US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 14, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
소주연 과거사진과 실제 성격, 남친4. 영호가 초등학생 시절 괴롭혔던 가해자로 기태에게 당한 트라우마를 되갚아주기 위해 2학년짱이 되는 만악의 근원이다. 1%를 넘어서며 역대 ocn 드라마 최고 시청률 을 기록했다. 사진 웹드라마 일진에게 반했을 때에서 섬세한 감정 표현과 표정 연기.
배우 조진웅이 고교 시절 일진소년범이었다는 의혹이 제기되며 논란이 커지고 있다.. 엔터톡 숏컷이 잘 어울리는 배우하면 떠오르는 소주연.. Likes, 0 comments sharp_ing on decem 고위층 담당 일진美 있으시다⭐ tvn 프로보노 probono 정경호 소주연 이유영..
중딩 때 나 좋아한 일진이 나한테 뭐라 했게 ㅋㅋㅋ.. 배우 소주연 프로필 소주연은 1993년 12월 31일, 서울특별시 영등포구 신길동에서 태어났다.. 106 화 완결, comic, 소년, 액션, 드라마일상, 줄거리 고향을 떠나 서울의 한 공고로 전학 오게 되면서 시작되는 고수의 스펙타클한 공고 졸업기.. 소년원일진 의혹 제기소속사 사실 확인 중..2019년 웹드라마 로 데뷔한 배우이다. 2016년 브랜드 룩북 모델활동을 시작으로 3 2017년 가그린 광고로 대중들에게 서서히 알려지게 되면서 같은 해 단편영화, lg u+ 광고를 하였고 2018년 《속닥속닥》이라는 영화로 영화계에 정식으로 데뷔하며 플레이리스트 《하찮아도 괜찮아》라는 웹드라마를 시작으로 《회사 가기 싫어》, 《내 사랑. 낭만닥터 김사부3에 다시 윤아름 역으로 출연하긴 했으나 시즌2 당시보다 존재감은 당연히 덜했다.
| ️ ⠀ 첫 회부터 다채로운 매력을 보여준 소주연 배우. | 영호, 대천 수준은 아니지만 실력이 상당히 뛰어나다. | 돈많고 까칠한데 예쁜 일진누나 입니다. |
|---|---|---|
| この作品 「간호사 양모현 일진담당일진」 は 「일진담당일진」「manhwa」 等のタグがつけられた「종이구름」さんのイラストです。. | 소주연출생 1993년 12월 31일서울특별시 영등포구 신길동신체 키 157cm, 발 230mm가족 부모님데뷔 2017년 cf 가그린소속사 엘삭, 이앤에스 소주연 드라마 2017년플레이리스트 하찮아도 괜찮아지안 웹드라마2018년kbs2 회사 가기 싫어2019년kbs2 회사 가기 싫어이유진 파일럿사원 26세 여3년차. | 이웃추가 이번 포스팅에서는 8월 22일 아이치이 iqiyi에서 방영되는 조혁흠, 단성우 주연의 을 소개하려고 한다. |
| 사진 웹드라마 일진에게 반했을 때에서 섬세한 감정 표현과 표정 연기. | 소주연소주연배우배우낭만닥터김사부연예인팬서비스싸인사진actor 바닷마을다이어리 연극주말. | 소주연 과거사진과 실제 성격, 남친4. |
| 중딩 때 나 좋아한 일진이 나한테 뭐라 했게 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. | 극 중에서 서브 커플로서의 역할을 잘 소화해냈으며, 이 작품을 계기로 소주연 배우라는 이름이 크게 알려지고 브랜드 가치가 급상승하였다. | 영호, 대천 수준은 아니지만 실력이 상당히 뛰어나다. |
2018년 4월 24일 v 라이브 방송을 처음으로 켰다, 소주연 과거사진과 실제 성격, 남친4, 방송 중 권진아 의 노래를 굉장히 좋아한다고 밝혔다. 주연 배우들은 이벤트에 당첨된 주인공이 재학 중인 강원도.
fc2 miss 중딩 때 나 좋아한 일진이 나한테 뭐라 했게 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. 새빛남고 학생회 소주연 신동엽 강호동 김구라 이영자 컬투 남희석 이진호 김병만. 그 후 배우로 데뷔하여, 꾸준히 작품활동을 이어 가고 있는데요. Com › 4247860632포텐에 소주연올라왔네 야구 에펨코리아. V21rttuzwqcw김사부말고도 여기서도 존예였는데말이지참고로 제 폰배경. fapello.
fanza best 웹드라마의 주연배우들이 새로운 이야기까지 담아 녹음한 오디오 드라마 일진에게 찍혔을 때. 태백권 소주연 잔칫날 2020 무명mc인 주인공 경만과 동생 주연이 아버지의 갑작스러운 죽음을 맞게 되며, 경만은 아버지의 장례비용을 마련하기 위해 지방으로 축하연 행사를 가게 된다. 극 중에서 서브 커플로서의 역할을 잘 소화해냈으며, 이 작품을 계기로 소주연 배우라는 이름이 크게 알려지고 브랜드 가치가 급상승하였다. 1,952 likes, 18 comments sojuyeonstar on aug 나랑 같이 도망가자 마스크 벗고珞 코로나 없는 곳으로 헤헤 소주연 sojuyeon 소주연밖에모르는바보들 소주연팬클럽 소주연근황 백신미모 자연미인 저세상귀여움 방역미소 소주연긴머리. 새빛남고 학생회 소주연 신동엽 강호동 김구라 이영자 컬투 남희석 이진호 김병만. fc2 마누라
fc2 과즙세연 3에서 황대천의 동생 황지영과 사귀게 된다. Com › sojuyeonlove › postsfacebook. 청춘블라썸 서지훈, 소주연, 윤현수, 강혜원, 김민규왼쪽부터. 주연주연 모자모자 뭘 뒤집어써도 귀여워. 중딩 때 나 좋아한 일진이 나한테 뭐라 했게 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. fc2 뒤치기
fc2 ppv 4665097 V21rttuzwqcw김사부말고도 여기서도 존예였는데말이지참고로 제 폰배경. 10년 후에는 마침내 결혼에 성공, 음식점 사장이 된다. 魯 ♀️ 소주연모자 소주연패션 모자코디 소주연배우 소주연팬클럽. 1,952 likes, 18 comments sojuyeonstar on aug 나랑 같이 도망가자 마스크 벗고珞 코로나 없는 곳으로 헤헤 소주연 sojuyeon 소주연밖에모르는바보들 소주연팬클럽 소주연근황 백신미모 자연미인 저세상귀여움 방역미소 소주연긴머리. Likes, 0 comments sharp_ing on decem 고위층 담당 일진美 있으시다⭐ tvn 프로보노 probono 정경호 소주연 이유영.
fc2 수면 222 likes, 11 comments sojuyeonstar on febru 잘 생기셨네요. ️ ⠀ 첫 회부터 다채로운 매력을 보여준 소주연 배우. 2회만에 전작의 최고 시청률을 뛰어넘은데 이어 6회에는 기존 보이스2 의 7. 주연주연 모자모자 뭘 뒤집어써도 귀여워. 1,952 likes, 18 comments sojuyeonstar on aug 나랑 같이 도망가자 마스크 벗고珞 코로나 없는 곳으로 헤헤 소주연 sojuyeon 소주연밖에모르는바보들 소주연팬클럽 소주연근황 백신미모 자연미인 저세상귀여움 방역미소 소주연긴머리.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 14, 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.
Days ago 11 2003년 워낙 어린 나이에 데뷔하여 2007년 사망한 동명이인 정다빈 과 활동 기간이 겹쳐 동명이인 정다빈은 대 정다빈, 이 정다빈은 소 정다빈으로 불렸었다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.