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 › wested_arinarin @wested_arin instagram photos and videos. 소재지 〒1800013 도쿄도 무사시노시 니시쿠보 1가 11번 10호. 홋카이도 자유여행삿포로역 간단한 아침식사, 오니기리노 아린. 겨울철 건조한 코 촉촉하게 만드는 방법은.

Asmr 플랫폼

Azngoodgirl Onlyfans

516k likes, 5,600 comments arinin_dd on febru 안녕하세요 솔로지옥4 김아린입니다烙懶 드디어 마지막 회차까지 다 공개됐네요, Kr › breaking › article학생부 여고생이 자퇴를 선택해 마지막 등교를 한 사연, 나는 사랑에 빠졌을 때 이렇게나 감정이 투명하게 드러나는구나눈썹마저 를 방송을 보면서 느꼈던 것 같아요.

원래는 오밤중의 비행기편으로 삿포로로 가는 여정이었는데 삿포로 기상 악화로 출발이 두시간이나 지연돼서 새벽 대신 아침에 도착한 신치토세공항 시간이 예정보다 늦어져서 국내선 식당가에서 간단히 아침식사하고 시내로 들어가려다 그냥 일단 삿포로역으로 가기로 jr삿포로역 역사 안의. Com › wested_arinarin @wested_arin instagram photos and videos, 겨울은 특히 코감기 나 목감기 에 시달리시는 분들이 급증하는. 웃을때 겁나이뻐서 순간 캡처해버림 아린 볼때마다 코랑 입술이 조옹나 처연하고이쁨ㅠㅠㅠ simg.

Avfit ランキング

7 1335 8 0 48829 일반📄 솔지4는 너무 육준서만 믿고간 느낌 ㅇㅇ175.. 삿포로 스스키노 다누키코지 부근 폴타운 상가 지하에 위치한 주먹밥 전문점 아린코 폴타운점.. 영업 시간, 10002100이트인만 lo2030 ※10001100은 테이크아웃만 가능합니다.. 그는 바로 dia tv 소속 크리에이터이자 유튜버인 아린서아린이다..

Com › wested_arinarin @wested_arin instagram photos and videos, Com › @wested_arin908 › videos아린 wested_arin youtube, Likes, 1 comments 148cm_arinko_korea on decem 友達いなくて交流会に参加してみました笑笑笑 めっちゃ楽しかった 韓国人はお酒の楽しみ方が遊びみたいな感じで新鮮だったな いろんな飲み方、混ぜ方、開け方 全部新しくて面白かった 韓国ワーホリ 한국생활 ありんこ日記 아린코그램 술.

겨울은 특히 코감기 나 목감기 에 시달리시는 분들이 급증하는. 패시브 하이퍼 스킬 추천 부스트 엔드리인포스 부스트 엔드이그노어 가드 or 비욘더이그노어 가드 아드레날린 부스트퍼시스트 비욘더리인포스 비욘더보너스, 普段から誰かに話しかけるのすらなれないんだけど、他国で1人で話しかけるっていうのは意外と勇気がいるもんだね🥹 一歩成長🐜🌱 韓国ワーホリ 한국생활 ありんこ日記 아린코그램🐜, 오니기리주먹밥를 주메뉴로 판매하는 곳입니다. 삿포로 맛집 아린코ありんこ 스스키노 오니기리주먹밥.

솔직히 오니기리보다 내가 더 맛있게 먹은 건. 홋카이도 자유여행삿포로역 간단한 아침식사, 오니기리노 아린. 삿포로 맛집 아린코ありんこ 스스키노 오니기리주먹밥.

Av Wkakr

27 likes, 0 comments 148cm_arinko_korea on decem 안녕 韓国ワーホリ ニート生活の半日です 1日は無理です なぜなら起きるのが遅いから 今日はなんかなにもやる気が起きなくて、お家でゴロゴロ。 急にたい焼きが頭に浮かんだので食べに行きました 韓国のたい焼きほんとに美味しいんです！ ️, 원래는 오밤중의 비행기편으로 삿포로로 가는 여정이었는데 jr삿포로역 역사 안의 주먹밥 전문전 아린코 ありんこ 삿포로역점도 아담한 규모이고 폴. Com › 241메이플스토리 아란 하이퍼 패시브어빌리티코강 정리 2026. 아린코 alinco, 공사 용품 misumi한국미스미.

바로, 오니기리노 아린코 jr삿포로점onigiri shop arinko in jr sapporo이라는 식당입니다, 삿포로역, 오도리, 마루야마 등 삿포로 시내에 5개 점포가 있다. 댓글 1 배우 275개의 글 목록열기, 27 likes, 0 comments 148cm_arinko_korea on decem 안녕 韓国ワーホリ ニート生活の半日です 1日は無理です なぜなら起きるのが遅いから 今日はなんかなにもやる気が起きなくて、お家でゴロゴロ。 急にたい焼きが頭に浮かんだので食べに行きました 韓国のたい焼きほんとに美味しいんです！ ️.

Com › yjoshjh › 221116113373북해도 여행삿포로 맛집 아린코 ありんこ 스스키노 폴타운 오.. 普段から誰かに話しかけるのすらなれないんだけど、他国で1人で話しかけるっていうのは意外と勇気がいるもんだね🥹 一歩成長🐜🌱 韓国ワーホリ 한국생활 ありんこ日記 아린코그램🐜.. 아린코 점포 일람 먹거리 웰컴 투 삿포로.. 패시브 하이퍼 스킬 추천 부스트 엔드리인포스 부스트 엔드이그노어 가드 or 비욘더이그노어 가드 아드레날린 부스트퍼시스트 비욘더리인포스 비욘더보너스..

Av 메구미

화이팅💪🏽 韓国ワーホリ 한국생활 아린코그램🐜 ありんこ日記 erikameilhon 1w 行ってらっしゃい💖🥹 like reply 301 december 9. 삿포로역 오니기리주먹밥 전문 식당 아침식사하기 좋은 곳, 엄마와 찍은 투샷을 공개해 떡상 중이라는 유튜버가 있다. Com › wested_arinarin @wested_arin instagram photos and videos.

강언 앱에서 시술 결제하고 최대 1만 포인트 추가 적립 받아요. 원래는 오밤중의 비행기편으로 삿포로로 가는 여정이었는데 삿포로 기상 악화로 출발이 두시간이나 지연돼서 새벽 대신 아침에 도착한 신치토세공항 시간이 예정보다 늦어져서 국내선 식당가에서 간단히 아침식사하고 시내로 들어가려다 그냥 일단 삿포로역으로 가기로 jr삿포로역 역사 안의. Com › talk › 366494753아린 코 모양 개부럽다 네이트 판. 자퇴를 결정한 여고생 유튜버가 마지막 등교 브이로그를 공개해 눈길을 끌고 있다. Com › @_arinkim김아린arinkim youtube. 보이그룹 astro 의 멤버이며 팀 내에서 리드보컬을, 유닛 유닛 에서는 메.

av19 화장실 삿포로 맛집 아린코ありんこ 스스키노 오니기리주먹밥. 섹트 arin 보지안에 로터를 넣고 클리에 로터를 붙이고 산책가자 너의 옆으로 사람들이 스쳐갈 때 진동을 높일테니 참아봐 잘 참으면 상으로 임신시켜 read more. 귀엽고 청순한 외모부터, 솔직하고 사랑스러운 성격, 팬들 마음을. 아린코 alinco, 공사 용품 misumi한국미스미. 특징 핀터레스트 를 매우 애용하고 거기서 주로 컨셉트를 잡는다고 한다. aiue oka pixiv

ambar ignacia reddit 도쿄의 롤케이크 브랜드 아린코가 국내에도 상륙하면서. 7 1335 8 0 48829 일반📄 솔지4는 너무 육준서만 믿고간 느낌 ㅇㅇ175. 겨울철 건조한 코 촉촉하게 만드는 방법은. Com › talk › 366494753아린 코 모양 개부럽다 네이트 판. 오니기리주먹밥를 주메뉴로 판매하는 곳입니다. av19밍키넷

av세계에 어서오세요! Discover 아린s youtube channel for creative videos, engaging content, and unique perspectives on a variety of topics. 자퇴를 결정한 여고생 유튜버가 마지막 등교 브이로그를 공개해 눈길을 끌고 있다. 섹트 arin 보지안에 로터를 넣고 클리에 로터를 붙이고 산책가자 너의 옆으로 사람들이 스쳐갈 때 진동을 높일테니 참아봐 잘 참으면 상으로 임신시켜 read more. 삿포로역, 오도리, 마루야마 등 삿포로 시내에 5개 점포가 있다. 지난 4일 유튜브 ‘아린 wested_arin’ 채널에는 ‘9년의 학교생활을 마무리하는 고등학교 자퇴’ 영상이 게재됐다. akari mitani

amsr 야동 위에 데코는 팥이고 통팥 조차 맛있습니다 빵은 쫄깃한데 부드럽고 진짜 맛있어요 추천해요. Discover unique perspectives and enjoy a variety of topics. 오니기리보다 이게 더 맛있었던 개인적인 생각 ㅋㅋㅋ 삿포로 오니기리 맛집 아린코에서 오니기리도 저 맛있었던 미소장국도 나한테는 괜찮았던 걸로. 웃을때 겁나이뻐서 순간 캡처해버림 아린 볼때마다 코랑 입술이 조옹나 처연하고이쁨ㅠㅠㅠ simg. 삿포로 맛집 아린코ありんこ 스스키노 오니기리주먹밥.

arooo 자위 소재지 〒1800013 도쿄도 무사시노시 니시쿠보 1가 11번 10호. 아린코에서 포장한 오니기리를 간단히 먹을 수 있다. 강언 앱에서 시술 결제하고 최대 1만 포인트 추가 적립 받아요. 패시브 하이퍼 스킬 추천 부스트 엔드리인포스 부스트 엔드이그노어 가드 or 비욘더이그노어 가드 아드레날린 부스트퍼시스트 비욘더리인포스 비욘더보너스. 삿포로 스스키노 다누키코지 부근 폴타운 상가 지하에 위치한 주먹밥 전문점 아린코 폴타운점.

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.