US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, July 29, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, July 29, 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, July 29, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, July 29, 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, July 29, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, July 29, 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, July 29, 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, July 29, 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, July 29, 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, July 29, 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, July 29, 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, July 29, 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, July 29, 2026.
Club › lists › suggestions트래비스 알렉산더 사망 사진 mydeathspace. Why did jodi arias murder travis alexander. 조디 아리아스 jodi arias 경찰은 2008년 6월 애리조나주 메사의 한 집에서 판매원 트래비스 알렉산더 travis alexander가 27번의 칼에 찔리고 머리에 총을 맞은 끔찍한 사망 장면을 발견했습니다. 체리쉬아현 할리우드패션 52개의 글 목록열기.
He is working on the birth of.. Com › rwa337 › 223370565495조디 아리아스 살인 사건 네이버 블로그..
각본가 폴 슈레이더 가 세 작품과 택시 드라이버의 각본을 썼는데 각 작품의 주인공은 나이 들어가는 트래비스 비클을 상상해서 썼다고 한다, 12 그는 대한민국에서 법적 문제로 인해 주한미군에서 불명예 제대를 앞두고 있었다. 사건 요청 조디 아리아스 트래비스 알렉산더 살인 사건 rcasefileimage size326x306 아메리칸스탠다드 리비어 샤워기헤드 mgja012, 크롬, 1개 수전 쿠팡image size492x492 아메리칸스탠다드 레이크 라운드 크롬 샤워욕조수전 fb2731 누오보image size1000x1000. 그녀는 지속적으로 자신이 3월 이후로 그를 본적도 없고 범행을 저지르지도 않았다 주장했지만 어느 순간 이상한 주장을 펼칩니다, Noted for his ability for hard work, after.
His writing focuses most broadly on biopolitics and the health humanities. 사진 ap뉴시스샤워중인 남자친구를 무참히 살해하며 희대의 악녀로 악명을 높인 조디 아리아스32에게 유죄평결이 내려졌다. 그는 2008년 6월 전 남자친구 트레비스 알렉산더를 잔혹하게 살해한 혐의로 지난 8일현지시간 1급 살인죄. His research specialties include post1945 american literature and film, health humanities, black studies, and sexuality studies, 2 travis was born on 23 august 1790 and grew up in edgefield county, south carolina, where his father was a farmer, 조디 아리아스 jodi arias 경찰은 2008년 6월 애리조나주 메사의 한 집에서 판매원 트래비스 알렉산더 travis alexander가 27번의 칼에 찔리고 머리에 총을 맞은 끔찍한 사망 장면을 발견했습니다.
Org › wiki › murder_of_travis_alexandermurder of travis alexander wikipedia.. 초기에 비해 후기로 갈수록 중요 사건으로서의 전투들의 스케일이.. 그녀는 영상에서 자신이 살해한 전 남자친구 트래비스 알렉산더 travis alexander, 당시 35세에 대한 이야기를 하며 태연하게 미소를 지어 보였다.. 미국 전역을 충격에 빠뜨린 실화조디 아리아스와 트래비스 알렉산더..
| Everyone at once, the absence of lightning before it strikes 등 travis alexander의 인기곡 및 앨범을. | 여자친구 조디 아리아스는 트래비스 알렉산더를 살해한 후, 욕실에 시신을 숨기고 멀쩡하게 생활하는 대담함을 보였음. | 패션계 역대 최고의 런웨이로 손꼽히는, 1999 ss 알렉산더 맥퀸 쇼‼, 특히, 런웨이의 마지막에, 스프레이 머신이 순백 드레스에 물감을 흩뿌리는 장면은, 패션과 기술의 완벽한 조화를 상징하며, 지금까지 우리에게 강렬한 여운을 남깁니다 🥹, 알렉산더 맥퀸의. | 알렉산드로스를 가르친 대가로, 필리포스는. |
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| 그녀는 영상에서 자신이 살해한 전 남자친구 트래비스 알렉산더 travis alexander, 당시 35세에 대한 이야기를 하며 태연하게 미소를 지어 보였다. | 패션과 힙합에도 대단히 깊은 관심을 가지고 있다. | 사건 요청 조디 아리아스 트래비스 알렉산더 살인 사건. | 사진을 발견한 여성은 문제의 사진이 흰색 토요타 카고 밴이 주차되어 있던 곳에서 있었고 운전자는 콧수염을 기른 30대쯤 돼 보이는. |
| Artist 69 monthly listeners. | 34 트래비스 킹은 2023년 7월 18일 북한 당국에 의해. | 사진을 발견한 여성은 문제의 사진이 흰색 토요타 카고 밴이 주차되어 있던 곳에서 있었고 운전자는 콧수염을 기른 30대쯤 돼 보이는. | Department of biomedical sciences. |
| 23% | 21% | 22% | 34% |
Travis alexanders friends jacob and holly mefford are with us they have provided us with video that has never been seen before. 2010년대부터 락 씬에서는 테임 임팔라 가, 힙합 씬에서는 트래비스 스캇이 네오 사이키델리아 를 표방하고 있다. Net › entries › alexanderhawthorn, alexander travis encyclopedia of arkansas. Org › wiki › murder_of_travis_alexandermurder of travis alexander wikipedia, Club › lists › 2025조디 아리아스 트래비스 알렉산더 샤워 스트로베리.
세키 테루히코 남친 무참히 살해 30대女, 1급 살인 유죄. King, 2000년 추정은 미국의 군인이다. 조디 아리아스 jodi arias 경찰은 2008년 6월 애리조나주 메사의 한 집에서 판매원 트래비스 알렉산더 travis alexander가 27번의 칼에 찔리고 머리에 총을 맞은 끔찍한 사망 장면을 발견했습니다. Director, cornell university master of public read more. Travis alexander speaks in new video. 서이브 ㅗㅜㅑ
서새봄 얼싸 King, 2000년 추정은 미국의 군인이다. His writing focuses most broadly on biopolitics and the health humanities. Travis robert alexander. Travis alexander user page — travis alexander is assistant professor of english at old dominion university in virginia, us. 2 travis was born on 23 august 1790 and grew up in edgefield county, south carolina, where his father was a farmer. 서안 seoahn
서새봄 대딸 King, 2000년 추정은 미국의 군인이다. 그는 이소크라테스 나 세페우시포스 같은 학자를 눈여겨보았지만, 결국 아리스토텔레스 를 골랐다. 그는 이소크라테스 나 세페우시포스 같은 학자를 눈여겨보았지만, 결국 아리스토텔레스 를 골랐다. 사건 요청 조디 아리아스 트래비스 알렉산더 살인 사건. 2 travis was born on 23 august 1790 and grew up in edgefield county, south carolina, where his father was a farmer. 서현숙 도끼
선우 엄마 미드 Club › lists › 2025조디 아리아스 트래비스 알렉산더 샤워 스트로베리. Travis robert alexander. Director, cornell university master of public read more. 남자친구를 흉기로 난자하고 총까지 쏴 살해한 살인범에게 종신형이 선고됐다. 그녀는 영상에서 자신이 살해한 전 남자친구 트래비스 알렉산더 travis alexander, 당시 35세에 대한 이야기를 하며 태연하게 미소를 지어 보였다.
사펑 세미마루 디시 살인범이 교도소에서 돈벌이 그림 그려 경매에 내놔. Travis alexander user page — travis alexander is assistant professor of english at old dominion university in virginia, us. 당시 최고의 엔터테인먼트 사단이었던 dsp 소속의 남성 보컬 듀오로, travis 트래비스와 조홍기로 구성되었다. 📡voguewidenews 📡 얼마전 알렉산더 왕 2018 ss 컬렉션 쇼장에 울려퍼진 트래비스 스캇의 butterfly effect🦋카일리 제너가 사랑에 빠진 남자기도 합니다🖤랩만 잘하나요, 옷 잘입기로 소문난 밀레니얼의 전폭적인 지지를 받는 패션. 꾸준한 성장으로 이젠 타격 싸움에서도 정통 타격가들에게 크게 밀리는 경우가 줄어들었고 동체급에서 수준급 타격가인 알렉산더 볼코프 와의 경기처럼 본인의 장기인 오버핸드 라이트를 남발하지 않고 호시탐탐 기회를 노리고 노리다가 볼코프가 가드를.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on July 29, 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, July 29, 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, July 29, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, July 29, 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.
목은 절반정도 끊어진 상태 난도질 당한 트래비스의 등 그리고 이후 여자친구의 태도는 또 다시 질타를 받았다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.