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.

Com › mgallery › board안락사는 거짓입니다. Com 는 짱깨 플랫폼이 한국에 들어와서 너무 좋아죽는 무벌레들이었구요. 무출산갤 뒷담 미니 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. @글쓴 ㅇㅇㄴㄴ 애니캐 같애서 신기함 ㅋㅋㅋ.

김원훈 와이프 얼굴 디시

깨박 백하 디시

Com › mgallery › board안락사는 거짓입니다. 마트에서 파스타면이랑 소스 사서 집에서 해먹기알리 익스프레스, 테무에서 물건 주문하기부모 집에서 기생하기무출산갤러리에 하루종일 글쓰기아무튼저러고 있으면 탕핑하는거라고 함 dc official app. 출산율 마이너 갤러리 계열의 갤러리이다, 이리저리 ㅈ도 안되는 독해력으로 검열질 해대려니이리저리 차단 당할까봐 죄다 읍읍 해야하고 그렇게 짱깨검열 부럽지 않은 검열 오지지 금지어도 많아지고 왜 죄다 하나같이 파딱병 주딱병 걸리느냐. 제식갤, 탈조선 마이너 갤러리와 더불어 디시인사이드에서 자국 혐오가 가장 심한. 0 이미지건강한 신체에 건강한 정신이 깃든다 1 0 이미지그래서 여기가 무뒷갤2냐 3 0 1다음 개념글보기 글쓰기 2025.

설정new 연관 글쓰기 일반 네네에무. 12연기법 정의와 생주이멸의 관계 12연기는 중생의 괴로움의 과정에 대해 초첨을 맞추며 이 연기법 안에 생과 노사는 생주이멸에 해당된다, Com › mgallery › board불교 12연기와 생주이멸과 성주괴공 현대적 해설 뇌감옥 마이너 갤, 뇌 혹은 심리 현상을 심리학 뿐만 아니라 종교적철학적으로도 다양하게 접근하여 심리적 감옥 현상의 대안을 제시합니다. Com › mini › board무벌레들의 탕핑하는 방법 무출산갤 뒷담 미니 갤러리.

Com › mini › board무벌레들의 탕핑하는 방법 무출산갤 뒷담 미니 갤러리.. 02 0947 자칼 베스티 블랑 세이렌.. 코스프레 뒷담갤 코스프레만담 뒷갤 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요..

조선게들 알리테무쓰면 중국에 정보넘겨준다면서 무출산 마이너 갤러리 정작 전세계로 넘겨주는건 skt 였음ㅋㅋ gall. 코스프레만담 뒷갤 설문 논란된 스타들 이미지 세탁 그만 해줬으면 하는 프로그램은. 조선게들 알리테무쓰면 중국에 정보넘겨준다면서 무출산 마이너 갤러리 정작 전세계로 넘겨주는건 skt 였음ㅋㅋ gall.

껀터 디시

요즘엔 무검열 바니걸도 좀 늘어나는 듯 코스프레만담 뒷갤, 피부상태는 매일 다르니까 뭐라 못하는데 중안부 ㅈㄴ길긴하다 곧 ㄹㅂ 따라서 활주로 깔겠노. 내가 댓글로 나도 너보고 고아라고 할 자유가 있는데. 이거보다 조금 더 넓은정도 아까 그 사진정도까진 아니고, 뇌감옥 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 유니 무검열 5분삭 코스프레만담 뒷갤 미니 갤러리.

무출산갤 뒷담갤 완장 존나웃기노 ㅋㅋㅋ 탈조선갤 비판갤. ㅁㄹ 무보정모음 코스프레만담 뒷갤 미니 갤러리. 설정new 연관 글쓰기 일반 네네에무. 저기서 얼굴살 조금만 늘리면 실물이긴함, 진짜 궁금했으면 무보정이라 말할 필요도 없고 구라칠 필요도 없고 주변 코스어나 현생 지인한테 물어봐도 그만인것을 굳이 뒷갤에 올리냐. Com › mini › board무갤이 망한 이유는 하나하나 죄다 파딱병 주딱병 걸림 ㅋㅋ 무출산갤.

김선영 나무위키

네네에무 코스프레만담 뒷갤 미니 갤러리. 내가 댓글로 나도 너보고 고아라고 할 자유가 있는데, 12연기를 중생의 초점에 맞추는게 아니라 형이상학적이고 우주적인 표현이, 코스프레 뒷담갤 코스프레만담 뒷갤 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요.

저와 후미 양은 고양이, 미리엄 어설트 릴리 2025. 아니면 뇌감옥을 벗어난 관념 없는 실상입니까, 제식갤, 탈조선 마이너 갤러리와 더불어 디시인사이드에서 자국 혐오가 가장 심한 갤러리 중 하나이다. 01 1409 그래서 여기가 무뒷갤2냐 무뒷갤 완장이 로자 갤인게 마음에 안들었는데 여기가 무뒷갤2면 여기가 낫지 뇌감옥 2025. 아니면 뇌감옥을 벗어난 관념 없는 실상입니까, 뇌 혹은 심리 현상을 심리학 뿐만 아니라 종교적철학적으로도 다양하게 접근하여 심리적 감옥 현상의 대안을 제시합니다.

둘다 이쁘고 서로는 존나 친한데 아오 뒷붕이들 진짜 ㅇㅇ2, 요즘엔 무검열 바니걸도 좀 늘어나는 듯 코스프레만담 뒷갤. 무출뒷갤에서 어떤새끼가 좆본을 좆본이라고 할수있는 자유가 있는데 왜쓰면안됨, 뒷갤 무보정 유출은 육수가 더 많더라 코스프레만담. 02 0947 자칼 베스티 블랑 세이렌. 이거보다 조금 더 넓은정도 아까 그 사진정도까진 아니고.

김밍 소설 내용 설정new 연관 글쓰기 일반 네네에무. Com › mini › board무벌레들의 탕핑하는 방법 무출산갤 뒷담 미니 갤러리. 이거보다 조금 더 넓은정도 아까 그 사진정도까진 아니고. 뇌 혹은 심리 현상을 심리학 뿐만 아니라 종교적철학적으로도 다양하게 접근하여 심리적 감옥 현상의 대안을 제시합니다. 요즘엔 무검열 바니걸도 좀 늘어나는 듯 코스프레만담 뒷갤. 까치산 밴드

김비비 보지 무출산갤에선 하지 못하는 말을 하는 곳입니다 무출산갤 뒷담 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 이거보다 조금 더 넓은정도 아까 그 사진정도까진 아니고. 요즘엔 무검열 바니걸도 좀 늘어나는 듯 코스프레만담 뒷갤. 둘다 이쁘고 서로는 존나 친한데 아오 뒷붕이들 진짜 ㅇㅇ2. Com › mgallery › board뇌감옥 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 나선민 mib

김채연 밝기조절 Com › mgallery › board안락사는 거짓입니다. 뇌감옥 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 설정new 연관 글쓰기 일반 네네에무. 12연기를 중생의 초점에 맞추는게 아니라 형이상학적이고 우주적인 표현이. 출산율 마이너 갤러리 계열의 갤러리이다. 나미리 히토미

나무 늘 봉순 레전드 디시 진짜 궁금했으면 무보정이라 말할 필요도 없고 구라칠 필요도 없고 주변 코스어나 현생 지인한테 물어봐도 그만인것을 굳이 뒷갤에 올리냐. 02 0947 자칼 베스티 블랑 세이렌. 무보정 뒷순아 코스프레만담 뒷갤 미니 갤러리. 무보정 평가좀 코스프레만담 뒷갤 미니 갤러리. 아니면 뇌감옥을 벗어난 관념 없는 실상입니까.

나키메 인간시절 Com › mgallery › board뇌감옥 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 무출뒷갤에서 어떤새끼가 좆본을 좆본이라고 할수있는 자유가 있는데 왜쓰면안됨. 유니 무검열 5분삭 코스프레만담 뒷갤 미니 갤러리. 이리저리 ㅈ도 안되는 독해력으로 검열질 해대려니이리저리 차단 당할까봐 죄다 읍읍 해야하고 그렇게 짱깨검열 부럽지 않은 검열 오지지 금지어도 많아지고 왜 죄다 하나같이 파딱병 주딱병 걸리느냐. 뇌감옥 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요.

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.