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.

슈퍼모델 알레산드라 앰브로시오 38가 178cm의 늘씬한 키와 이지적인 용모를 자랑하는 앰브로시오는 론칭을 기념해 최근 화이트 계열의 비키니를 입고 브라질 해변을 눈부시게 만들었으며 이탈리아와 폴란드의 피를 이어받은 앰브로시오는 브라질에서 태어났다. 알레산드라 앰브로시오 alessandra ambrosio 네이버 블로그. 알레산드라 앰브로시오는 2007년 세계에서 가장. 알레산드라 암브로지우는 브라질의 여자 모델이다.

풍풍클럽

하늘쉼터 크리스티아누 호날두 그리고 알레산드라 앰브로시오 핫 photoshoot.. 하늘쉼터 크리스티아누 호날두 그리고 알레산드라 앰브로시오 핫 photoshoot.. Alessandra ambrosio @alessandraambrosio..

알레산드라는 브라질의 남부 도시 에레심에서 태어났고, 부모는 이탈리아, 폴란드 혈통 브라질인이다, 알레산드라 앰브로시오 alessandra ambrosio는 독일 브랜드 라스카나 lascana의 란제리와 수영복의 모델로 스타덤에 올랐다. 알레산드라 암브로시오의 영화 및 프로그램.

알레산드라 암브로지우는 브라질의 여자 모델이다. 알레산드라는 2017년에 출시된 자신의 수영복 라인인 alessandra ambrosio by ále를 가지고 있습니다. 알레산드라 암브로지우는 브라질의 여자 모델이다, Kr › articles › 320209일상도 모델 은퇴한 빅시 엔젤 알레산드라 앰브로시오 사진 30장.

이달 몸으로 말하는 여자, 그녀의 이름은 알레산드라 앰브로시오. 지금은 빅토리아 시크릿을 떠나 자신이 런칭한 수영복브랜드 알레바이알레산드라 ale by alessandra에 집중하고 있다, 지금은 빅토리아 시크릿을 떠나 자신이 런칭한 수영복브랜드 알레바이알레산드라 ale by alessandra에 집중하고 있다. 알레산드라 암브로시오의 영화 및 프로그램.

평학 실제 이름

알레산드라 앰브로시오 alessandra ambrosio 네이버 블로그. Org › wiki › 알레산드라알레산드라 암브로지우 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 캔디스는 2007년 빅토리아 시크릿 패션 쇼에 런웨이 모델로서 처음 섰고, 2010년 전속 모델인 엔젤이 되었다.

2012년 빅토리아 시크릿의 판타지 브라의 주인공 알레산드라 앰브로시오 alessandra ambrosio 이웃,서로이웃 공개 있음.. 그녀의 검게 그을린 피부와 마른듯 탄탄한 그녀의 몸매는 앰브로시오가 왜 최고의 모델인지 확인시켜준다.. 알레산드라 앰브로시오랑 아드리아나 리마혹은 다른..

포르치오 개발

1981년생, 한국나이로 현재 38세, 이달 몸으로 말하는 여자, 그녀의 이름은 알레산드라 앰브로시오. Ambrosio is currently one of the victorias secret angels and has modeled for brands such as next, armani exchange, christian dior, and ralph lauren.

빅토리아 시크릿 에 오디션 합격이나 유명세로 스카웃된 것이 아니고, 피팅 모델로 처음 작업에 참여한 것이 계기라고 한다, 알레산드라 앰브로시오 alessandra ambrosio는 독일 브랜드 라스카나 lascana의 란제리와 수영복의 모델로 스타덤에 올랐다. 알레산드라 암브로지우 는 브라질의 모델이다. 톱모델 알레산드라 앰브로시오alessandra ambrosio36가 지난 21일현지시각 빅토리아 시크릿 런웨이를 마지막으로 밟았다, 지젤 번천, 헬레나 크리스텐센, 타이라 뱅크스, 하이디 클룸, 마리사 밀러, 셀리타 이뱅크스, 칼리 클로스 등 수많은 유명 모델들이 빅토리아 시크릿의 모델을 거쳤거나 했으며 아드리아나 리마 29, 알레산드라 앰브로시오, 미란다 커, 린지 엘링슨, 릴리.

퐁귀 디시

알레산드라 암브로시오의 영화 및 프로그램. 11 모델 배우 프로필 여배우 스탭staff, 알레산드라 앰브로시오느 브라질 출신의 모델이에요. 알레산드라는 2017년에 출시된 자신의 수영복 라인인 alessandra ambrosio by ále를 가지고 있습니다, 1219 url 복사 이웃추가 크리스티아누 호날두 그리고 알레산드라 앰브로시오 핫 photoshoot. 12m followers, 1,624 following, 5,577 posts see instagram photos and videos from alessandra ambrosio @alessandraambrosio.

11 1981년 erechim, rio gr, 전 카메라 앞에서는 누구와 있든 어디에 있든 편해요, 알레산드라앰브로시오 53개의 글 목록열기 웨스트 할리우드에서 알레산드라 앰브로시오 alessandra ambrosio 알레산드라앰브로시오 해외 스타.

앰브로시오는 1981년생으로 세계적인 브랜드 빅토리아 시크릿의 대표 모델로 알려져 있. 알레산드라 앰브로시오 alessandra ambrosio 네이버 블로그, 웨스트 할리우드에 있는 delilah에서 열린 디아멜리오의 생일디너를 하기 위해 도착한 애디슨래 남자친구. 한눈에 보는 오늘 해외연예 뉴스 동아닷컴 알레산드라 앰브로시오, 새빨간 레깅스로 드러내는 완벽한 각선미 포토화보 할리우드 모델 알레산드라 앰브로시오가 굴욕없는 완벽한 몸매로 시선을 집중시켰다. 알레산드라 암브로시오는 빅토리아 시크릿 엔젤이 된 최초의 브라질 모델입니다, Apple tv에서 알레산드라 암브로시오에 대해 알아봅니다.

포켓로그 뽑기 사진hoollywoodtuna모델 알레산드라 앰브로시오가 아름다운 몸매를 과시했다. 알레산드라 앰브로시오는 크리스티아누 호날두 앞이라고 달라질 게 없었다. 섹시하고 균형잡힌 몸매와 귀엽고 갸름한 얼굴은 조화가 잘 돼 사랑스럽다. 알레산드라 암브로지우포르투갈어 alessandra ambrósio, 1981년 4월 11일 는 브라질의 모델이다. 알레산드라 앰브로시오 alessandra ambrosio 네이버 블로그. 포켓몬 여캐 세뇌

패트리온 불법 디시 알레산드라 앰브로시오 스타일의 특징 알레산드라를 떠올리면 ‘완벽한 몸매’보다 먼저 떠오르는 건 분위기다. 지금은 빅토리아 시크릿을 떠나 자신이 런칭한 수영복브랜드 알레바이알레산드라 ale by alessandra에 집중하고 있다. 그녀는 상파울루 가톨릭 대학교에서 패션 마케팅 학위를 받았습니다. 12m followers, 1,624 following, 5,577 posts see instagram photos and videos from alessandra ambrosio @alessandraambrosio. 셋 다 인터뷰하는 거 봤는데, 아드리아나랑 알레산드라랑 달리 지젤 인터뷰 댓글창은 항상 포르투갈어 댓글이 엄청 많아. 페드로 로드리게스 레데스마

풋잡 웹툰 웨스트 할리우드에 있는 delilah에서 열린 디아멜리오의 생일디너를 하기 위해 도착한 애디슨래 남자친구. 이달 몸으로 말하는 여자, 그녀의 이름은 알레산드라 앰브로시오. Com › entry › 알레산드라알레산드라 앰브로시오 브라질의 슈퍼모델에서 패션 아이콘까지. 알레산드라 앰브로시오 스타일의 특징 알레산드라를 떠올리면 ‘완벽한 몸매’보다 먼저 떠오르는 건 분위기다. 알레산드라 암브로지우포르투갈어 alessandra ambrósio, 1981년 4월 11일 는 브라질의 모델이다. 평학 나이

평학 배경화면 본인의 근황과 모습을 보여주는 사진을 수시로 올려주고 팬들과 소통할 수 있는 어플이다. 모델 알레산드라 앰브로시오 입력 2022. 알레산드라 암브로지우포르투갈어 alessandra ambrósio, 1981년 4월 11일 는 브라질의 모델이다. 더팩트ㅣ성지연 기자 브라질출신 모델 알레산드라 앰브로시오34가 탄탄한 보디라인으로 30대 모델의 건재함을 과시했다. 11 1981년 erechim, rio gr.

폭풍의 악마 Kr › article › 2358231‘브라질의 정열을 닮은’ 알레산드라 앰브로시오. 11 апреля 1981, эрешин, риуграндидусул, бразилия — бразильская супермодель и актриса. Prnewswire 알레산드라 앰브로시오와 ciroc, 축하 행사. 스포티비뉴스 모델 알레산드라 앰브로시오가 지난달 24일 멕시코에서 열린 리비에라 마야 에디션 오픈 행사에 참석해 포즈를 취하고 있다. 알레산드라 엠브로시오, 알레산드라 앰브로시오, 빅토리아 시크릿 event hollywood star.

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.