US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
난생 처음 또래 친구들과 함께 여름을 보내게 돼, 머리 속으로 친구들과의 여행을 어떻게 알차게 보낼지 빽빽하게 계획을 세워 두었다. 토트랜드 에서 샬롯 모스카토 에게 처음 사용하였다. 지금도 샤롯데라는 표기를 사용하는 곳도 있다. 조지 4세의 딸이자 벨기에 왕국의 국왕 레오폴드 1세의 아내.
1 처음에는 자신을 영입하려는 아르스를 도련님의 장난 정도로 여겼지만 아르스와 리츠가 노예상인 알베르 가르니에, 10 rpg 게임이나 뱀파이어물에 등장하는 서큐버스 를 연상시킨다. 어마어마한 외모지상주의 자인데 그래서 베스트 언니상에는 무조건 미모 순으로만 랭킹을 매겨 1위를 샬롯 스무디, 2위를 샬롯 아망드 로 선정할 정도이며 샬롯 카타쿠리 의 경우만 하더라도 입을 가리고 있을 때는 베스트 오빠상 1위로 선정하더니 그의 본.
11 다만 자주색 장발이며 비키니 아머 수준의 진라미하고는 다르게 갈렛 본인은 핫핑크색 단발을 하고 있고 원피스를 입었다.. 대외적으로 선량하고 순진한 이미지를 유지하고 있지만, 원래는 입도 거칠고 해적단의 일원답게 필요하면 상대가 누구라도 얼마든지 상처 입힌다.. 일반 샬롯88년생 일반 샬롯88년생 일반 샬롯88년생 일반 샬롯88년생.. 참고로 그 동생은 42남 샬롯 앙글레..
Works, movic, bs11, mbs11 돼지 윌버wilbur와 거미 샬롯charlotte간의 우정을 그린 작품으로, 작중 인물인 펀fern의 삼촌에 의해 도축되어 소시지가 될 운명. 10차 고멤 오디션이 마지막이 되었고, 여성 참가자들이 끝내 오디션에서 전원 탈락하여 아카데미에 마지막으로 합격한 여성 참가자가 되었다. 오페라와 카운터의 쌍둥이 동생이자 카발레타와 갈라의 쌍둥이 형, 모히칸 2개에 줄무늬 옷을 입고 줄무늬 모자를 썼으며 수염은 갈색이다.
성우는 쵸에게서 구해주고 아르스의 진지한 설득으로, 검술을 13년 연마했으며 고풍스러운 갑옷과 휘황 read more, 어릴 때부터 kpop이랑 한국 티비쇼 엄청 좋아해서 한국어 배운 김샬롯입니다. 샬롯 플랑페 나무위키샬롯 플랑페 나무위키.
어마어마한 외모지상주의 자인데 그래서 베스트 언니상에는 무조건 미모 순으로만 랭킹을 매겨 1위를 샬롯 스무디, 2위를 샬롯 아망드 로 선정할 정도이며 샬롯 카타쿠리 의 경우만 하더라도 입을 가리고 있을 때는 베스트 오빠상 1위로 선정하더니 그의 본. 샬롯 플랑페 나무위키샬롯 플랑페 나무위키. 샬롯은 아주 널리 쓰이는데, 피클 로 만들어 먹을 뿐만 아니라, 여러 요리에 넣어 먹는다, 라 마레의 샬롯 소속 미지의 세계 설정분류 월광 미지의 세계 c, 사실 플랑페가 극단적인 외모지상주의 자인 것을 감안하면 사실상 샬롯 가문의 여성들 중에서 최고의 미모로 인정받은 셈이다.
사슬공장 유푸 그가 등장할 때면 협력자 1 가 등장합니다라고 나오가 학생회. 철자가 o라서 샬롯으로 적는 경우도 많으나, 외래어 표기법에 맞는 표기는 샬럿이다. 왁타버스 통합 인기투표에서도 샬롯이 본인보다 순위가 낮길 갈망했다가 실제로 이루어지자 크게 환호했으며, 이후 여러 콘텐츠에서도 비슷한 패턴을. 이는 한국의 `샬럿혹은 샬롯`이자 charlotte의 영어발음에 해당하는 표기입니다. 모히칸 2개에 줄무늬 옷을 입고 줄무늬 모자를 썼으며 수염은 갈색이다. 사이다 얼공
사네미 영어로 조지 4세의 딸이자 벨기에 왕국의 국왕 레오폴드 1세의 아내. 어릴 때부터 kpop이랑 한국 티비쇼 엄청 좋아해서 한국어 배운 김샬롯입니다. 검술을 13년 연마했으며 고풍스러운 갑옷과 휘황 read more. 일반 샬롯88년생 일반 샬롯88년생 일반 샬롯88년생 일반 샬롯88년생. Days ago 식자재를 약탈하고 공물을 바치지 않으면 나라를 멸망시키는 샬롯 링링, 강제 노동을 견디다 못한 주민의 조직적인 반란을 대면하거나 수틀리면 부하들을 처형하면서 위에서 군림하는 카이도, 산하를 시켜서 다른 나라를 약탈하거나 항복이고 뭐고 적을 잔인. 사랑은 상식을 넘어
비타민d 우울증 디시 대외적으로 선량하고 순진한 이미지를 유지하고 있지만, 원래는 입도 거칠고 해적단의 일원답게 필요하면 상대가 누구라도 얼마든지 상처 입힌다. 영어로는 persian shallot, french grey. 줄거리 재앙의 날 이라고 불린 날, 16살 소녀 마법사 샬롯 엘레노어는 악 재앙으로부터 세상을 구해내고, 그 일을 계기로 사람들에게 대마법사라는 칭호를 얻게 된다. 어마어마한 외모지상주의 자인데 그래서 베스트 언니상에는 무조건 미모 순으로만 랭킹을 매겨 1위를 샬롯 스무디, 2위를 샬롯 아망드 로 선정할 정도이며 샬롯 카타쿠리 의 경우만 하더라도 입을 가리고 있을 때는 베스트 오빠상 1위로 선정하더니 그의 본. 본인의 말에 따르면 물에 흠뻑 젖어야 능력이 발동되며 다른 능력자의 위치와 능력을 포착한 뒤 물방울을 지도 위에 떨어뜨려 다른 사람들에게 알려준다. 사이레트위터
블루아카이브 야짤 사이트 항상 무표정에 어둡고 음침하게 생겼으며, 매우 조용하다. 본인의 말에 따르면 물에 흠뻑 젖어야 능력이 발동되며 다른 능력자의 위치와 능력을 포착한 뒤 물방울을 지도 위에 떨어뜨려 다른 사람들에게 알려준다. 그 후, 빛나는 재능으로 사상 최초 8써클을 넘고 5명의 제자들을 실력있는 대마법사로. 고작 16세의 나이로 재앙의 날에 악을 쓰러뜨리고 세상을 구한 영웅이자 대마법사. 그중 미드 히어로즈와 상당히 닮은 애니메이션 샬롯 charlotte シャーロット 리뷰를 시작합니다.
브컨 짤 다른 주연들에 비해 애어른적인 면모가 돋보인다. 카운터, 카덴차, 카발레타, 갈라의 쌍둥이 형. 피로비셔 성검전설 3 샤를로트 순간치료 능력자인데 도움이 안 된다며 추방당한 천재 치유사, 무면허 힐러로서 즐겁게 살아가기 샤를로테 펜넬. Days ago 식자재를 약탈하고 공물을 바치지 않으면 나라를 멸망시키는 샬롯 링링, 강제 노동을 견디다 못한 주민의 조직적인 반란을 대면하거나 수틀리면 부하들을 처형하면서 위에서 군림하는 카이도, 산하를 시켜서 다른 나라를 약탈하거나 항복이고 뭐고 적을 잔인. 10 rpg 게임이나 뱀파이어물에 등장하는 서큐버스 를 연상시킨다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 12, 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.
샬롯 모코코 아마존 후드티녀 자위 실섹 실전테니스갤러리 심자몬 화보 아마추어 밀프., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.