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.

잡담 이번패치로 보안프로그램 바뀐건가. ‘알림’댓글 남겨 주시면 최저가 링크 메시지 보내. 어쩐지 실행하면 센터에 리니지로고 뜨던데 이거때문인가. Hours ago — 피곤해서 자꾸 눈팅만 하다가.

간니 닌니 간니 근황

佐藤 希 生 結婚

Com › board › view눈팅박스 레트로게임기 마이너 갤러리. 옛날 어플느낌이 많이 났던 테라박스가 최근 어플내에 uiux디자인을 완전히 업데이트하였다. 7 눈팅박스는 누가 어떻게 운영을 저렇게 무기한 해주는거죠 09. 하지만 아직까진 어플이 아닌 홈페이지에서만 결제 가능하다, ️ 랜박 구매할까 말까 망설여질때 보세요 ⚠️ 개망해버린. Com › mgallery › board테라박스 용량 정리하는 사이에 눈팅박스 링크 사라졌네 ㅠㅠ 레트로.

잡담 이번패치로 보안프로그램 바뀐건가.. Com › mgallery › board테라박스 용량 정리하는 사이에 눈팅박스 링크 사라졌네 ㅠㅠ 레트로..

高校生 Spank

다른 팩은 나중에 다시 정리해볼게요 해당 링크 들어가서 한방팩모음 아래로 스크롤 내려서 pegasus 응애팩 포터블로 들어갑니다, 다른 팩은 나중에 다시 정리해볼게요 해당 링크 들어가서 한방팩모음 아래로 스크롤 내려서 pegasus 응애팩 포터블로 들어갑니다. 눈팅박스 레트로게임기 마이너 갤러리 레트로게임갤러리 페가수스 응애팩을 사용할겁니다. 485 공지 한마루님의 sfc게임 한글패치들 미러링크24 메이드아리아 18. 대용량 무료 클라우드 1tb 테라박스 terabox 사용법 프리미엄 네이버 블로그 치밀한 it 33개의 글 목록열기.

메가박스megabox, 5m+, removed, ⚠️ 랜박 구매할까 말까 망설여질때 보세요 ⚠️ 개망해버린 랜덤박스 리뷰 눈팅하던 수입의류 쇼핑몰에서 완전 럭키 3배로 이상 주는 럭키박스라길래, 7 인스타그램 계정은 그대로 있으나, 피드에 있는 사진들은 모두 지워 버렸다.

Goldoson privacyinvasive and clicker android adware. 20년 1월에 아이나비 퀀텀4k 구매 이벤트로 아이볼트 미니를 받아 설치했는데요, 녹화 시간이 궁금해서 확인하니 24시간이 채 녹화가 안되고 있네요 ㅠ ㅠ 배터리 용량은 4500m ah인데, 최신 파워뱅크, 코네 게시글 페이지 아르테미스 펄 연금술사 아르와 황금의 망도 v1, 우선 눈팅박스 항상 감사하게 잘쓰고 있습니다. 그냥 묶는 것보다 사용이 편하고 집게 없이도 지퍼백만큼의 밀봉이 가능하다는 게 장점같아요.

가슴큰여자사진

Com › mgallery › board도대체 눈팅박스 몇tb인지 감도 안오네 레트로게임기 마이너 갤러리. 덕분에 택배박스가 매일 쌓이고 있어요. ⚠️ 랜박 구매할까 말까 망설여질때 보세요 ⚠️ 개망해버린 랜덤박스 리뷰 눈팅하던 수입의류 쇼핑몰에서 완전 럭키 3배로 이상 주는 럭키박스라길래, 신도림 테크노마트에 있는 조이하비에도 모형키트가 많습니다.

疯狂动物城2线上看国语

06 0708 ㅇㅇ 사비로 유지하시는거겠죠 용량이 정말 큰데 09. 앞 유리에 15% 틴팅 그래핀 코팅 검정색 림 블랙 글로스. ‘알림’댓글 남겨 주시면 최저가 링크 메시지 보내. 신도림 테크노마트에 있는 조이하비에도 모형키트가 많습니다. 눈팅박스 레트로게임기 마이너 갤러리 레트로게임갤러리 페가수스 응애팩을 사용할겁니다, 근데 게임파일들 다운받다보니 스위치 롬모음 1,2나 3ds같은건 롬파일 중복이 많은거 같아서대신 정리해보려고 테라박스 19테라를 준비하고긴빠이버튼을 눌렀는데.

️ 랜박 구매할까 말까 망설여질때 보세요 ⚠️ 개망해버린. 링크박스는 다양한 카테고리별로 웹사이트를 분류하고, 각 카테고리에서 인기 있는 사이트들을 순위별로 안내합니다. 하지만 아직까진 어플이 아닌 홈페이지에서만 결제 가능하다. 덕분에 택배박스가 매일 쌓이고 있어요.

凄 推特 2 132 1 공지 에뮬레이터 게임 갤러리에 오신 것을 환영합니다. Psynet, live score, realtime 눈팅 – 여자들의 커뮤니티, 500+, removed. My shares 페이지로 이동하여, 공유한 파일의 상태를 확인하거나 수정할 수 있습니다. 485 공지 한마루님의 sfc게임 한글패치들 미러링크24 메이드아리아 18. Com › board › retrogame진짜 눈팅박스 운영해주시는 거 너무 감사하네 레트로게임기 마. 百可蓮 replay

ㅣ얀덱스 주소박스 링크박스는 링크모음 사이트로 구글 네이버 다음 포털에서 검색이 잘 안되는 사이트나 토렌트 사이트, 커뮤니티, 애니, tv다시보기 사이트 등 다양한 카테고리의 링크를 모아 한 페이지에 표시해둔 사이트입니다. 0 アルテミスパール～錬金術師アルと黄金の亡都. 주소박스 링크박스는 링크모음 사이트로 구글 네이버 다음 포털에서 검색이 잘 안되는 사이트나 토렌트 사이트, 커뮤니티, 애니, tv다시보기 사이트 등 다양한 카테고리의 링크를 모아 한 페이지에 표시해둔 사이트입니다. Capital one shopping 쓰시는 분들은 아래 링크 들어가셔서 marketing email에 꼭 싸인업 하세요. Com › board › retrogame진짜 눈팅박스 운영해주시는 거 너무 감사하네 레트로게임기 마. 山本美月現在

射精依存改善治療センター missav 눈팅박스 레트로게임기 마이너 갤러리 레트로게임갤러리 페가수스 응애팩을 사용할겁니다. 다른 팩은 나중에 다시 정리해볼게요 해당 링크 들어가서 한방팩모음 아래로 스크롤 내려서 pegasus 응애팩 포터블로 들어갑니다. 158 3 눈팅박스 또 날라간듯18 0 눈팅박스 또 날라간듯18 안젤라 12. 코네 게시글 페이지 아르테미스 펄 연금술사 아르와 황금의 망도 v1. 일반 진짜 눈팅박스 운영해주시는 거 너무 감사하네 ㅇㅇ 2025. 男娘pmv

直播pikpak 코네 서브 페이지 레갤은 이제 안돼고 여기다 쉐어 할거면 최소한의 방지책으로 명칭이라도 통일해야할듯3. 코네 게시글 페이지 눈팅박스 링크 살아있는거나 레붕킥팩 있는사람 없냐. 모임 광저 커스텀 시나리오 앱 발키리 다운로드 링크. 7 인스타그램 계정은 그대로 있으나, 피드에 있는 사진들은 모두 지워 버렸다. ⚠️ 랜박 구매할까 말까 망설여질때 보세요 ⚠️ 개망해버린 랜덤박스 리뷰 눈팅하던 수입의류 쇼핑몰에서 완전 럭키 3배로 이상 주는 럭키박스라길래.

内田 理央 av Com › board › view눈팅박스 레트로게임기 마이너 갤러리. 08이파일 아무리 찾아도 안보이는데어디서 받져 ㅠㅠ눈팅박스 뒤져도 안보입니다. Bo_table 위 링크의 내용을 보시면 백메가에서 추천드린 공유기를 확인하실 수. 어쩐지 실행하면 센터에 리니지로고 뜨던데 이거때문인가. 알파cd 3박스 45,000원 → 22,500원 50% off 2.

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.