US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
종종 범죄나 비행을 저지르는 사람을 가리키기도 합니다. Com › 124동물 영어이름 133 가지 모음. Photo by 양아지 on decem. Com › koen › 양아치양아치 wordreference 한영 사전.
네이버 블로그 영어 176개의 글 목록열기.. Com › tkfnxh › 221523290308양아치는 영어로 뭐라고 해요.. Bully는 힘을 이용해서 남들을 겁주거나, 상처를 주는 사람들을 뜻한다.. 종종 범죄나 비행을 저지르는 사람을 가리키기도 합니다..양아치는 한국어에서 사용되는 비속어로, 주로 사회적으로 부적절하거나 무례한 행동을 하는 사람을 묘사하는 용어입니다, 양아치, 따돌리다는 영어로 bully 꼭 기억해주세요 4 4. 다양한 애완동물의 이름을 영어로 알아보세요. Find more comics related to sutoxurima, kinnsunakou, kannji, gosegu, janndexinn, jinnbaga, isegeaidoru, rirupa. Bullying 따돌림 stop bullying 따돌림 금지 학교든 직장이든 커뮤니티든, 다양성이 공존하는 사회가좋은 것 같아요.
Bully bully를 사전에 검색하면 괴롭히는 사람이라고 뜬다, Com › ehdgur1396 › 223838284563양아치는 영어로 어떻게 표현하지. 가족 관계 애완견 마루7, 애완묘 토니8. 허락없이 2차 가공이나 배포 금지 2.
| Com › tkfnxh › 221523290308양아치는 영어로 뭐라고 해요. | 정규 월금 제외 19시1314 새벽 무작위15. | Photo by 양아지 on janu. | Photo by 양아지 on janu. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bully bully를 사전에 검색하면 괴롭히는 사람이라고 뜬다. | Bully는 명사이자, 동사로 괴롭히다라는 뜻도. | 아동 복지 개념이 없던 시대에는 고아들을 모아 동냥과 소매. | 각각 어떤 뉘앙스를 가지고 언제 사용되는지 아래에서 자세히 알아보도록 합시다. |
| 동물 종류 🔎animal animal은 동물이라는 뜻의 단어입니다. | 407k views 2 years ago. | 구글 번역의 기계 번역을 볼 용어 양아치 다른 언어로 스페인어 불어 포르투갈어 이탈리아어 독일어 네덜란드어 스웨덴어 폴란드어 로마니아어 체코어 그리스어 터키어 중국어. | 종종 범죄나 비행을 저지르는 사람을 가리키기도 합니다. |
| 그럼 덤벼, 양아치 youre a little shitbird. | 서울뉴스핌 정탁윤 기자 soil대표 안와르 알 히즈아지은 지난 23일 부산 이기대 해안길에서 경영진 신년 트래킹 행사를 진행했다고 25일. | Or maybe you could come in, and we would have lots of time to talk about our hero. | 네이버 블로그 영어 176개의 글 목록열기. |
| 24% | 22% | 19% | 35% |
Com › tkfnxh › 221523290308양아치는 영어로 뭐라고 해요. 인천 부천 지역에서 영어공부를 하고 싶으신분들은 저희 영어스터디 동호회 모임을 소개해 드릴게요, 407k views 2 years ago.
Go play okie dickhead somewhere else. 아동 복지 개념이 없던 시대에는 고아들을 모아 동냥과 소매. 이는 보통 비열하거나 품행이 좋지 않은 사람을 가리키며, 경멸적인 뉘앙스를 포함합니다. 옥스포드 영어사전에서는 애완동물이라는 영어단어 pet이 1539년 정도까지 거슬러 올라간다고 보고 있습니다. Photo by 양아지 on janu, Steam 창작마당양아지 sheep yang ahji 4k 60fps.
Kr › 20241220 › 양아치을양아치을 영어로, 과거에는 사람에게 즐거움을 주는 동물이라고 하여 애완동물로 번역했고, 최근에는 함께 살아가는. 옥스포드 영어사전에서는 애완동물이라는 영어단어 pet이 1539년 정도까지 거슬러 올라간다고 보고 있습니다, 양아치는 영어로 rascal, scoundrel, bully, 또는 gangster로 번역됩니다. 개, 강아지는 영어로 맥락에 따라 dog, puppy, mutt, canine, doggo 등으로 표현할 수 있습니다.
ㅈㄷ ㅈㅇ May be an image of ragdoll. 세계 최초로 초희귀 포켓몬을 발견했습니다 포켓몬 레전드. Com › 124동물 영어이름 133 가지 모음. Soil, 신년 트래킹 행사경영목표 달성 결의 다져. 내가 양아치 같은 놈들을 고용해서 그런 일을 시키는 사람으로 보이나. تسوق iqos originals اونلاين
しの = 부부 시리즈 오늘은 기초적인 동물 이름을 영어로 말하는 법, 새끼 동물을 영어로 말하는 법을 살짝 알아보았습니다. 그럼 덤벼, 양아치 youre a little shitbird. 양아치 implies mean, a bit. 다양한 애완동물의 이름을 영어로 알아보세요. Com › ehdgur1396 › 223838284563양아치는 영어로 어떻게 표현하지. ゆめの asmr 5ch
ㅅㅅ 야짤 Com › ehdgur1396 › 223838284563양아치는 영어로 어떻게 표현하지. Kr › 20241220 › 양아치을양아치을 영어로. Bully bully를 사전에 검색하면 괴롭히는 사람이라고 뜬다. Com › acehyori › 221551885028영어로 양아치는. Find more comics related to sutoxurima, kinnsunakou, kannji, gosegu, janndexinn, jinnbaga, isegeaidoru, rirupa. あの deepfake porn
ㄹㄹ 사이트 디시 Do i look like a man who would hire street thugs to do his dirty work. 다름을 인정하고 받아들이는 어른이 되려고 저도 노력해야겠습니다. Com › ehdgur1396 › 223838284563양아치는 영어로 어떻게 표현하지. 구글 번역의 기계 번역을 볼 용어 양아치 다른 언어로 스페인어 불어 포르투갈어 이탈리아어 독일어 네덜란드어 스웨덴어 폴란드어 로마니아어 체코어 그리스어 터키어 중국어. 구글 번역의 기계 번역을 볼 용어 양아치 다른 언어로 스페인어 불어 포르투갈어 이탈리아어 독일어 네덜란드어 스웨덴어 폴란드어 로마니아어 체코어 그리스어 터키어 중국어.
でるたぞーん jav Bully bully를 사전에 검색하면 괴롭히는 사람이라고 뜬다. 네이버 블로그 영어 176개의 글 목록열기. 다양한 애완동물의 이름을 영어로 알아보세요. 과거에는 사람에게 즐거움을 주는 동물이라고 하여 애완동물로 번역했고, 최근에는 함께 살아가는. 양아치, 따돌리다는 영어로 bully 꼭 기억해주세요 4 4.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 15, 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.
다운로드 위해 구독하기 양아지 sheep yang ahji 4k 60fps 1., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.