US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, July 30, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, July 30, 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 30, 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 30, 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 30, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, July 30, 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 30, 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 30, 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 30, 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 30, 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 30, 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 30, 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 30, 2026.
좋겠다 지하도시때부터 챙년짓하다가 엘빈에게 픽업되서 조사병단 들어온뒤로도 엉덩이 가볍게 놀리고 다녀서 엘빈단장이 성욕처리기구로 데려왔다 read more. 104기 애들은 상상과는 다르게 병장님의 색스런 신1음에 조끼립함 엘빈은 리바이 반응에 나오는 웃음 참으면서 계속 말할듯 허리와 다리 사이. Com › index › board리바이 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 일반인보다 몇배로 훈련받는 여군이지만 그래도.
리바이가 챙년이라는걸 104기만 몰랐으면 자이언트 갤러리, 하고 리바이 바지버클도 푸름 라이너가 리바이바지위에 허벅지 살살쓸으면서 병장님 얼마나 해보셨어요. 아빠 리바이에 경악하는 104기 ㅂㄱㅅㄷ 자이언트 갤러리.오메가 리바이가 104기 오메가들 멘토링 해주면 좋겠다.. 그 중 104기 무리는 단연 인기가 엄청났지 104기 병사들에 대한 전반적인 평은 영웅을 소재로 한 소설책을 보듯 개개인의 활약도 대단했으며 거기에 인물들도 좋았고 특히 거인화가 가능한 엘런이 있었으니까..리바이 벽외조사 후 뒷풀이 강제참여 당하는 진격 드씨 들어. 4기 1쿨, 2쿨 3쿨 전편, 후편 극장판. 엘런이랑 리바이 둘이 사귀는데 104기랑 간부조는 당연히 립엘인줄 아는거지.
| 엘런도 ㅊㅋ님 엘런처럼 그렇게 여리여리하고 예쁜편은 아니고 꽤 남자답게 생겼는데 리바이가 너무 씹넘사 인류최강 전직깡패 어른남자라 당연하게 립엘인줄 알면 좋겠다. | 그리고 고등학교 입학식날ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 104기가 학교에서 리바이를 만나게되는거 보고싶다. | 하지만 가까이서 보는 병장님의 얼굴은 막상 생각하려하니 전혀 생각나지 않았어. | 하고 리바이 바지버클도 푸름 라이너가 리바이바지위에 허벅지 살살쓸으면서 병장님 얼마나 해보셨어요. |
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| 엘런이 리바이 나머지 와이셔츠 단추도 끌어내리며 병장님 다른 곳도 얼마나 음1란한지 보여줘야죠. | 리바이에 관한 이야기를 하는 갤 입니다☺️ 리바이 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. | 이런식으로 듣는 104기 심장이 쫄깃해지게 만들겠지 다들 엘런새끼 미쳤나. | 하고는 엘빈 큰손으로 리바이 허리 쓸고 내려가서 다리 사이도 살살 쓸어주실 것 같다. |
| 리바이와 104기 태도의 차이는 자이언트 갤러리. | 좋겠다 지하도시때부터 챙년짓하다가 엘빈에게 픽업되서 조사병단 들어온뒤로도 엉덩이 가볍게 놀리고 다녀서 엘빈단장이 성욕처리기구로 데려왔다 read more. | 엘런이 리바이 나머지 와이셔츠 단추도 끌어내리며 병장님 다른 곳도 얼마나 음1란한지 보여줘야죠. | 엘런이랑 리바이 둘이 사귀는데 104기랑 간부조는 당연히 립엘인줄 아는거지. |
| 104기 조사병단 가운데 오메가는 아르민, 크리스타, 쟝 이렇게 있다고 하자. | 104기 이전의 조사병단원들 중에선 유일한 생존자가 되었다. | 리바이에 관한 이야기를 하는 갤 입니다☺️ 리바이 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. | 지하도시에서 올라왔으면 많이대줬을꺼 아냐. |
Tiktok에서 조사병단 100명 관련 동영상을 찾아보세요. 지하도시에서 올라왔으면 많이대줬을꺼 아냐. 리바이가 챙년이라는걸 104기만 몰랐으면 자이언트 갤러리.
iwara 다운로더 자기 부하들중 누구 하나라도 피 묻혀 있는걸 보면 당장 씻고와서 보고하라고 함. 하고 리바이 바지버클도 푸름 라이너가 리바이바지위에 허벅지 살살쓸으면서 병장님 얼마나 해보셨어요. 조사병단은 13대 단장인 엘빈 스미스와 인류 최강의 병사 리바이 병장의 투톱 체제로, 엘빈은 전략에, 리바이 는 전술에 특화된 면모를 보여 주고 있었으나 엘빈의 사망으로 14대 단장인 한지 조에와 리바이 병장의 투톱 체제가 되었다. 리바이의 인상적인 전투씬을 감상하고, 하루에 10번씩 보고 싶어지는 이유를 알아보세요. 아기야 그러면 안돼 하면서ㅋㅋ 리바이가 지들한텐 한없이 무서운 존재였으니까. iqos 3 문제 해결
jameliz only fan leak Com › board › view공수구분없이 존나 조사병단들의 난교파티가 보고 싶다. 엘빈이 그렇지 하면서 웃고는 리바이칸에 들어가는 소리가 났겠지. 하다가 어제부터 감기기운 있어보이던걸 떠올리고 리바이 자는방말고 엘빈 개인방 노크해서 가져다줘라 리바이가 나오지는 않고 방주인이 나오긴했는데 병장님 가져다 드리래요 하니까 별말없이 그래하고 받는 엘빈 얼굴보니 좀 짜증은 남 주고나서 뒤 도는데. 아빠 리바이에 경악하는 104기 ㅂㄱㅅㄷ 자이언트 갤러리. 리바이와 한지를 제외한 104기 멤버가 입단하기 이전의 조사병단 전원의 희생이라는 크나큰 대가를 치렀지만 월 마리아 탈환이라는 위업을 이루고 세계의 진실을 밝혀내. jeee622 근황
inkyung pepero 하다가 어제부터 감기기운 있어보이던걸 떠올리고 리바이 자는방말고 엘빈 개인방 노크해서 가져다줘라 리바이가 나오지는 않고 방주인이 나오긴했는데 병장님 가져다 드리래요 하니까 별말없이 그래하고 받는 엘빈 얼굴보니 좀 짜증은 남 주고나서 뒤 도는데. 엘런이랑 리바이 둘이 사귀는데 104기랑 간부조는 당연히 립엘인줄 아는거지. 엘런이랑 리바이 둘이 사귀는데 104기랑 간부조는 당연히 립엘인줄 아는거지. Net › name › 16515105진격거 104기 애들이 마피아라면. 104기 애들이 부탁해서 사스가 부따남 연회 싫은데 반강제 참여당해서 존나 고통받는거 드씨 있었네 진격 일상 드라마 cd존나 좋아시벌탱ㅋㄱㄱㄱㅋㄱㄱㄱ. javfc2
ian h2h reddit 그리고 고등학교 입학식날ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 104기가 학교에서 리바이를 만나게되는거 보고싶다. 하지만 가까이서 보는 병장님의 얼굴은 막상 생각하려하니 전혀 생각나지 않았어. 이런식으로 듣는 104기 심장이 쫄깃해지게 만들겠지 다들 엘런새끼 미쳤나. 리바이와 104기 태도의 차이는 자이언트 갤러리. 엘런이 리바이 나머지 와이셔츠 단추도 끌어내리며 병장님 다른 곳도 얼마나 음1란한지 보여줘야죠.
ihentai.kim 환생물로 104기가 동갑인 리바이한테 자이언트 갤러리. 자기 부하들중 누구 하나라도 피 묻혀 있는걸 보면 당장 씻고와서 보고하라고 함. 이 얘기를 어찌되어 하게됬는고 하니 군에서 여자애하나가 밤에 나갔다가 성폭행당해서 돌아온거. 엘런도 ㅊㅋ님 엘런처럼 그렇게 여리여리하고 예쁜편은 아니고 꽤 남자답게 생겼는데 리바이가 너무 씹넘사 인류최강 전직깡패 어른남자라 당연하게 립엘인줄 알면 좋겠다. 바로, 그 무엇도 아닌 리바이 자신을 위한 것이었음.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on July 30, 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 30, 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 30, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, July 30, 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.
하다가 어제부터 감기기운 있어보이던걸 떠올리고 리바이 자는방말고 엘빈 개인방 노크해서 가져다줘라 리바이가 나오지는 않고 방주인이 나오긴했는데 병장님 가져다 드리래요 하니까 별말없이 그래하고 받는 엘빈 얼굴보니 좀 짜증은 남 주고나서 뒤 도는데., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.