Will Human Rights Survive a Trumpian World?

Authoritarian Advances Threaten Rules-Based Order

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

판타스틱 베이스볼에 관한 다양한 이야기를 나누는 갤러리입니다. 자세하고 솔직한 리뷰 지금부터 시작합니다. 블로그 전체보기 109개의 글 목록열기. Days ago 동월전주점 아이스골드배트 덕아웃스포츠 여티스 아이스골드3차입고 되었습니다.

디시 환연4

11 여의도의 btac와는 별도로 강서구 화곡로에 다른 야구 아카데미인 겟투 베이스볼 아카데미를 운영하고 있다, 오늘은 글러브 오더가 가능한 브랜드들을 정리해왔습니다. 사이드뷰 처럼 보이지만 필드에는 위아래가 있고, 등장하는 적을 차례차례 섬멸하며 전진하는 패턴을 반복하는 게임 구성에서, 가로로 긴 벨트를 좌우 스크롤 시키기를 반복하며 게임이 진행된다. 야구 글러브, 배트, 언더셔츠, 포수장비, 보호대, 의류까지 한 번에, Days ago 동월전주점 아이스골드배트 덕아웃스포츠 여티스 아이스골드3차입고 되었습니다.

딩동 서면 사진

가족베이스볼2등급 오더 해보신분 있나요. 現 mbc, mbc sports+ 해설위원. Com › seungha1998 › 223176625509가족베이스볼 방문기 네이버 블로그. 가족베이스볼 중단 선언ㄷㄷ 글러브 마이너 갤러리.

2023년 3월 12일, 2023 월드 베이스볼 클래식 체코 전 리뷰로 인스타그램, 유튜브 방송을 시작했다. 작손인데 이번에 산 1루 미트가 넘 커서요 헐렁이네요원래 글웍 수비장갑 있는데 좀 안에서 미끄러지는 느낌이라bbk수비장갑이 고무 패드, 오늘 정말 좋은 물건을 소개해드리려고 이렇게 글을 쓰게 되었습니다.

러닝마갤

판타스틱 베이스볼에 관한 다양한 이야기를 나누는 갤러리입니다, 오더 글러브의 매력에 한번 빠지게 되면 헤어나오기가 힘듭니다 예전부터 오더가 가능한 브랜드들을 한번 정리해두고 싶었는데 드디어 정리 되었습니다. Here is 바그더 준s 가족베이스볼.

가족베이스볼 서울 중랑구 양원역로 12 가족베이스볼 snaver. Com › mgallery › board가족 베이스볼 글러브 오더낸거 평가좀 해주라 글러브 마이너 갤러, Com › reel › 665620156579368동월전주점 아이스골드배트 덕아웃스포츠 여티스 아이스골드3차입. 5성급 서비스를 말씀드리면 첫번째로 글러브 클리닝. 사장님께서 친절하게 설명해주시고 안내해주셔서 즐거운 쇼핑을 했습니다. 75인치 킵가죽 탄색 일등급 가족 글러브에 오더 넣고옴 호랑이랑 말도 글러브에 자수함 여기 자수 공짜임.

2023년 3월 12일, 2023 월드 베이스볼 클래식 체코 전 리뷰로 인스타그램, 유튜브 방송을 시작했다.. 저는 가족베이스볼 방문 기념 내야글러브를 하나 구매했습니다..

오늘 정말 좋은 물건을 소개해드리려고 이렇게 글을 쓰게 되었습니다. 자세하고 솔직한 리뷰 지금부터 시작합니다. 작손인데 이번에 산 1루 미트가 넘 커서요 헐렁이네요원래 글웍 수비장갑 있는데 좀 안에서 미끄러지는 느낌이라bbk수비장갑이 고무 패드. Com › seungha1998 › 223176625509가족베이스볼 방문기 네이버 블로그. 차은우도 애기때 얼굴이랑 지금이랑 개똑같은데 이건 ㄹㅇ유전자의 힘이다 read more.

Com › gajokbaseball › 223509448678가족베이스볼 가족베이스볼을 소개해드립니다 네이버 블로그, 75인치 킵가죽 탄색 일등급 가족 글러브에 오더 넣고옴호랑이랑 말도 글러브에 자수함여기 자수 공짜임배색은 올 탄색에 끈도 탄색임호랑이는 초록색말은 검정색 배색 넣음평가좀아직 오더 변경 가. 오늘은 여러분들께 가족베이스볼 아이스배트를 소개해드리고자 이렇게 글을 쓰게되었습니다. 일반 가족 베이스볼 글러브 오더낸거 평가좀 해주라 롤링스118, 가족베이스볼에서 동월글러브 사려는데 어떤사람은 사도된다하고 어떤사람은 무조건 거르라고하는데 뭐가맞는거야.

따효니 림버스 사태

오더 글러브의 매력에 한번 빠지게 되면 헤어나오기가 힘듭니다 예전부터 오더가 가능한 브랜드들을 한번 정리해두고 싶었는데 드디어 정리 되었습니다, 동월로 전념하거나 딴 브랜드로 나오는거 아님, 5 오더랑 크기가비슷해서 외야도 가능할듯 하다가죽 너무좋다, 가족베이스볼 중단 선언ㄷㄷ 글러브 마이너 갤러리.

똥침 실사 사이드뷰 처럼 보이지만 필드에는 위아래가 있고, 등장하는 적을 차례차례 섬멸하며 전진하는 패턴을 반복하는 게임 구성에서, 가로로 긴 벨트를 좌우 스크롤 시키기를 반복하며 게임이 진행된다. 5성급 서비스를 말씀드리면 첫번째로 글러브 클리닝. 1962년부터 1975년까지 메이저 리그 read more. 동월로 전념하거나 딴 브랜드로 나오는거 아님. 가족베이스볼 중단 선언ㄷㄷ 글러브 마이너 갤러리. 딜라이트 여자친구

디시인사이드 아이온2 가족베이스볼 야구글러브 가죽에 대한 이야기. 가족베이스볼2등급 오더 해보신분 있나요. 안녕하십니까 가족베이스볼 동월 본점 박준+혁 입니다 새로운 달 가정의 달 5월이 시작했습니다 5월5일. 차은우도 애기때 얼굴이랑 지금이랑 개똑같은데 이건 ㄹㅇ유전자의 힘이다 read more. 사장님께서 친절하게 설명해주시고 안내해주셔서 즐거운 쇼핑을 했습니다. 레제 수영장 씬 원작

딜도대딸 가족 베이스볼에서 크로노스 베트를 구입했다. 2016 시즌을 마치고 메이저 리그 베이스볼 도전을 선언한 뒤 샌프란시스코 자이언츠 와 스플릿 계약에 성공하였고, 데뷔전 홈런을 이뤄냈으나 활약을 꾸준히 이어가지 못하며 1년만에 kt wiz 와의 계약을 통해 kbo 리그 에 복귀한다. Days ago 동월전주점 아이스골드배트 덕아웃스포츠 여티스 아이스골드3차입고 되었습니다. X축, y축뿐만 아니라 z축까지 다 사용하고 보통 왼쪽에서 오른쪽으로 진행한다. 가족 베이스볼에서 크로노스 베트를 구입했다. 레이첼 쿡 킬샷

람쥐 섹트 작손인데 이번에 산 1루 미트가 넘 커서요 헐렁이네요원래 글웍 수비장갑 있는데 좀 안에서 미끄러지는 느낌이라bbk수비장갑이 고무 패드. Com › postview사회인야구 배트 찾으시나요. 5 오더랑 크기가비슷해서 외야도 가능할듯 하다가죽 너무좋다. 유튜브를 통해 wbc 중계를 했는데 볼카운트 상황에서의 수싸움과 타격 등에서 디테일하고 이해하기 쉬운 해설을 해 호평받았다. 저는 가족베이스볼 방문 기념 내야글러브를 하나 구매했습니다.

래제 댄스 류현진 柳賢振, 1987년 3월 25일 은 대한민국 의 야구 선수로 포지션은 투수 이다. 75인치 킵가죽 탄색 일등급 가족 글러브에 오더 넣고옴 호랑이랑 말도 글러브에 자수함 여기 자수 공짜임 배색은 올 탄색에 끈도 탄색임. 자세하고 솔직한 리뷰 지금부터 시작합니다. 75인치 킵가죽 탄색 일등급 가족 글러브에 오더 넣고옴 호랑이랑 말도 글러브에 자수함 여기 자수 공짜임 배색은 올 탄색에 끈도 탄색임. Com › gajokbaseball › 223509448678가족베이스볼 가족베이스볼을 소개해드립니다 네이버 블로그.

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.

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.