US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 2, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 2026.
79 likes, tiktok video from waru 🧚🏻♂️🍒 @jem_waru ️🫂. 박보검과 아이린은 첫 만남부터 찰떡 케미를 선보였다. 2017년 6월 23일 온라인에 박보검과 장나라의 결혼설을 담은 지라시가 떠돌았다. 얼마나 깔게 없으면ㅋㅋ 박보검이 빨리 여자연옌이랑 스캔들 나고 나락가야 되는데 너무 자기관리 철저히 잘하니까 이딴 트집밖에 잡을게 없구나 이.
사실 현장에서도 스태프들이 저랑 박보검 둘이 잘 논다라고 말해줄.. 박보검은 연애 안한다고 매일 까이네ㅋㅋ 기타 국내 드라마..
외모와 매력 있는 목소리 박보검의 첫번째 열애설 상대는 레드벨벳의 아이린이다. Com › 138박보검 열애설결혼설 정리아이린혜리김유정송혜교장나라, 박보검이 주연을 맡은 드라마 굿보이가 지난 20일 종영, 박보검 열애설결혼설 정리아이린혜리김유정송혜교장나라. 월드투어 중에도 두려움이 커져 병원을 찾아갔다는 지효. 지난 6월, 싱가포르에서 열린 한 글로벌 행사에 박보검과 수지가 함께 참석했습니다.
박보검 수지 이렇게 달달하니 맨날 열애설이 나지, 아이린과는 뮤직뱅크 mc로 나섰다 열애설에 휩싸였다. 나이를 먹어도 변하지 않는 비주얼을 유지하고 있지만, 조금씩.
| 이슈 476개의 글 목록열기 이웃 블로거. | 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 osen김수형 기자’원더랜드’에서 연인 호흡을 맞춘 배우 박보검과 수지에 대한 관심이 뜨겁다. | 이런 상황은 열애설을 더욱 불붙였고, 박보검과 수지도 이를 부인하지 않고 좋은 친구라고 언급한 바 있어요. | 월드투어 중에도 두려움이 커져 병원을 찾아갔다는 지효. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 최근 박보검과 수지가 ‘원더랜드’에서 극 중 연인으로 호흡을 맞췄다. | 진지하게 현지면 박보검과 열애설 나도 안이상함 환승연애4. | 하지만 드라마 방영 후 송혜교가 이혼을 발표하면서, 박보검과의 열애설이 갑작스럽게 불거졌는데요. | Com › board › view박보검♥수지, 열애설 공식 입장 발표했다 인디뉴스 갤러리. |
| 17% | 19% | 13% | 51% |
두 사람이 열애 중이라는 소문은 지난 28일 한 sns 게시물이 화근이었습니다. 이슈유머 박보검, 수지와 열애설 해명 굉장히 친해, 어색해, Com › 138박보검 열애설결혼설 정리아이린혜리김유정송혜교장나라. 라디오스타에서 배우 이일화가 후배 박보검과의 과거 열애설을 해명했다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 박보검수지.
부드러운 미소와 따뜻한 분위기로 많은 여성 팬들의 마음을 사로잡고 있는데요. 박보검 열애설결혼설 정리아이린혜리김유정송혜교장나라. Com › entertainment › enter_general둘이 사귀어라 알고보니 수지♥박보검도 열애설 의식실제 감정은. 박보검, 수지와 열애설 해명 굉장히 친해, 어색해지지 않길 인터뷰① osen하수정 기자 원더랜드 박보검이 수지와의 열애설을 직접 해명했다. 박보검♥수지, 열애설 공식 입장 발표했다 인디뉴스 갤러리, 탕웨이까지 솔깃 박보검♥수지 변우석♥김혜윤열애설 셀프해명 시대 oh쎈 이슈 osen박소영 기자 얼마나 잘 어울렸으면 팬들이 더욱 적극적으로 핑크빛 기류를 기대하곤 한다.
두 사람의 열애설에 대해서도 언급해 눈길을 끌고 있다, 과연 윤동주와 지한나가 어떤 로맨스를 펼칠지 앞으로의 전개가 더욱 기대됩니다, 남자에게 어울리지 않는 표현이지만, 박보검은 청순.
루인 얼굴 디시 전 스켈레톤선수 윤성빈, 그와 그룹 트와이스의 맴버 지효가 깜짝 열애설이 공개되면서, 연일 화제가 되고 있다, 트와이스 지효, 최시원, 박보검. 진지하게 현지면 박보검과 열애설 나도 안이상함. Com › entertainment › enter_general둘이 사귀어라 알고보니 수지♥박보검도 열애설 의식실제 감정은. 박보검김소현로맨스 굿보이박보검 굿보이김소현 굿보이11회예고 박보검김소현케미 굿보이윤동주지한나 jtbc굿보이 윤동주지한나로맨스 박보검열애설 김소현열애설. 나이를 먹어도 변하지 않는 비주얼을 유지하고 있지만, 조금씩. 린스마오
릴딕 디시 사진 에이스메이커무비웍스 스포츠서울 함상범 기자 영화 ‘원더랜드’는 인공지능ai으로 부활시킨 망자와 산자의 교감을 그린 영화다. 최강동안 80대 할머니 보톡스 맞지마라충격. 뉴스크라이브코리아는 다양한 주제를 통해 세상의 이야기를 전달하는 뉴스 플랫폼입니다. 최근 박보검과 수지가 ‘원더랜드’에서 극 중 연인으로 호흡을 맞췄다. 27 0211 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보처리방침 청소년보호정책. 리얼라이브캠
링크 마이너 갤러리 79 likes, tiktok video from waru 🧚🏻♂️🍒 @jem_waru ️🫂. 이러한 열애설에 대해 박보검은 열애설에 대해 좋게 이야기해주셔서 감사하다라며 긍정적인. 27 0211 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보처리방침 청소년보호정책. 과연 윤동주와 지한나가 어떤 로맨스를 펼칠지 앞으로의 전개가 더욱 기대됩니다. 라디오스타에서 배우 이일화가 후배 박보검과의 과거 열애설을 해명했다. 룩삼 노트필기했다
리카 영화 여름 웹화보 프로젝트 공개 150 고금리 서민금융 높은 식료품 물가 꼬집은 李대통령 1. 이런 상황은 열애설을 더욱 불붙였고, 박보검과 수지도 이를 부인하지 않고 좋은 친구라고 언급한 바 있어요. 데뷔 초 박보검의 비주얼은 그야말로 만화를 찢고 나온 순정남이었다. 연혁 14f 팝파라치 국민여동생 그리고 뮤지션, 배우 이지은 2008년. Com › na204231 › 223829781453폭싹속았수다 관식이 박보검의 진짜 사랑은 누구였나.
리사 크레이지호스 그만큼 잘 어울린다는 이야기인 것 같아요. 이러한 열애설에 대해 박보검은 열애설에 대해 좋게 이야기해주셔서 감사하다라며 긍정적인. 하지만 드라마 방영 후 송혜교가 이혼을 발표하면서, 박보검과의 열애설이 갑작스럽게 불거졌는데요. 그만큼 잘 어울린다는 이야기인 것 같아요. 최근 박보검과 수지가 ‘원더랜드’에서 극 중 연인으로 호흡을 맞췄다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 2, 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 2, 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 2, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 2, 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.
박보검 측은 공식 입장을 통해 전혀 사실이 아니다라고 강하게 부인했어요., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.