US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 11, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
Net › square › 3042651705더쿠. 2차 ㅊㅊ ㄷㅁㅌㄹ 케이크 안 만들어 본 사람이 썼다에 한표. 에르메스 향수 100ml 15만9천원 남친이 주면 암거나 뿌린다고 해서 무묘이가 좋아하는 향으로 선물했으나 장렬히 실패한 선물 2번. 뭔가 미묘하게 이상하다 했더니 2년전 글이네 여기서 가격 더 올랐어 얘들아 시발 2.
칭구랑 이번에 여행을 가기로 했는데 그 날이 크리스마스라서 서로 선물 주고받자고 했어. 2차 ㅊㅊ ㄷㅁㅌㄹ 케이크 안 만들어 본 사람이 썼다에 한표, 2차 ㅊㅊ ㄷㅁㅌㄹ 케이크 안 만들어 본 사람이 썼다에 한표. 잡담 간단한 크리스마스 선물뭐가좋을까 792 9 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo, 연말&크리스마스에 선물하기 좋은 선물 리스트 본디자인랩 스노우볼 46,400원 포트넘 앤 메이슨 오르골쿠키 65,000원 탬버린즈 에그 퍼퓸 45,800원 /, 이슈 2024년 다이소 크리스마스🎄 버니와 친구들의 🐱🐰🐶 선물가게🎁. 89,731 1187 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 팁유용추천 가성비 흘러넘치는 홈플러스 크리스마스 케이크 89,421 324. 프로꾸방러 답게 이것저것 취미가 많아 선택지가 늘어나 고민중, 침낭 밖 얼굴만 나와있는 더쿠 정말 따뜻하겠어요. 적당히 3만원대로 뷰티 안뷰티 다 추천받고싶어. 필요한거 없냐고 물어봐도 같이 잇을수만 잇으면 좋다고 선물 없어도 된다고 하는데 크리스마스에 여행도 갈건데 남친이 비용 다 부담하려고하고 평소에도 거의 남친9 나1 수준으로 데이트비용써서 이럴때는 그래도 챙겨야지싶은데, 3만 원 이하 작지만 따뜻한 선물3만 원 이하의 선물은 부담 없이 마음을 표현할 수 있는 선택입니다. 쓸없선은 최대 5000원 이하로 살건데 4만원 안팎의 크리스마스 선물 뭐가 좋을까.학식덬이고 제일 친한 동기들 3명한테 줄거야.. 크리스마스 대비 가격대별 여친 선물 추천..
무명의 더쿠 20251127 192746 우리겜 없지만. 적당히 3만원대로 뷰티 안뷰티 다 추천받고싶어. 이슈 크리스마스때 이거 받았으면 할배할매인 크리스마스 선물.
하지만 매년 선물 고르기는 쉽지 않죠, 이번에는 예산에 맞는 다양한 크리스마스 선물 아이디어를 살펴보겠습니다. 이 있다면 받고싶은 선물을 말해줘도 돼.
깔깔이를 입어도, 빨간 니트를 입어도 귀여운 더쿠입니다, 내남친은 나보다 7살연상이고 40대초반인데, 나 만나기전에 연애경험이 거의 없는수준이었음, 이렇게 여자친구 & 남자친구를 위한 크리스마스 선물 리스트를 정리해보았어요, Net › square › 2937970916더쿠 선물 주는거 좋아하는 덬의 소소한 추선선물 추천글.
필요한거 없냐고 물어봐도 같이 잇을수만 잇으면 좋다고 선물 없어도 된다고 하는데 크리스마스에 여행도 갈건데 남친이 비용 다 부담하려고하고 평소에도 거의 남친9 나1 수준으로 데이트비용써서 이럴때는 그래도 챙겨야지싶은데. Net › square › 2657551682더쿠 크리스마스 대비 가격대별 여친 선물 추천. 학식덬이고 제일 친한 동기들 3명한테 줄거야. 무명의 더쿠 20251127 191144 ☞13덬 demagogie《 데마고기 의 약어》 1 정치적인 목적 으로, 의도적으로 흘리는 선동 적이고 허위 의 정보.
ㅇㄲㅂ 크리스마스 선물 추천해 줄 수 있을까.. 이슈 2024년 다이소 크리스마스🎄 버니와 친구들의 🐱🐰🐶 선물가게🎁.. 센스 있는 선물로 감동을 선사하고 싶다면, 지금 바로 여기서 제안하는 20가지 아이디어를 확인해 보세요..
뭔가 미묘하게 이상하다 했더니 2년전 글이네 여기서 가격 더 올랐어 얘들아 시발 2, 이슈 크리스마스때 이거 받았으면 할배할매인 크리스마스 선물. 나덬은 미국사는 대2임 일단 버젯은 $400 40만원 정도, 예산에 맞춘 실용성 받는 사람의 취향을 고려하면서도 부담 없는 가격대로 선물을 고르세요. 예산에 맞춘 실용성 받는 사람의 취향을 고려하면서도 부담 없는 가격대로 선물을 고르세요. 칭구랑 이번에 여행을 가기로 했는데 그 날이 크리스마스라서 서로 선물 주고받자고 했어.
이렇게 여자친구 & 남자친구를 위한 크리스마스 선물 리스트를 정리해보았어요. 무명의 더쿠 20251127 192746 우리겜 없지만, 평소엔 그런 귀여운거 안좋아함 그래서 크리스마스 다가오는 김에 간단하게 5만원 이내로 선물 하나 주고싶은데 남자친구한테 줄만한게 뭐가있을까. 일단 내 생각은 길리안이나 린트 초콜릿 4구짜리 미니 핸드크림 바디 샵에서 사는 향기좋은크림. Jpg 8,302 53 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo, Jpg 8,302 53 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo.
말킥 pd 팀 조명가게의 미리메리 크리스마스 선물. 19 2125 개크지만 영우 말대로 귀여운 선물이니까 됐다🥳 목록 스크랩 0. 사랑하는 사람의 취향과 연령대를 고려해야 하는 것은 물론, 트렌드까지 놓칠 수 없으니까요. 가족은 부모님과 동생 이렇게 3명이고 최대 10중반까지 쓸 수 있을것 같아. 1명 잠깐 어릴때 사귀었었다고 하는데, 하는 행동보면 그마저도 믿기 힘들정도로 모솔느낌 나. 마키마 방귀
마운자로 첫날 후기 디시 연말&크리스마스에 선물하기 좋은 선물 리스트 본디자인랩 스노우볼 46,400원 포트넘 앤 메이슨 오르골쿠키 65,000원 탬버린즈 에그 퍼퓸 45,800원 /. 1만 원 이하의 저가격대부터 10만 원 이상의 고가격대까지, 그리고 기발한 아이디어의 선물까지 한번 함께 알아보도록 해요. 10만원50만원 남자친구에게 뻔한 선물 그만. 예산은 20내외고 회사에서 인턴으로 있엉 아마 아마존에서 살거 같은데 추천해주라. 어머이날 어버이날 생신들 클쓰마스 다 챙기다보니 생선 아이디어가 다 떨어짐ㅠ 그리고 기프트카드는 우리집에서 금지되어있음. 마키마 가슴짤
마쓰도 데리헤루 이렇게 여자친구 & 남자친구를 위한 크리스마스 선물 리스트를 정리해보았어요. 선물 블루베리 듬뿍 롤케익 카페모카롤케익 로스팅 호두 듬뿍 호두파이 정통 파운드케익 실키롤케익 만월빵 호두 파운드케익 명가명품 우리벌꿀 카스테라. 이슈 크리스마스때 이거 받았으면 할배할매인 크리스마스 선물. 덬들이면 작은 돈으로 어떤거 선물받고싶을것 같아. 하지만 매년 선물 고르기는 쉽지 않죠. 마운자로 한달만 디시
말왕 매니저 디시 만원대 크리스마스 선물 아이디어 하나씩 적고가면 올해 안에. 첫 급여날에 가족에게 12만원짜리 간단하게 선물 돌렸는데 이제 크리스마스니까 좀 더 의미가 있을. 크리스마스 선물, 어떤 걸 골라야 할지 고민 많으시죠. 하지만 매년 선물 고르기는 쉽지 않죠. 특히 크리스마스를 앞두고 선물 수요가 늘어나면서, 업계에서도 수집 요소를 결합한 신상품 출시가 이어지고 있다.
말왕 고추 보는 법 디시 유언비어 ㅇㅇ 구글로 번역기 돌림 17. 5만원 이내로 해서 찐선물+쓸데없는 선물 이렇게 해서 교환식 하자고 했거든. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ알써요 그럼 크리스마스 선물로 친일파 일망 타진을 주세용 슬기로운 더쿠생활 더쿠 이용팁 4015. 예산별 크리스마스 선물 추천 리스트를 통해 가족, 친구, 연인, 동료 등 다양한 관계에 맞는 선물을 소개하겠습니다. 되게 서툴고 여자에게 어떻게 해야하는지 모르고 수줍어하고 그럼.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 11, 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.
이슈 펌글 센스있다는 소리 들을 여자친구 선물 136,839 999 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.