US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
04 2047 베이샹 오고 경기력 좋아졌다봐야하나. 글 순서우롱차, 일명 청차 대만의 대표적인 우롱차 차 구입하기 왕더추안, 천인명차우롱차, 일명 청차 우롱차는. Omg 그래도 2승하면 스플릿3는 가지않나 rng랑은 진짜 할만한데 up이 문제네. 글 순서우롱차, 일명 청차 대만의 대표적인 우롱차 차 구입하기 왕더추안, 천인명차우롱차, 일명 청차 우롱차는.
전 그룹명은 akb48 team sh에이 read more.. 저도 우롱 빼고는 잘 모르겠더라구요😂 그래서 한번 찾아봤습니다.. 모샹베이는 남자 친구의 배려를 원했지만, 무이난은 여자 친구와 아이..
| 2021 lpl 스프링 시즌에는 팀의 에이스로 활약하며 올프로 서드 팀에 이름을 올렸다. | 01 1836 중국에서 이런팀 보기 힘들었는데. | 베이샹은 넓은 챔피언 폭과 뛰어난 플레이 메이킹 능력을 가진 캐리형 정글러로 평가받는다. | 베이징신화통신 중국인민은행중앙은행이 베이샹 후환퉁北向互換通 거래가 오는 15일 개시될 것이라고 밝혔다. |
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| 드레스룸과 업무 공간까지 갖춰져 있었고, 400위안대 가격으로 1000위안대 객실에 머무는 듯한 가성비 최고의 경험이었습니다. | Lpl 오피셜 팀 we, 드디어 베이샹 복귀 13 아이유의요리교실 2022. | 애니메이션과 포켓몬 마스터즈에선 상행이 형이라고 설정되어 있으나 게임 상에선 누가 형인지 언급이 없다. | Omg는 그의 경험과 노련함이 팀에 긍정적 영향을 줄 것이라 믿고 있다. |
| 일선 도시 一线城市 北上广深 베이징, 상하이, 광저우, 선전 전통적인 의미에서 볼 때 중국의 일선 도시는 이른바 베이샹광선 北上广深으로 불리는 4개 도시, 즉 베이징 北京, 상하이 上海, 광저우 广州, 선전 深圳이다. | Omg는 베이샹의 영입에 대해 프로 무대에서 쉬는 동안, 베이상이 더욱 성숙해졌고, 전투 상황을 꿰뚫어 보고 팀을 이끌고 돌격할 수 있게 되었다고 믿는다. | 샹위루베이 근처 저렴한 인기 호텔 14369원부터 검색 및 비교. | 검은 제복을 입은 쪽이 상행, 하얀 제복을 입은 쪽이 하행이다. |
| Com › news › view후강퉁, 선강퉁 이어 후환퉁까지中 금융시장 개방 확대. | 샹위루베이 근처 저렴한 인기 호텔 14369원부터 검색 및 비교. | Omg가 베이샹 장즈펑을 영입하며 기대감을 표했다. | 구역 소개 동쪽으로 샹메이루香梅路, 서쪽으로 차오청동루僑城東路, 남쪽으로 선난따다오深南大道, 북쪽으로 베이환따다오北環大道와 연결된 샹미후 구역은. |
예선은 온라인으로 치르고 이 예선에서 올라오면 오프라인으로 플레이오프 치릅니다 장소는 부산에서 합니다, 2021 lpl 스프링 시즌 올프로 서드 팀에 이름을 올린 베이샹의 활약에. 니코 아이콘 얻고 싶어서 두번깠는데 아칼리랑 아리 나옴총 12개 아이콘 중에 하나 나온다는건데 아이콘은 중복 안되는거 맞음.
애니메이션과 포켓몬 마스터즈에선 상행이 형이라고 설정되어 있으나 게임 상에선 누가 형인지 언급이 없다.. 0 멤버였음 브리드 베이샹 샹크스 지우멍 미씽 지우멍이라는 닉 씀 we에선.. 원래도 강점인 갱킹형 정글은 여전하며 릴리아, 킨드레드 같은 성장형 정글로도 좋은 활약을 펼치며 팀의 연승에 혁혁한 공을 세우는 중이다..
구역 소개 동쪽으로 샹메이루香梅路, 서쪽으로 차오청동루僑城東路, 남쪽으로 선난따다오深南大道, 북쪽으로 베이환따다오北環大道와 연결된 샹미후 구역은. Omg 그래도 2승하면 스플릿3는 가지않나 rng랑은 진짜 할만한데 up이 문제네, 리그 오브 레전드 프로게임단 omg가 과거 team we의 프랜차이즈 스타였던 베이샹 장즈펑을 영입했다. Al은 31일 중국 상하이 메르세데스 벤츠 아레나에서 열릴 예정인 롤드컵 8강전서 t1. Jpg keepyourdreams team we.
히토미 주근깨 지금 시공의 파편은 500개 있구레어포스 육참골담, 탐욕스럽다, 혼령수확 있어요혼령수확은 그냥 레어로 살아도 된다고 해서 냅두고육참골담, 탐욕스럽다 두개를 엘리트로 업그레이드 하면 될까요. Kr › webzine › newsomg, 베테랑 정글러 베이샹 영입 인벤. 오피셜 omg, 베테랑 정글러 베이샹 영입. 14 2123 사일 릴리아궁 뺏으면 어케씀. Omg 그래도 2승하면 스플릿3는 가지않나 rng랑은 진짜 할만한데 up이 문제네. 히토미 여기사
히토미 안들어 가짐 일선 도시 一线城市 北上广深 베이징, 상하이, 광저우, 선전 전통적인 의미에서 볼 때 중국의 일선 도시는 이른바 베이샹광선 北上广深으로 불리는 4개 도시, 즉 베이징 北京, 상하이 上海, 광저우 广州, 선전 深圳이다. 이곳은 전 연령층이 사계절 내내 즐길 수. 성장형 정글, 갱킹, 탱커, 교전 등 다양한 역할을 소화할 수 있으며, 특히. 샹크스 추이샤오쥔 t1과 롤드컵 8강전서 대결하는 애니원즈 레전드al 미드 라이너 샹크스 추이샤오쥔의 목표는 결승전이 열리는 청두에 가는 것이다. 신화망 베이징 5월9일 중국인민은행중앙은행이 베이샹 후환퉁北向互換通 거래가 오는 15일 개시될 것이라고 밝혔다. 히토미 순종
히토미 베타 01 1836 중국에서 이런팀 보기 힘들었는데. 샹크스가 2등하고있고 지우멍이 월즈 준우승까지 했던 세계관에 있자하니저 둘보다도 1옵션이던 베이샹이 좆망한게 참 신기함. 온라인으로 예약하고 호텔에서 직접 결제. 오피셜 omg, 베테랑 정글러 베이샹 영입. 現 lpl 의 weibo gaming taptap 소속 탑 라. 히토미 불법인가요
히토미 접속 안됨 안녕하세요 하루한잔입니다 ´ ` 오늘의 하루한잔은 왕덕전의 이에요. 롤 리그 오브 레전드 에펨코리아 시발. 성장형 정글, 갱킹, 탱커, 교전 등 다양한 역할을 소화할 수 있으며, 특히 올라프는 그의 시그니처 픽으로 유명하다. 신화내외뉴스통신 최환석 기자 중국인민은행중앙은행이 베이샹 후환퉁北向互換通 거래가 오는 15일 개시될 것이라고 밝혔다. 일선 도시 一线城市 北上广深 베이징, 상하이, 광저우, 선전 전통적인 의미에서 볼 때 중국의 일선 도시는 이른바 베이샹광선 北上广深으로 불리는 4개 도시, 즉 베이징 北京, 상하이 上海, 광저우 广州, 선전 深圳이다.
히토미 보추물 추천 Lpl 오피셜 팀 we, 드디어 베이샹 복귀 13 아이유의요리교실 2022. 11 lck 씹덕 고로시ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 오뜨치즈케잌 2022. 😂😂 이거는 너무 직역이라 조금 찾아봤어요. Com › news › view후강퉁, 선강퉁 이어 후환퉁까지中 금융시장 개방 확대. 지금 시공의 파편은 500개 있구레어포스 육참골담, 탐욕스럽다, 혼령수확 있어요혼령수확은 그냥 레어로 살아도 된다고 해서 냅두고육참골담, 탐욕스럽다 두개를 엘리트로 업그레이드 하면 될까요.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 13, 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.
성장형 정글, 갱킹, 탱커, 교전 등 다양한 역할을 소화할 수 있으며, 특히 올라프는 그의 시그니처 픽으로 유명하다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.