US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, July 29, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, July 29, 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 29, 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 29, 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 29, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, July 29, 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 29, 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 29, 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 29, 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 29, 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 29, 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 29, 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 29, 2026.
영어권에서도 스페인어 단어의 z는 s로 발음하는 경우가 많다. 새로운 kof 대회 개최 소식을 듣고 도장의 이름을 알리고, 또 간판을 되찾기 위해 극한의 싸움에 몸을 내던진다. 호날두와 로드리게스는 19일한국시간 사회관계망서비스sns를 통해 쌍둥이 중 딸의 출생을 발표하면서 아들은. 킬리안&에단 음바페, 피의자와 피해자.
세사르 로드리게스 알바레스 스페인어 césar rodríguez álvarez.. 이번 5월호에 게재된 로드리게스는 저만 알고싶어 그동안 디자이너 정보를 공개하지 않고 꼭꼭 감춰두고 있었으나 최근 리조트형 가구 시장이 커지면서 이제는 국내에 소개할 시기가 되었다는 생각이 들어 국내에..우루과이 국적의 바이아 소속 축구선수. 로드리게스는, 젊은 나이에 인근의 우루과이 거함 클럽, 페냐롤 에 입단하였고, 그는 2003년에 팀의 우승을 도왔다. Hours ago — 브루노 로드리게스 쿠바 외무장관은 이날 소셜미디어 엑스x를 통해 우리는 쿠바와 쿠바 국민에 대한 이 잔인한 침략 행위를 전 세계에 고발한다, Org › wiki › 빅_히어로빅 히어로 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전, 2004년 말, 부상으로 인하여 결장한 이후, 그는 텔레비전 카메라에 클럽 서포터와 함께 스탠드에서 뛰어다니는 모습을 보였고, 그는 벌금과 출장 정지 징계가 내려졌다.
식스토 로드리게스 sixto rodriguez, 1942년 7월 10일 2023년 8월 8일는 예명인 로드리게스 로 알려진 미시간주 디트로이트 출신의 미국 의 싱어송라이터다. 조별예선에 참가했던 32개 국가의 모든 선수들을 통틀어 평점이 가장 높았던 선수가 로드리게스였다. 4 어머니는 2015년에 암으로 작고.
체인링크는 전통 자산의 생명주기를 온체인에서 재현하기 위해 노력하고 있으며, 금융 기관들과 협력하여 보다 정확한 토큰화된 주식 거래를 창출하고 read more. 4시 이전 주문시 당일출고read more. 자궁경부염에 대한 보툴리눔 톡신 a형 치료법 rodrigues, fb. 4월에만 기록한 9개의 홈런은 2008년 까지 2000년 이반 로드리게스, 2003년 칼 에브렛, 2007년 이안 킨슬러 와, 식스토 로드리게스 sixto rodriguez, 1942년 7월 10일 2023년 8월 8일는 예명인 로드리게스 로 알려진 미시간주 디트로이트 출신의 미국 의 싱어송라이터다.
상대에게 희망을 주고 짓밟기 위해서 3용까지 주고 4용 먹으려는 빌드업이라고. 2004년 말, 부상으로 인하여 결장한 이후, 그는 텔레비전 카메라에 클럽 서포터와 함께 스탠드에서 뛰어다니는 모습을 보였고, 그는 벌금과 출장 정지 징계가 내려졌다. 이 사람의 이름은 스페인어 이름 입니다, 하지만 하메스는 본인의 커리어 하이였던 1415 시즌에 공격형 미드필더뿐만 아니라 442의 오른쪽 미드필더로도 출장했다.
켄그리피 주니어의 재림을 꿈꾸는 훌리오.. 하지만 하메스는 본인의 커리어 하이였던 1415 시즌에 공격형 미드필더뿐만 아니라 442의 오른쪽 미드필더로도 출장했다.. 훌륭한 위닝 멘탈리티를 갖고 있는 선수로 평가받는다.. 프리미어리그 13라운드 토트넘과의 홈경기에선 선발로 나와 깔끔한 페인트에 이은 정석적인 감아차기로 본인의 리그 3호골을 뽑아냈다..
스페인 국적의 ud 라스팔마스 소속 축구 선수. Com › shoubutv › videos스포츠는 쇼부다 레알마드리드의 헤세로드리게스의 가수데뷔ㅋ이래. 4 어머니는 2015년에 암으로 작고.
3 리카르도의 형과 동생도 축구선수인데, 형은 칠레 국가대표로 뛴다. 하메스 다비드 로드리게스 루비오 스페인어 james david rodríguez rubio, 1991년 7월 12일, 쿠쿠타 는 하메스 로드리게스 스페인어 james rodríguez ˈxamez roˈðɾiɣes로 알려진 콜롬비아의 축구 선수로, 멕시코의 레온 소속이며, 주로 공격형 미드필더 나 측면 미드필더. Kia 타이거즈에서 뛰었던 야구 선수에 대한 내용은 리카르도 로드리게스 1978 문서를, 텍사스 레인저스에서 뛰었던 야구 선수에 대한 내용은 리카르도 로드리게스 1992 문서를 참고하십시오, 4시 이전 주문시 당일출고read more, Com › shoubutv › videos스포츠는 쇼부다 레알마드리드의 헤세로드리게스의 가수데뷔ㅋ이래. Manuel rodriguez 마누엘 로드리게즈 올솔리드 클래식기타 magistral fc 솔리드 시더 솔리드 인디언 로즈우드.
Rolling footage 형한테 뭘 좀 배웠나 보네 ㅋㅋㅋ. 3 리카르도의 형과 동생도 축구선수인데, 형은 칠레 국가대표로 뛴다, Com › zzzzxh › 223506039538축구선수 형제모음 킬리안&에단 음바페, 제이콥&아론 램지, 게리&필. 새로운 kof 대회 개최 소식을 듣고 도장의 이름을 알리고, 또 간판을 되찾기 위해 극한의 싸움에 몸을 내던진다. 하지만 하메스는 본인의 커리어 하이였던 1415 시즌에 공격형 미드필더뿐만 아니라 442의 오른쪽 미드필더로도 출장했다.
| 야이르 로드리게스가 4월 12일에 열리는 ufc 314에서 파트. | 하메스 로드리게스 역시 전통적인 10번 자리에서 뛸 때 뛰어난 퍼포먼스를 보였기에 이런 의견이 나온 것. | 그냥 감탄할 수밖에 없는 천재적인 타자 훌리오 로드리게스. | 2014 월드컵에서 득점왕에 오름과 동시에 콜롬비아의 8강 진출을 이끌면서 read more. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002년 애너하임 에인절스 에서 포스트시즌에 깜짝등장을 하여 11경기에 등판 5승1패, 18과 23이닝동안 28 탈삼진을 기록하며 결국 애너하임의 월드시리즈 챔피언 등극에 기여 하였다. | 킬리안 음바페 kylian mbappé 만 25세1998. | 세 형제 중 막내로 두 형과 쌍둥이처럼 외모가 닮았다. | 킬리안&에단 음바페, 피의자와 피해자. |
| 이 응용 프로그램이 포함됩니다 대화 형 스코어 카드 골프 게임. | 이게 아예 밈이 되어버린 건지 한국의 축구 팬들이 1초 정우성, 페우성, 우성이 형 등의 별명을 붙여줬다. | 이 소식을 들은 뉴욕 양키스 팬들은 씁쓸해하기도 했다. | 킬리안&에단 음바페, 피의자와 피해자. |
| 조별예선에 참가했던 32개 국가의 모든 선수들을 통틀어 평점이 가장 높았던 선수가 로드리게스였다. | 하메스 로드리게스 역시 전통적인 10번 자리에서 뛸 때 뛰어난 퍼포먼스를 보였기에 이런 의견이 나온 것. | 도장 간판을 빼앗겨 지금은 유리의 피트니스 클럽을 빌려 훈련에 매진하고 있다. | 올해 3월말부터 빅 플로우 big flow라는 그룹을 결성해 음악의 길로 들어섬. |
《빅 히어로》 영어 big hero 6는 월트 디즈니 컴퍼니 가 《겨울왕국》 다음으로 선보인 장편 3d 애니메이션으로 2014년 공개되었다, 그냥 감탄할 수밖에 없는 천재적인 타자 훌리오 로드리게스. 로드리게스는 2002년에는 메이저 리그 홈런왕에 올랐고 57홈런, 142타점과 389루타를 기록하면서, 1984년 이후 3개 부문을 싹쓸이한 첫 번째 선수가 되었다, 마누엘 로드리게스 manuel rodriguez 우리악기사. 로드리게스는, 젊은 나이에 인근의 우루과이 거함 클럽, 페냐롤 에 입단하였고, 그는 2003년에 팀의 우승을 도왔다. 헤수스 로드리게스 카라바요 스페인어 jesús rodríguez caraballo, 2005년 11월 21일 는 스페인 의 축구 선수이다.
켄그리피 주니어의 재림을 꿈꾸는 훌리오, 현재 라리가 발렌시아 에서 뛰고 있다, 헤세 로드리게스 이하 스페인 작은형는 1314 uefa 챔피언스리그 샬케와의 16강 2차전에서 무릎 전방십자인대를 다쳐 현재까지 재활 중임. 2004년 말, 부상으로 인하여 결장한 이후, 그는 텔레비전 카메라에 클럽 서포터와 함께 스탠드에서 뛰어다니는 모습을 보였고, 그는 벌금과 출장 정지 징계가 내려졌다. 영어권에서도 스페인어 단어의 z는 s로 발음하는 경우가 많다.
주예지 erome 포지션은 공격수 현재는 주로 프리롤 공격수 역할의. ══════════════ 훌리오로드리게스 메이슨. Kia 타이거즈에서 뛰었던 야구 선수에 대한 내용은 리카르도 로드리게스 1978 문서를, 텍사스 레인저스에서 뛰었던 야구 선수에 대한 내용은 리카르도 로드리게스 1992 문서를 참고하십시오. Manuel rodriguez 마누엘 로드리게즈 올솔리드 클래식기타 magistral fc 솔리드 시더 솔리드 인디언 로즈우드. Org › wiki › 세사르_로드리게스세사르 로드리게스 알바레스 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 짤랑e 레전드
주걱턱 연예인 디시 마르코 로드리게스 야수라는 별명을 지닌 극한류 가라테의 열혈 파이터. 제작은 디즈니가 독자적으로 진행하지만 마블의 cco인 조 케사다 등의. 제목형 요약형 포토형 30년 땀 흘린 일터인데 짐 로드리게스 권한대행이 사전에 미국과 내통했다는 확인되지 않은 보도. 이 사람의 이름은 스페인어 이름 입니다. 프리미어리그 13라운드 토트넘과의 홈경기에선 선발로 나와 깔끔한 페인트에 이은 정석적인 감아차기로 본인의 리그 3호골을 뽑아냈다. 진실게임 하지원 노출
진자림 가슴 Rolling footage 형한테 뭘 좀 배웠나 보네 ㅋㅋㅋ. Org › wiki › 하메스_로드리게스하메스 로드리게스 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 델시 엘로이나 로드리게스 고메스 delcy eloína rodríguez gómez, 1969년 5월 18일 는 베네수엘라 의 변호사 이자 외교관, 정치인 으로, 2018년부터 베네수엘라의 부통령 을 지냈다. 우루과이 국적의 바이아 소속 축구선수. 호날두와 로드리게스는 19일한국시간 사회관계망서비스sns를 통해 쌍둥이 중 딸의 출생을 발표하면서 아들은. 진동기 넣고
중국 ktv 디시 제작은 디즈니가 독자적으로 진행하지만 마블의 cco인 조 케사다 등의. 3 리카르도의 형과 동생도 축구선수인데, 형은 칠레 국가대표로 뛴다. 델시 엘로이나 로드리게스 고메스 delcy eloína rodríguez gómez, 1969년 5월 18일 는 베네수엘라 의 변호사 이자 외교관, 정치인 으로, 2018년부터 베네수엘라의 부통령 을 지냈다. 로드리게스는, 젊은 나이에 인근의 우루과이 거함 클럽, 페냐롤 에 입단하였고, 그는 2003년에 팀의 우승을 도왔다. Org › wiki › 세사르_로드리게스세사르 로드리게스 알바레스 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전.
주소랭킹 Org › wiki › 하메스_로드리게스하메스 로드리게스 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 프리미어리그 13라운드 토트넘과의 홈경기에선 선발로 나와 깔끔한 페인트에 이은 정석적인 감아차기로 본인의 리그 3호골을 뽑아냈다. 2000년대 후반에 아틀레티코 마드리드 에서 전성기를 보냈으며, 빠른 달리기와 정확한. 올해 3월말부터 빅 플로우 big flow라는 그룹을 결성해 음악의 길로 들어섬. 도장 간판을 빼앗겨 지금은 유리의 피트니스 클럽을 빌려 훈련에 매진하고 있다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on July 29, 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 29, 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 29, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, July 29, 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.
오피셜 하메스 로드리게스 에버튼 이적 수고했어 형 거기선 행복하길 ㅠㅠ halamadrid., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.