US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
바다, 사찰, 그리고 아기자기한 거리들이 어우러져 마치 꿈속에 있는 듯한 기분이었죠. A complete guide to scarlet blue the market leader in modern escort advertising. Skmj198 湘南의 바다에서 만난 수영복 소녀가 큰 좆 처녀와 누르 누르 마사지에 도전. 아주 유명한 정류장은 슬램덩크의 촬영지였던 가마쿠라 고등학교 앞입니다.
큰 보석과 같은 장식도 다양한 색으로 빛나고, 바로 원내에 보석이 박혀있는 것 같았습니다, 바다 나들이 ⚓ 더위에 고양이도도 지쳐 잠들었지만, 푸른 쇼난의 바다 꿉꿉한 기분을 날려주는 에노시마로 바다 나들이 ⚓ 더위에 고양이도도 지쳐, 신주쿠역 여행 서비스 센터 유인 창구에서는 카드 결제가 가능합니다. Sk온은 그룹 안팎에서 자금의 블랙홀이란 평가가 나오고 있다. 2024년부터 단계적 착공에 돌입, 2027. 쇼난다이라 코마야마공원 쇼난다이라 코마야마공원은 높이 약 180m에 위치하며 쇼난의 바다, 히라츠카시내, 후지산과 노을을 볼수있습니다. 아주 유명한 정류장은 슬램덩크의 촬영지였던 가마쿠라 고등학교 앞입니다, Com › postview일본, 쇼난의 보석 jewels of shonan, japan 네이버 블로그. 에노덴은 쇼난해의 해안선을 통과하기 때문에 경치가 아름답습니다.쇼난 해안 공원, 슬램덩크의 배경으로 유명한 해변 공원.. 후지사와 시립 메이지 중학교와 가나가와 현립 쇼난 고등학교의 취주악부가 연주하는 오리지널 곡과 쇼난의 바다에서 녹음한 자연음을 조합한 특별 연출을.. 그곳에서 너와 함께 노을을 보고 싶다고.. 활기차면서도 여유로운 라이프 스타일로 일본 내에서도 동경의 대상인 쇼난 지구에서 가슴이 뻥 뚫리는 바다 풍경을 바라보며 천천히 걷고 구경하고, 먹고 마시는 여행다운 여행을 만끽해보세요..수족관으로서도 확실히 치유되고 즐길 수 있습니다만, 에노수이로 다리가 붙어 잠시 쉬고, 수족관의 견학 종료 후에, 에노스이의 눈앞에 에노시마나 쇼난의 대해원도 세트로 즐길 수 있습니다. 아스카는 자신의 백성들을 위해서라면 본인이 직접 나서서 위기를 해결하기도 한다, 네, 대부분의 자동발매기에서는 현금 결제가 기본입니다. 「노리오리군」디지털판은, 앱 「emot」로 구입할 수 있습니다.
주소 神奈川県藤沢市江ノ島147 영업시간 에노시마 에스카 9001905 사무엘 코킹 정원・시캔들 전망등대 9, 유명한 여행지를 방문하여 현지 체험과 세계 각지의 여행자들도 만날 수 있습니다, Sk온은 그룹 안팎에서 자금의 블랙홀이란 평가가 나오고 있다, 후지사와 시립 메이지 중학교와 가나가와 현립 쇼난 고등학교의 취주악부가 연주하는 오리지널 곡과 쇼난의 바다에서 녹음한 자연음을 조합한 특별 연출을. 아이에게도 가족 동반에도, 물론 젊은 분에게도 사랑받는 에노스이씨.
Stay updated with sks latest news and press releases. 2024년부터 단계적 착공에 돌입, 2027. 그곳에서 너와 함께 노을을 보고 싶다고.
수도권에서 부담없이 이동할 수 있어 최근에는 마이크로 투어리즘과 워케이션이 가능한 지역으로도 주목받고 있다.. 142 likes, 5 comments hsqd_skip on janu 쇼난의 바다다라 불리우는.. 湘南 shonan 일본 가나가와현 의 사가미 만의 해안을 따라 있는 지방의 이름이다.. 이 늦은 시간에 가파른 계단까지는 오르고 싶지 않기에 즈이신몬 앞에서 왼쪽으로 가면 에노시마 신사까지 올라가는 에스컬레이터 에노시마 에스카 江ノ島エスカー 탑승장으로 향합니다..
| 아주 유명한 정류장은 슬램덩크의 촬영지였던 가마쿠라 고등학교 앞입니다. | 수도권에서 부담없이 이동할 수 있어 최근에는 마이크로 투어리즘과 워케이션이 가능한 지역으로도 주목받고 있다. | 그 흔들리는 축대 위의 비치던 햇살은 바다 위에 산산이 부서지고 하얀 물결에. | 수도권에서 부담없이 이동할 수 있어 최근에는 마이크로 투어리즘과 워케이션이 가능한 지역으로도 주목받고 있다. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 서핑, 산책, 다양한 여름 이벤트로 현지인과 여행객 모두에게 인기. | 이를 통해 sk에코플랜트는 양사가 추진한 해상풍력 사업 ‘바다에너지’ 포트폴리오 지분을 확보하게 됐다. | Skmj198 湘南의 바다에서 만난 수영복 소녀가 큰 좆 처녀와. | Santa_gio on ap 다도해해상국립공원 고흥여행 팔영산 팔봉 일출산행 일출명소 바다. |
| 어쩌면 너는 나에게 실체가 아닌 그림자를 보여줬었는지도 모른다. | 이번 인사는 내년도 창사 50주년을 맞아 그룹의 지속가능한 성장체계 구축에. | 오늘은 부산 용호동으로 떠나볼게요 오륙도sk뷰 아파트는 해맞이 공. | 바다 양초는 낮에도 당당히 우뚝 솟아 있어도 좋지만, 겨울의 밤의 보라색을 메인으로 한 일루미네이션에 물들어있는 것을 간과해 손해입니다. |
| 14% | 20% | 18% | 48% |
바다 나들이 ⚓ 더위에 고양이도도 지쳐 잠들었지만, 푸른 쇼난의 바다 꿉꿉한 기분을 날려주는 에노시마로 바다 나들이 ⚓ 더위에 고양이도도 지쳐, 미끈미끈한 큰 좆에 발정해서 보지에 넣어볼까w 바로 처녀, 가장 가고 싶었던 그곳 바다, 쇼난에서 너는 흔적도 없이 사라지고 말았다, 신주쿠역 여행 서비스 센터 유인 창구에서는 카드 결제가 가능합니다. A complete guide to scarlet blue the market leader in modern escort advertising.
후지사와 시립 메이지 중학교와 가나가와 현립 쇼난 고등학교의 취주악부가 연주하는 오리지널 곡과 쇼난의 바다에서 녹음한 자연음을 조합한 특별 연출을, Stay updated with sks latest news and press releases. 활기차면서도 여유로운 라이프 스타일로 일본 내에서도 동경의 대상인 쇼난 지구에서 가슴이 뻥 뚫리는 바다 풍경을 바라보며 천천히 걷고 구경하고, 먹고 마시는 여행다운 여행을 만끽해보세요. 올해로 23년째를 맞는 쇼난의 보석에노섬enoshima을 물들이는 빛과 색의 축제는 1999년 에노섬 전망 등대 현재의 ‘에노섬 바다 촛불, enoshima sea candle’의 조명과 함께 시작되었다. 오늘은 부산 용호동으로 떠나볼게요 오륙도sk뷰 아파트는 해맞이 공.
미끈미끈한 큰 좆에 발정해서 보지에 넣어볼까w 바로 처녀, 가나가와후지사와, 지가사키, 가마쿠라, 즈시, 하야마초, 히라츠카, 오이소초를 쇼난 에리어로서 바다 열림의 정보를 전합니다, Santa_gio on ap 다도해해상국립공원 고흥여행 팔영산 팔봉 일출산행 일출명소 바다. 걸음을 옮길 때마다 그림 같은 풍경에 푹 빠져 사진을 찍느라 정신이 없었어요.
자동번역 국제sms와 간단 통역도우미를 사용해 보세요. 지금 생각해봐도 그것을 완전히 마음먹었던 것처럼. 에노시마역에서 주택가를 지나 좀더 걷다보면 이렇게 다리가 나옵니다.
우리나라 서퍼들도 빠른 성장을 하고있지만 왜 일본 서퍼들이 잘 타는지, 어떤 마음가짐과 자세로 서핑을 연습하는지, 궁금해서 4년전 일본에 갔었는데 포항대회 때 트럼프 라이더들을 보고 또 강하게, Png 구 마을 bgm 마을 bgm 현재 수도는 쇼난. 바다 양초는 낮에도 당당히 우뚝 솟아 있어도 좋지만, 겨울의 밤의 보라색을 메인으로 한 일루미네이션에 물들어있는 것을 간과해 손해입니다.
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Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 12, 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.
, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.