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.
리사 몸매 달라졌네 예전엔 되게 말랐었던거같은데 몸매 개이뻐졌다 리사 골반이 안 보이던데 저건 코르셋으로 조였음. 블랙핑크 리사의 파리 캬바레쇼 참석 후기가 쏟아지면서 외설 논란이 다시 일고 있다. 사진 속 리사는 다양한 무대 의상들로 시선을 사로잡았다. 가슴확대 가슴성형 성형 성형외과 성형외과추천 성형외과전문의 강남성형외과 모티바 멘토 세빈 보형물 보형물추천 성형수술.
Kr › news › newsview더블 g컵’ 가슴 축소 수술, 국가 세금으로 해줘. 프랑스의 대표 카바레 크레이지 호스에 참여한다고 알려진 블랙핑크 리사가 출연한 사진이 노. 공개된 사진 속 리사는 크롭 기장의 흰색 퍼프 반소매 상의. 나는 그 세계가 어떻게 돌아가는지 잘 알고 있거든, 리사는 여러 장소에서 각기 다른 콘셉트로 화보 촬영에 임했다, Hours ago — 故 전유성은 생전 폐렴을 앓았으며 기흉으로 폐 일부를 절제하는 수술을 받기도 했다. Com › site › data결국 보형물 다 뺐다&mldr. 가슴성형에 관심있는 분들께 많은 도움이 되었으면 좋겠습니다੭ ᐕ੭ 여자가슴 가슴확대. 학교는 praphamontree 2 school이에요, 일본 유명 배우이자 가수인 타치바나 리사52가 직장암으로 수술을 받았다고 밝혔다, 블랙핑크 리사, 레더 숏팬츠 한 장으로 무대 장악. 카리나 겨절에서 겨절 방법이란 겨드랑이를 절개하여 보형물을 삽입하여 가슴 확대 수술을 하는 방법이다.그런데 거기서는 도끼 자국이라고 안합니다.. 모티바, 세빈 가슴성형 방법, 주의점 그리고 가격까지 유방외과 전문의가 집도하는 리뉴에서 모두 알려드려요.. 2016년 8월에 데뷔한 yg의 걸그룹 블랙핑크, 데뷔이후 불장난, 붐바야, 마지막처럼 등 발매하는 음반과 타이틀 곡마다 히트를 치고있는데요.. 블랙핑크 리사, 레더 숏팬츠 한 장으로 무대 장악..
리사 몸매 달라졌네 예전엔 되게 말랐었던거같은데 몸매 개이뻐졌다 리사 골반이 안 보이던데 저건 코르셋으로 조였음. Com › nadiatear0 › 223720260910가슴 성형 루머 블랙핑크 리사, 남친 프레드릭과 태국에서 새해맞이, 내년 여름에 본식 잡혀있어서 휴먼에 빨리 가슴수술 예약했어요 그정도면 텀 괜찮겠죠. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 취향이겠으나 블랙핑크 리사 외모가 확 눈에 띄었는데, 블랙핑크 데뷔와 동시에 리사가 성형의혹에 휘말렸다. 카리나 겨절에서 겨절 방법이란 겨드랑이를 절개하여 보형물을. Com › article › 20230930korea times.
| 블랙핑크 리사, 옷이 어디까지 파인거야가슴 부분만 가리는 파격 패션 블랙핑크 리사가 독특한 디자인의 의상을 완벽히 소화했다. | 연구자들은 분명 음압기구에 효과가 있으며 가슴 탄력 변화도 없으나, 착용 후 사회생활이 안 되니 장시간 착용이 어렵다는 점을 지적했다. | 리사, 가슴 라인 드러낸 과감한 시스루은근한 볼륨감 뽐내는. | 여성스러우면서 섹시한 리사의 매력이 가감 없이 드러났다. |
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| 사진 리사 계정 명희숙 기자 aud666@xportsnews. | 블랙핑크 리사 외모가 튀긴 튀었나보다. | 가슴축소수술 3개월 지난 후기 가슴축소수술은 3개월이 지난 다음이 본인의 진짜 사이즈라고 하셨어요 이때. | 네이버 블로그 리뉴성형외과 8개의 글 목록열기. |
| 출생은 태국 방콕이며 국적은 태국이에요. | 블랙핑크 리사, 빅토리아 시크릿 패션쇼에서 도발적인 룩으로 시선 강탈2024년 10월 17일, 블랙핑크의 리사가 자신의 인스타그램을 통해 팬들과 소통하며 도발적인 룩을 공개했습니다. | 故 전유성은 생전 폐렴을 앓았으며 기흉으로 폐 일부를 절제하는 수술을 받기도 했다. | 또 hbo 오리지널 시리즈 ‘더 화이트 로투스 the white lotus’ 시즌3로 스크린 데뷔도 앞두고 있다. |
| Instar_plasticsurgery @instar_plasticsurgery 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 5년 전 쌍수와 앞트임에 만족해 다시 찾은 강남성형외과. | Com › @instar_plasticsurgery › video가슴 크림 바르면 진짜로 가슴 커질까. | 너무 크지 않아서 그렇게 티가 안 나거든. | 일본 매체 리브도어는 지난 10일현지 시간 타카나시 아요와의 인터뷰를 공개했다. |
instar_plasticsurgery @instar_plasticsurgery 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 가슴 크림 바르면 진짜로 가슴 커질까. 내 생각엔 수술 후에 마약성 진통제는 안 먹었다는 뜻인 것 같아. 일본 유명 배우이자 가수인 타치바나 리사52가 직장암으로 수술을 받았다고 밝혔다.
리사 인스타그램 블랙핑크 리사의 ‘19금 공연’ 모습이 드디어 공개됐다. 하기 전 껌딱지전엔 ㄹㅇ 꼭지만 붙어있는 수준이라 아무리 모아도 없었는데 작년부터 슴 수술하고 왔더라 티 ㅈㄴ 남. 학교는 praphamontree 2 school이에요, 영국 여성이자 성인 잡지 모델이었던 리사 캠프40는 성형과 시술 필러, 가슴 수술, bbl엉덩이 확대술 등으로 1억4000만 원이 들었다고.
사진온라인 커뮤니티 그룹 블랙핑크 멤버 리사26가 ‘크레이지 호스’ 첫 무대에 섰다. ㅠㅠ 그래도 김국현 원장님 이름만 말해도. 또 가슴 크기를 키우기 위해 한의원도 찾았으며 살을 찌우기 위해 노력했다, 결국 보형물 다 뺐다 성형에만 1억4000만원 썼던 前 성인, 리사, 비키니 커버에 더 도드라져 보이는 가슴라인인어공주가 여기에 블랙핑크 멤버 리사가 해변에서 아찔한 자태로 시선을 사로잡는다. 투애니원 해체 당시만해도 앞으로의 와이지 걸그룹은 투애니원만큼 못뜨는게 아닐까하는 우려도 많았었는데 블랙핑크가 그걸 깨버린 것 같아요.
가슴을 가렸다고 외설 논란에서 자유로울 수 있나. 일본 유명 배우이자 가수인 타치바나 리사52가 직장암으로 수술을 받았다고 밝혔다, 리사 인스타그램 블랙핑크 리사의 ‘19금 공연’ 모습이 드디어 공개됐다.
일단 이건 어그로들이 들고 다니면서 리사 까. 오늘은 리사 님의 쌍수, 가슴성형 영상을 준비했습니다, 저는 mtf고, 그녀에게서 반대 방향으로 가슴 수술을 받았어요. Stn뉴스 송서라 기자 그룹 블랙핑크 멤버 리사27가 근황을 밝혔다.
사진온라인 커뮤니티 그룹 블랙핑크 멤버 리사26가 ‘크레이지 호스’ 첫 무대에 섰다, Com › nadiatear0 › 223720260910가슴 성형 루머 블랙핑크 리사, 남친 프레드릭과 태국에서 새해맞이. 가슴을 가렸다고 외설 논란에서 자유로울 수 있나. 가슴을 가렸다고 외설 논란에서 자유로울 수 있나.
가슴축소수술 3개월 지난 후기 가슴축소수술은 3개월이 지난 다음이 본인의 진짜 사이즈라고 하셨어요 이때. 故 전유성은 생전 폐렴을 앓았으며 기흉으로 폐 일부를 절제하는 수술을 받기도 했다. 가슴축소수술 3개월 지난 후기 가슴축소수술은 3개월이 지난 다음이 본인의 진짜 사이즈라고 하셨어요 이때.
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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.
Com › nadiatear0 › 223720260910가슴 성형 루머 블랙핑크 리사, 남친 프레드릭과 태국에서 새해맞이., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.