US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
더쿠 누난 내 여자라니까 40대 여성이 뜬다 결혼적령기는. 키167 체중87 재산 2011년식 모닝 한대 빚은없음. 돈이 없어서 여친의 결혼신청을 거절한 남자 그리고 후기. Net › square › 937523687더쿠 결혼준비할때 꼭 읽어봐야할 50가지.
아는 언니 2 대기업에서 일 잘하다가 결혼하고 아이 낳음.. 여자분들 결혼 안하는 이유가 뭔가요.. Hours ago 유머 60년 결혼생활동안 이혼생각 한번도 안해본 할머니.. 이슈 결혼 잘하고 싶은 20대 여자들 봐라 73,515 516..키167 체중87 재산 2011년식 모닝 한대 빚은없음, 상대방의 가족과 멀리 떨어진 곳에서 직장을 잡아야 한다면 이사할 수 있는가, Net › square › 4078084291더쿠 60년 결혼생활동안 이혼생각 한번도 안해본 할머니. 그런데 가끔 만나는 어른들이나 기혼인 지인들이 보자마자 안부라든가, 다른 화제를 하나도 꺼내지 않고 결혼 얘기를 해서 너무 당혹스러워.
민경훈의 소속사 인넥스트트렌드 측은 10일 ‘스포츠경향’과의 통화에서 결혼소식에 대해 결혼식을 올리는 것이 맞다고 인정한 후 결혼일자에 대해서는 자세한 일정은 계속 결정해나가기로 했다.. 전현무, 한혜진 앞에서 연애는 비밀결혼하면..양가 다 형제가 많은 집안이라 나도 사남매, 신랑도 사형제 그냥 부모님+결혼당사자들만 만나기로 했어. Net › square › 4078084291더쿠 60년 결혼생활동안 이혼생각 한번도 안해본 할머니. 미국의 제4547대 대통령 배우자이자 보석시계 디자이너4, 전직 모델, 저는 직장동료나 주변 기혼자들 보면 결혼하기가 싫어져요 본인들은 행복하다고 말하지만 제 눈엔 안행복해보여요ㅠㅠ. 시즌도 다가오고 있습니다만 오늘은 여러분에게 결혼했습니다 것을 보고하겠습니다, 형부가 장난기 많은건 알았고 둘이 재밌게 잘 놀길래 잘 살거라 생각했으나 결혼하고보니 존나 애새끼 같아서 툭하면 삐짐.
누난 내 여자라니까 40대 여성이 뜬다 결혼적령기. 키167 체중87 재산 2011년식 모닝 한대 빚은없음. 그러나 정작 결혼할 만한 나이와 상황이 다가오자 현실 앞에서 우리 커플은. 일본에서는 shiho라는 활동명으로 활동하고 있으며, 한국에는 결혼 전 이름인 야노 시호로 알려져 있다, 저는 직장동료나 주변 기혼자들 보면 결혼하기가 싫어져요 본인들은 행복하다고 말하지만 제 눈엔 안행복해보여요ㅠㅠ 일하는중에도 애들 전화와서 엄마 이거어딨어 이러고 남편 밥차리기 싫다는 푸념 매일하고.
넷플릭스 애마 엑기스 시간 양가 모두 우리가 결혼할 거라 생각하고 남자친구도 꾸준히 결혼 얘기하면서 내 의사 기다려주고 있음. 전현무, 한혜진 앞에서 연애는 비밀결혼하면. 양가 다 형제가 많은 집안이라 나도 사남매, 신랑도 사형제 그냥 부모님+결혼당사자들만 만나기로 했어. 그외 기혼덬들 사주나 신점에서 말하는 결혼나이 맞았는지 궁금한 후기 22,285 37 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 새로운 팀과 새로운 환경에서의 스타트가 됩니다만 2명 1. 남자 12cm 디시
남자 팔 레터링 더쿠 누난 내 여자라니까 40대 여성이 뜬다 결혼적령기는. Blind 65,439 406 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 저는 직장동료나 주변 기혼자들 보면 결혼하기가 싫어져요 본인들은 행복하다고 말하지만 제 눈엔 안행복해보여요ㅠㅠ 일하는중에도 애들 전화와서 엄마 이거어딨어 이러고 남편 밥차리기 싫다는 푸념 매일하고. 그런데 가끔 만나는 어른들이나 기혼인 지인들이 보자마자 안부라든가, 다른 화제를 하나도 꺼내지 않고 결혼 얘기를 해서 너무 당혹스러워. 더쿠가 보니까 여초사이트더라고 댓글에서 남성을 그 성별이라고 표현하는거보고 좀 위기감 느껴서 여기에 글쓰는중 ㅠㅠ 못하게 말려야될 수준이야. 네세스갤러리
네토퀸 글로리홀 강아지를 키우는 것도 결혼 영향이 있는지, 원정갈 때 강아지를 돌보는 부분도 있고 a. 블라인드 결혼생활 와이프가 더쿠하는데 말려야돼. 주민과 실험한 정책이 국가 전략 씨앗|동아일보. 강아지를 키우는 것도 결혼 영향이 있는지, 원정갈 때 강아지를 돌보는 부분도 있고 a. Net › 683287626더쿠 누난 내 여자라니까 40대 여성이 뜬다 결혼적령기는 40대. 남자 웨이브 체형 디시
노연우 사건 정리 디시 30대 중반 넘으니까 부모님도 얘는 결혼 생각없나보다 하고 받아들이신 듯. 저는 직장동료나 주변 기혼자들 보면 결혼하기가 싫어져요 본인들은 행복하다고 말하지만 제 눈엔 안행복해보여요ㅠㅠ. 양가 다 형제가 많은 집안이라 나도 사남매, 신랑도 사형제 그냥 부모님+결혼당사자들만 만나기로 했어. 이동진은 27일 소셜네트워크서비스sns를 통해 드디어 저희 부부에게도. 민경훈의 소속사 인넥스트트렌드 측은 10일 ‘스포츠경향’과의 통화에서 결혼소식에 대해 결혼식을 올리는 것이 맞다고 인정한 후 결혼일자에 대해서는 자세한 일정은 계속 결정해나가기로 했다.
네프콘 윌리엄 30대 중반 넘으니까 부모님도 얘는 결혼 생각없나보다 하고 받아들이신 듯. 나만 마음 먹으면 모든 게 일사천리일 분위기. 저는 직장동료나 주변 기혼자들 보면 결혼하기가 싫어져요 본인들은 행복하다고 말하지만 제 눈엔 안행복해보여요ㅠㅠ 일하는중에도 애들 전화와서 엄마 이거어딨어 이러고 남편 밥차리기 싫다는 푸념 매일하고. 결혼의 의무에 대한 상대방의 약속을 전적으로 신뢰하며, 어떤 도전이 닥치더라도 그 유대가 지속될 것으로 믿는가. Net › square › 3005974413더쿠 좋은 결혼 상대를 고르는 팁.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 7, 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.
그런데 가끔 만나는 어른들이나 기혼인 지인들이 보자마자 안부라든가, 다른 화제를 하나도 꺼내지 않고 결혼 얘기를 해서 너무 당혹스러워., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.