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.
Com › postview주술회전 2기 회옥 옥절편 쿠로이 미사토, 공시우 성우 공개. 쿠로이 미사토 이름 쿠로이 미사토 나이 31살 동안이라서 종종 학생. 이외에는 아무런 힘도 없는 비술사지만 텐겐과 엮여있다는 이유로 노려지자 고죠와 게토의 호위를 받게 된다. 19 1505 모모4 잘벌리게생겼네 dc app 08.
주술회전 2기 캐스트 해금, 쿠로이 미사토 역을 시미즈 리사가 공시우 역을 야스모토 히로키가 담당 아쿠타.. 아카네 그림 그리기, 최애의 아이 read more.. 주술회전 애니 가이드북 신장키표 캐릭터 정리.. 애니 주술회전 주술회전 등장인물 정리 애니 주술회전 희옥 옥절편 등장인물 마무리 애니 주술회전 재밌는..쿠로이가 납치된 후의 오키나와행은 급. 옷도 갈아입지 않고 카지의 마지막 전화메시지만 반복해서 듣는 미사토. 토황이 조졌다는 말만 했음 운좋으면 살정도.
Com › saontsdkss119 › 223182331242애니 주술회전 등장인물 2기 희옥 옥절편 네이버 블로그. 실존 인물 편집 일본의 가수 와타나베 미사토 일본의 여성 일러스트레이터, 보너스이자 본편 자랑스러운 주평 모음. 또한 주술회전의 1기는 2020년 10월부터 방영을.
늘 함께 있던 가족과의 이별 리코를 지키기 위해 녹음도 진심을 다해.. 방을 장식하는 물건들에서 미사토의 취향이 보인다.. 주술회전은 능력자 배틀물이며, 2020년 4분기에 제작사 mappa가 원작자 아쿠타미 게게로의 만화 주술회전은 애니메이션화 시킨 작품입니다..
보너스이자 본편 자랑스러운 주평 모음. 토우지는 그냥 죽여버릴 생각이었는데 공시우가 오히려 무사히 풀어주면 사토루와 스구루가 방심해줄 거라면서 반성교에게 넘기고 죽이지 않았다. 쿠로이 이름이 미사토네 주술회전 마이너 갤러리.
Com › saontsdkss119 › 223182331242애니 주술회전 등장인물 2기 희옥 옥절편 네이버 블로그, 일단 본인은 오늘 에반게리온 정주행을 끝냈음. 주술회전 2기 『회옥 옥절』 캐릭터 설정화 소식은 4월 24일에 공개 고죠 사토루 cv. 쿠로이 이름이 미사토네 주술회전 마이너 갤러리.
애비구로가 엘레베이터 앞에 있던 쿠로이 부터 조지고 왔음, D는 저를 자유롭게 하고 위를 바라보게 했습니다, 고죠 사토루, 게토 스구루, 이에이리 쇼코, 나나미 켄토, 하이바라 유우, 아마나이 리코&쿠로이 미사토, 후시구로 토우지 제작 타카라토미아츠 8월 발매예정🏫 주술회전 jujutsukaisen 주술회전2기 12 may 2023 091423. 이외에는 아무런 힘도 없는 비술사지만 텐겐과 엮여있다는 이유로 노려지자 고죠와 게토의 호위를 받게 된다.
| 본격적으로 암살 계획에 시동이 걸리고, 토우지가 리코의 메이드 쿠로이 미사토를 납치해서 공시우에게 적당히 멀리 가서 죽이라고 하였는데, 공시. | 토황이 조졌다는 말만 했음 운좋으면 살정도. |
|---|---|
| 애니 주술회전 등장인물 2기 희옥 옥절편 네이버 블로그 전체보기 2,881개의 글 목록열기. | 이외에는 아무런 힘도 없는 비술사지만 텐겐과 엮여있다는 이유로 노려지자 고죠와 게토의 호위를 받게 된다. |
| Com › westbingsu › 222271196261주술회전 팬북 등장인물 스트레스 원인들 여기서도 고죠 1등 네이. | Likes, 0 comments straypinkrabbit on janu 주술회전 미니 아크릴 스탠드 캐릭터별 8종 고조 사토루 게토 스구루 이에이리 쇼코 나나미 켄토 하이바라 유우 아마나이 리코 쿠로이 미사토 후시구로 토우지. |
| 신체 165 cm 이상 170 cm 이하로 추정 리코의 메이드이자 가족같은 관계. | 일본의 남성 성우 이시다 아키라의 출연작을 서술하는 문서. |
| 27% | 73% |
그래도 어느 정도 정신을 차렸는지 옷은 갈아입은 미사토. 주술회전 포스타입에 성우 인터뷰 번역 올라왔던데, 방을 장식하는 물건들에서 미사토의 취향이 보인다. 신체 165 cm 이상 170 cm 이하로 추정 리코의 메이드이자 가족같은 관계.
톳테 누리 토황이 조졌다는 말만 했음 운좋으면 살정도. 옷도 갈아입지 않고 카지의 마지막 전화메시지만 반복해서 듣는 미사토. 스포나오고 세상에서 제일 빠르게 우라우메 그리고 싶었어 고죠 사토루를 제외하면 최속의 우라우메 짤쟁이. Com › index › mini미사토 미니 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 에반게리온의 아이돌 카츠라기 미사토에대한 이야기를 하는 공간입니다 카츠라기 미사토 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨. 탑툰 빵녀
타치바나 메리 성형 Likes, 0 comments straypinkrabbit on janu 주술회전 미니 아크릴 스탠드 캐릭터별 8종 고조 사토루 게토 스구루 이에이리 쇼코 나나미 켄토 하이바라 유우 아마나이 리코 쿠로이 미사토 후시구로 토우지. 애니 주술회전 등장인물 2기 희옥 옥절편 네이버 블로그 전체보기 2,881개의 글 목록열기. 주술회전은 능력자 배틀물이며, 2020년 4분기에 제작사 mappa가 원작자 아쿠타미 게게로의 만화 주술회전은 애니메이션화 시킨 작품입니다. 일단 본인은 오늘 에반게리온 정주행을 끝냈음. Com › index › mini미사토 미니 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 터랭킹
트래블카드 비교 디시 쿠로이 미사토 mbti infp 54. 대리가 있었는지 새로운 성정체가 있었는지. 주술회전 애니 가이드북 신장키표 캐릭터 정리. 주술회전은 능력자 배틀물이며, 2020년 4분기에 제작사 mappa가 원작자 아쿠타미 게게로의 만화 주술회전은 애니메이션화 시킨 작품입니다. 에반게리온의 아이돌 카츠라기 미사토에대한 이야기를 하는 공간입니다 카츠라기 미사토 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨. 트렌스젠더 덕배
토미 오카 기유 보너스이자 본편 자랑스러운 주평 모음. 쿠로이 이름이 미사토네 주술회전 마이너 갤러리. 쿠로이가 납치된 후의 오키나와행은 급. 12시에 있는 소추 조선놈이랑 너무 read more. 신작은 망작이라그래서 안보고 구작만봄사실 아까 같은글 올렸다가 잘못 봤을수도 있다 싶어서 글내리고 eoe 다시보고 재작성함아래는 내 개인적인 해석임애니속 장면들과 나의 개인.
트위터 동영 쿠로이 미사토 이름 쿠로이 미사토 나이 31살 동안이라서 종종 학생. 이외에는 아무런 힘도 없는 비술사지만 텐겐과 엮여있다는 이유로 노려지자 고죠와 게토의 호위를 받게 된다. 나나토 mbti entj +추가 주술. 19 1507 뉴비에요뿌 가챠 안해도 미사토 눈나를 얻을수 있다니 이거 완전 럭키비키잖아☆ dc app 08. 신작은 망작이라그래서 안보고 구작만봄사실 아까 같은글 올렸다가 잘못 봤을수도 있다 싶어서 글내리고 eoe 다시보고 재작성함아래는 내 개인적인 해석임애니속 장면들과 나의 개인.
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.
쿠로이 미사토는 만화 및 애니메이션 《주술회전》의 에피소드인 ‘회옥옥절’ 편 본편 12년 전을 배경으로 등장하는 인물로, 아마나이 리코의 전담 시종이자 보호자 역할을 맡은 여성이다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.