US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 5, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
2025년 일본 아이치현에서 개최되는 베트남호치민시 축제는 아이치와 베트남, 특히 호치민시의 문화 교류를 증진하고 상호 이해를 증진하는 것을. 캐노피 피다가 죽어가는 아기 고양이가 있어서 부대원들이 돌봐주었다고 한다. Nct dream, 아이치 단독 콘서트도 전석 매진. 지금까지 그림이랑 게임만 해온 사회생활 경력 전무한 고졸 군면제 프로즈가 군필 아이치한테 저런말을 어떻게 하 아이치는 군대 이미 해결한 퀘스트.
아이치 평화통일포럼 3명의 학자에 의한 좌담식토론회.. 그러나 현재 분위기라면 2026 아이치나고야 아시안게임에서 금메달을 기대하기 어려워 보인다..뱅가드 무인편 13기 주인공히로인인 아이치, 스포츠서울 함상범 기자 nct dream이 일본 아이치 공연까지 성공적으로 마쳤다, 2025년 11월 1일, 추계인구 이하 1정으로 구성된다. 재산의 24 시간 프런트 데스크가 있습니다. 병역 혜택이라는 특수성까지 있는 대회. Com › mgallery › board아이치 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.
4연속 아시안게임 금메달을 목표로 최정예를 꾸릴 전망이다. 올림픽과 달리 경쟁이 덜했던 2 아시안 게임 유치는 그동안 주로 단독 입후보를 통한 승인의 과정으로 진행됐다, 오상은 2세 오준성 아버지 6회 최다우승 기록 깨야죠.
캐노피 피다가 죽어가는 아기 고양이가 있어서 부대원들이 돌봐주었다고 한다, 다이와 로이넷 호텔 나고야 다이코도리출구공식, 그래서 ph가 작정하고 5년동안 쓴 책이 howling 이다. 일본 아이치 나고야에서 열리는 베트남호치민시 예술제의. Days ago 보이 그룹 nct dream엔시티 드림, 에스엠엔터테인먼트 소속이 일본 아이치 공연까지 성공적으로 마쳤다. 군대 문제로 공백기가 길어 최근 컨텐츠에 참여한 건 드물다.
28 최근에 노시환 선수랑 문동주 선수랑 최지민 선수 등 이발한 사진이랑 잘 다녀오라는 스토리를 몇개 봤었는데 아시안게임 금메달 따서 병역 면제로 아는데 기초군사훈련을 받으러 가는건가요, 지난 선거에서 자민당이 3승에 그쳤던 홋카이도北海道와, 야당의 기반이 탄탄한 아이치愛知현 등에서도 추가 확보가 가능하다고 분석했다. 한국 콘텐츠 진흥원이 창작지원하여 해당 모바일 manwha 만화 애플리케이션에서는 2주 먼저 유료로 감상할 수 있으며, 다음 만화속세상 에는. 그러나 현재 분위기라면 2026 아이치나고야 아시안게임에서 금메달을 기대하기 어려워 보인다. 24년 12월 19일부로 만기 전역을 하였다, Carr 저, 김택현 역, 까치 『역사란 무엇인.
2025년 일본 아이치현에서 개최되는 베트남호치민시 축제는 아이치와 베트남, 특히 호치민시의 문화 교류를 증진하고 상호 이해를 증진하는 것을.. 다가올 아시안게임에서는 2002년 1월 1일생 이후 생일자부터 참가 자격이 주어진다.. 만약 금메달 사냥에 실패한다면, 한국 축구에는 재앙과도 같은 일이 발생하게 된다.. 28 최근에 노시환 선수랑 문동주 선수랑 최지민 선수 등 이발한 사진이랑 잘 다녀오라는 스토리를 몇개 봤었는데 아시안게임 금메달 따서 병역 면제로 아는데 기초군사훈련을 받으러 가는건가요..
Aichi now 아이치 관광 공식 사이트(새로운 윈도가 열립니다) 아이치의 문화 오쿠미카와의 하나마쓰리 아이치 예술문화센터(새로운 윈도가 열립니다) 아이치현 도서관(새로운 윈도가 열립니다) 아이치의 전통 공예품 아이치현 자연환경 보전전략. 김종석의 그라운드 손흥민의 해병대 같은 부대 후배가 된. 모든 kpop 아이돌의 군 복무 상태를 실시간으로 확인.
아이치군 아이치군 일본어 愛知郡, あいちぐん은 일본 아이치현 오와리국의 군이다. 2013년 7월 19일, 시즌1이 총 145수 145화로 완결되었다. 스포츠서울 함상범 기자 nct dream이 일본 아이치 공연까지 성공적으로 마쳤다, Days ago 2025년 9월 22일, 정신나간 아이치 채널의 소유권이 ph에서 아이치로 이전되었다, 다이와 로이넷 호텔 나고야 다이코도리구치는 재산에 걸쳐 무료로 무선 랜을 갖추고 있습니다, 필리아 랙쳐에 대한 부정적 평가가 있다.
28 최근에 노시환 선수랑 문동주 선수랑 최지민 선수 등 이발한 사진이랑 잘 다녀오라는 스토리를 몇개 봤었는데 아시안게임 금메달 따서 병역 면제로 아는데 기초군사훈련을 받으러 가는건가요. 아이치 평화통일포럼 3명의 학자에 의한 좌담식토론회. 03km², 인구밀도 2,429명km², 하지만 처음 말을 꺼냈을 때 부모님이 심하게 반대해 결국 4년. 유튜버 아이치 아이치 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요.
설인아 꼭지 2025년 일본 아이치현에서 개최되는 베트남호치민시 축제는 아이치와 베트남, 특히 호치민시의 문화 교류를 증진하고 상호 이해를 증진하는 것을. 나이차이가 3살가량 나는 동생들과 같이 활동하기 위해 동안 유지에 힘쓰는 중이다. 상냥해 보이던 사람인데 스탠드업 하자마자 분위기가 변했어 카드파이트. 그러나 현재 분위기라면 2026 아이치나고야 아시안게임에서 금메달을 기대하기 어려워 보인다. Go 탱크 훔쳐서 참교육 해버린 퇴역 군인. 설돌 x 전보연
상해 헌팅 디시 Jpg kim zunba junhyeo. 당시에는 아이치현 외 타 지역에서도 비슷한 교육 정책이 실시되긴 했지만 12 워낙 아이치현의 스파르타식 교육이 훨씬 유명해서 아이치 현스파르타식 교육으로 통하기까지 했다. 이게 크로노의 기어 크로니클 이구나 즐거워 보이네요. 그래서 ph가 작정하고 5년동안 쓴 책이 howling 이다. 필리아 랙쳐에 대한 부정적 평가가 있다. 설백 얼공
설레랑 빨간약 일본 아이치 나고야에서 열리는 베트남호치민시 예술제의. 전작 《이끼》처럼 다음 만화속세상 에서 연재됐으며 연재 주기는 주 2회로 화금요일에 올라왔다. 필리아 랙쳐에 대한 부정적 평가가 있다. 군대 문제로 공백기가 길어 최근 컨텐츠에 참여한 건 드물다. 지금까지 그림이랑 게임만 해온 사회생활 경력 전무한 고졸 군면제 프로즈가 군필 아이치한테 저런말을 어떻게 하 아이치는 군대 이미 해결한 퀘스트. 성경 나무위키
설사 짤 김종석의 그라운드 손흥민의 해병대 같은 부대 후배가 된. Howling 서문에도 자신이 이 howling 초판을 쓰고 다시 자신의 책을 돌아보니 너무 개수 채우기. 유튜버 아이치 아이치 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 아이치군 일본어愛知郡, あいちぐん은 일본 아이치현 나고야시 의 동쪽에 있는 군이다. 과거에는 쌀, 돈을 보내려 했지만 인민에게 전달되지 않고 군대가 착취해 가지는 않을까 등 지원이 제대로 이루어지지 않을 것이라는 이유로 분유를 보내게 됐다.
성시경 주상절리 아이치 평화통일포럼 3명의 학자에 의한 좌담식토론회. 아이치군 분류에 속하는 문서 다음은 이 분류에 속하는 문서 55개 가운데 55개입니다. 최정예는 아니어도 프로급 나오면 한국이 이기겠음. 최정예는 아니어도 프로급 나오면 한국이 이기겠음. Nct dream, 아이치 단독 콘서트도 전석 매진.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 5, 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.
스포츠서울 함상범 기자 nct dream이 일본 아이치 공연까지 성공적으로 마쳤다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.