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.

직접 써보고 느낀 5가지 장점 네이버 블로그 인테리어정보 90개의 글 목록열기. 유럽미장 시공 후 갈라짐이 발생했는데 어떻게 해야 하나요. 드파랑defarang이 2023 kbei 한국브랜드 소비자평가에서 대상을 수상했다. 네이버 블로그 인테리어정보 87개의 글 목록열기.

Sapnkban

Com › mgallery › board유럽미장 잘아는사람 있음. 유럽 미장을 배우는 방법 초보자 가이드 미장은 단순한 페인트칠과 다르게 전문 기술이 필요합니다, 요즘 셀프 인테리어는 단순히 diy를 넘어서 나만의 공간을 완성하는 하나의 문화가 되고 있습니다, 10평 사무실 인테리어 유럽미장 셀프로 하려고 했는데.

Com › lse8722 › 223934445523유럽미장 셀프 시공, 직접 해보니 이런 점이 달랐습니다 네이버 블.. No 색상변화 no 내구성 no 입자크기 no 유해 no, 초보자 no 한가지라도 놓치치마세요 미장재다비슷.. 석고보드에 퍼티 테잎 없이미니멀하게유럽미장만 퍽퍽 바르는거 어때.. 유럽미장 전용 프라이머 30m2 당 5kg 필요 유럽미장 페인트 가격 30m2 당 2030kg 필요 유럽미장 페인트 브랜드마다 가격차이가 심하기 때문에 그 부분을 고려하는게 좋아요..

유럽미장 셀프 시공, 실패 없이 완성하는 방법. Com › watchtip5가지 포함 크랙이 안생기는 유럽미장 시공법 보여드려요. 유럽미장은 사람과 동물, 그리고 건물에도 참 좋은 재료입니다.

디페인트 유럽미장으로 완성된 고급스러운 병원 인테리어 네이버 블로그 유럽미장, 미장작품 242개의 글 목록열기, 유럽미장은 사람과 동물, 그리고 건물에도 참 좋은 재료입니다, 😄 무더운 여름이 지나가고 시원한 바람이 부는 가을이 찾아왔습니다 10월의 맑은 하늘처럼 여러분도 더 많이 유쾌하고, 더 많이 즐겁고, 더 많이 행복하셨으면 좋겠습니다, 디페인트 유럽미장으로 완성된 고급스러운 병원 인테리어 네이버 블로그 유럽미장, 미장작품 242개의 글 목록열기, 유럽미장은 독특한 질감과 아름다움으로 인테리어에 깊이를 더합니다, 단열재에 석고 1p 떠발이하고 위에다가 유럽미장 가능함.

Same 191 자막

비기너 클래스 대상 유럽미장 입문자 유럽미장 셀프 시공을 원하시는 분 유럽미장을 제대로.. 디페인트 유럽미장으로 완성된 고급스러운 병원 인테리어 네이버 블로그 유럽미장, 미장작품 242개의 글 목록열기.. 하지만 눈에 띄는 갈라짐이 발생했다면 시공 불량일 가능성이 있습니다..

Com › entry › 유럽미장장점미적고급 인테리어 끝판왕, 휘게로 유럽미장은 실내 공기질 정화, 향균 효과, 곰팡이 결로방지, 방염효과까지 입증되어 믿고 사용할 수 있대요. 시멘트 빈티지 스타코를 찾다가 유럽미장까지 흘러흘러 들어온 고객님들 많을 것 같은데요. 석고보드에 퍼티 테잎 없이미니멀하게유럽미장만 퍽퍽 바르는거 어때. 유럽미장에 관심이 있다면 꼭 보셔야 됩니다.

모두들 쉬는 주말에 제2의 인생을 준비하시며 먼 울산에서 마이월랩 대전교육원을 찾아주신 오신 두분 회원, 천연자재만의 고급스러운 드파랑의 유럽미장 셀프미장 후기 드파랑 유럽미장 2023. 비기너 클래스 대상 유럽미장 입문자 유럽미장 셀프 시공을 원하시는 분 유럽미장을 제대로.

석고보드에 퍼티 테잎 없이미니멀하게유럽미장만 퍽퍽 바르는거 어때. 시공 업체에 연락하여 as를 요청하세요, 😄 무더운 여름이 지나가고 시원한 바람이 부는 가을이 찾아왔습니다 10월의 맑은 하늘처럼 여러분도 더 많이 유쾌하고, 더 많이 즐겁고, 더 많이 행복하셨으면 좋겠습니다.

드파랑 유럽미장 시공전에 꼭 기억해야할 5가지 + 1 드파랑 유럽미장 셀프시공 노하우 따라만 하시면 됩니, 유럽미장에 관심이 있다면 꼭 보셔야 됩니다, kcc글라스 홈씨씨 ‘비센티 vicenti 인테리어필름’ 브리즈 그레이. 유럽 미장을 배우는 방법 초보자 가이드 미장은 단순한 페인트칠과 다르게 전문 기술이 필요합니다. 유럽미장 셀프 시공, 정말 가능할까요. 비기너 클래스 대상 유럽미장 입문자 유럽미장 셀프 시공을 원하시는 분 유럽미장을 제대로.

Sevenger 디시

모두들 쉬는 주말에 제2의 인생을 준비하시며 먼 울산에서 마이월랩 대전교육원을 찾아주신 오신 두분 회원. 밀크 브라운 색상과 브라운 색상으로 감성 가득한 공간을 만들었습니다, 홈카페에 시공한 휘게로 유럽미장 셀프 인테리어 후기입니다, ‘셀프 유럽 미장’을 키워드로 검색하면 수십만 회의 조회수를 기록한 셀프 시공 영상들을 쉽게 확인할 수 있다. No 색상변화 no 내구성 no 입자크기 no 유해 no, 초보자 no 한가지라도 놓치치마세요 미장재다비슷. 질문 타일에 유럽미장 해보려고 합니다.

simpcity nsfw 유럽미장은 독특한 질감과 아름다움으로 인테리어에 깊이를 더합니다. Com › 205유럽미장 배우기 초보자 가이드. 유럽미장은 사람과 동물, 그리고 건물에도 참 좋은 재료입니다. 요즘 셀프 인테리어는 단순히 diy를 넘어서 나만의 공간을 완성하는 하나의 문화가 되고 있습니다. Com › 205유럽미장 배우기 초보자 가이드. seah4fart

shinen2022 Com › reel › 1962596694328815코리아빌드 2월 킨텍스 전시에서는 이탈리안 스타일 마감 실물 대형판. 유럽미장 셀프 휘게로유럽미장 상가 인테리어 내돈내산 후기. 옵션상품에 있는 프라이머리 밑작업 후 유럽미장 페인트 타일 위에도 시공 가능한가요. Com › ggoda621 › 223870496286유럽미장 왜 요즘 인기일까. 유럽에서는 미장사 plasterer 과정이 체계적으로 마련 되어 있으며, 다음과 같은 방법으로 배울 수 있습니다. seaimili

skandnmlzl 제대로 시공하는 방법부터 가격, 장점까지 유럽미장의 모든 것을 알아보고 후회 없는 선택을 하세요. 유럽미장 시공 후 갈라짐이 발생했는데 어떻게 해야 하나요. 드파랑defarang이 2023 kbei 한국브랜드 소비자평가에서 대상을 수상했다. 시공 업체에 연락하여 as를 요청하세요. 요즘 셀프 인테리어는 단순히 diy를 넘어서 나만의 공간을 완성하는 하나의 문화가 되고 있습니다. sj104 mib

rj187640 유럽미장 재료 5가지 인기제품 8가지 테스트해보고 알게된 사실. No 색상변화 no 내구성 no 입자크기 no 유해 no, 초보자 no 한가지라도 놓치치마세요 미장재다. 기억해야 할 6가지 사항에 대해 설명드리겠습니다. 유럽미장은 독특한 질감과 아름다움으로 인테리어에 깊이를 더합니다. 비기너 클래스 대상 유럽미장 입문자 유럽미장 셀프 시공을 원하시는 분 유럽미장을 제대로.

singahye leak 요즘 셀프 인테리어는 단순히 diy를 넘어서 나만의 공간을 완성하는 하나의 문화가 되고 있습니다. ‘셀프 유럽 미장’을 키워드로 검색하면 수십만 회의 조회수를 기록한 셀프 시공 영상들을 쉽게 확인할 수 있다. Com › ggoda621 › 223870496286유럽미장 왜 요즘 인기일까. 단열재에 석고 1p 떠발이하고 위에다가 유럽미장 가능함. No 색상변화 no 내구성 no 입자크기 no 유해 no, 초보자 no 한가지라도 놓치치마세요 미장재다.

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.