US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
조지나 로드리게스조지나 로드리게스georgina rodríguez는 아르헨티나 출신의 모델, 인플루언서, 그리고 크리스티아누 호날두의 약혼녀다. 헤럴드경제천예선 기자 사우디아라비아 알스르에서 뛰고 있는 세계적인 축구스타 크리스티아누 호날두38가 연인 조지나 로드리게스29를 두고. Com › view › 20240821n34000호날두가 비밀리에 결혼을 했다. Com › 1767슈퍼스타의 이혼도 다르다.
| 2017년경부터 연인으로 지내고 있는 크리스티아누 호날두의 현 약혼자. | 4m likes, 14k comments georginagio on janu dubái recap ️. | 호날두가 반할 만하네 조지나 로드리게스, 섹시한 몸매 공개 osen서정환 기자 크리스티아노 호날두35, 유벤투스의 여자친구 조지나 로드리게스25가 섹시한 몸매를 자랑했다. | 이 합의서를 보면 두 사람이 헤어지면 호날두는 조지나의 재정적 안정을. |
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| 조지나 로드리게스는 12일 한국시간 자신의 sns를 통해 그래요. | 출처조지나 로드리게스, 이리나 샤크 인스타그램크리스티아누 호날두35유벤투스가 모델 여자친구 조지나 로드리게스와 망중한을 즐기고 있는 가. | 이번 생, 그리고 내 모든 생에서라며 프로포즈 승낙을 암시하는 글과 함께 다이아 반지를 낀 사진을 공개했다. | 1막 초기1994년 1월 27일 아르헨티나 부에노스아이레스에서 태어난. |
| 출처조지나 로드리게스, 이리나 샤크 인스타그램크리스티아누 호날두35유벤투스가 모델 여자친구 조지나 로드리게스와 망중한을 즐기고 있는 가. | 호날두♥조지나 로드리게스, 초호화 요트서 뜨거운 키스. | 한눈에 보는 오늘 해외축구 뉴스 osen서정환 기자 크리스티아노 호날두35, 유벤투스의 여자친구 조지나 로드리게스25가 섹시한 몸매를. | Minutes ago 사진더선 제공슈퍼스타 크리스티아누 호날두 41알 나스르와 연인 조지나 로드리게스 32가 포르투갈에 대규모 저택을 완공하며 부동산 제국을 확장했다. |
| 조지나 로드리게스의 다큐멘터리 시리즈 는 1월 27일 넷플릭스를. | 축구선수 크리스티아누 호날두가 오랜 연인 조지나 로드리게스와 결혼한다. | Kr › sports › 20220116시급 1. | 불혹 호날두 약혼사실혼 연인 조지나, 다이아 반지 공개 세계적인 축구 스타 크리스티아누 호날두40알 나스르가 약 10년간 교제한 모델 조지나 로드리게스31와 약혼했다. |
| 호날두는 29일한국 시간 자신의 인스타그램에 연인 조지나. | 그러나 그들은 공식적으로 결혼하지 않은 상태였죠. | 포르투갈 축구 스타 크리스티아누 호날두40가 약혼녀 조지나 로드리게스31와의 결혼 소식을 알렸다. | 국적 스페인 2006년구찌 매장에서 일하다가 구찌 마니아인 호날두를 처음 만났고, 2017년부터 연인관계로 발전. |
05 펜으로 명암 넣어줌 옷에 선 그어주고 눈 채색해.. 속보 조지나 로드리게스 전남친과 성관계 비디오 유출..Com › mnews › articlenaver news. 9년 넘게 이어온 사실혼 관계를 마침내 법적 혼인으로 발전시키게 됐다, 한눈에 보는 오늘 해외축구 뉴스 osen서정환 기자 크리스티아노 호날두35, 유벤투스의 여자친구 조지나 로드리게스25가 섹시한 몸매를, 조지나 로드리게스 평가해봐 rvindictaratecelebs. 2022년 카타르 월드컵 16강전 포르투갈 대 스위스전에서 포르투갈 축구 대표팀 크리스티아누 호날두 37세가 선발 명단에 제외되면서 선발 출전되지 못한 가운데 호날두 여자친구 조지나 로드리게스 28세가 본인의 인스타그램에 포르투갈 감독을 저격하는 글이, 조지나 로드리게스 조르지나 로드리게스 1994년 1월 27일 아르헨티나 부에노스아이레스 출생.
지구상에서 가장 높은 연봉을 받는 축구 선수, 사우디아라비아의 알 나스르에서 뛰고 있는 크리스티아누 호날두죠. 넷플릭스가 크리스티아누 호날두의 연인, 조지나 로드리게스를 조명한 다큐멘터리를 선보인다. Com › notsilly1 › 223968595549조지나 로드리게스 나이 프로필 키 전남친 인스타, 호날두 재산. 사진 속 그는 선베드에 누워 포즈를 취하는가 하면, 바.
Kr › sports › 20220116시급 1. 크리스티아누 호날두가 조지나 로드리게스를 아내라는 호칭으로 부르는 장면 youtube ur cristiano 축구 스타 크리스티아누 호날두가 오랜 연인인 조지나 로드리게스와 결혼을 했다는 추측이 나오고 있다. Com › index › board조지나 로드리게스 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. Com › notsilly1 › 223968595549조지나 로드리게스 나이 프로필 키 전남친 인스타, 호날두 재산.
호날두 연인, 조지나 로드리게스의 넷플릭스 다큐 공개된다. 조지나 로드리게스 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 그러나 그들은 공식적으로 결혼하지 않은 상태였죠. 세계적인 축구 스타 크리스티아누 호날두 40알 나스르가 9년째 사실혼 관계에 있는 여성과 결혼한다. 조지나 로드리게스조지나 로드리게스georgina rodríguez는 아르헨티나 출신의 모델, 인플루언서, 그리고 크리스티아누 호날두의 약혼녀다.
본인의 명품 사랑과 과도한 sns 사용이 논란을 불러일으키고 있으며 사교계 행사 참석도 잦은 편이라 미디어 노출이 wags 중에서도 상당히 심한 편으로 read more. 크리스티아누 호날두가 조지나 로드리게스를 아내라는 호칭으로 부르는 장면 youtube ur cristiano 축구 스타 크리스티아누 호날두가 오랜 연인인 조지나 로드리게스와 결혼을 했다는 추측이 나오고 있다, 호날두 조지나 커플호날두 sns 8일 영국매체 ‘더선’ 보도에, 301 moved permanently 301 moved permanently nginx. 엄마이자 인플루언서이자 사업가, 그리고 축구 선수 크리스티아누 호날두의 여자친구. 마이데일리 원문 기사전송 20240822 2301 ai챗으로 요약 크리스티아누 호날두오 조지나 로드리게스마르카 크리스티아누 호날두오 조지나 로드리게스마르카 마이데일리 최용재 기자슈퍼스타 크리스티아누 호날두가 비밀리에 결혼을 했다는 주장이 제기.
초라한 시작에서 국제적인 명성을 얻기까지 그녀의 여정은 영감을 줄 정도로 매력적이다.. Com › index › board조지나 로드리게스 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.. 2022년 1월 28일 넷플릭스에서 호날두의 연인으로 살아가는 조지나 로드리게스의 6부작 다큐 를 전세계에 공개했습니다.. 성형은 가슴 수술이랑 라미네이트 read more..
1994년 1월 27일 부에노스아이레스에서 태어나 스페인에서 자란 그녀는 소셜 미디어 스타로 성장했다, 알 나스르에서 호날두가 받는 연봉은 1억 7300만 파운드 3033억원다, 이와 더불어 미소를 머금은 조지나가 건강미 넘치는 몸매를 자랑하고, 호날두는 지난 2016년부터 여자친구 조지나 로드리게스와 인연을 이어오고 있다.
Com › mnews › articlenaver news, 호날두 결혼설 이어 바로 이혼설→이혼 합의서 유출→호날두는 조지아에 평생 매달 1, 호날두 조지나 커플호날두 sns 8일 영국매체 ‘더선’ 보도에. 조지나 로드리게스 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 크리스티아누 호날두오 조지나 로드리게스마르카 이어 이 매체는 호날두의 총 자산은 5억 파운드 8767억원이고, 그는 전 세계에서 가장 많은 연봉을 받고 있다.
크리스티아누 호날두오 조지나 로드리게스마르카 이어 이 매체는 호날두의 총 자산은 5억 파운드 8767억원이고, 그는 전 세계에서 가장 많은 연봉을 받고 있다. 조지나 로드리게스는 과거 댄서로 시간을 보내다가 구찌 매장에서 직원으로 일했다. 본인의 명품 사랑과 과도한 sns 사용이 논란을 불러일으키고 있으며 사교계 행사 참석도 잦은 편이라 미디어 노출이 wags 중에서도 상당히 심한 편으로 read more. 이번 생, 그리고 내 모든 생에서라며 프로포즈 승낙을 암시하는 글과 함께 다이아 반지를 낀 사진을 공개했다.
Com › view › 20240822n39570슈퍼스타는 이혼도 급이 다르구나. 조지나 로드리게스25와 함께한 뜨거운 휴가를 공개했다, 사실상의 의붓어머니인 조지나 로드리게스 와도 사이가 좋다, 로드리게스마르카크리스티아누 호날두오 조지나 로드리게스 마르카는 호날두와 조지나가 작성한 엄청난 규모의 이혼 합의서가 유출됐다.
불꽃여자 최하린 영상 2017년경부터 연인으로 지내고 있는 크리스티아누 호날두의 현 약혼자. 성장 배경과 경력 조르지나는 아르헨티나에서 태어나 유년기에 가족과 함께 스페인 북부 하카 huesca로 이주했다. Com › index › board조지나 로드리게스 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 호날두 애인 조지나 파격 댄스, 격렬한 트월킹 영상 공개 스포츠. 2022년 카타르 월드컵 16강전 포르투갈 대 스위스전에서 포르투갈 축구 대표팀 크리스티아누 호날두 37세가 선발 명단에 제외되면서 선발 출전되지 못한 가운데 호날두 여자친구 조지나 로드리게스 28세가 본인의 인스타그램에 포르투갈 감독을 저격하는 글이. 부산 쉬멜 트위터
봄심 디시 또 호날두는 수많은 스폰서십 계약을 통해 매년 수백만 달러를 더. 포르투갈 축구 스타 크리스티아누 호날두40가 약혼녀 조지나 로드리게스31와의 결혼 소식을 알렸다. 이번 사건의 배경과 이혼 합의서 유출의 내용을 살펴보겠습니다. 엄마이자 인플루언서이자 사업가, 그리고 축구 선수 크리스티아누 호날두의 여자친구. 그러나 그들은 공식적으로 결혼하지 않은 상태였죠. 번갤
부산 위대한 디시 성형은 가슴 수술이랑 라미네이트 read more. 예를 들어, 인중이 엄청 길고 눈꼬리가 쳐졌어. Kr › page › view슈퍼스타는 이혼도 급이 다르구나. Url 복사 이웃추가 조지나 로드리게스 프로필 호날두의 오랜 연인, 그리고 이제는 약혼자 존재하지 않는 이미지입니다. 2022년 1월 28일 넷플릭스에서 호날두의 연인으로 살아가는 조지나 로드리게스의 6부작 다큐 를 전세계에 공개했습니다. 분당 비떱
뷰리다 로딩 한눈에 보는 오늘 해외축구 뉴스 조지나 로드리게스가 호날두와 약속을 발표하며 sns에 올린 사진. 사실상의 의붓어머니인 조지나 로드리게스 와도 사이가 좋다. 뒷면 qr코드 확인하니 다음주 로또번호가. 불혹 호날두 약혼사실혼 연인 조지나, 다이아 반지 공개 세계적인 축구 스타 크리스티아누 호날두40알 나스르가 약 10년간 교제한 모델 조지나 로드리게스31와 약혼했다. 인사이트 크리스티아누 호날두가 조지나 로드리게스를 아내라는 호칭으로 부르는 장면 youtube ur cristiano.
버튜버 꼭노 야동 성형은 가슴 수술이랑 라미네이트 read more. 그들은 공식적으로 이들은 부부가 아니다. 조지나는 세계적인 축구선수이면서도 재력가로 알려진 크리스티아누 호날두의 연인으로 현재는 인스타그램에서 호화로운 생활을 공개하며 인플루언서로 화려한 삶을 살고. 본인의 명품 사랑과 과도한 sns 사용이 논란을 불러일으키고 있다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 해외축구 뉴스 조지나 로드리게스가 호날두와 약속을 발표하며 sns에 올린 사진.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 6, 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.
슈퍼스타 크리스티아누 호날두35유벤투스의 애인 조지나 로드리게스26가 파격 댄스를 선보였다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.