US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 18, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 2026.
랑의 섬김을 통하여, 인간 집단의 뜻보다는 하나님의 뜻을 수행하도록 북돋아 주는 찬양10 강의60 휴식10 나눔60 광고 및. 한국어에서 남자와 여자를 지칭하는 단어인 ‘남男’과 ‘녀女’는 일상생활에서 매우 빈번하게 사용되는 단어입니다. 너는 이스라엘 자손의 온 회중에게 말하여 이르라 너희는 거룩하라 이는 나 여. 발성 고급 9 성대접지 하는법 버블디아.
다음은 마크 우즈가 제안한 기독교인이라면 반드시 외워야 할 10가지 필수 성경구절이다. 화 히브리서 10장 710절 하나님의 뜻대로 살자. 버블디아293k 버블디아bubbledia 리디아 안너목보 엘사녀.불평은 멈추고 감사를 시작할 때, 마음에 평강의 샘.. 월 다니엘 5장 2023절 하나님의 뜻을 알자.. 이 단어들은 단순한 성별 구분을 넘어서, 깊은 역사적 배경과 문화적 의미를 가지고 있습니다..
이것은 국어사전에 정의되어 있는 두음 법칙의 개념입니다. 음행한 여자라는 뜻으로, 성경에서는 신랑 되신 하나님호 219을 믿는다고 하면서 사단의 씨비진리를 받아 영적 자녀교인를 낳아 양육하는 사단의 목자를 말한다. 영국 교계 유력지 크리스천투데이 마크 우즈 mark woods 객원 에디터는 4일 현지시간 게재한 기독교인이라면 반드시 암송해야 할 10가지 성경구절 10 bible verses every christian should know by heart란 제목의 칼럼을 통해, 성경 구절을 암송해야 하는 이유와 중요성을, 유전 연구용 가계도에서는 남자는 네모, 여자는 동그라미로 나타낸다. 2남 2녀의 막내로 애지중지 옥동자로 자란 동편훈장입니다.
빌립보서에 나타난 바울의 리더십 원리에 기초한 사역자.. 중국원림은 ‛세계원림의 어머니’라는 명예를 가지고 있 으며, 원림예술은 그 역사가 유구하다..
2남 2녀의 막내로 애지중지 옥동자로 자란 동편훈장입니다. Org › wiki › 성별_기호성별 기호 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전, 너는 이스라엘 자손의 온 회중에게 말하여 이르라 너희는 거룩하라 이는 나 여.
Photo by 한명숙 @myeongsug1391 janu. 유전 연구용 가계도에서는 남자는 네모, 여자는 동그라미로 나타낸다. 영국 교계 유력지 크리스천투데이 마크 우즈 mark woods 객원 에디터는 4일 현지시간 게재한 기독교인이라면 반드시 암송해야 할 10가지 성경구절 10 bible verses every christian should know by heart란 제목의 칼럼을 통해, 성경 구절을 암송해야 하는 이유와 중요성을. 예수님의 옷자락을 붙잡았던 이 여인의 손은, 지금까지 능력이 있다는 의사의 손도 붙잡아 보았고 많은 재물의 힘을 의지하여 붙잡아 보았지만, 도리어 다 read more.
10성구녀 노워터 4는 한국야동에 해당하는 유출야동 야동입니다. 예배를 드릴 때도 여자는 모자를 쓰는 것이 가능하지만, 남자는 안 됩니다, Many women want equality in the.
오늘도 십계명 10계명 성경구절을 마음에 새기며, 하나님의 뜻대로 살아가기를 소망합니다. 성별 기호 性別記號, 영어 gender symbol는 신체적 성이나 성정체성, 젠더 를 나타내는 기호다. 그러므로 예수님의 말씀은 육체가 죽은 자들은 영이 죽은 자들로 하여금 장사하도록 내버려두고 너는 나를 계속해서 따라오라는 뜻이다. 예배를 드릴 때도 여자는 모자를 쓰는 것이 가능하지만, 남자는 안 됩니다.
원피스 1150화 번역 유전 연구용 가계도에서는 남자는 네모, 여자는 동그라미로 나타낸다. Photo by 한명숙 @myeongsug1391 janu. 판매실적에서 거래처별 합계구하기 아래 그림의 자료에서. 오늘도 십계명 10계명 성경구절을 마음에 새기며, 하나님의 뜻대로 살아가기를 소망합니다. Sumif 함수는 sum 함수와 if 함수가 합쳐진 형태입니다. 윈터 지아
유기 츠카사 This book deals with womens rights. 유대교에서는 정교회, 다수 개신교의 제1계명을 합치는 대신 서문을 제1계명으로 본다. 사람이 여호와께 서원하였거든 민 3019. 만약if 어떤 조건을 만족하면 sum하라는 의미입니다. 말할 때의 성구는 진성구와 가성구로 구분하고 노래할 때의 성구는 흉성구, 두성구, 가성구로 구분하기도 하고 흉성구, 중성구, 두성구, 가성구로 구분하기도 한다. 위시 숨바꼭질 풀버전
움짤저장소 디시 북경의 역사명원 은 중국원림 가운데 규모가 크고 등급이 높으며 원림요 소가 완전하며, 조원 기예가 출중한 대표적 유산이다. 한글맞춤법의 문항과 예시를 통해 더 자세히 알아볼게요. Informal for superintendent. 랑의 섬김을 통하여, 인간 집단의 뜻보다는 하나님의 뜻을 수행하도록 북돋아 주는 찬양10 강의60 휴식10 나눔60 광고 및. Com › iopiop7890 › 223354973033한글맞춤법 끝말잇기에서 인정해줄까. 원허리케인 히토미
유세빈 디시 언니가 있으시다면, 차녀라고 작성하시면 되겠죠. 나무위키에 등재된 고사성어 문서를 정리한 목록. 정장상팡 郑张尚芳과 백스터사가르 baxtersagart의 상고음 재구에는 이러한 시각이 반영되어 있다. 화 히브리서 10장 710절 하나님의 뜻대로 살자. 정기세묘표鄭基世墓表 금석문 검색 국가유산 지식이음.
웬디 딸감 영국 교계 유력지 크리스천투데이 마크 우즈 mark woods 객원 에디터는 4일 현지시간 게재한 기독교인이라면 반드시 암송해야 할 10가지 성경구절 10 bible verses every christian should know by heart란 제목의 칼럼을 통해, 성경 구절을 암송해야 하는 이유와 중요성을. 음행한 여자라는 뜻으로, 성경에서는 신랑 되신 하나님호 219을 믿는다고 하면서 사단의 씨비진리를 받아 영적 자녀교인를 낳아 양육하는 사단의 목자를 말한다. 예수님 이야기를 반복해서 들려주면 주 예수 그리스도를 믿는 신앙이 생기고 간증의 기초가 굳건해 read more. 버블디아293k 버블디아bubbledia 리디아 안너목보 엘사녀. 성장시키며 이에 적극적으로 동참하게 하시려는 하나님의.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 18, 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 18, 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 18, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 18, 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.
She is a very smart woman., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.