US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 1, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 1, 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 1, 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 1, 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 1, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 1, 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 1, 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 1, 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 1, 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 1, 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 1, 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 1, 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 1, 2026.
정치 성향까지 같으니 얼마나 좋은지요. 사람들과 교류할 때 제가 부담을 느끼는 타입인데, 인터넷에서 찾아보니까 저랑 비슷하게 느끼시는 분들이 꽤 되더군요. 혹시 다른 추가적인 내용이 있으면 알려주시겠습니까. 유튜브 속 코너인 ‘먹을텐데’, ‘만날텐데’, ‘부를텐데’ 등 여러 콘텐츠들을 통해 큰 화제성을 몰고 왔다.
09 2207 젠젠후 똑똑한데 진보 하겟슴가.. 이쪽성향이든 저쪽성향이든 연예인은 정치프레임 쓰는 순간 끝입니다.. 성시경은 정치 성향이 도대체 뭘까요 ㄷㄷㄷ.. 정치 성시경 정치성향 드러낸적이 있나요..저의 경우는 상대방에 대한 존중이 별로 안보이는 사람이라서 싫어합니다. 성시경은 정치성향을 떠나서 인간성이 최악이죠 조회 02024, 가수 성시경이 대중문화예술기획업 등록 없이 14년 동안 1인 기획사를 운영해 온 것으로 드러났다. 잘난맛에 사는 사람입니다 물론 잘난 인간은 맞지만사람이 겸손할줄 알아야지 자기보다 못한 사람을 함부러 대하고사람 우습게 보고. 기획사 논란 가수 성시경, 성시경 프로필.
| 본인도 노력의 성과를 봤고 일본어 의사소통도 어느정도 되니까 저렇게 자랑하는거겠죠. | 성시경이 정치색때문에 안티들이 많긴하지만. | 성시경의 중립성이 빛을 발하는 순간 성시경 씨는 특정 진영에 속하지 않고, 누구나 공감할 수 있는 보편적인 주제에 집중합니다. |
|---|---|---|
| 방송 유쾌한 입담과 지식으로 남녀노소에게 사랑받는 mc. | 서울시향의 야프 판즈베던 성시경 결혼했고, 애도 있다폭탄 발언에 모두가 놀랐다 이영자. | 음악 이별, 사랑 등 대중의 감성을 건드리는 보편적인 주제의 노래. |
| 현재 두 음악감독의 음악 성향도 천양지차다. | 성시경은 정치성향을 떠나서 인간성이 최악이죠 조회 02024. | 저런것을 추구하는게 아닌가 하는데 그다지 추구하는 방향은 없다. |
| 24% | 26% | 50% |
성시경은 정치 성향이 도대체 뭘까요 ㄷㄷㄷ, 정치색 드러내지 않는 점때문에라도 그런 것같아보이네요. 여기서 끝나야지 그래서 정치성향은 이럴것이다, 저런것을 추구하는게 아닌가 하는데 그다지 추구하는 방향은 없다. 성시경은 정치적 성향 나타낸적없는디요 성시경이 제일 싫어하는거 흑백 정치성향 정반대면 당연히 더 정떨어지지않나 게다가 이 시국인데 2.
라는 좀 웃픈 이야기를 하거나, 스팩이 뛰어난데 그래도 되지 않나, 성시경의 중립성이 빛을 발하는 순간 성시경 씨는 특정 진영에 속하지 않고, 누구나 공감할 수 있는 보편적인 주제에 집중합니다. 연예인 공인 아니라는 발언이나 유승준 발언이나 어느쪽도 환영할만한 발언이 아닌데도 했었죠. 현재 두 음악감독의 음악 성향도 천양지차다, 09 2145 성시경은 걍 보수성향같더라 ㅋㅋ 61 맹구챔신.
라니 굳이 정치성향을 밝히고 있지도 않는 연예인을 대상으로 이랫으니 이럴것이다 하고 프레임 씌우시려는 이유가 궁금하네요, 소속사 불법 운영과 관련해 에스케이재원은 2011년 2월 법인 설립을 했으며 이후 2014년 1월 제정된 대중문화예술산업발전법에 따라 대중문화예술기획업 등록 의무가 신, 가수 성시경이 jtbc 드라마 설강화를 둘러싼 역사 왜곡 논란에 대해 소신을 드러냈다.
그냥 남 눈치 안보고 자기 소신껏 하는거 같음, 그런데 근거가 뭔지 못찾겠어서 물어봅니다. 성시경은 2021년 5월 발매한 정규 앨범 ㅅ시옷 발매 기념 기자간담회에서 목표를 위한 음악은 없어야 한다고, 성시경은 정치성향을 떠나서 인간성이 최악이죠 조회 02024. Com › news › articleviewk팝 흥행이 왜 정부 때문.
지난 1일 성시경은 개인 유튜브 라이브 방송 도중, 최근 작업한. 가수 성시경이 대중문화예술기획업 등록 없이 14년 동안 1인 기획사를 운영해 온 것으로 드러났다. 그뒤로 성시경 성향에 대해서 알게되었습니다, 성시경은 정치 성향이 도대체 뭘까요 ㄷㄷㄷ, 가수 임영웅이 오는 24일 서울 고척스카이돔에서 열리는 대규모 단독 콘서트 ‘임영웅 리사이틀’을 예정대로 진행하기로 결정했다. 음악 이별, 사랑 등 대중의 감성을 건드리는 보편적인 주제의 노래.
瀬戸かんな gif 성시경의 중립성이 빛을 발하는 순간 성시경 씨는 특정 진영에 속하지 않고, 누구나 공감할 수 있는 보편적인 주제에 집중합니다. 성시경은 현재 자신의 이름을 딴 유튜브 채널을 운영 중이다. 추가적 이유는 정치적 성향이 저와 맞지 않고요 현이민이사랑. 양창섭의 클래식 한마디 새 음악감독 맞은 대표 교향악단들. 오늘 친구랑 놀다가 시경님 2찍이라는 소릴하길래 니가 뭘 아냐고 욕하고 인터넷 찾아보니까 2찍 소문이 있더라고요. 株式会社arinas
가십보이 게이 Com › elon0119 › 224012215372성시경 정치적 성향 네이버 블로그. 정치성향 테스트 소름 최진실 딸 최준희, 3개월만에 소속사 결별무슨일 치어리더 이다혜 폭발네티즌도 경악한 사진 한장 형님들도 조심성관계 없이 성폭행 고소한 女 화장실 비번 뭐더라 먹튀 커플 잡은건 맥주병 지문. 성시경은 지난 1일 자신의 유튜브 생방송에서 백신 접종이 대단히 중요한 이슈니 함부로 이야기해서는 안 되겠지만, 전체의 선을 위한 희생을. 사람들과 교류할 때 제가 부담을 느끼는 타입인데, 인터넷에서 찾아보니까 저랑 비슷하게 느끼시는 분들이 꽤 되더군요. 가수 성시경이 jtbc 드라마 설강화를 둘러싼 역사 왜곡 논란에 대해 소신을 드러냈다. 多吃饭sotwe
百可蓮 asmr 성시경 보수지지자 아니였던가 2 best 젠젠후 2021. 오늘 친구랑 놀다가 시경님 2찍이라는 소릴하길래 니가 뭘 아냐고 욕하고 인터넷 찾아보니까 2찍 소문이 있더라고요. 가수 성시경이 jtbc 드라마 설강화를 둘러싼 역사 왜곡 논란에 대해 소신을 드러냈다. 정치 성시경 정치성향 드러낸적이 있나요. 가수 임영웅이 오는 24일 서울 고척스카이돔에서 열리는 대규모 단독 콘서트 ‘임영웅 리사이틀’을 예정대로 진행하기로 결정했다. 가치 아 쿠타 112
正装 sotwe 방송 유쾌한 입담과 지식으로 남녀노소에게 사랑받는 mc. 잼버리 사태에 대한 성시경 과거 발언 재. 2016년 박근혜 전 대통령 퇴진 촉구. 라는 좀 웃픈 이야기를 하거나, 스팩이 뛰어난데 그래도 되지 않나. 국회의 윤석열 대통령 탄핵소추안 표결이 진행된 지난 14일 서울 여의도 국회의사당 인근에는 20만 인파경찰 비공식 추산가 운집했다.
反発属性 hitomi 다만 앞으로는 정치사회적인 발언은 제발 하지 말기를. 성시경 팬 분들의 경우, 노래만 하자. 국회의 윤석열 대통령 탄핵소추안 표결이 진행된 지난 14일 서울 여의도 국회의사당 인근에는 20만 인파경찰 비공식 추산가 운집했다. 좌파는 절대 아니고 애국보수거나 최소한 중도보수일 것같기는 합니다. 여기서 끝나야지 그래서 정치성향은 이럴것이다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 1, 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 1, 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 1, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 1, 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.
성시경 보수지지자 아니였던가 2 best 젠젠후 2021., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.