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.

윤공주 @09_princess74 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 이 시간에 올리면 못 보지. 뮤지컬 어차피 혼자 윤공주 배우 인터뷰 공개. 윤공주는 물리적으로 많은 나이지만 좋은 역할이고 코로나19로 공연이 취소된 터라 아쉬움을 채울 기회라고 생각했다며 캐스팅 연락을 받고 고민하지 않았다고 말했다. 윤공주 지킬앤하이드 상견례 현장 사진 출처.

에미보니

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엉덩퀸 온리팬스

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진연수 기자 뮤지컬 배우 윤공주가 20일 오후 서울 용산구 블루스퀘어에서 열린 제4회 한국뮤지컬어워즈 레드카펫에서 포즈를 취하고 있다 윤공주. 작품이력인터뷰활동 마음의 집을 그리는 작가, 윤공주 윤공주 작가의 작업은 물리적 공간을 그리는, 단국대 연극영화과 출신인 그녀는 2003년에 데뷔를 했다. 출연 뮤지컬 〈비틀쥬스〉2025, 브로드웨이 42번가 부산2025, 뮤지컬 지킬앤하이드 jekyll ＆ hyde 20주년 천안2025.

윤공주 @09_princess74 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 이 시간에 올리면 못 보지.. Kr › people › detail윤공주.. 윤공주는 물리적으로 많은 나이지만 좋은 역할이고 코로나19로 공연이 취소된 터라 아쉬움을 채울 기회라고 생각했다며 캐스팅 연락을 받고 고민하지 않았다고 말했다.. 2003년 뮤지컬 토요일밤의 열기 앙상블 역..

야외 플 장소 디시

20200710 스테이지 2019 프레스콜 풀버전 윤공주, 전나영, 김우형, 최재림, 정선아, 아이비, 박송권 20200226 스테이지 2019 공연 중에서 `dance of the robe` 윤공주, 유승엽 외 20191119, 그동안 ‘그리스’의 샌디, ‘겨울 나그네’의 주연, ‘컨펜션’의 태연, ‘미녀는 괴로워’의 주인공 제니, ‘맨 오브 라만차’의 알 돈자, ‘올슉업’의 ‘나탈리’ 역 등에 연기해 왔다. 뮤지컬 ‘시카고’는 공연을 보지 않는 사람도 안다는 바로 그 넘버, ‘all that jazz’로 초반부터 관객의 머리부터 발끝까지 소름 돋게 만든다. 뮤지컬 어차피 혼자 윤공주 배우 인터뷰 공개.

윤공주1981년 5월 20일 는 대한민국의 뮤지컬 배우이다, 윤공주는 단국대학교 연극영화학과를 졸업하고 2001년 데뷔한 대한민국의 뮤지컬 배우로, 《드라큘라》, 《맨 오브 라만차》, 《아이다》, 《노트르담 드 파리》 등 다양한 뮤지컬 작품에서 주역을 맡았으며 한국뮤지컬대상 여우신인상과 인기스타상, 더뮤지컬어워즈 여우인기상 등을 수상했다. 모든 작품에서 그래왔듯 잘하기 위해 땀방울을 쏟아냈다. Hours ago — 〈피식대학〉에서 부캐 한사랑산악회 50대 아저씨 이택조, 재벌그룹인 김갑생할머니김의 미래전략본부장 콘셉트 이호창 캐릭터를 실감나게 살렸다. Hours ago — 〈피식대학〉에서 부캐 한사랑산악회 50대 아저씨 이택조, 재벌그룹인 김갑생할머니김의 미래전략본부장 콘셉트 이호창 캐릭터를 실감나게 살렸다.

서울열린뉴스통신 위수정 기자 뮤지컬 ‘시카고’가 21주년을 화려하게 맞고 있다. 남달랐을 것 같은 만남이지만, 작품에 임하는 자세는 다르지 않다. 2011년 제17회 한국뮤지컬대상시상식 인기스타상 2011년 제5회 더 뮤지컬 어워즈 신한카드 인기스타상 2007년 read more.

야코 카사노바

그동안 그리스의 샌디, 겨울 나그네의 주연, 윤공주 언니가 저보다 나이는 한 살 많지만 배우로는 제가 감히 명함도 못. 08 리치 4집 ejs number 수상, 미방분 윤공주x박보검 all that jazz 뮤지컬 ＜시카고＞ 中 더 시즌즈박보검의 칸타빌레 kbs 250801 방송. 20 홍익대대학로아트센터 대극장 에서 만나요.

20 소속사 pl엔터테인먼트 데뷔 2001년 학력 단국대학교 연극영화학과, 모든 작품에서 그래왔듯 잘하기 위해 땀방울을 쏟아냈다, She graduated from dankook university with a bachelors degree in theater. Watch short videos about 윤공주 원더재빈 from people around the world.

여고딩 후장

뮤지컬 ‘시카고’는 공연을 보지 않는 사람도 안다는 바로 그 넘버, ‘all that jazz’로 초반부터 관객의 머리부터 발끝까지 소름 돋게 만든다. 미방분 윤공주x박보검 all that jazz 뮤지컬 ＜시카고＞ 中 더 시즌즈박보검의 칸타빌레 kbs 250801 방송. 윤공주 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전.

에라이 갤 윤공주 @09_princess74 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 이 시간에 올리면 못 보지. 윤공주 1981년 출생 한국의 뮤지컬 배우 뮤지컬 여배우 2001년 데뷔 단국대학교 출신. 25k views 5 months ago. Yoon gong joo is a south korean musical actress. 윤공주 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 야코레두

여고딩 맞짱 뮤지컬 어차피 혼자 윤공주 배우 인터뷰 공개. Apple music에서 윤공주의 음악을 감상하세요. 뮤지컬 ‘시카고’는 공연을 보지 않는 사람도 안다는 바로 그 넘버, ‘all that jazz’로 초반부터 관객의 머리부터 발끝까지 소름 돋게 만든다. All that jazz 뮤지컬 ＜시카고＞ 中 더 시즌즈박보검의. 20 소속사 pl엔터테인먼트 데뷔 2001년 학력 단국대학교 연극영화학과. 에이치 그림 레제

에스파 ㄸㄱ Storr7 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 프로필 링크 댓글링크 봐주세요. 2003년 뮤지컬 토요일밤의 열기 앙상블 역. Yoon gong joo is a south korean musical actress. 뮤지컬 어차피 혼자 윤공주 배우 인터뷰 공개. 그동안 그리스의 샌디, 겨울 나그네의 주연. 에로배우 자위

얀덱스 동영상 윤공주는 물리적으로 많은 나이지만 좋은 역할이고 코로나19로 공연이 취소된 터라 아쉬움을 채울 기회라고 생각했다며 캐스팅 연락을 받고 고민하지 않았다고 말했다. 모든 작품에서 그래왔듯 잘하기 위해 땀방울을 쏟아냈다. 뮤지컬 어차피 혼자 윤공주 배우 인터뷰 공개. 윤공주, 원더재빈 윤공주 and more. She graduated from dankook university with a bachelors degree in theater.

에반게리온 서비스신 디시 그동안 그리스의 샌디, 겨울 나그네의 주연. 윤공주는 물리적으로 많은 나이지만 좋은 역할이고 코로나19로 공연이 취소된 터라 아쉬움을 채울 기회라고 생각했다며 캐스팅 연락을 받고 고민하지 않았다고 말했다. 출연 뮤지컬 〈비틀쥬스〉2025, 브로드웨이 42번가 부산2025, 뮤지컬 지킬앤하이드 jekyll ＆ hyde 20주년 천안2025. Com › popular › 윤공주원더재빈윤공주 원더재빈. 뮤지컬 ‘시카고’는 공연을 보지 않는 사람도 안다는 바로 그 넘버, ‘all that jazz’로 초반부터 관객의 머리부터 발끝까지 소름 돋게 만든다.

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.