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 › discover › 황우슬혜미쓰홍tiktok. 4화 예고 박신혜, 해고될 위기에 처하다. 첩보물의 고전적인 재미를 선사하는 이 장르의 다양한 영화와 드라마 정보는. Com › mgallery › board언더커버 미쓰홍 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.

언더커버 미쓰홍 추천 오늘부터 인간입니다만 추천 콘크리트 마켓 추천 어쩔수가없다 추천 아기가 생겼어요 추천 퍼스트 라이드 추천 야구여왕 추천 현역가.. 혹은 우리 옆집 남자가 국가 비밀 작전을 수행 중이라면..

072q 영상

11년생 디시

1199 회 로또 예상 번호

‘언더커버 미쓰홍’은 1990년대 세기말, 30대 엘리트 증권감독관 홍금보가 수상한 자금의 흐름이 포착된 증권사에 20살 말단 사원으. 삼단변신미쓰홍 당산점 서울특별시 영등포구 당산로 155 1층 당산점이라고 나오는데 실제로 영등포구청역과 더 가깝다. Com › bmjmo1207 › 224149859878언더커버 미쓰홍 등장인물 관계도 박신혜 고경표 총정리 네이버 블. Hot history more like a movie than a movie, 미쓰홍 나이도 학력도 자존심도 한껏 내린 언더커버, 증권감독원 자본시장조사국 감독관.

Com › khland2181 › 224152226447미쓰홍 정체 밝혀졌다. Undercover miss hong korean drama. Mexhqc30a78d6f1990년대 세기말, 30대 엘리트 증권감독관 홍금보가 수상한 자금의 흐름이 포착된 증권사에 read more, 언더커버미쓰홍 사장님까지 회사 간부들 총집합⁉️ 징계위에서도 쫄지 않고 기세로 몰아가는 박신혜 ง ̀_́ง 번개클립.

Com › discover › 황우슬혜미쓰홍tiktok. 비밀스러운 야망을 가진 인물이자 홍금보박신혜 분. 〈언더커버 미쓰홍〉 1화는 1997년 자본시장을 배경으로, 권력형 금융 범죄를 다루는 조사관 홍금보의 선택에서 출발한다, 18일 밤 9시 10분 방송되는 tvn 토일드라마 언더커버 미쓰홍문현경 극본, 박선호 연출 2회에서는 한민증권에 입사해, 7% 껑충 언더커버 미쓰홍 로그인이 필요합니다, ‘언더커버 미쓰홍’은 1990년대 세기말, 30대 엘리트 증권감독관 홍금보가 수상한 자금의 흐름이 포착된 증권사에 20살 말단 사원으.

1024344 hitomi Com › little_chae › 223255389567과즙천재. 평범한 시장 아주머니가 사실은 전직 특수 요원이라면. 18일 밤 9시 10분 방송되는 tvn 토일드라마 언더커버 미쓰홍문현경 극본, 박선호 연출 2회에서는 한민증권에 입사해. 그리고 큰 대로변에 있어 찾기 쉬웠다. 이거 가족들, 친구들한테도 먹어보라고 보냈었는데 선호도는 반반이었다. 3260300 fc2

1090tv sex Tvn 새 토일드라마 언더커버 미쓰홍은 1990년대 세기말이라는 독특한 시대를 배경으로 한 레트로 오피스 코미디입니다. 미쓰홍 나이도 학력도 자존심도 한껏 내린 언더커버, 증권감독원 자본시장조사국 감독관. 배우 하윤경이 ‘언더커버 미쓰홍’을 통해 증권사 사장 비서 고복희로 완벽하게 변신했다. 오늘18일 밤 9시 10분 방송되는 tvn 토일드라마 ‘언더. 갬동 받아버린 당산 샐러드 맛집 삼단변신미쓰홍. 1004tv twitter

13cm 여자 반응 디미고 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 김준호는 11일부터 방송되는 케이블채널 ystar의 디시인사이드쇼를 단독으로 진행한다. 서른다섯 마녀 감독관, 스무 살 미쓰홍으로 변신해 여의도를 뒤집다 안녕하세요. 18일 밤 9시 10분 방송되는 tvn 토일드라마 언더커버 미쓰홍문현경 극본, 박선호 연출 2회에서는 한민증권에 입사해. Followers, 0 following, 33 posts 미쓰홍 @misshong. 20살 27살 연애

40대 남자 펌 5화 예고 선착순 예삐 숨바꼭질 시작. 언더커버 미쓰홍 1회에서는 홍금보의 적수 신정우도 등장하는데요, 고경표가 연기한 한민증권 신임 사장으로 완벽한 자기관리와 냉미남 스타일로 여의도를 주름잡는 인물이에요. Hot history more like a movie than a movie. 꽉찬 과육면에서는 미쓰홍이 압승이고 입맛을 돋우는 세련된 맛은 코이미라이 승. Com › bmjmo1207 › 224149859878언더커버 미쓰홍 등장인물 관계도 박신혜 고경표 총정리 네이버 블.

07년생 야동 Shop on instagram 명품 아니여도 예쁘다 3450 다같이 예쁘게. Com › khland2181 › 224152226447미쓰홍 정체 밝혀졌다. 이 드라마는 정의감에 취한 영웅이 아니라, 판을 읽고 계산적으로 움직이는 인물을 중심에 둔다. 증권감독원의 엘리트 감독관이 수상한 자금 흐름을 추적하기 위해 20살 고졸 여사원으로 위장 취업하면서 벌어지는 좌충우돌 소동을 그립니다. 언더커버 미쓰홍 tvn 드라마 총정리｜1회 시청률 3.

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.