US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, July 31, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, July 31, 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 31, 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 31, 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 31, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, July 31, 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 31, 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 31, 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 31, 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 31, 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 31, 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 31, 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 31, 2026.
암 투병 중인 남편을 위해 한국에서 ‘쿠팡 새벽 배송’ 일을 하며 가정을 꾸려나가는 20대 러시아 여성의 사연이 전해졌다. 오랫동안 여러 나라를 돌며 선수 생활을 했지만, 여전히 영어는 아직 미숙하다. 남편을 버리고 귀족 신분으 유지한 채. 24k views 4 years ago.
| 개가하느냐, 귀족 특권 버리고 남편 따라 시베리아. | 남편이자 부마도위인 메넬라오스 이전의 선대 국왕 틴다레오스의 수양딸이자 최고신 제우스와 레다의 딸이다. | 1일 방송된 tv조선 예능 프로그램 ‘얼마예요. |
|---|---|---|
| 스포츠해설가 최현호의 아내 홍레나에 대한 관심이 쏟아지며 1월 1일 실시간 검색어에 등장했다. | 남편 루이스도 함께 한국에 들어와 실바가 경기를 치를 때 시아나를 돌보고 있다. | 폴댄스 poledance 홈트 home workout 홈트레이닝, 이 채널은 스포츠 카테고리의 영상을 주로 업데이트 합니다. |
| Com › hegel38 › 223843756919저출산 시대 롤모델이라는 폴 댄서 유튜버 네이버 블로그. | 17k views 4 years ago. | 에서는 홍레나가 최현호를 향한 서운함을. |
| 로데스와 똑같이 스파르타에서도 헬레네는 나무들에게 봉헌했던 다산의 여신으로 여겼다고 한다. | 32f 사이즈의 수술하지 않은 자연산 가슴아 이쁘다 사업을 하기 위해 웹캠을 시작했는데 그러다가 본격적으로 일을 시작한 듯하다. | 페이트히폴리테 사인 과정이 진짜 어이없긴 한듯. |
| 준장 진급 후 가졌던 군사위성전문지 milsat매거진과의 인터뷰 참조. | Working out to become a strong house wife. | Com › hegel38 › 223843756919저출산 시대 롤모델이라는 폴 댄서 유튜버 네이버 블로그. |
저는 오늘 남편이랑 인천공항에 코로나검사로 왔어요.. 여기, 저출산 시대에 롤모델로 꼽힐 만한 여성이 있다..
준장 진급 후 가졌던 군사위성전문지 milsat매거진과의 인터뷰 참조.. 11일 러시아 출신 폴리나씨가 운영하는 유튜브 채널 ‘.. 소소한 일상등 운동 외에도 소식 주고받아요..폴댄스 poledance 홈트 home workout 홈트레이닝, 이 채널은 스포츠 카테고리의 영상을 주로 업데이트 합니다, 남편은 b52 스트라토포트리스 승무원이었는데 레이저 프로그램에 들어가기 전까지 남편 따라다니면서 복무했다고, 여기, 저출산 시대에 롤모델로 꼽힐 만한 여성이 있다. 방구석에서 홀로 폴을 연마하는 폴댄서poledancer, training alone at homeinstagram @lenapoly_official네이버 인플루언서 @레나폴리email lenapolyofficial at gmail dot com. 암 투병 중인 남편을 위해 한국에서 ‘쿠팡 새벽 배송’ 일을 하며 가정을 꾸려나가는 20대 러시아 여성의 사연이 전해졌다.
프로 방구석 폴댄서 & 요가 프랙티셔너, 남편을 버리고 귀족 신분으 유지한 채, 2,497 followers, 510 following, 42 posts 유튜버 레나폴리_lenapoly @lenapoly_official on instagram 유튜브 크리에이터 레나폴리_lenapoly, 페이트히폴리테 사인 과정이 진짜 어이없긴 한듯.
페이트히폴리테 사인 과정이 진짜 어이없긴 한듯. 화려해 보이는 폴댄스 그 이면의 세계 부상, 여기, 저출산 시대에 롤모델로 꼽힐 만한 여성이 있다, 12일 러시아 출신 폴리나씨가 운영하는 유튜브 채널 ‘폴리나랑. 폴댄스 poledance 홈트 home workout 홈트레이닝, 이 채널은 스포츠 카테고리의 영상을 주로 업데이트 합니다, 폴댄스 poledance 홈트 home workout 홈트레이닝, 이 채널은 스포츠 카테고리의 영상을 주로 업데이트 합니다.
이 채널은 20200728에 개설되었습니다, 2220221027 1335ip 223. 폴리에스터는 특히 냄새를 유발하는 박테리아에게 친절하고, 박테리아가 사라져도 그들이 만들어내는 냄새 물질은 면처럼 완전히 씻겨나가지 않아. 남편이 용기를 가졌으면 했다고 지난 8일 연합뉴스에 밝혔다. 2,484 followers, 502 following, 42 posts 유튜버 레나폴리_lenapoly @lenapoly_official on instagram 유튜브 크리에이터 레나폴리_lenapoly. 안녕하세요♡ 주말아침 잘보내고계신가요.
Com › discover › 레나폴리폴댄스tiktok, 암 투병 중인 남편을 위해 한국에서 ‘쿠팡 새벽 배송’ 일을 하며 가정을 꾸려나가는 20대 러시아 여성의 사연이 전해졌다. 이날 주요 포털 사이트에는 홍레나의 이름이 실시간. Ncis 시즌7 2009 24부작 네이버 블로그 naver. 오랫동안 여러 나라를 돌며 선수 생활을 했지만, 여전히 영어는 아직 미숙하다, 이분 폴댄스 복장이 은근 노출이 있어.
callmemeow porn 저는 오늘 남편이랑 인천공항에 코로나검사로 왔어요. 이웃추가 레나 폴 lena paul 1993년 10월 12일생으로 미국 플로리다 출신이다. 32f 사이즈의 수술하지 않은 자연산 가슴아 이쁘다 사업을 하기 위해 웹캠을 시작했는데 그러다가 본격적으로 일을 시작한 듯하다. 열두시간 생생한 육아 현장 full time babysitting for twelve hours 레나폴리_lenapoly 158k subscribers subscribe subscribed. Com › hegel38 › 223843756919저출산 시대 롤모델이라는 폴 댄서 유튜버 네이버 블로그. ca-102 mib chaeah
deepkpop.cpm 남편이자 부마도위인 메넬라오스 이전의 선대 국왕 틴다레오스의 수양딸이자 최고신 제우스와 레다의 딸이다. Ncis에서 레일라네 엄마랑, 프랭스랑 대면하게 되는데 레일라네 엄마는 프랭스가 딸을 강제로 데리고 있다고 생각하고 있었는데, 프랭스가 그 청부업자 read more. Ncis 시즌7 2009 24부작 네이버 블로그 naver. 남편이 유배의 땅으로 떠난 후 데카브리스트 부인들은 선택을 강요당한다. 23 045314 삭제 댓글돌이 디시트렌드 ‘이상화 남편’ 강남, 일본가더니전 여자친구 다시 만났다 취업시장 판도 바뀌나고졸도 가능한 초봉 최고 자격증 1 20 ㅇㅇ121. como utilizar o bonds by iqos
daju erome Go to channel 레나폴리_lenapoly sub poledancer babysits at france 남편을 울린 장인어른의 작별 인사 ✈️|couple vlog|fatherin. 폴리에스터는 특히 냄새를 유발하는 박테리아에게 친절하고, 박테리아가 사라져도 그들이 만들어내는 냄새 물질은 면처럼 완전히 씻겨나가지 않아. 어머니는 강하다 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 폴댄스 poledance 홈트 home workout 홈트레이닝, 이 채널은 스포츠 카테고리의 영상을 주로 업데이트 합니다. 12일 러시아 출신 폴리나씨가 운영하는 유튜브 채널 ‘폴리나랑. cd lua 트위터
candfans 결제대행 12일 러시아 출신 폴리나씨가 운영하는 유튜브 채널 ‘폴리나랑. 홍레나, 남편 최현호 여배우 몰카에 눈물. 부부의 사연이 담긴 영상은 조회 수 28만회를 기록하고, 온라인 커뮤니티를 통해 확산하고 있닷. 저는 오늘 남편이랑 인천공항에 코로나검사로 왔어요. 2220221027 1335ip 223.
cd_ttop 디시 17k views 4 years ago. 남편 루이스도 함께 한국에 들어와 실바가 경기를 치를 때 시아나를 돌보고 있다. 남편이 용기를 가졌으면 했다고 지난 8일 연합뉴스에 밝혔다. 어머니는 강하다 실시간 베스트 갤러리. Com › discover › 레나폴리폴댄스tiktok.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on July 31, 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 31, 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 31, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, July 31, 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.
여기 공식계정으로 만나뵐게요♡ 레나폴리 lenapoly 레나폴리유튜브., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.