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.
수술 과정 수술 당일, 가장 먼저 수술실에 입실하여 약 1cm 크기의 구멍 45개를 통해 수술을 합니다. 영남대병원 안과, 우수한 수술영상으로 학술상 수상. 국내에선 10개 미만의 병원에서만 가능한 것으로 알려져 서울대학교병원운영 서울특별시보라매병원원장 김병관은 지난 2017년 2월 시립병원 최초로 인공판막을 봉합과정 없이 삽입하는 ‘무봉합 대동맥판막 치환술’의 성공 이후 안정적으로 경험을 축적하며 우수한 수술 결과를 보여주고 있다고. 본 발명의 수술용 봉합사는 고분자를 이형의 방사구금을 통해 방사한후 브레이딩 하여 제조된다.
3기 직장암 5년 생존율 91% 달해 w.. 더퍼스트 임한희 기자 한양대학교병원원장 이형중는 건강보험심사평가원이하 심평원이 발표한 ‘관상동맥우회술 적정성 평가’에서 최고 등급인 1등급을 획득했다고 4일 밝혔다.. Com › article › 411local tissue advancement mohs 수술 후 우수한 나선 가장자리 결손.. Com › svc › news_view전문병원 명의 리뷰 넘어졌는데 사망까지..
Com › svc › news_view전문병원 명의 리뷰 넘어졌는데 사망까지.. 강창현 교수의 의료진 블로그 페이지 입니다..4세대 하안검 수술이라고 불리우는 하이리프팅 하안검 수술은 중년의 눈밑을. Org › board › b003baba 로봇 갑상선 수술 5,000례 달성 병원뉴스 병원소식 병원소. Com › article › 411local tissue advancement mohs 수술 후 우수한 나선 가장자리 결손. 이진욱 교수는 이제는 측경부 림프절 전이가 있는 진행성 갑상선암 환자에서도 보다 안전하고 최소 침습적이며 미용적으로도 우수한 수술을 시행할 수 있게 됐다며 인하대병원은 지역의 갑상선암 환자들에게 세계 최고 수준의 치료를 제공하기 위해 끊임없이.
Days ago 헬스조선 전문병원 명의를 만나다, 편 바른세상병원 엄상현 낙상의학센터장 전문병원의 우수한 의료진을 만나 질환에 대한 정보와 치료법에 대한 이야기를 듣는 코너, 이번 주제는 낙상과 고관절 골절이다. 대웅제약은 박은주 한림대 의대 교수가 보툴리눔톡신제제일명 보톡스 나보타에 대한 연구자 임상을 통해 갑상선 수술 당일에 나보타를 투여하면 2주 뒤에 투여했을 때보다 더 우수한 흉터 개선 효과가 나타나는 점을 입증했다고 7일 밝혔, 수부手部미세접합수술이 우수한 서울현대병원 네이버 블로그, 이번 연구는 가장 어렵고 복잡한 안과 수술법 중의 하나인 열공망막박리를 소재로 했다.
Kr › read › national인하대병원, 세계 최초 갑상선암 수술법 ‘sprata’ 개발 성공 전국. Days ago 헬스조선 전문병원 명의를 만나다, 편 바른세상병원 엄상현 낙상의학센터장 전문병원의 우수한 의료진을 만나 질환에 대한 정보와 치료법에 대한 이야기를 듣는 코너, 이번 주제는 낙상과 고관절 골절이다, Lg 트윈스의 치어리더로 데뷔하면서 활동을 시작했다. 과거에는 심장 수술로 인한 사망률이 매우 높은 시기도 있었으나 수술 기술과 기구의 발달로 현재는 매우 우수한 수술 성적을 보이고 있습니다. 윤석열 대통령이 1일 전공의 외과수술 실습을 참관한 자리에서 고도화된 실습 등 의학교육과 수련의 질을 제고해 우수한 의사 인력을 양성할 수.
트위터.섹스 그런데도 비뇨기과에서의 수술이라고 하면 여전히. Kr › read › national인하대병원, 세계 최초 갑상선암 수술법 ‘sprata’ 개발 성공 전국. 구강 및 구인두암의 수술방법 중 하악. 이번 연구를 통해 다분절 척추관 협착증 환자에게 양방향 내시경 수술법을 통한 후방감압술 시행 시 기존의 수술법보다 우수한 치료 효과를 보일 수. 이진욱 교수는 이제는 측경부 림프절 전이가 있는 진행성 갑상선암 환자에서도 보다 안전하고 최소 침습적이며 미용적으로도 우수한 수술을 시행할 수 있게 됐다며 인하대병원은 지역의 갑상선암 환자들에게 세계 최고 수준의 치료를 제공하기 위해 끊임없이. 판도라 트위터 디시
트위터 이미지 수정 디시 문의 15669988 카카오톡 @신세계안과의원 광주라식 광주라섹 광주스마일라식. Kr › news › articleview일산백병원, 위암 수술 신속과 안전성 전국 최상위 치료 성과 입증일. 우수한 수술 성적과 활발한 연구활동을 인정받아, 현재는 전 세계에서 baba 수술이 널리 시행되고 있다. 수술직후 보였던 골절선도 보이지않으며 단단하게 뼈가 잘유합된것을 확인할 수 있습니다. Lg 트윈스의 치어리더로 데뷔하면서 활동을 시작했다. 파운드
트위터 쓰리섬 하이브리드 수술실을 갖춘 본원은 시술과 수술의 장점을 결합한 하이브리드 관상동맥우회술을 성공적으로 시행, 안전하고 우수한 수술 결과를 얻고 있다며 앞으로도 심장내과와 흉부외과 등 진료과 간의 긴밀한 협력을 통해 심근경색 및 협심증 환자들에게. 이번 연구는 가장 어렵고 복잡한 안과 수술법 중의 하나인 열공망막박리를 소재로 했다. 서울아산병원 정형외과 전인호 교수팀은 테니스엘보의 주사, 약물, 수술 치료의 후유증 때문에 발생한 팔꿈치 불안정성을 치료할 때 자가 힘줄을 이식하는 재건술이 기존. 영남대병원 안과, 우수한 수술영상으로 학술상 수상. 부작용을 최소로 하고 만족도 높은 하안검 수술에 대한 영상입니다. 틱톡커 노출
트위터 아내 국내에선 10개 미만의 병원에서만 가능한 것으로 알려져 서울대학교병원운영 서울특별시보라매병원원장 김병관은 지난 2017년 2월 시립병원 최초로 인공판막을 봉합과정 없이 삽입하는 ‘무봉합 대동맥판막 치환술’의 성공 이후 안정적으로 경험을 축적하며 우수한 수술 결과를 보여주고 있다고. Kr › news › articleview일산백병원, 위암 수술 신속과 안전성 전국 최상위 치료 성과 입증일. 국내에선 10개 미만의 병원에서만 가능한 것으로 알려져 서울대학교병원운영 서울특별시보라매병원원장 김병관은 지난 2017년 2월 시립병원 최초로 인공판막을 봉합과정 없이 삽입하는 ‘무봉합 대동맥판막 치환술’의 성공 이후 안정적으로 경험을 축적하며 우수한 수술 결과를 보여주고 있다고. 완전 스펙터클한 한 달이었어요 여러분에게는 어떤 한 달이었나요. 분당서울대, 전립선암 수술 3천례 달성.
트위터랭킹 같은 디시 김 교수가 발표한 새로운 수술법은 폴리도뇨관을 이용한 거대 난소종양에 대한 단일공 복강경수술이다. △사진 설명 일반라섹과 비교 시 원스텝 2day라섹은 규칙적인 절삭 경계 부위로 눈부심 개선 및 시력의 선명도가 향상됨을 알 수 있다. Abstract 본 발명은 매듭강력이 우수한 수술용 봉합사에 관한 것으로서, 이형 異形 단면을 갖고 매듭강력 이용율이 80% 이상인 것을 특징으로 한다. 부작용을 최소로 하고 만족도 높은 하안검 수술에 대한 영상입니다. 성지 전체 크기를 증가시키는 음경확대술부터 성적만족도를 높이는 목적이 큰 귀두.
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.
대웅제약은 박은주 한림대 의대 교수가 보툴리눔톡신제제일명 보톡스 나보타에 대한 연구자 임상을 통해 갑상선 수술 당일에 나보타를 투여하면 2주 뒤에 투여했을 때보다 더 우수한 흉터 개선 효과가 나타나는 점을 입증했다고 7일 밝혔., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.