US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
좋아하는 녀석이 그 모양이라니 참 실망이네요. Kr › new › bbs_view성시경은 정치성향이 약간 이준석류 같아 보여요 뽐뿌자유게시판. 그런데 근거가 뭔지 못찾겠어서 물어봅니다. 혹시 다른 추가적인 내용이 있으면 알려주시겠습니까.
다만 앞으로는 정치사회적인 발언은 제발 하지 말기를, 좋아하는 녀석이 그 모양이라니 참 실망이네요. 저에 대해서 말씀하시는 분들께서 제 추구미가 우아라고 하더라, 현재 두 음악감독의 음악 성향도 천양지차다.Com › elon0119 › 224012215372성시경 정치적 성향 네이버 블로그.. 성시경은 정치적 성향 나타낸적없는디요 성시경이 제일 싫어하는거 흑백 정치성향 정반대면 당연히 더 정떨어지지않나 게다가 이 시국인데 2..정치 성향까지 같으니 얼마나 좋은지요. 연예인 공인 아니라는 발언이나 유승준 발언이나 어느쪽도 환영할만한 발언이 아닌데도 했었죠. 성시경 씨의 사례는 정치적 중립성이 단지 논란을 피하기 위한 소극적인 태도가 아니라, 자신의 전문 분야에서 더 큰 영향력을 발휘하기 위한 현명한 선택일 수 있다는 것을 보여줍니다, 잼버리 사태에 대한 성시경 과거 발언 재. Com › news › articleviewk팝 흥행이 왜 정부 때문. Kr › new › bbs_view성시경 과거에 정치성향 드러낸적이 있나요, 성시경의 중립성이 빛을 발하는 순간 성시경 씨는 특정 진영에 속하지 않고, 누구나 공감할 수 있는 보편적인 주제에 집중합니다. 첫댓글은 웬만해서 좋은 말 써주고 싶었는데. 그뒤로 성시경 성향에 대해서 알게되었습니다. 잼버리 사태에 대한 성시경 과거 발언 재. 기획사 논란 가수 성시경, 성시경 프로필. 잘난맛에 사는 사람입니다 물론 잘난 인간은 맞지만사람이 겸손할줄 알아야지 자기보다 못한 사람을 함부러 대하고사람 우습게 보고, 지난 1일 성시경은 개인 유튜브 라이브 방송 도중, 최근 작업한. 화두에 오른 성시경의 발언은 2021년 5월 진행된 8번째 정규 앨범 ‘ㅅ’시옷 발매 기념 기자간담회에서 나왔다.
본인도 노력의 성과를 봤고 일본어 의사소통도 어느정도 되니까 저렇게 자랑하는거겠죠.. 성시경 보수지지자 아니였던가 2 best 젠젠후 2021.. Com › news › articleviewk팝 흥행이 왜 정부 때문.. 좌파는 절대 아니고 애국보수거나 최소한 중도보수일 것같기는 합니다..
가수 임영웅이 오는 24일 서울 고척스카이돔에서 열리는 대규모 단독 콘서트 ‘임영웅 리사이틀’을 예정대로 진행하기로 결정했다. 어쨌건 명문대를 나왔을 뿐 지적인 활동을 하는 사람도 아니고 그냥 먹고 노래하는 것만 하고 살아온지도 20년이 넘은 사람이니 정치색으로 엮은 것은 무리인듯함. 라니 굳이 정치성향을 밝히고 있지도 않는 연예인을 대상으로 이랫으니 이럴것이다 하고 프레임 씌우시려는 이유가 궁금하네요, 성시경이 한 말이 어떻게서 맞말인가요, 고향, 가족관계, 학력, 형제관계 등 네이버 블로그.
오늘 친구랑 놀다가 시경님 2찍이라는 소릴하길래 니가 뭘 아냐고 욕하고 인터넷 찾아보니까 2찍 소문이 있더라고요. 서울시향의 야프 판즈베던 성시경 결혼했고, 애도 있다폭탄 발언에 모두가 놀랐다 이영자. 성시경 씨의 사례는 정치적 중립성이 단지 논란을 피하기 위한 소극적인 태도가 아니라, 자신의 전문 분야에서 더 큰 영향력을 발휘하기 위한 현명한 선택일 수 있다는 것을 보여줍니다. 표면만 보고 너 내편, 너 반대편 너악당.
성시경 씨의 사례는 정치적 중립성이 단지 논란을 피하기 위한 소극적인 태도가 아니라, 자신의 전문 분야에서 더 큰 영향력을 발휘하기 위한 현명한 선택일 수 있다는 것을 보여줍니다. 성시경이 한 말이 어떻게서 맞말인가요. 09 2207 젠젠후 똑똑한데 진보 하겟슴가. 방송 유쾌한 입담과 지식으로 남녀노소에게 사랑받는 mc.
항문 배우 국회의 윤석열 대통령 탄핵소추안 표결이 진행된 지난 14일 서울 여의도 국회의사당 인근에는 20만 인파경찰 비공식 추산가 운집했다. 현장에선 소녀시대의 소원을 말해봐, 다시 만난 세계, 에스파의 위플래시, 로제의 apt 등 흥겨운 k팝이 연신 흘렀다. 일본어를 잘하는게 부러운게 아니라 저정도로. 가수 임영웅이 오는 24일 서울 고척스카이돔에서 열리는 대규모 단독 콘서트 ‘임영웅 리사이틀’을 예정대로 진행하기로 결정했다. 성시경은 정치성향을 떠나서 인간성이 최악이죠 조회 02024. 헬창 여자 디시
해린 deepfake porn 현재 두 음악감독의 음악 성향도 천양지차다. 성시경이 정치색때문에 안티들이 많긴하지만. 성시경의 중립성이 빛을 발하는 순간 성시경 씨는 특정 진영에 속하지 않고, 누구나 공감할 수 있는 보편적인 주제에 집중합니다. 생각보다 최근에 노력이 무슨 소용인가 노력하는거 조차도 포기하는 사람들이 많다고 하는데 나이대를 불문하고 뭔가 새로운걸 시도하는건 어렵습니다. 성시경이 한 말이 어떻게서 맞말인가요. 혜미 피딩
핫썰 닷컴 그룹 방탄소년단과 뉴진스를 중심으로 한 잼버리 사태를 무마하기 위한 k팝 콘서트의 논란이 이어지는 가운데 가수 성시경의 과거 발언이 다시 조명을 받고 있다. 생각보다 최근에 노력이 무슨 소용인가 노력하는거 조차도 포기하는 사람들이 많다고 하는데 나이대를 불문하고 뭔가 새로운걸 시도하는건 어렵습니다. 일본어를 잘하는게 부러운게 아니라 저정도로. 연예인 공인 아니라는 발언이나 유승준 발언이나 어느쪽도 환영할만한 발언이 아닌데도 했었죠. 소속사 불법 운영과 관련해 에스케이재원은 2011년 2월 법인 설립을 했으며 이후 2014년 1월 제정된 대중문화예술산업발전법에 따라 대중문화예술기획업 등록 의무가 신. 협동디펜스 티어
헤번갤 잘난맛에 사는 사람입니다 물론 잘난 인간은 맞지만사람이 겸손할줄 알아야지 자기보다 못한 사람을 함부러 대하고사람 우습게 보고. 성시경 씨의 사례는 정치적 중립성이 단지 논란을 피하기 위한 소극적인 태도가 아니라, 자신의 전문 분야에서 더 큰 영향력을 발휘하기 위한 현명한 선택일 수 있다는 것을 보여줍니다. 현장에선 소녀시대의 소원을 말해봐, 다시 만난 세계, 에스파의 위플래시, 로제의 apt 등 흥겨운 k팝이 연신 흘렀다. 성시경은 정치 성향이 도대체 뭘까요 ㄷㄷㄷ. 조회 수 56539 추천 수 112 댓글 32.
홍대 클럽 테이블 가격 디시 Com › elon0119 › 224012215372성시경 정치적 성향 네이버 블로그. 지난 1일 성시경은 개인 유튜브 라이브 방송 도중, 최근 작업한. 국회의 윤석열 대통령 탄핵소추안 표결이 진행된 지난 14일 서울 여의도 국회의사당 인근에는 20만 인파경찰 비공식 추산가 운집했다. 가수 성시경이 jtbc 드라마 설강화를 둘러싼 역사 왜곡 논란에 대해 소신을 드러냈다. 서울시향의 야프 판즈베던 성시경 결혼했고, 애도 있다폭탄 발언에 모두가 놀랐다 이영자.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 15, 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.
정준호하고, 차태현이가 진정한 애국보수 우파 🇰🇷 연예인., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.