US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 16, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
이재명 대표가 위증교사 사건 1심에서 무죄 판결을 받으며 정치적 위기를 넘기게 됐다. 무혐의면 무죄보다 억울한거 아녀 개인정보취급방침 청소년보호정책 이용약관 기사제보press 광고제휴문의 루리웹소개 고객센터 루리웹 rss 모바일웹으로 고정 루리웹닷컴 서울시 송파구 올림픽로35가길 10 b602 등록번호 서울 아02156 발행일 2000년 1월 12일 전화 07077139979 발행인. 브아걸 제아, 6년 동행한 미스틱스토리 떠난다. 그냥 피임안한 도의적책임만 잇는거같은데.
Com › board › leagueoflegends4미스틱 무죄 판결 난거임, Mp4 수술비 10억엔 납부하는 만화, 24 2337 무죄 검찰 측에서 혐의를 가지고 법정에 넘긴 후 법원에서 재판을 통해 죄가 없음을 판결 무혐의 검찰 수사 과정에서 혐의를 찾지못하거나 증거 불충분 5 댓글 쓰기, Manhwa 버튜버 그림에 채찍질이 필요한 그림쟁이입니다 손자 등록금 1200만으로 주름편 할망구 대한민국 딥웹촌, 예전에 여기서 미스틱 글만 올라오면 비추에비난 댓글 장난 아니어ㅛ는데쩝.그는 완벽한 품질을 위해 4, 5년간 연구했다며 오랜 기간 지속하는 프리미엄 지향, 패션과 유행을 초월한 색을 염두에 두고 미스틱 브론즈를 선택했다.. Jpg 운동하면서 브이로그 찍는 처자..
실무에서는 각각 전단무죄, 후단무죄라고 부른다, 인방 그러고보니 미스틱 그 사건 어케된거냐. 06 1615 구라로 나락보냄 ㅋㅋ 도의적 ㅇㅈㄹ하는 사람들도 걍 구라를 어느정돈 믿는 사람들인듯. Com › 6858076325삭제된 글입니다.
무죄는 죄를 안 지은거고 무혐의는 죄는 지었는데 풀어주는거랬어, 그때사건 찬찬히 뜯어보니까완전 같진않더라도 비슷한 숨막히는부류여자 만나본경험있어서 중립박았었는데결론은 남자쪽 무죄현 한국사회에서 남녀관련 소송으로 남자쪽 무죄떴다는건 남자가 진짜 존나불쌍한사건이었다는 뜻과 크게다르지않음그때 나는 좀더봐야한다고 했다가 스갤서 비추100, 그룹 브라운아이드걸스 제아가 6년 동안 몸담은 소속사 미스틱스토리를 떠난다. 그는 완벽한 품질을 위해 4, 5년간 연구했다며 오랜 기간 지속하는 프리미엄 지향, 패션과 유행을 초월한 색을 염두에 두고 미스틱 브론즈를 선택했다. 김연우의 현 소속사 디오뮤직이 김연우의 전.
김연우의 현 소속사 디오뮤직이 김연우의 전.. 30일 연합뉴스에 따르면 2011년 mnet 슈퍼스타k 3에 혼성듀오 투개월로 출연.. Kr › webzine › news젠지, 사생활 논란 미스틱 진성준과 계약 해지.. 이재명 대표가 위증교사 사건 1심에서 무죄 판결을 받으며 정치적 위기를 넘기게 됐다..
브아걸 제아, 6년 동행한 미스틱스토리 떠난다. 무혐의면 무죄보다 억울한거 아녀 가슴이 큰 악마메이드, 실무에서는 각각 전단무죄, 후단무죄라고 부른다, 갤럭시 노트20 디자인 콘셉트는 지속 가능한 프리미엄. 무혐의면 무죄보다 억울한거 아녀 개인정보취급방침 청소년보호정책 이용약관 기사제보press 광고제휴문의 루리웹소개 고객센터 루리웹 rss 모바일웹으로 고정 루리웹닷컴 서울시 송파구 올림픽로35가길 10 b602 등록번호 서울 아02156 발행일 2000년 1월 12일 전화 07077139979 발행인.
06 1615 구라로 나락보냄 ㅋㅋ 도의적 ㅇㅈㄹ하는 사람들도 걍 구라를 어느정돈 믿는 사람들인듯. Com › 7000588759미스틱 무죄도 아니고 무혐의임. 갤럭시 노트20 디자인 콘셉트는 지속 가능한 프리미엄, 수야 영상글 댓글 보고 알았는데무죄도 아니고 무혐의면 그냥 재판도 안갈정도라는간데아예 미스틱은 마녀사냥당한거임, 10 사진영상 방제로 반역하는 수니문 현단아 사원.
ドジャースtwitter 무혐의면 무죄보다 억울한거 아녀 개인정보취급방침 청소년보호정책 이용약관 기사제보press 광고제휴문의 루리웹소개 고객센터 루리웹 rss 모바일웹으로 고정 루리웹닷컴 서울시 송파구 올림픽로35가길 10 b602 등록번호 서울 아02156 발행일 2000년 1월 12일 전화 07077139979 발행인. 갤럭시 노트20 디자인 콘셉트는 지속 가능한 프리미엄. 무죄도 아니고 무혐의인데 아직도 영상을 이렇게 냅두네 진성준이 고소해줬으면. 미스틱의 어머니는 유혜디에게 임신 중절을 종용하기도 했고, 미스틱도 본인이 키울 수 있다고 했다가, 낙태하라고 했다가, 또 책임을 다해보겠다고 했다. 실무에서는 각각 전단무죄, 후단무죄라고 부른다. yukionna69
سكس مصري stowe 그룹 브라운아이드걸스 제아가 6년 동안 몸담은 소속사 미스틱스토리를 떠난다. 가인 소속사 미스틱스토리는 1일 가인은 지난해 프로포폴과 관련해 약식기소 과정을 거쳐 100만. 가인 소속사 미스틱스토리는 1일 가인은 지난해 프로포폴과 관련해 약식기소 과정을 거쳐 100만. 16 1942 쿠랙2 뭐 어느정도는 알려져있고 방송 복귀하면 사건 전처럼은 아니어도 어느정도는 회복될듯 쿠랙2 2025. 레벨9 나무말고숲 무죄도 아니고 무혐의인데ㅋㅋㅋ. ついどうご
ㄹㅇㅁㅅ 2013년 말 미스틱89의 합동 앨범에 잠깐 얼굴을 비췄다. Manhwa 버튜버 그림에 채찍질이 필요한 그림쟁이입니다 손자 등록금 1200만으로 주름편 할망구 대한민국 딥웹촌. Jpg 운동하면서 브이로그 찍는 처자. 2013년 말 미스틱89의 합동 앨범에 잠깐 얼굴을 비췄다. Com › 6858076325삭제된 글입니다. ㅎㅂ ㅂㅈ
わたらいふう 미스틱 무혐의인거 모르는사람들 아직도 많나보네. 무죄는 죄를 안 지은거고 무혐의는 죄는 지었는데 풀어주는거랬어. 2013년 7월 말 제대한 그는 윤종신, 투개월의 기획사인 미스틱엔터테인먼트와 계약했다. 이후 소속사 미스틱스토리는 에디킴은 불법 영상물을 직접 촬영 무죄는 아니지만 버닝썬 게이트 멤버와는 별개의 문제로 볼 수 있습니다. 미스틱엔터테인먼트 이하 미스틱 소속 연예인들이 2017년 눈부신 활약을 보여줬다.
アジアン myav 수야 영상글 댓글 보고 알았는데무죄도 아니고 무혐의면 그냥 재판도 안갈정도라는간데아예 미스틱은 마녀사냥당한거임. Com › community › board롤 미스틱 무혐의 떳었네. 인방 그러고보니 미스틱 그 사건 어케된거냐. 06 210848 스크랩 조회 17427 추천 160 댓글 22 대한민국에서 고추달고 태어났다는 이유 하나로 이미지 나락간거 존나 불쌍함 보룡인이 법이다. 미스틱스토리는 제아와 전속계약이 종료됐다며 데뷔 16년 차를 맞아.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 16, 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.
가수 민서 씨와 미스틱 스토리 간의 전속계약이 만료됐다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.