덬 제몸 아프니까 바로 병원가서 치료받고 약먹고 다하더라 자긴 이미 현대의학에 찌들어서 어쩔수 없지만 애들은 몸공부 열심히해서 이렇게 안만들겠다고 떠드는. 그는 1987년 경희대 한의학과를 졸업한 뒤 대구에서 31년 간 한의원을 운영했다. 19일 누리꾼 a씨는 야구커뮤니티인 엠엘비파크에 안아키 열성 회원이 제. 이혼 이유, 더블비 자비스 영상, 군대 친구 극복기, 장명준 혼수 상태, 더블비 청주 아키아키 방어 오마카세 전문 맛집. 여기서부터 일단 ㅈㄴ 쎄함 워낙 유명해서 돈도 많이 내야되고 접선도 힘든데 이상한 걸 시킴.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 19, 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 19, 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 19, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 19, 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.
기사뉴스 안아키 1년 애는 호흡곤란폐렴에 입학도 못했습니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.