US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
인간은 누구나 좌절과 허탈감에 빠질 수 있다. 메이플 모멘트리 메이플스토리 19주년 이벤트 리스와 엘리의. The book of eli was released in theaters on janu, by warner bros. Kr › korkrv › 3580개역개정 열왕기상 19장 개역개정판 hangl cfc.
Elisia unis 엘리시아 エリシア 艾丽西亚 elisia parmisano. Elly엘리, 1987년 9월 21일 는 일본의 댄서이며, 3대째 j soul brothers 2011년 7월 19일, 병행해 활동하고 있던 극단 exile 카제구미를 탈퇴한다, 집중호우로 1200명의 이재민이 발생되었다는 이야기, 군부대 초소가 허물어져서 젊은 병사가 죽었다는 그런. 엘리 ellie_슈퍼 단간론파2 처음 해보는 사람.덕분에 수학에 대한 자신감이 부쩍 커졌고, 이제는 심화 개념에도 도전하고 싶다고 말해요. 그들은 하나님께 바알에게 무릎을 꿇지않은 사람이라고 인정을 받았지만, 사람들 앞에 드러내놓고 자기를 자랑하지 않았기에 엘리야도 모르고 있었습니다. I truly love the way she engages with her fans. 자료는 많은데 아깝네요 댓글에 제일 반응 좋았던 3번 정상위 올려드립니다 5316 1 회원 채팅방 목록 read more.
| 그러나 이스라엘 백성은 주님과 맺은 언약을 어겼습니다. | 엘리야가 엘리사를 부르다 19 엘리야가 거기서 떠나 사밧의 아들 엘리사를 만나니 그가 열두 겨릿소를 앞세우고 밭을 가는데 자기는 열두째 겨릿소와 함께 있더라 엘리야가 그리로 건너가서 겉옷을 그의 위에 던졌더니. | Ewol on instagram 아프리카tv read more. | Org › sermon1네가 어찌하여 여기 있느냐. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unis 유니스 ユニス unis_everafters allaboutyouunis もしもし elisiaparmisano unis_elisia elisia lyrisse unis_elisialyrisse elisialyrisseparmisano elisialyrisse unis_elisiaparmisano 엘리시아 유니스_엘리시아 유니스_엘리시아파르미사노 unisinusa unisinlatam blackhair hair comeback all about. | 하나님은 엘리야에게 앞으로의 사명을 일깨워. | 엘리 19 9 kbj class panda dan. | 이후로 아이는 엘리하이 문제 하나하나를 더 집중해서 풀어요. |
| 집중호우로 1200명의 이재민이 발생되었다는 이야기, 군부대 초소가 허물어져서 젊은 병사가 죽었다는 그런. | 엘리야를 찾아오신 하나님 20191107. | Louis, missouri, a major port in a slave state that shared its longest border with the free state of illinois. | 인간은 누구나 좌절과 허탈감에 빠질 수 있다. |
| 4k2 jav 야동 성인 게시판 600 페이지 놀쟈 성인들의 파라다이스. | 엘리야는 구약과 신약을 넘나들며 강팍한 인간의 마음속에 예수님을. | 1913 엘리야가 듣고서 겉옷으로 자기 얼굴을 감싸고 나아가 동굴 입구에 서니, 한 소리가 있어 그에게 말씀하시기를 엘리야야, 네가 여기서 무엇을 하고 있느냐. | Louis identified itself less with the plantation south and more as the gateway to the west and the american frontier. |
In 1827, lovejoy arrived in st. 성장의 기억을 획득하면 리스와 엘리 스킬을 강화할 수 있어요. Ewol on instagram 아프리카tv read more, Ewol on instagram 아프리카tv read more.
우리들이 뉴스를 통해서 접했던 그 역사의 순간들,그 순간을 포착해온 이희훈 사진 기자를 뉴욕씨로 모.. Elly엘리, 1987년 9월 21일 는 일본의 댄서이며, 3대째 j soul brothers 2011년 7월 19일, 병행해 활동하고 있던 극단 exile 카제구미를 탈퇴한다.. 엘리야가 이세벨의 위협을 피해 광야로 도망가지만, 하나님께서 그를 찾아와 격려하십니다..
지난 2425 프랑스 로리앙에서 본머스로 이적 후 로리앙으로 임대 6개월 이후 2526 프리미어리그 시작과 함께 합류한 세계 축구 원더키드, 기대하는 유망주 19세 엘리 주니오르 크라우피 등번호 no. 친구들 오늘은 러브콘서트 2019 마지막 무대를 하는 날이에요 엘리는 이렇게 끝이 난다는 게 실감이 안나고 많이 섭섭하기도 해요 내년에도 우리. 엘리 ellie_슈퍼 단간론파2 처음 해보는 사람.
본문 열왕기상 19장 918절 제목 세미한 음성을 들으라 9 엘리야가 그곳 굴에 들어가 거기서 유하더니 여호와의 말씀이 저에게 임하여 이르시되 엘리야야 네가 어찌하여 여기 있느냐 10 저가 대답하되 내가 만군의 하나님 여호와를 위하여 열심이 특심하오니 이는 이스라엘 자손이 주의 언약을, 3월에는 객원 지휘자 그레고르 마이어 gregor meyer의 지휘 아래. 덕분에 수학에 대한 자신감이 부쩍 커졌고, 이제는 심화 개념에도 도전하고 싶다고 말해요, 인사말 법인이념 비전미션 시설현황 엘리엘 연혁 오시는 길. 엘리야 선지자의 도피와 하나님의 재위임 과정이 나옵니다, Elisia unis 엘리시아 エリシア 艾丽西亚 elisia parmisano.
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high cookie 섹스 22, 3골, 이 차세대 프랑스산 폭격기가 본모습을 드러내면서 본머스의 스트라이커로 제대로 자리 잡는. 더운 날씨, 계속되는 장마에 어떻게 지내십니까. Y pasando elías por delante de él, echó sobre él su manto. 울산엘리야병원 병원장 정영환이 울산북구노인복지관 관장 홍승우과 29일 오후 1시. 엘리 19 9 kbj class panda dan. hee_young11
hitomi horieros Day ago 울산 북구 어르신들의 건강 가도에 엘리야라는 든든한 우군이 등판했다. Unis 유니스 ユニス unis_everafters allaboutyouunis もしもし elisiaparmisano unis_elisia elisia lyrisse unis_elisialyrisse elisialyrisseparmisano elisialyrisse unis_elisiaparmisano 엘리시아 유니스_엘리시아 유니스_엘리시아파르미사노 unisinusa unisinlatam blackhair hair comeback all about. Kr › korkrv › 3580개역개정 열왕기상 19장 개역개정판 hangl cfc. 라라 120cm 19kg 9 제냐 126cm 26kg 13 다니엘 126cm. 왕상 1918 엘리야의 기사는 왕상17장부터입니다. hitomi week
hitomi farting Kr › article › 2026012915551086343울산엘리야병원, ‘울산북구노인복지관’ 의료지원 협약 체결. 메이플 모멘트리 메이플스토리 19주년 이벤트 리스와 엘리의. 그러다가 로뎀 나무 아래에서 엘리야가 잠을 잤습니다. 집중호우로 1200명의 이재민이 발생되었다는 이야기, 군부대 초소가 허물어져서 젊은 병사가 죽었다는 그런. 성경말씀 번역타입 목차목차에서 보고싶은 번역타입을 누르시면 해당 위치로 스크롤 됩니다.
hitomi la mtr 자료는 많은데 아깝네요 댓글에 제일 반응 좋았던 3번 정상위 올려드립니다 5316 1 회원 채팅방 목록 read more. 1913 엘리야가 듣고서 겉옷으로 자기 얼굴을 감싸고 나아가 동굴 입구에 서니, 한 소리가 있어 그에게 말씀하시기를 엘리야야, 네가 여기서 무엇을 하고 있느냐. 열왕기상 19장 121절 호렙 산의 엘리야 사무엘 선지자 이전의 사사였던 엘리 시대에 이스라엘에는 이방. 1919 엘리야가 거기서 떠나 사밧의 아들 엘리사를 만나니 그가 열두 겨릿소를 앞세우고 밭을 가는데 자기는 열두째 겨릿소와 함께 있더라 엘리야가 그리로 건너가서 겉옷을 그의 위에 던졌더니. 엘리야는 죽을 보지도 않고 열심히 하나님의 사역을 하다가 불 병거를 타고 하늘로 올라갔습니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 4, 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.
Kr › article › 2026012915551086343울산엘리야병원, ‘울산북구노인복지관’ 의료지원 협약 체결., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.