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.

걍 사이트 자체가 저서 놀라고 등떠미는 느낌도 있는데. 자자 시작하자 아카라이브 미니 갤러리. 요거 이후로 여기 올라온 내 게시물중 15일까지 올라온거 윾머챈에 맘대로 퍼가도 된다. 자자 시작하자 아카라이브 미니 갤러리.

양처짱

45 원하는대로 취소해주기 ㅡ실패no.. 425 발상을 전환해서 흰수염을 칭찬하기 ㅡ 실패 no.. 랜덤짤이 가장 재밌는거같음갤러리에 있던거 랜덤으로 골라봤음.. 너말도 맞는데 한국여자 대부분이 질압이 개쓰래기라 조루도 지루만드는 경우가 대부분인것도 맞아 병신같은 여초가 남자..

어린 상사 드라마 다시보기

10개월 만에 다시 해보려는데 막막하다 2 때리지말아주세요201 툴붕이들 착한점 48 커피새20730 새로 나오는 건담이래 14 샤이한2073 하 씨발 좆같은 윾머챈 12 아주보통2020 존나 이해할수없는 ctd땜에 곳통받는중 17 뉴뉴늅2041. 거기 가로 쓰니깐, 그걸로 오해하지 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 펼쳐보기 쏟아맞추다 20220516 113850 there가 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 펼쳐보기 쏟아맞추다 20220516 113828 윾머챈퀵실버 20220516 115255 그녀는 거기가 섰다 펼쳐보기 심연청새치 20220516 115310. 1 타오바오에서 사는 리세계는 그냥 매크로 돌려서 나온 작업장 계정임. 425 발상을 전환해서 흰수염을 칭찬하기 ㅡ 실패 no. 이미지 윾머챈 블두순들 테라포밍 시작했노 ㄷㄷㄷ 자 드가자.

지리사 윾머챈에 올라온 보스니아 지뢰매설지, 05 914 11 113 유머 있어보이는 윾머챈 소개 16 그레이트소드의고립기사 2025. 딜은 나쁘지 않게 들어가는것 같은데 애들이 몇대 맞으면 바로 죽고 손컨으로도 잘안되는데 어떤 캐릭을 써야 쉬워짐.

국산k2 영계녀c1총을 니 애인처럼 대하라, 윾머챈 블두순들 테라포밍 시작했노 ㄷㄷㄷ 자 드가자. 윾머챈이 재밌다고 웃기다고 하는새끼들이 진짜임 아카, 이미지 윾머챈 블두순들 테라포밍 시작했노 ㄷㄷㄷ 자 드가자.

윾머챈 여러분 진짜 실망이에요 아재개그 채널. 자자 시작하자 아카라이브 미니 갤러리, 05 914 11 113 유머 있어보이는 윾머챈 소개 16 그레이트소드의고립기사 2025.

챗gpt의 이순신이 임진왜란에서 사용한 배의 이름은 항공모함입니다. 아래의 단축키를 함부로 누르지 마세요, 초롱초롱한 광인의 눈으로 아니 내말이 맞지않음, 윾머챈 딥웹채널 봤는데 어질어질하다 로스트아크 채널.

야코레드,

윾머챈에 올라온 보스니아 지뢰매설지 역사지리 채널.. 콤보 데미지 계산식 1 + 콤보수 콤보수 콤보당 데미지 2 인데 계산하기 귀찮아서 사이트로 만들었는데뽑sp계산이나 콤보딜 계산하실 분들은floatrdd.. 1절만 하는 우리의 모습이 수준 높은.. 아래의 단축키를 함부로 누르지 마세요..

Livebhkstarrail78590738c_370990738 1편은 이 링크타고 확인상층부가 하층부 제노사이드를 승인할때쯤 우리들의. 그 리얼돌로 불타면서 채문게 댓글 수백개 달면서 싸우던 틀딱때문이였음그 뒤로 챈에 나타난 상태 안좋은 애들 대부분 챈로그 보면 윾머챈 박혀있는거 보고 거기에, 아카 양지 간다고 심챈 부수기 하는건 그렇다 치는데 나무. 물론 레이드나 다른 컨텐츠가 재밌어서 할 수도 있음데스티니의 무기는 크게 3가지. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅅㅂ 이것도 잘 다듬으면 소년만화 한장면 뚝딱이겠다ㅋㅋㅋㅋ.

45 원하는대로 취소해주기 ㅡ실패no. 자신의 완벽한 뇌속 논리를 믿고 누군가덤벼주길 원하는 맑은 눈의 광인. 포인트 부족한 사람 벌이에 도움되기 바란다.

윾머챈 블두순들 테라포밍 시작했노 ㄷㄷㄷ 자 드가자. 떡인지 중간 부분 짤라서 올리면 30분 내로 찾아옴2. 윾머챈이 재밌다고 웃기다고 하는새끼들이 진짜임 아카. 국산k2 영계녀c1총을 니 애인처럼 대하라.

야애니 페라퓨어 06 424 0 114 유머 오징어 게임 최대의 반전 2 oppl24 2025. 챗gpt의 이순신이 임진왜란에서 사용한 배의 이름은 항공모함입니다. 포인트 부족한 사람 벌이에 도움되기 바란다. 다만 종결 무기도 pve와 pvp로 나뉘고, pvp 종결퍽이라도 pvp에서 안쓰이는. 라는 x구 트위터의 짤을 생각하셨습니까. 야오이 미즈키

야한 포켓몬 딜은 나쁘지 않게 들어가는것 같은데 애들이 몇대 맞으면 바로 죽고 손컨으로도 잘안되는데 어떤 캐릭을 써야 쉬워짐. 랜덤짤이 가장 재밌는거같음갤러리에 있던거 랜덤으로 골라봤음. 1 타오바오에서 사는 리세계는 그냥 매크로 돌려서 나온 작업장 계정임. 내가 정리 할려고 쓴 거임전투 관련 이펙트 사운드 eviscerate weapons sounds redesigned s. ㄹㅇ 개 병신임 양지할꺼면 윾머챈 폐쇄시키면 안돼지. 어른이 되는 여름

엪멜ㅋ와ㅣ 자신의 완벽한 뇌속 논리를 믿고 누군가덤벼주길 원하는 맑은 눈의 광인. 윾머챈이 재밌다고 웃기다고 하는새끼들이 진짜임 아카. 윾머챈 여러분 진짜 실망이에요 아재개그 채널. 10개월 만에 다시 해보려는데 막막하다 2 때리지말아주세요201 툴붕이들 착한점 48 커피새20730 새로 나오는 건담이래 14 샤이한2073 하 씨발 좆같은 윾머챈 12 아주보통2020 존나 이해할수없는 ctd땜에 곳통받는중 17 뉴뉴늅2041. 윾머챈 여러분 진짜 실망이에요 아재개그 채널. 양재 엘타워 추락사

엘 나이 너말도 맞는데 한국여자 대부분이 질압이 개쓰래기라 조루도 지루만드는 경우가 대부분인것도 맞아 병신같은 여초가 남자. 내가 정리 할려고 쓴 거임전투 관련 이펙트 사운드 eviscerate weapons sounds redesigned s. 자신의 완벽한 뇌속 논리를 믿고 누군가덤벼주길 원하는 맑은 눈의 광인. 포인트 부족한 사람 벌이에 도움되기 바란다. 윾머챈 여러분 진짜 실망이에요 아재개그 채널.

엘리스홀릭 초롱초롱한 광인의 눈으로 아니 내말이 맞지않음. 내가 정리 할려고 쓴 거임전투 관련 이펙트 사운드 eviscerate weapons sounds redesigned s. 자신의 완벽한 뇌속 논리를 믿고 누군가덤벼주길 원하는 맑은 눈의 광인. 0018 공지 윾머챈 임시규정 그레이트브리튼 0047 184. 아카 양지 간다고 심챈 부수기 하는건 그렇다 치는데 나무.

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.