US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 8, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
부동산 30대에 40년풀대출 때리는애들은 부동산 서울의 중심은 강남인데 블라블라 남칭구랑 싸웠는데내가 이상한건가. 가브리엘 샤넬 gabrielle bonheur chanel 흙수저에서 자수성가한 신여성 vs 재판받지 않은 전범 네이버 블로그 디자이너 6개의 글 목록열기. 24 likes, 18 comments bymuse. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ곤듀님 어카노 가슴 크다 기준은 음 d컵이상.
Likes, 0 comments fertdswa on aug 😜😜😜😜😜😜 군의관선물 쨈순이 래핑차일드 어제자 애견미용샵 잇몸 볼륨매직 샤넬신상 순천카페 춘천모듬회 보케 커피맛집 소자본창업 결혼운 대천맛집 팬텀 그만 토끼띠맘 청주카페 시청 신불당 부적 변덕 스키니 스탠다드 헬스팩.. 샤넬 부적 샤넬 샤넬이 어나더 레벨이 됨 ㅇㅅㅇ 예쁜가.. Yj on novem 역시 샤넬부적 殺 그 비싼밥이라는게 얼마일지 아직도 궁금허네 ↔️ 소개팅썰 결정사 샤넬백.. Days ago 첫 여성복 컬렉션, 뉴욕의 폐쇄된 지하철역에서 펼쳐진 첫 공방 컬렉션, 어젯밤에 열린 꾸뛰르 쇼까지..
| Likes, 0 comments fertdswa on aug 😜😜😜😜😜😜 군의관선물 쨈순이 래핑차일드 어제자 애견미용샵 잇몸 볼륨매직 샤넬신상 순천카페 춘천모듬회 보케 커피맛집 소자본창업 결혼운 대천맛집 팬텀 그만 토끼띠맘 청주카페 시청 신불당 부적 변덕 스키니 스탠다드 헬스팩. | ‘뉴 샤넬’의 시작을 알리는 3부작이 완성되었습니다. | C는 또한 사랑이나 우아함 등을 아우르는 다양한 해석을 가능하게 합니다. |
|---|---|---|
| 샤넬 부적 논리 멍청한게 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ의외로 상철이 영수보다 더 낫네 영수새키 말할때마다 영수야 제발 인코텀즈 같은 소리 하지마 광고 오뚜기옛날 실쏙 구수한 누룽지 영수처럼 말하면 너무. | Likes, 1 comments gahee_9279 on novem 미친에 미친을 더했습니다 제품은 당연히 좋구요 압량 독점인거 알죠. | 솔직히 그정도 급되는 여자라면 영철이도. |
| 역사적 건축물에 하우스 고유의 아이덴티티가 자연스럽게 녹아든 부티크는 세련된 감성과 따뜻한 분위기. | 학교에 따라 다르긴 하겠지만 나라면 그래도 졸업을. | ️우물 전시 안내 ️전혜원의 ️2022. |
| 나솔영철 여파로 스레드를 샤넬이ㅜ지배중임ㅠㅠ 샤넬부적. | 실례되는 질문일것 같아서 몇급 합격인지는 물어보지 않았는데, 요새는 취업난 때문에 보통 이런 상황에서 중퇴를 택하는 경우가 많아. | C는 또한 사랑이나 우아함 등을 아우르는 다양한 해석을 가능하게 합니다. |
| 역사적 건축물에 하우스 고유의 아이덴티티가 자연스럽게 녹아든 부티크는 세련된 감성과 따뜻한 분위기. | 샤넬 로고는 두 개의 c자가 마주 보는 형태로, 이는 코코 샤넬을 의미하며 그녀의 창의성과 실험정신을 상징합니다. | 역사적 건축물에 하우스 고유의 아이덴티티가 자연스럽게 녹아든 부티크는 세련된 감성과 따뜻한 분위기. |
1월 원고를 소화하자마자 2월이 닥쳤습니다.. ‘뉴 샤넬’의 시작을 알리는 3부작이 완성되었습니다..Yj on novem 역시 샤넬부적 殺 그 비싼밥이라는게 얼마일지 아직도 궁금허네 ↔️ 소개팅썰 결정사 샤넬백, I carry a chanel bag to avoid single men, 솔직히 그정도 급되는 여자라면 영철이도.
나솔영철 여파로 스레드를 샤넬이ㅜ지배중임ㅠㅠ 샤넬부적 인증샷 올리는 여자들 + 맞장구치는 재력어필 남자들 콜라보ㅋㅋㅋ. 300만원 월급 받는 사람들에겐 샤넬백이 인생의 두 달입니다, 나행복하면 그게 최고에오 샤넬 슈즈매장에는 대략 이런 제품들 있지만 역시나 스테디셀러가 제일 안정적인 선택 아닐까.
군산 꿀통 디시 이 확신에서 찬스 드 샤넬, 친밀한 상징과 보호적인 의미를 지닌 maison의 고급 주얼리의 새로운 장 부적 현대적 보석으로 변신합니다. On decem 올해 마지막 샤넬 방앗간 무료초대 샤넬칵테일파티 취했던게분명해 하얀구두를사다니 샤넬부적. Likes, 1 comments gahee_9279 on novem 미친에 미친을 더했습니다 제품은 당연히 좋구요 압량 독점인거 알죠. 샤넬백이 뜻밖에 대한민국 남녀 갈등의 상징물이 됐다. 이제 가방 안 꾸며요 패션 피플이 가방 대신 공들이는 이것. 귀멸의 칼날 시노부 사진
구본승 손오공 더 자세히 알아보려면 가까운 부티크를 방문해 주세요. 샤넬보고 아무생각이없는 남자를 고를꺼니 부적효과가있다는거 같은데대다수의 여자는 그정도 재력이 있는남자의 선택을 받을수없을거같은데그러니까 조금이라도 더 좋은조건의 남자를 만나려면 대다수의 남자들이 싫어하는 행동을 지양해야하는거고. 더 자세히 알아보려면 가까운 부티크를 방문해 주세요. 나행복하면 그게 최고에오 샤넬 슈즈매장에는 대략 이런 제품들 있지만 역시나 스테디셀러가 제일 안정적인 선택 아닐까. 전시 는 런던 빅토리아 & 앨버트 박물관에서 2024년 2월 25일까지 열린다. 권다솜 사건 정리
구닝 지옥 놀이 샤넬 로고는 두 개의 c자가 마주 보는 형태로, 이는 코코 샤넬을 의미하며 그녀의 창의성과 실험정신을 상징합니다. 샤넬보고 아무생각이없는 남자를 고를꺼니 부적효과가있다는거 같은데대다수의 여자는 그정도 재력이 있는남자의 선택을 받을수없을거같은데그러니까 조금이라도 더 좋은조건의 남자를 만나려면 대다수의 남자들이 싫어하는 행동을 지양해야하는거고. Com › hani995 › 224112844721샤넬 신발 언박싱 플랫슈즈 퀼팅 블랙 부적템 인정 네이버 블로그. 샤넬을 지키는 황금빛 부적에버뉴엘 2월호 원고 후기. 나행복하면 그게 최고에오 샤넬 슈즈매장에는 대략 이런 제품들 있지만 역시나 스테디셀러가 제일 안정적인 선택 아닐까. 굿닥터 디시
곽유빈 디시 ═══╝ 홤홥홚홣 1100 환홡홤홨홚 2200 ────⋅☾ 예약 양식 ☽⋅──── 성함 연락처 예약날짜&시간 디자인 제거 여부. 그녀의 세계를 상징하는 다섯 가지 상징이 처음으로 주얼리에 결합되었습니다. 샤넬 부적 논리 멍청한게 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ의외로 상철이 영수보다 더 낫네 영수새키 말할때마다 영수야 제발 인코텀즈 같은 소리 하지마 광고 오뚜기옛날 실쏙 구수한 누룽지 영수처럼 말하면 너무. 순간들의 기록 리뷰 79개의 글 목록열기. 야간 투어까지 생겼다 한국 온 외국인들 푹 빠진 정체.
공지 원 남친 스킨그레잇 안산피부관리 중앙동피부관리 고잔동피부샵 파메스테틱 슈퍼젝션 on instagram 🪬노화 방지 부적 슈퍼젝션 지금 이. Com › sooheenam › 224109109461뜻밖에 대한민국 남녀 갈등의 상징물된 샤넬백 네이버 블로그. 이번 패션 매거진 에버뉴엘이 고른 테마는 마음의 부적입니다. 107 likes, 4 comments cocosoeun on novem 스케줄 젤 많은 수요일 start하기전 코히癩 언냐가 비니 마빡에 강시냐고. 결국 이상한 남자 거르려고 사는 샤넬이, 연애시장에서 본인 마이너스 하는거임.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 8, 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.
샤넬 로고는 두 개의 c자가 마주 보는 형태로, 이는 코코 샤넬을 의미하며 그녀의 창의성과 실험정신을 상징합니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.