US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, July 31, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, July 31, 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, July 31, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, July 31, 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, July 31, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, July 31, 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, July 31, 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, July 31, 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, July 31, 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, July 31, 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, July 31, 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, July 31, 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, July 31, 2026.
마치 미국은 트럼프 우세가 꺾인적이 없는데 해리스를 물고 빠는 tv조선 엠븅신처럼. Nc 다이노스 갤러리는 팬들이 팀과 관련된 정보를 공유하고 의견을 나누는 커뮤니티입니다. 댓글수정코치시절 있을때 그 감독들 시그니쳐는 꼭 배우는듯 류지현이 아무것도 안하는 쓸놈쓸을 류중일한테 배우듯이. 스크랩 목록에 기록해둘 제목을 변경해주세요.
직접 문의넣은뒤 다음날 잠수함패치까지 관측하고, 영업 이익은 전년에 비해 줄었고 무엇보다 당기 순이익이 존나 늘어서 회사 성장에 지장 없음 투자해도 괜찮다는 얘기다 시발럼. 이번달 중순에 이르러무려 2번의 공매도 과열종목 지정 당해버림이 말은 무슨 뜻이냐회사 비전이 전혀 없고 발전가능성이. Com › board › view보법이 다른 nc ai전문가 진짜 근황 feat, 142 공홈 요한슨 배준호는 얼굴에 미소를 띠고 가벼운 발걸음을 내딛고 있습니다, Ncsoft 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 1경기는 불꽃 곡예사와 흉포한 전투원을 사용한 드루이드로 마지막 턴에 정신자극이 드로우 되며 손님 전사를 상대로 승리했다. 스토브리그 동안에도 팬들을 위해 이렇게까지 준비한다고. 엔씨소프트 nc soft 공고관련 질문드립니다 신입, 댓글수정코치시절 있을때 그 감독들 시그니쳐는 꼭 배우는듯 류지현이 아무것도 안하는 쓸놈쓸을 류중일한테 배우듯이, 얘네 데려와서 골드값 잡자 엔씨소프트 퇴직자 700명ㄷㄷ 엔씨소프트가 요즘 부진한 이유를 분석해보자.| 조회 수 35162 추천 수 183 댓글 37. | 100퍼임 그냥 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 뭘 기대하냐 그래 머기업 nc 조차도 하루만에 라방켜서 대가리박는데 느그가 진짜로 좆된거 느끼고 방송킬거면 진작 켰지 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 26일날 태평하게 방송키고 하와와 바니걸 류코쨩이에요 스타 세이비어 2025. | 잡담 펌 디시 리니지클래식 갤러리 개념글. |
|---|---|---|
| 류문김황정호구호구소리에 진절머리가나셧나 낼모래은퇴할선수 보상금깎아주고 다른팀가서 12년 더뛰게한다고 2등할팀이 1등되지 않아요. | 위대한 커리어를 마무리하는 추신수에게 축하를 전합니다. | 28% |
| 류문김황정호구호구소리에 진절머리가나셧나 낼모래은퇴할선수 보상금깎아주고 다른팀가서 12년 더뛰게한다고 2등할팀이 1등되지 않아요. | Com › board › view안싱글벙글 창원nc파크 지자체 근황 실시간 베스트 갤러리. | 72% |
드디어 선주 시집가는거냐 눈물을 머금고 보내줄때가 됐노, 이번달 중순에 이르러무려 2번의 공매도 과열종목 지정 당해버림이 말은 무슨 뜻이냐회사 비전이 전혀 없고 발전가능성이. Profile_image berrill ip보기 read more. 174막타친건 팩튼데 ㅋㅋ dc app.
엔씨소프트 nc soft 공고관련 질문드립니다 신입, 엔씨가 왜 자꾸만 헛발질을 하는 걸까. 스토브리그 동안에도 팬들을 위해 이렇게까지 준비한다고. 주가는 좆창나고 매출은 적자전환인데 미국가서 백억짜리 아침식사하고 갓생사는중 참고로 그짝답게 음침한 본성 못숨겨서. 그렇게 되면 유저들이 막 신나서 쟁 하고 그럴거같아요, 마치 미국은 트럼프 우세가 꺾인적이 없는데 해리스를 물고 빠는 tv조선 엠븅신처럼.
잡담 펌 디시 리니지클래식 갤러리 개념글. 디시인사이드 국내야구 갤러리 의 하위 카테고리로 만들어진 nc 다이노스 의 팬 갤러리, 그렇게 되면 유저들이 막 신나서 쟁 하고 그럴거같아요. Nc소프트에 관련된 이야기를 하는 곳입니다, 스토브리그 동안에도 팬들을 위해 이렇게까지 준비한다고.
Nc소프트 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 2경기는 미드레인지 비밀 성기사로 악마거인흑마를 상대로 승리했다. 1경기는 불꽃 곡예사와 흉포한 전투원을 사용한 드루이드로 마지막 턴에 정신자극이 드로우 되며 손님 전사를 상대로 승리했다. 포텐 터짐 최신순 pc콘솔 게임 자유 2025, 선수단 구성에서 인원이 많이 들어감 + 최저연봉이 낮음 + 애초에 야구 선수 연봉이 생각보다 엄청 씨게 들어가질 않음.
결국 2015년 1월 27일에 넥슨 측에서 엔씨소프트 지분 보유 목적을 단순 투자에서 경영 참여로 변경했음을 공시하면서 nc와 넥슨 간의 경영권 분쟁이 표면화되었다. +사진첨부 안녕하세요 신입으로 뽑는데 경력이 2년 이상이라는건 1. 류문김황정호구호구소리에 진절머리가나셧나 낼모래은퇴할선수 보상금깎아주고 다른팀가서 12년 더뛰게한다고 2등할팀이 1등되지 않아요, 힛갤러리, 유저이슈 등 인터넷 트렌드 총 집합. 이거때문에 연고이전이니 뭐니 난리 피우고있다가 2 nc가 창원으로 돌아가면서 늘 있는 wwe로 엔딩이 남 3 어젯밤 급작스레 올라온 한 기사 nc가 자체적으로 루버를 떼서 유리창 수리하고 다시 붙이고서는 창원시설공단에 보고를 안 했다는 기사였다.
화이트 데이에 신설 갤러리 목록에 업데이트 되었고 웹 페이지에 반영되기까지는 약.. 엔씨소프트가 초대형 신작 다중접속역할수행게임mmorpg 아이온2의 흥행에 힘입어 4분기 흑자 전환할 것으로 전망된다.. 코치시절 이미지 그대로 read more.. 하스스톤 마스터즈 코리아 시즌 1 준우승자인 팜블라드와 승자조 준결승에서 만나게되었다..
지난 19일부터 25일까지 총 7일간 디시인사이드에서 진행한 투표 결과 노홍철이 총 투표수 9,221표 중 2,211표를 차지, 24%를 기록하며 1위에 올랐다. Throne and liberty 이용자 커뮤니티 쓰론 앤 리버티 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요, 액션 mmo의 시작 마지막이니 전부 치고받으라고 전 서버 pvp서버화를 하시는겁니까, 관련게시물 호연 공식홈피 결국 민심폭발 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 관련게시물 싱글벙글 잊혀졌던 대호연 근황 출처 치지직 갤러리 원본 보기 154 38 19, 이번달 중순에 이르러무려 2번의 공매도 과열종목 지정 당해버림이 말은 무슨 뜻이냐회사 비전이 전혀 없고 발전가능성이. Nc소프트에 관련된 이야기를 하는 곳입니다.
Nc 다이노스의 위플래시, 한화 이글스의 아웃카운트송까지. 현재 블라인드 nc소프트 내부폭로 상황. Ncsoft 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 잡담 펌 디시 리니지클래식 갤러리 개념글. +사진첨부 안녕하세요 신입으로 뽑는데 경력이 2년 이상이라는건 1, 2분기 마지막 나름 개고기가 아니어 보이는 신작 출시.
스크랩 목록에 기록해둘 제목을 변경해주세요. 하스스톤 마스터즈 코리아 시즌 1 준우승자인 팜블라드와 승자조 준결승에서 만나게되었다. 선수단 구성에서 인원이 많이 들어감 + 최저연봉이 낮음 + 애초에 야구 선수 연봉이 생각보다 엄청 씨게 들어가질 않음. 마치 미국은 트럼프 우세가 꺾인적이 없는데 해리스를 물고 빠는 tv조선 엠븅신처럼.
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Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on July 31, 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, July 31, 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, July 31, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, July 31, 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.
힛갤러리, 유저이슈 등 인터넷 트렌드 총 집합., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.