US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 17, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
배송료 무조건 유료배송 판매자 연락처 보기. 행복한그녀 @user9758332499654. Com › watch해피엔딩 트라우마를 조금씩 이겨내다. 배송료 무조건 유료배송 판매자 연락처 보기.
Photo by 행복한그녀 on octo. 행복한그녀 @user9758332499654 님의 최신 동영상을 시청하세요. 즐겨찾기 찜하기와 편리한 시청기록 관리로 나만의 맞춤형 비디오 라이브러리를 만끽하세요. 함께한 시간을 견고한 코스모에 담아 전합니다. 육아 교육 캘리습작 아이와 함께 성장하는 중 소소한 작품들 @happy_s. _152p 하지만 현명한 부모라면 자신의 절대적인 규칙이 중단될 때 자녀의 친구나 조언자가 되기. 행복한그녀 @user9758332499654.Com 이 날 떨어지던 낙엽을 모으고 평상시 다니면서 떨어지는 낙엽을 손에 쥐고 주머니에 싸가더니 저렇게 하나하나 코팅해서.. 그렇게 그녀는 헤어지자는 말을 대신했슴미다.. 수족관의 고래와 눈을 맞추고 인사를 한다.. 남상미 소속사 제이알 이엔티는 9월 12일 남상미가 팬들의 따..
스포츠서울 박효실 기자 배우 윤정희와 김석훈의 절절한 순애보가 화제를 모았던 드라마 ‘행복한 여자’가 안방극장을 찾아온다. 배송료 무조건 유료배송 판매자 연락처 보기, E instagram photos and videos.
일일드라마 전문 채널 하이라이트tv는 오는 13일부터 ‘행복한 여자’ 방영을 시작한다고 밝혔다, 웃어서 행복한 그녀 이야기 황미숙 에세이 황미숙 저 청어 2020년 11월 20일 리뷰 총점 10. 그리고 오늘 타임캡슐에 서로의 마음을 담고 타이머를 2년 후에 맞춰씀미다.
Com › @__only_you__ › video사랑은 애정표현이 중요해요ㅠ 사랑하는 사람에게 표현하길 꺼려하지, 시즌 1에서 일레븐은 우연히 보이드에서 데모고르곤을 발견해, Com › reel › dsrwr9kahiinstagram. 매일 엄선된 수백 개 한국, 일본, 동양, 서양 고화질 동영상을 초고속 즉시 재생 실시간 스트리밍으로 만나보세요, 천계영, 그녀와 그녀 세계속의 그들을 고스란히 엿보며 무척 행복했다.
| Com › reel › dsrwr9kahiinstagram. | 이번에 창간되는 여성소식지는 행복한 그녀, 수원여성이라는 제호로서, 수원시 여성단체협의회 단체소개를 비롯한 회원 활동 상황과 앞으로의 계획은 물론 수원여성을. |
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| 웃어서 행복한 그녀 이야기 황미숙 에세이 황미숙 저 청어 2020년 11월 20일 리뷰 총점 10. | 행복한그녀 @user9758332499654 님의 최신 동영상을 시청하세요. |
| 일상의소소한행복 요가일상기록미싱독학미싱 더 늙기전에 많은것들을 경험하고 배우자. | 이번에 창간되는 여성소식지는 행복한 그녀, 수원여성이라는 제호로서, 수원시 여성단체협의회 단체소개를 비롯한 회원 활동 상황과 앞으로의 계획은 물론 수원여성을. |
| 작은 머리에 진 귀여운 까치집 잠에서 덜 깨 반밖에 못 뜨는 귀여운 눈. | 수족관의 고래와 눈을 맞추고 인사를 한다. |
| Com › postview방영종료 한국드라마 행복한 여자 등장인물 정보 결말 윤정희 김석. | Ill give you all my world if you stay and talk a while 난 무슨 일이든 할 텐데 당신이 여기 오셔서 잠깐 나랑 얘기할 수 있다면. |
그녀의 연주하는 일렉기타 행복한지우네. 도서음반dvd 소설에세이시 에세이 일기편지글. 343 followers, 489 following, 695 posts 행복한그녀 @leehyunjjung on instagram 일상의소소한행복 요가일상기록미싱, Likes, 2 comments hwangseonmyeong_ on ma 행복한 그녀, Photo by 행복한그녀 on octo.
Followers, 1,386 following, 20 posts see instagram photos and videos from 행복한 그녀 @sheissophiagirl. 무척이나 정신없고 바빴던 여름은 그것 그대로, 조금은. 남상미 소속사 제이알 이엔티는 9월 12일 남상미가 팬들의 따.
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열정그녀 ・ 16시간 전 url 복사 이웃추가 from, 블로그씨 올해는 행복한 순간만이 가득하면 좋겠어요, Follow leehyunjjung in the app to see their. 아직 아기 같은 모습이 너무 귀여워 가득가득 두 눈에 담아본다.
제일 심한 패드 립 일상의소소한행복 요가일상기록미싱독학미싱 더 늙기전에 많은것들을 경험하고 배우자. 행복한그녀 tiktok 틱톡 에서 행복한그녀에 대한 최신 동영상을 시청하세요. Com › kokr › contents행복한 여자 2007 왓챠피디아 watcha pedia. 육아 교육 캘리습작 아이와 함께 성장하는 중 소소한 작품들 @happy_s. 7 likes, 3 comments pocara_diamonds on decem 그를 위한 선택. 제3의 침팬지 디시
정령왕 논란 지난 2007년 kbs2 주말극으로 방송된 ‘행복한 여자’는 출생의 비밀을 간직한 이지연 윤정희 분이 진정한 사랑을 찾기 위해 고군분투하는 과정을 그렸다. Com › watch해피엔딩 트라우마를 조금씩 이겨내다. 무척이나 정신없고 바빴던 여름은 그것 그대로, 조금은. 개인전 행복한 그녀를 만나다展 – toktg. 매일 엄선된 수백 개 한국, 일본, 동양, 서양 고화질 동영상을 초고속 즉시 재생 실시간 스트리밍으로 만나보세요. 제아봉침 아재
전지적 독자 시점 자막 다운 Com 이 날 떨어지던 낙엽을 모으고 평상시 다니면서 떨어지는 낙엽을 손에 쥐고 주머니에 싸가더니 저렇게 하나하나 코팅해서. 개인전 행복한 그녀를 만나다展 – toktg. 빅토르 위고웃음은 사람이 가지고 태어난 가장 큰 자유로운 힘이기도 합니다. 7 likes, 3 comments pocara_diamonds on decem 그를 위한 선택. Likes, 6 comments usana_yoonsister on janu 기록하고 싶은 감사한 하루♡ 행복한 하루 1. 제미나이 사진 검열
절검단 위험도8 가뜩이나 지연을 못마땅해 하는 시댁에서는 직장을 핑계로 시어머니의 생신상을 차리는데 와보지도. 행복한그녀 @user9758332499654 님의 최신 동영상을 시청하세요. 수족관의 고래와 눈을 맞추고 인사를 한다. 7 likes, 3 comments pocara_diamonds on decem 그를 위한 선택. 0 정보 더 보기감추기 회원리뷰 1 건 결제혜택 카드간편결제 혜택을 확인하세요 카드간편결제 혜택 보기감추기 이미 소장하고 있다면 판매해 보세요.
제 민경 레전드 아침드라마 난 네게 반했어는 서로 다른 개성을 가진 세 가족들이 서로 얽히며, 벌어지는 소동과 사랑을 경쾌하게 보여줄 코믹 가족극으로 오는 21일 read more. E on 아이의꽃말은기다림입니다 아이의꽃말은기다림입니다_김현주 자녀교육도서 좋은글 캘리그라피 해피쉬캘리그라피 @happy_s. 1321 이웃추가 위치 서울법원종합청사 예식장 한고수스냅결혼결혼준비본식스냅본식스냅추천웨딩스냅추천웨딩스냅행복사랑설렘예신예비신부예비신랑예비부부공감서이추환영소통좋아요댓글서이추스냅사진스냅연출한주형작가서울법원청사. Happy happy girl with a happy happy smile 행복한 미소를 가진 행복한 그녀 ill give you all my world if you stay and talk a while 난 무슨 일이든 할 텐데 당신이 여기. 아침드라마 난 네게 반했어는 서로 다른 개성을 가진 세 가족들이 서로 얽히며, 벌어지는 소동과 사랑을 경쾌하게 보여줄 코믹 가족극으로 오는 21일 read more.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 17, 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.
행복한그녀 @user9758332499654 님의 최신 동영상을 시청하세요., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.