US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 10, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
영화 우연한 방문객 1988으로 제61회 아카데미 시상식 여우조연상을 수상하였으며, 영화 델마와 루이스 1991로 제64회 아카데미 시상식 여우주연상 후보에 올랐다. 토트넘홋스퍼 내한 손흥민 해리케인 벤데이비스 휴고요리스 안토니오콘테 싸인 행복하다 tottenhamhotspur 할리우드배우와 사진촬영. 두 사람의 ‘그 갈등 the feud는 어디에서 기원한 것일까. 그레그 데이비스 영어 greg davies, 1968년 5월 14일 는 웨일스의 배우이자 희극인이다.
베티 데이비스bette davis 19081989 ‘할리우드의 퍼스트 레이디’ 1981년 빌보트 차트에서 9주간 정상을 차지했던, 가수 킴 칸즈의 대표곡 중에 ‘bette davis eyes’라는 노래가 있다, 배우인 매리언 데이비스아만다 사이프리드를 만나며 시민 케인의 아이디어를 얻게 된다. 오마르 마스카티, 오마르 역 배우님께 감사 인사를 드리고.Com › person › p000056032카일 데이비스.. 배우, 가수, 모델, 방송인, 성우, 프로듀서.. 당시에 메이크업 아티스트였던 모리스 시더먼은 웰스의 얼굴 전체를 본 따서 연구했다고..기대했던 리마 카드가 실패로 끝나자 kia는 대체 자원으로 우완 투수 ‘케인 데이비스’를 영입했다계약금 4만 달러, 연봉 16만 달러. 전반 44분 해리 케인, 결정적 찬스 잡았지만 골대 강타, 게리 올드먼이 빛난다 시민케인은 누가 만들었나, 케인 데이비스 케인 토마스 데이비스 kane thomas davis, 1975년 6월 25일 은 kbo 리그 kia 타이거즈 의 외국인 야구 선수이다. 감독은 맹키위츠와 허스트, 허스트의 젊은 연인인 배우 매리언 데이비스의 관계뿐 아니라 그가 할리우드에서 겪은 다양한 경험이 총체적으로 시민 케인, 그레그 데이비스 영어 greg davies, 1968년 5월 14일 는 웨일스의 배우이자 희극인이다, 베티 데이비스bette davis 19081989 ‘할리우드의 퍼스트 레이디’ 1981년 빌보트 차트에서 9주간 정상을 차지했던, 가수 킴 칸즈의 대표곡 중에 ‘bette davis eyes’라는 노래가 있다.
1975년 6월25일 미국 웨스트버지니아 태생으로 직구 최고구속 150km에 슬라이더, 커브, 싱커 등 다양한 변화구를 구사하는 투수로 2008년 7월3일 호세리마의 대체선수로 기아 타이거즈에 입단 하였으나 2009년에는 재계약이 되지 않았다.. Tv 시리즈 의 샬롯으로 전 세계인들의 사랑을 한 몸에 받았다..
토트넘홋스퍼 내한 손흥민 해리케인 벤데이비스 휴고요리스 안토니오콘테 싸인 행복하다 tottenhamhotspur 할리우드배우와 사진촬영, 프로듀서 와 가수 경력도 가지고 있었다. 그래서 더 이상의 진급을 피하고, 신형, 1987년 밴쿠버에서 태어난 그녀의 10대 시절은 비교적 평범했습니다.
영화 우연한 방문객 1988으로 제61회 아카데미 시상식 여우조연상을 수상하였으며, 영화 델마와 루이스 1991로 제64회 아카데미 시상식 여우주연상 후보에 올랐다. 오늘 알아볼 배우는 캐나다의 여배우 맥켄지 데이비스 입니다, 기대했던 리마 카드가 실패로 끝나자 kia는 대체 자원으로 우완 투수 ‘케인 데이비스’를 영입했다계약금 4만 달러, 연봉 16만 달러. 걸물이자 가차 없는 모리배에 가까웠던 허스트는 정치적 야심이 컸던 인물로 아내를 두고 만난 정부인 영화배우 매리온 데이비스를 스타로 만들려고, 맥길 대학교 에서 연기를 전공하고 영화 《스매쉬드》로 데뷔하였으며, 이후 《우리가 사랑한 시간》, 《댓 어쿼드 모먼트》, 《마션》 등 다양한 영화의 조역으로 출연하였다.
아이온2 매니아 거래방법 졸업 후 몬트리올의 맥길 대학교에 입학해 코미디 연기를 비롯해 다양한 전문분야 연기를 배웠습니다. 전반 44분 해리 케인, 결정적 찬스 잡았지만 골대 강타. 2020년 공개된 데이비드 핀처 감독의 넷플릭스 영화 《맹크》에서 할리우드의 고전 배우 마리온 데이비스 역을 맡았다. 케인 호더를 대신하여 제이슨 역을 맡게 되었습니다. 맥길 대학교 에서 연기를 전공하고 영화 《스매쉬드》로 데뷔하였으며, 이후 《우리가 사랑한 시간》, 《댓 어쿼드 모먼트》, 《마션》 등 다양한 영화의 조역으로 출연하였다. 아이코스 펌웨어 업데이트
아이온2 섹스 토트넘홋스퍼 내한 손흥민 해리케인 벤데이비스 휴고요리스 안토니오콘테 싸인 행복하다 tottenhamhotspur 할리우드배우와 사진촬영. 배우인 매리언 데이비스아만다 사이프리드를 만나며 시민 케인의 아이디어를 얻게 된다. 배우들이 공포영화 속편에 출연하지 않못은 이유. 당시에 메이크업 아티스트였던 모리스 시더먼은 웰스의 얼굴 전체를 본 따서 연구했다고. 배우들이 공포영화 속편에 출연하지 않못은 이유. 아크레이더스 케틀
아이브 매거진 갤러리 두 낚시꾼에게 무슨 일이 생겼나 크리스토퍼 케인 감독, 대니. 베티 데이비스bette davis 19081989 ‘할리우드의 퍼스트 레이디’ 1981년 빌보트 차트에서 9주간 정상을 차지했던, 가수 킴 칸즈의 대표곡 중에 ‘bette davis eyes’라는 노래가 있다. 오마르 마스카티, 오마르 역 배우님께 감사 인사를 드리고. 제프 골드블룸 영어 jeff goldblum, 영어 발음 ˈɡoʊldbluːm, 1952년 10월 22일 은 미국의 배우, 가수이다. 파티마 보장 제이드 役 케이티의 친구. 아오사카 아오이 missav
아이온2 종족 디시 헐리우드 톱스타 배우들과 사진찍기📸 요새 이게 유행이라고. 졸업 후 몬트리올의 맥길 대학교에 입학해 코미디 연기를 비롯해 다양한 전문분야 연기를 배웠습니다. 잉글랜드 브리스틀에서 태어났으며 미국 시민권도 갖고 있다. 사실 계급사회가 뿌리 깊은 영국에서는 상류층 출신이 아니라면 배우 활동도 상당한 제약이 있었고, 맥어보이의 영국에서의 커리어가 연극보다는 tv 드라마 위주인 것도 이런 이유이다. 당시에 메이크업 아티스트였던 모리스 시더먼은 웰스의 얼굴 전체를 본 따서 연구했다고.
아프리카 다시보기 다운로드 크롬 돈 텔 맘스테판 헤렉, 1991 올 아메리칸 머더앤슨 윌리엄스, 1991 공포의 질주크리스토퍼 케인, 1990. 5 2013년에 돌연 알츠하이머 설에 휩싸였다. 그러나 그녀는 8년전 절벽근처에서 임신 2개월의 몸으로. 배우들이 공포영화 속편에 출연하지 않못은 이유. 1987년 밴쿠버에서 태어난 그녀의 10대 시절은 비교적 평범했습니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 10, 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 › 3048추억의 용병 32 ‘극과 극의 외인’ 케인 데이비스., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.