US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
Days ago 지금까지 45명이 숨진 지난 18일 스페인 고속열사 사고의 원인이 철로 파손으로 잠정 조사됐습니다. 스페인 여행 빠르고 효율적인 기차 이동, ave 고속열차, 유레일인터레일 패스, 청소년시니어 할인, wifi와 식사 서비스 omio에서 모두 보기. Com › ts2685 › 220535631807유럽 스페인 교통편. 아반트 역시 전구간 표준궤 고속선에서만 운행한다.
| 이 열차는 madrid마드릳, barcelona 바르쎌로나, valencia 발렌씨아, sevilla 세비야 등 스페인의 주요 도시를 시속 300km가 넘는 속도로 연결합니다. | 최대 시속 310 km로 달리는 이 광대한 열차 네트워. | 아토차atocha renfe 기차역, 전철역과 연결되어 있다. | 아토차atocha renfe 기차역, 전철역과 연결되어 있다. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ave 열차 티켓은 라가 디스턴시아장거리 범주에 속합니다. | 스페인의 고속열차 ave는 국제적으로 고속열차 기술이 앞서있는 나라이다. | 스페인 렌페 의 고속철도 ave 의 차량. | 둘 다 초고속 열차인데 ave는 3가지 등급 좌석을 선택할 수 있고 avlo는 기본 좌석으로만 이루어진 저가형 초고속 열차라고 합니다 basico elige premium 은 좌석 등급이에요 일반석, 이등석, 일등석 요런 느낌이겠죠. |
| 1941년 스페인 철도 국유화로 인해 설립된 회사이다. | 팔짜 좋은 여자 kim이 이번에 마드리드에서 바르셀로나로 가는길에 스페인 철도 렌페를 탔어요 일명 ave, 아베라고 불리우는. | 이 열차는 madrid마드릳, barcelona 바르쎌로나, valencia 발렌씨아, sevilla 세비야 등 스페인의 주요 도시를 시속 300km가 넘는 속도로 연결합니다. | 스페인의 고속열차 ave는 국제적으로 고속열차 기술이 앞서있는 나라이다. |
| Ave 로고 마드리드바르셀로나 구간을 운행하는 ave s103 알타 벨로시다드 에스파뇰라 스페인어 alta velocidad española, ave는 렌페 가 운영하는 스페인 의 고속철도 이다. | 이 열차를 타게 되면 마드리드에서 바르셀로나까지 2시간 30분이면 도착합니다. | Tickets to travel by train customise your trip on ave and larga distancia long distance highspeed trains we adapt to you and the needs of each of your trips. | Ave라는 명칭은 스페인 고속철도의 명칭인 알타 벨로시다드 에스파뇰라스페인어 alta velocidad española의. |
Url 복사 이웃추가 스페인 렌페 ave 승차 후기예약,유의사항 이번 스페인 자유여행에서 우리 가족은 걷기 어려운 단거리일 경우엔 우버 택시를 많이 이용했다.. 스페인 바르셀로나 아토차역 마드리드에서 렌페 ave고속열차 1등석 가는법ㅣ이동시간 노선도 국내선 기차 산츠역, 취리히 밀라노 파리 야간 국제선 기차 프란사역, 티켓예약 구입방법 네이버 블로그 오버시즈트립 175개의 글 목록열기..보로는 당시 아나와 함께 열차에 탑승해 있었다, 위고 ouigo 최대 50% 할인 스페인 대가족 할인 트립닷컴에서 위고 ouigo 고속 열차 기차표를 직접 예약할 때 스페인 대가족 familia numerosa 할인을 쉽게 적용할 수 있습니다, 스페인의 고속열차 ave는 국제적으로 고속열차 기술이 앞서있는 나라이다, 마드리드와 발렌시아를 95분 동안 편안하게 여행할 수 있는 법, Url 복사 이웃추가 스페인 렌페 ave 승차 후기예약,유의사항 이번 스페인 자유여행에서 우리 가족은 걷기 어려운 단거리일 경우엔 우버 택시를 많이 이용했다, 오버시즈트립 스페인 바르셀로나 아토차역 마드리드에서 렌페 ave고속열차 1등석 가는법ㅣ이동시간 노선도 국내선 기차 산츠역, 취리히 밀라노 파리 야간 국제선 기차 프란사역, 티켓예약 구입방법 성지성 2024.
여행 당일 구매도 가능하지만, 이때쯤이면 열차가 매진될, 스페인의 주요 기차 노선과 소요 시간 스페인의 기차는 renfe 스페인 국영 철도회사에서 운영하며, 특히 ave는 유럽에서 가장 빠른 고속철도 중 하나입니다, 스페인 여행을 계획하며 고속열차 예약을 앞두고 계신가요. Ave는 렌페가 운영하는 스페인의 고속철도이다.
오늘은 스페인 고속열차의 좌석 등급별 차이점과 각각의 특징을 정확히 알려드릴게요. 스페인의 대표적인 철도기업 렌페renfe, ave 고속열차, 운임과 운행 노선, 예매 팁을 확인하세요. Ave와 알비아 열차의 좌석 등급이 궁금해서 어떤 좌석을 선택해야 할지 고민이 많으실 텐데요, 현지 기차역에서 스페인의 국제 아베 ave 열차, 국내 및 장거리 열차에 대한 좌석 예약은 스페인 장거리 철도역 내 매표소에서도 가능합니다. 가장 인기 있는 노선은 마드리드–바르셀로나 구간이며, 조용한 객실.
게다가 ave는 바르셀로나, 세비야, 발렌시아 같은 대도시 뿐만 아니라 알리칸테, 시우다드 레알, 코르도바, 쿠엥카, 톨레도 같은 유명 관광지와도 연결되어 있다. 이곳에서 스페인 여행을 위한 저렴한 ave 고속 열차 승차권을 구매하고, 인기 노선, 승차권 유형, faq를 확인해 보세요, 아토차역estación de atocha과 차마르틴역estación de chamartín이 스페인의 수도 마드리드madrid에서 장거리열차가 출발하는 역입니다. 팔짜 좋은 여자 kim이 이번에 마드리드에서 바르셀로나로 가는길에 스페인 철도 렌페를 탔어요 일명 ave, 아베라고 불리우는. 바로 스페인의 고속열차 ave를 이용하는 것이다.
카와라마치 패션헬스 바로 스페인의 고속열차 ave를 이용하는 것이다. 최대 시속 310 km로 달리는 이 광대한 열차 네트워. 저는 코르도바에서 마드리드로 가는 기차를 검색했구요 ave가 렌페의 고속열차, 맨 위에 아블로avlo가 렌페에서 운영하는 저가형 고속열차입니다. 스페인 자유여행 준비 교통편 렌페 예약하기 느리기로 악명 높은 renfe 사이트 여행 책에도 vpn. 아토차atocha renfe 기차역, 전철역과 연결되어 있다. 치지직 발캠
케데헌 조이 ai 광궤 를 사용하는 스페인의 다른 철도 노선과는 달리 ave는 표준궤. 이 고급스럽고 현대적인 열차로 목적지까지 이동하는 데 3시간 미만이 소요됩니다. 1941년 스페인 철도 국유화로 인해 설립된 회사이다. 반면, ave는 alta velocidad española. 스페인의 철도 시스템은 국영 철도회사인 렌페 renfe가 운영하고 있습니다. 츠키노 미토 빨간약
치어리더 딥페 1997년 처음으로 운행을 시작했으며 개통 당시 renfe s100 의 기존선 광궤 버전인 s101을 사용했으나, 2020년 부로 모두 renfe s130. 스페인 renfe 기차 예약 가이드 🚂 스페인 여행을 계획 중인. 게다가 ave는 바르셀로나, 세비야, 발렌시아 같은 대도시 뿐만 아니라 알리칸테, 시우다드 레알, 코르도바, 쿠엥카, 톨레도 같은 유명 관광지와도 연결되어 있다. 0 아다무스에서 탈선한 이리요iryo 열차의 7호차에 타고 있던 아나는, 사고 이후 도망쳐 사라진 자신의 반려견 보로boro를 찾기 위해 도움을 요청했다. 스페인의 고속열차 ave는 국제적으로 고속열차 기술이 앞서있는 나라이다. 친누나 히토미
칼답とは 스페인의 ave 기차는 시속 310km까지 올라가 빠른 여행을 제공합니다. Ave alta velocidad española로 알려진 고속 열차는 가장 주목할만한 열차 중 하나입니다. 인터넷, 전화 또는 역에서 구매할 수 있습니다. Ave alta velocidad española로 알려진 고속 열차는 가장 주목할만한 열차 중 하나입니다. 정말 렌페 ave 기차는 스페인에서만 예약할 수 있는 건가요.
케이시의 비밀 다시보기 7 열차 종류도 ave, avlo 등등 여러 가지가 있더라고요. 스페인 renfe 기차 예약 가이드 🚂 스페인 여행을 계획 중인. 저는 코르도바에서 마드리드로 가는 기차를 검색했구요 ave가 렌페의 고속열차, 맨 위에 아블로avlo가 렌페에서 운영하는 저가형 고속열차입니다. 여행 당일 구매도 가능하지만, 이때쯤이면 열차가 매진될. 예약하는 유일한 방법은 스페인 매표소에서 직접 하는 거예요.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 13, 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.
Ave 인터내셔널 기차 – 정보, 클래스 및 티켓., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.