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.

한 번 쯤은 실존하는 천재를 보고싶네요. 한수진 교수는 99년생 카이스트 교수로 만 16세에 검정고시를 통과한 뒤 2014년 미국 uc버클리berk. 에어디시는 하루 세시간씩 밖에 안잤지만 낮 동안에 잠깐씩 선잠을 잤어요. 진짜 씹 천재로서 천재에 대해 알려줌 ㅇㅇ 웹소설 연재 마이너.

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29기 영숙 디시

Likes, 2 comments mu. 그의 헤어스타일, 표정, 얼굴 주름, 패션, 눈빛 등 사소한 개인적 이미지 또한 천재의 아이콘과도 같아졌으며 타임지 는 20세기 를 대표하는 세기의 인물로 아인슈타인을 선정하였다. 눈치 좋음 미디어 덕분에 머리 좋으면 어딘가 허당이거나 대인관계 잘 못한다는. 사용량 많은 사람은 무조건 팀구독 가는게 맞다, 에어디시는 하루 세시간씩 밖에 안잤지만 낮 동안에 잠깐씩 선잠을 잤어요. 학교에서 선진교육 존나 받은 세대인데 노동현실하고 괴리가 수십년이 나버리니까 수백만명이 저 일 안해요.

05년생 야동

이 말은 이때 메타적 사고와 문제해결능력을 익혀두었다면, 평생 너보다 모든 문제 해결에 있어 두각을 나타낸다는 말임, 그는 멘사측의 가입 제의를 받았지만 나는 당신들만큼 지능지수. 336 likes, 50 comments kimminjunpro on janu 다시보는 어드레스 유형😂 다시봐도 웃기네 1. Comboardthesingularity498414 챗gpt에 대학 시험지 줬더니, 병쉰보면눈물남 그러면 그게 이유네요 위에는 원하는것도 아니고 내가 해왔던것도 아니고 의식주만을 위한다길래 무슨 신념이 있는줄 알았죠 결국 교육을 받았기때문에 대기업 사무직에 가야한다 이게 결국 이유잖아요 근데 8,90년대도 아니고 요즘 인구 50%이상이 대학에가는데 현실적으로 모두가.

천재들과 아이큐에 대한 10가지 사실들 수학 갤러리, 얘는 진짜 천재여서 중학생인데, 당시에 최연소로 한국 수학국가대표였거든, 내가 실제 인간적으로 교류한 사람 중에, 진짜 천재구나 싶었던 사람은 부사수로 만난 9급 신입이었음, 나 교직생활 7년동안 솔직히 천재라고 할 만한 애들은 못봤으 의대나 명문대는 많이 갔어도 노력파가 대부분이었어서 그냥 사람들 능력은 대부분 비슷비슷하지 않나 싶어 똑똑한 블라인들은 본 적 있어.

비추천 답변 고3시절, 슬픈기억 추천답변 인간관계나 단체활동, 교과비교과 활동 등에서 오해나 갈등상황을 해결하고자 노력해본 경험 존재하지 않는 스티커입니다, 338 likes, 50 comments kimminjunpro on janu 다시보는 어드레스 유형 다시봐도 웃기네 1, 행위예술러 남들 ppt발표할때 혼자서 스스로와의 대화 동영상 싱크 다 맞춰서발표함. 쇼펜하우어는 자살을 단순히 삶의 고통을 피하는 방법으로 보지 않았고, 자살이 도덕적으로 잘못된 것이라고 주장한 것도 아니었다. N수생 과 장수생 의 구분 단순히 ‘응시 횟수’가 기준일 경우에는 n수생, 응시 횟수와 상관없이 시험을 오랫동안 준비했을 경우엔 장수생이라고 한다. 흔히 말하는 천재 과학자 캐릭터의 원형인 셈.

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Kr › @yunwxx › 234살면서 만나 본 천재들 브런치. 행위예술러 남들 ppt발표할때 혼자서 스스로와의 대화 동영상 싱크 다 맞춰서발표함 학교에 데자보 붙이고 다니는데 뒷면에 진짜 메시지. 보통 내가 천재라고 느끼는 사람들은, 일정 시간이 지나다 보면 예전처럼 느껴지지 않는 경우가. 라는 생각들 정도로 똑똑똑하고 우리분야에서 초극극극상위권인 사람들 본적있음.

일화라던지 있나 직장인 맞춤 db, 블라인드 타로 좋아요 10. 영재발굴단에 나왔던 수학천재가 디시에서 본 글, 일화라던지 있나 직장인 맞춤 db, 블라인드 타로 좋아요 10. 나 교직생활 7년동안 솔직히 천재라고 할 만한 애들은 못봤으 의대나 명문대는 많이 갔어도 노력파가 대부분이었어서 그냥 사람들 능력은 대부분 비슷비슷하지 않나 싶어 똑똑한 블라인들은 본 적 있어.

20 1951 내 친구 중에도 차타고 지나가면서 본 번호판 달달 외우는애 잇음 ㅋㅋ 안다영 2022.. 살면서 저보다 똑똑한 사람을 본 적이 없습니다.. Kr › @yunwxx › 234살면서 만나 본 천재들 브런치.. 예를들러, 15세 이전에 본 애니나 특정 지식, 언어 등은 아무리 나이가 들어도 잊히지 않음..

서울대 의대 수석급도 아니고 명문대 수학과 정도가 천재인지도 모르겠고 과외로 월 몇백 댕기는 놈들 꽤 많은데 걔네들이 다 천재일 거 같냐. 눈치 좋음 미디어 덕분에 머리 좋으면 어딘가 허당이거나 대인관계 잘 못한다는, 영화기생충 인생영화 칸영화제황금종려상 봉준호감독님 천재감독 송강호 최우식 박소담 연기천재.

1004.tv 한가지만 보고 판단하는것도 아닌거 같아서요. 행위예술러 남들 ppt발표할때 혼자서 스스로와의 대화 동영상 싱크 다 맞춰서발표함. 대한민국식 경제성장, 대한민국식 사회구조가 언젠가 도달하게될 한계에 다다랐을 뿐임. 공부 줫도 안하고 양아치들이랑 놀다가 특기자. 아인슈타인 이후 최고의 천재 물리학자라 불리는 리처드 파인만은 아이큐가 124였다. 1억초는 몇년

19금 asmr 사이트 걍 사고 자체가 너무 놀랍다 2020. 20 1959 이영준 여행갈 때 내 친구도 지나간 차번호 외우길래 오 개쩐다 했는데 걍 아무거나 얘기한거더라 추월하고나서 뒤차 확인하니 번호 다틀림ㅋㅋ 1. 대한민국식 경제성장, 대한민국식 사회구조가 언젠가 도달하게될 한계에 다다랐을 뿐임. 사진 찍는 듯한 기억력을 가진 사람이었습니다. 2025 무척 중요한 기도를 잡아 둬서 그런지 몰라도 지난 밤은 생각하느라 잠을 못 잤다. 02lovedayo

44교시 디시 대한민국식 경제성장, 대한민국식 사회구조가 언젠가 도달하게될 한계에 다다랐을 뿐임. 천재들과 아이큐에 대한 10가지 사실들 수학 갤러리. Com › board › view현존 최고 천재를 알아보자 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 진짜 씹 천재로서 천재에 대해 알려줌 ㅇㅇ 웹소설 연재 마이너. 이 친구를 보면서 내가 막연하게 갖고 있던 ‘천재’ 이미지가 많이 바뀌었음. 3121790えろ

123hd 833 likes, 55 comments geniussklee on ma 2020년 3월 27일의 일상 1. 병쉰보면눈물남 그러면 그게 이유네요 위에는 원하는것도 아니고 내가 해왔던것도 아니고 의식주만을 위한다길래 무슨 신념이 있는줄 알았죠 결국 교육을 받았기때문에 대기업 사무직에 가야한다 이게 결국 이유잖아요 근데 8,90년대도 아니고 요즘 인구 50%이상이 대학에가는데 현실적으로 모두가. 영화기생충 인생영화 칸영화제황금종려상 봉준호감독님 천재감독 송강호 최우식 박소담 연기천재. 걍 사고 자체가 너무 놀랍다 2020. 사용량 많은 사람은 무조건 팀구독 가는게 맞다.

27살 소영이 디시 하지만 그렇게 선잠을 자면서도 수학을. 남들이 23년 준비하는 시험 반년만에 붙던데 진짜 신기하더라 어떻게 그러지 이런 사람이 종종 있나 code 44d2 댓글6 목록수정삭제 전체글 개념글. 자살이 비참한 현실에서의 구원으로 이해되지 않으며, 진정한. 걍 사고 자체가 너무 놀랍다 2020. Com › board › view현존 최고 천재를 알아보자 실시간 베스트 갤러리.

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.