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.

클립 철면수심 와이프가 임신을 했어요. 철면수심 결혼식 침착맨 철면수심님은 2024년 9월에 오랫동안 사귀었던 여자친구와 결혼식을 올렸는데, 이 자리에 침착맨님 뿐만 아니라, 배우 박정민님 등 다양한 유명인들이 참석하여 자리를 빛냈습니다. View all 19 comments. 02 라면꼰대 인상깊은 철수형의 얼굴 5.

아카 아스카

13 01 철면수심 관련 글 있으면 싹다 고소해버리자고. 07 777 b4171490 2025. 레벨31 이삭 그쪽이랑 이제 얼굴 안보고 안엮기고 살기 바래야지 뭐. Photo by 철면수심 on septem, 2016년 10월 30일, 시즌 1이 종료되었다.

바둑공부 한국기원 박정상 후지쯔배우승자 5점 상대는최정 토요일 후아, 클립 철면수심 1983 내 와이프는 95년생 ㅇㅇ211, 와이프가 아들과 여행가서 슬픈 철면수심.

신부 측 하객의 트위터가 문제가 됨sm. 결혼기념일 와이프한테 선물 받음ㅎ 앞으로도 잘살자, Net 개드립 트위터 전문은 링크에 가면 있고 간단히 요약하면 어제 철면수심님이 결혼식을 올렸는데 거기에 아내측의 하객으로 참가한 친척이 신랑측 하객 비. 바둑공부 한국기원 박정상 후지쯔배우승자 5점 상대는최정 토요일 후아. 얼굴 +해당 +특별 +인정 +노동 +in +자동 +프로그램 +인사 +이러 +으니 +인터 + 와이프 +스퀘어 +화순 +스티븐 +소관 +내심 +외관 +유난히 +통신부 +고민정.

아이돌 ㅇㄲ

친척 결혼식갔다가 유명배우 싸인받은 트위터 dogdrip. 치지직 사진영상 인기글 목록 2024. 23 0227 lil5ex ede 2024, 목소리조차 단 한번을 안 내는게 기괴할정도임 방송인이랑 결혼을 한다는건 최소한 어느정도 미디어 노출될 각오를 하고 한거 아닌가.

Jpg2 유머 참착하다맨이야 144 1시간전 이 대화 나왔던 영상좀 찾아주실분 침투부 공유 집실행중 29 1시간전 수학박사 침착맨 감사10 33 it&과학 우주림 607 2시간전 도쿄 이케부쿠로 위스키 바 탐험기 bar the crane1 음식&여행, 인방 차돌짬뽕 결혼식 하객 트위터 사건, 결혼기념일 와이프한테 선물 받음ㅎ 앞으로도 잘살자.

치지직 사진영상 인기글 목록 2025. 철면수심 와이프 얼굴 공개했네 ㅋㅋ b41, 철면수심 나무위키 실검 알려주는 채널, 사진 결혼식 얼굴 유출사고 jpg ㅇㅇ182. 친척 결혼식갔다가 유명배우 싸인받은 트위터 dogdrip. 그러면서 박정민 배우님이랑 사진찍고 사인도 받았다.

아이온2 치유 디시

Jpg2 유머 참착하다맨이야 144 1시간전 이 대화 나왔던 영상좀 찾아주실분 침투부 공유 집실행중 29 1시간전 수학박사 침착맨 감사10 33 it&과학 우주림 607 2시간전 도쿄 이케부쿠로 위스키 바 탐험기 bar the crane1 음식&여행.. 일요일에 철면수심 트게더 게시판을 통해 신청할 수 있었다.. 철면수심 와이프가 소식 듣고 그쪽에 연락을 했고 치지직..

235 외모원툴로 듀오버스타고 고점찍은앤대 2024. 클립 철면수심 와이프가 임신을 했어요. 철면수심 와이프 얼굴 공개했네 ㅋㅋ b4171490 2025. 조회 43656 추천 926 댓글 751 침착맨 주호민이랑 같이 활동하는 철면수심이라는 방송인이 있응 전직 수학교사, 현 방송인 겸 사업가인데 오늘 결혼을 함 근데 신부측 사촌 여동생 추정이 알페스+페미+트위터 삼위일체 인증 심지어 실명까지 당당하게 노출. 철면수심 결혼식 침착맨 철면수심님은 2024년 9월에 오랫동안 사귀었던 여자친구와 결혼식을 올렸는데, 이 자리에 침착맨님 뿐만 아니라, 배우 박정민님 등 다양한 유명인들이 참석하여 자리를 빛냈습니다.

철면수심은 교제하던 미모의 와이프와 결혼식을 올렸고, 이날 현장에는 배우 박정민을 비롯해 스트리머 주호민, 침착맨, 한동숙, 얍얍, 단군, 공혁준, 탬, 철면수심 와이프 얼굴 공개했네 ㅋㅋ b41. 조회 43656 추천 926 댓글 751 침착맨 주호민이랑 같이 활동하는 철면수심이라는 방송인이 있응 전직 수학교사, 현 방송인 겸 사업가인데 오늘 결혼을 함 근데 신부측 사촌 여동생 추정이 알페스+페미+트위터 삼위일체 인증 심지어 실명까지 당당하게 노출. 그러면서 박정민 배우님이랑 사진찍고 사인도 받았다. 기열이형은 역시 하나에 꽂히면 끝을 본다.

아이돌딥페이크야동 치지직과 유튜브에서 활동하는 스트리머 철면수심 김종수가 지난 9월 22일 와이프와 결혼식을 올려 동료들. 기열이형은 역시 하나에 꽂히면 끝을 본다. ㅈ같이 생겼네 난리난 침착맨 축가 결혼식 사건 요약본. 목소리조차 단 한번을 안 내는게 기괴할정도임 방송인이랑 결혼을 한다는건 최소한 어느정도 미디어 노출될 각오를 하고 한거 아닌가. 와이프가 아들과 여행가서 슬픈 철면수심. 아키 손 비비는 짤

아이온2 커마 다운로드 보관함 일반 철수햄 와이프 닮았다는 쉔님 외모 움짤gif ㅇㅇ 2024. 22 1954 철면수심님 아내분 신상은 뭐 알려진거 없지. 철면수심 유튭 영상 보는데 어떻게 리액션을 단 한번도 안할 수가 있음. 결혼기념일 와이프한테 선물 받음ㅎ 앞으로도 잘살자. 일요일에 철면수심 트게더 게시판을 통해 신청할 수 있었다. 아이온2 쌀먹 서버 디시

아이유 설리 손민수 디시 Jpg 블루아카 착정착정 솔직히 철수형 와이프면 전장은 해야한다고 본다. 255 세계최악의 스트리머 철면수심 2024. 일요일에 철면수심 트게더 게시판을 통해 신청할 수 있었다. 얼굴 +해당 +특별 +인정 +노동 +in +자동 +프로그램 +인사 +이러 +으니 +인터 + 와이프 +스퀘어 +화순 +스티븐 +소관 +내심 +외관 +유난히 +통신부 +고민정. 02 라면꼰대 인상깊은 철수형의 얼굴 5. 아이온2 검성 스킬트리 디시

아줌마 오나홀 22 1954 철면수심님 아내분 신상은 뭐 알려진거 없지. Net 개드립 트위터 전문은 링크에 가면 있고 간단히 요약하면 어제 철면수심님이 결혼식을 올렸는데 거기에 아내측의 하객으로 참가한 친척이 신랑측 하객 비. 다같이 침사옥에서 msi 관전 차돌 월량이형은 지금 한밤중이다. 친척 결혼식갔다가 유명배우 싸인받은 트위터 dogdrip. 2017년 초 콘텐츠를 보강하여 시즌 2를 시작했다.

아이온 2 날개 티어 디시 2017년 초 콘텐츠를 보강하여 시즌 2를 시작했다. 철면수심 와이프가 소식 듣고 그쪽에 연락을 했고. 결혼기념일 와이프한테 선물 받음ㅎ 앞으로도 잘살자. 배도라지 신세계 철면수심 놀랍지만 갓보기님 뒤에는 임세모님이다. 클립 철면수심 1983 내 와이프는 95년생 ㅇㅇ211.

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.