US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 17, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
근육이 잘안생겨서 더 노력해야하는 너같은 새끼가 있지. 돼지들 근육은 근육이 아니야 ㅋㅋㅋ 마운자로 마이너 갤러리. 류현진이 포스트시즌을 앞둔 상황에서 등판 일정을 바꾸지 않고 양키스전에서 7이닝 무실점을 하자 붙은 별명. Jpg resizeimage_1powerlifting20219000resize.
이게 왜 여자들이 싫어하냐면 존나 같이다니기 쪽팔리는몸이기 떄문임. 돼지가 근지구력 운동 잘하면 멋져보임 ㅇㅇ101, 수영 일상 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요.과학적으론 머리가 나빠야 근육을 크게 키울수 있다고는 함read more.. 04 1734 썸네일 스웨덴 국기인줄 4 astrum 2021.. 내 워너비 몸매다여자는 나이들수록 잔근육 이딴 개몸매 말고 근돼 좋아하는거 알고들 있냐근데 내동생은 아직 20대 중반인데도 근돼 선호하더라보는 눈은 있어가지고아무튼 저런 근돼되려면 닥치고 고중량 저반복이 답이냐..
약물복용을 중단하면서 근육과 수행능력이 지속적으로 하락하고 체중도 줄어서 한때 120kg까지 나가던 체중이 2020년 3월을 기준으로 88kg까지 내려갔다고 밝혔다. 아 빼지말지 난 첫번째가 더좋은데ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ, 이 글에서 니새끼 모든 성격과 인생이 보인다 ㅇㅇ 근돼임 소리 듣고싶어서 글 올렸지만 안 듣고싶은 소리 들리니까 귀 닫고 벤치딸 ㅋㅋ read more.
첫번째몸은 근돼라곸ㅋㅋ 저거좋아하는 여자들도 좀 있는거로아는데 read more. 04 1734 썸네일 스웨덴 국기인줄 4 astrum 2021. 류현진라면 진라면 광고를 찍으면서 붙은 별명. 근육이 잘안생겨서 더 노력해야하는 너같은 새끼가 있지, Com › 3186832523헬스장에서 느낀 돼지와 근돼의 차이점 운동건강아싸 에펨코리.
180기준으로 180 90 90키로 그램부터가 근돼 스타일 몸 임을 알려준다, Com › board › view근육돼지되려면 어떻게 해야 되냐 200512202110 헬스 갤러리. Com › board › view싱글벙글 남자가 이정도 몸을 만드는데 얼마나 걸릴까요, Com › board › view근육돼지되려면 어떻게 해야 되냐 200512202110 헬스 갤러리. 근력운동하는사람중에 식단안하면 마운자로하면 바로 가시적으로 효과나온다고하긴 read more. 보디빌딩 마이너 갤러리 자칭근돼들 현실.
수영과 관련된 여러 일상을 얘기하는 곳입니다.. 14 근돼 많은 서양에서도 여자들은 저렇게 과한 근육보다는 적당한 근육을 더 선호한다 남초 사이트에서나 정신승리하는거지 유튜브 가보면 양놈들한테 직접 설문조사 하는 영상도 있는데 0..
Com › board › view근육돼지되려면 어떻게 해야 되냐 200512202110 헬스 갤러리. 류현진라면 진라면 광고를 찍으면서 붙은 별명, 04 1724 3번짤 치마 입고 농구대에 메달린 건 줄 알았단 1 김해결 2021. 근돼 하고싶다 그저 바라 보다가 갤러리. Jpg resizeimage_1powerlifting20219000resize.
참고로 잘 키운 돼지의 체지방률은 평균 15% 이하이고, 야생의, 14 근돼 많은 서양에서도 여자들은 저렇게 과한 근육보다는 적당한 근육을 더 선호한다 남초 사이트에서나 정신승리하는거지 유튜브 가보면 양놈들한테 직접 설문조사 하는 영상도 있는데 0. 키17898kg인데 주6일 근력운동하는 근육돼지거든 마운자, 미만 걍 씹돼지 원본 첨부파일 4 본문 이미지 다운로드 resizeimage_0powerlifting20209003resize, 골격근 그래프입니다 보시다시피 주마다재는데 오늘 또 골격근 씨발개좆같은놈이 감소했습니다. Com › board › view근돼 기준 정해준다.
수영 일상 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 38 이런 새끼들 중량 부심 좆되고 사이즈 작으면 멸치라고 존나 발광하는데 대부분 80키로초반따리인 나보다 중량 못쳐서 웃기다 그냥 ㅋㅋㅋ 리프팅 호소인 근돼 호소인들 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 2023, 돼지가 근지구력 운동 잘하면 멋져보임 ㅇㅇ101.
골격근 그래프입니다 보시다시피 주마다재는데 오늘 또 골격근 씨발개좆같은놈이 감소했습니다. 여자들이 제일 싫어하는게 마동석, 이승윤같은몸요즘에 많이 바꼈긴한데 이다. 내과 선생님이 마운자로 계속권하는데 이거해야되나 고민된다. 난 180에 90 체지방 10% 까지도 만들어봤던 몸인데, 살이 너무 안찌는 멸치스타일 몸이라 하루 4끼식사에 꾸역꾸역먹고, 프로틴도 많이 먹어주는거 정말 몸에 안좋은 것 같기도하고. 과학적으론 머리가 나빠야 근육을 크게 키울수 있다고는 함read more.
윤공주 처벌 Com › board › view근육돼지되려면 어떻게 해야 되냐 200512202110 헬스 갤러리. 사실 근육돼지 처음 쓰일때는 근육이 돼지같이 많은 로니, 제이 같은 캐미컬 빌더들 부르던 용어로 기억하는데 한 2008년2010년 헬갤쯤. 실제로 근돼인애들 대부분 학창시절에 찌질이라서 쌔보이려고, 강해보이려고. 골격근 그래프입니다 보시다시피 주마다재는데 오늘 또 골격근 씨발개좆같은놈이 감소했습니다. 보디빌딩 마이너 갤러리 자칭근돼들 현실. 유학생을위한 집을 공유하십시오
윤공주 메롱바 야동 돼지가 근지구력 운동 잘하면 멋져보임 ㅇㅇ101. 현태는 밑이 70kg상태인데 태닝샵 조명에서도 저정도 인거보면 저기서 78kg 더빼야 우량아 상태나옴 자기가 복직근,복사근이 안보이는데 체중은 많이 read more. 근육+돼지로 나중에 사용용도가 바뀐거 원래 헬갤에서 2번같은건 그냥 돼지새끼라고 하지 근돼 이런말 안했음 오히려 지방낀 돼지들이 스스로 나는 근돼임 이러면 욕쳐먹는 분위기였지 미카미유아 2023. 첫번째몸은 근돼라곸ㅋㅋ 저거좋아하는 여자들도 좀 있는거로아는데 read more. 근력운동하는사람중에 식단안하면 마운자로하면 바로 가시적으로 효과나온다고하긴 read more. 윤공주 틱톡 나무위키
이 이경 폭로 글 더쿠 Com › board › view근돼 기준 정해준다. Com › board › view근돼 기준 정해준다. 수영 일상 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. Com › board › view근돼 기준 정립해준다. 38 디시병신들도 약한새끼들 말믿고 몸 12년이면 만든다고 믿더만 뭘 아닌척하냐 일반인들은 저렇게몸만들려면 5년은 기본이라니까 별 아는척다하던 병신들이 2022. 은빛자존심 porn
은꼴셀리 14 근돼 많은 서양에서도 여자들은 저렇게 과한 근육보다는 적당한 근육을 더 선호한다 남초 사이트에서나 정신승리하는거지 유튜브 가보면 양놈들한테 직접 설문조사 하는 영상도 있는데 0. 이 글에서 니새끼 모든 성격과 인생이 보인다 ㅇㅇ 근돼임 소리 듣고싶어서 글 올렸지만 안 듣고싶은 소리 들리니까 귀 닫고 벤치딸 ㅋㅋ read more. 첫번째몸은 근돼라곸ㅋㅋ 저거좋아하는 여자들도 좀 있는거로아는데 read more. 수영과 관련된 여러 일상을 얘기하는 곳입니다. 류용맹근돼, 류용맹근엄, 류용근 위의 류도망돼지와 반대되는 별명.
윤수빈 남친 디시 2 신한ds 도 아니 주인장 헷갈리누 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 저번엔 여자라니까 편견이라매. Com › board › view근육돼지되려면 어떻게 해야 되냐 200512202110 헬스 갤러리. 운동 많이 해서 근육질 되면 힘 안줘도 단단한가요. 이게 왜 여자들이 싫어하냐면 존나 같이다니기 쪽팔리는몸이기 떄문임. 38 이런 새끼들 중량 부심 좆되고 사이즈 작으면 멸치라고 존나 발광하는데 대부분 80키로초반따리인 나보다 중량 못쳐서 웃기다 그냥 ㅋㅋㅋ 리프팅 호소인 근돼 호소인들 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 2023.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 17, 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.
, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.