If that is true then basically all the photographs in Wikipedia are illegal since the only check they do is for copyright not for model release. Pretty sure that's not a legal requirement.
Of which photos are you thinking? It most certainly varies from country to country but public figures or random people captured when taking a picture of a landscape or a building are at least in some countries not subject to such rules.
and
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Country_specific_...
See the other comment for some of the exceptions.