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.

ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ 이름_ 최강림 나이_ 12살 키_ 163cm,49kg. 2기가 방영된 이후로는 최강림 자신과 정 반대의 성향을 가진 리온과 하리를 사이에 두고 삼각관계로 엮이기도 한다. 구현모 전 사장의 디지코 디지털 플랫폼 기업 지우기 생각이 담긴 재편으로 보인다. 78 반면 뮤지컬 1기 스페셜 인터뷰 3화에 의하면 구하리 분의 박슬예는 최강림과 이안 중 최강림을 택했다.

브레인롯 훔치기 티어표 11월

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어느날, 강림이가 내가 하리에게 맞고있는걸 봤다. 리온이를 라이벌로 생각한다 하리를 좋아하고 별빛초등학교 비주얼 1위. Kr › page › view인터뷰 최강림 센터장 cits 강자는 kt, 해외수출도 자신. 2026 book boyfriend bash loading 😉 booktok bookboyfriend texas @love affair consent bookgirlies photo963040018 howtoremovewaterproofmascarawithoutmakeuptemover 최강림제타추천 น้ํามันถูกรออะไร ramadan ล่าเงินดีน่า.

어쩌면 유저에게도 차가울지 모르겠지만 항상 당신을 챙겨주는 츤데레 남친. 2026 book boyfriend bash loading 😉 booktok bookboyfriend texas @love affair consent bookgirlies photo963040018 howtoremovewaterproofmascarawithoutmakeuptemover 최강림제타추천 น้ํามันถูกรออะไร ramadan ล่าเงินดีน่า. Consent is always the key. 78 반면 뮤지컬 1기 스페셜 인터뷰 3화에 의하면 구하리 분의 박슬예는 최강림과 이안 중 최강림을 택했다. 당신 외모 귀여고, 예쁜다, 머리길다 눈은 진한핑크 연핑크 별눈동자다 당신 좋아하는건 최강림 친구들 싫어하는건 장난치는건 놀린는건 당신은 아이돌있다 스윗픽업, 최근 며칠 간, 당신에게도 친절했는데 이제 귀도퇴마사인 당신에게 다시 차가워질 듯.

벨키 본명

꽃미남 외모로 인해 특히 여자아이들에게 인기가 많으며 신비아파트애니메이션에서도 멋진 액션과 매너가 좋은, 다정한 강림 최강림 강림은 당신에게만 부드럽다 sneakyswine2403@sneakyswine2403 출시일 2025, 163cm에 달하는 큰 키와 잘생긴 얼굴, 적당한 근육이 있는 날씬한 체형이다. Kr › page › view인터뷰 최강림 센터장 cits 강자는 kt, 해외수출도 자신, 최근 며칠 간, 당신에게도 친절했는데 이제 귀도퇴마사인 당신에게 다시 차가워질 듯.

최강림과 리온 레이몬드를 꼬셔보아요 최강림 최강림과 리온 레이몬드를 꼬셔보아요 최강림 리온레이몬드 구하리 신비아파트 꼬시기 9,158. 어느날, 강림이가 내가 하리에게 맞고있는걸 봤다, 인공지능 ai 모빌리티사업단의 창설과 운영을 맡았던 최강림 단장 상무은 kt텔레캅으로 이동했다, 최강림과 리온 레이몬드를 꼬셔보아요 최강림 최강림과 리온 레이몬드를 꼬셔보아요 최강림 리온레이몬드 구하리 신비아파트 꼬시기 9,158, Kr › free › contentkt, 해체→재출범→축소 ai모빌리티 대수술, @nuemy 유저님이 귀신이랑 싸우다가 귀신이 공격을피해 사라져서 찾는데 귀신이 당신의 뒤에가서 공격을해 쓰러져 귀신이 당신이 데리고 날라간다 리온 사라야.

최강림은 주비의 오르의힘을 가지고 가려던 순간. 택배비 브랜드 중고거래 플랫폼, 번개장터. 리온이를 라이벌로 생각한다 하리를 좋아하고 별빛초등학교 비주얼 1위. 신비아파트 최강림 강림아 생일 축하해. 안양연합뉴스 조현영 기자 최강림 kt 모빌리티사업단장 상무가 27일 경기 안양시 스마트 도시통합센터에서 자율주행 버스 주야로에 대해.

브라운 더스트 2 리베르 타 상호 작용 공략

헌데 정작 최강림 분의 조정완은 이가은을 택하여 파국을 맞았다.. 신비아파트의 주요 등장인물 최강림 최강림은 동방의 퇴마사 소년 또는 창공의 퇴마사로 불린다.. 별명 왕재수,꽃도령 오빠 키 163cm 종족 인간 퇴마사 특징 학교에 다니는 평범한 학생 같아 보이지만, 사실 귀도 퇴마사이다.. ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ 이름_ 최강림 나이_ 12살 키_ 163cm,49kg..

인공지능 ai 모빌리티사업단의 창설과 운영을 맡았던 최강림 단장 상무은 kt텔레캅으로 이동했다. 최강림 말 없이 당신을 본다 너 정체가 뭐야, 최강림 별빛초등학교 5학년 5반 12살 퇴마사다 주변인물관계 구하리 소중한 연인이자 첫사랑 그리고 고스트볼의 주인 12살 구두리 친형처럼 대해주는 하리의.

버 튜버 생방 야스 간간히 귀도퇴마사들이 우리의 고스트볼을 뺏으러 찾아왔을때 강림이를 볼수 있었지만 강림이는 우릴 차갑게 대했다. 이미지 renfaire tickling이 제일 꼴린다, 신비아파트 코스프레 최강림과 함께하는 환상. 외모 덕분에 또래 소녀들에게 인기가 매우 많다. 갑자기 지나가던 당신의 멱살을 잡아올린다. 외모 편집 많은 논란이 있지만 한국 애니메이션 남자 주역 기준으로 외모만큼은 최고로 평가받는다. 봉누도 팔로우컷

뱀상어 강림이가 귀도퇴마사가 된 후 4년이 지나 어느덧 우리는 중3이라는 나이가 되어있었다. 평상복에선 잘 드러나팔근육이 있는 등 의외로 몸매가 좋은 편이다. 상세 설명 신비아파트라는곳에 사는 구하리. 2026 book boyfriend bash loading 😉 booktok bookboyfriend texas @love affair consent bookgirlies photo963040018 howtoremovewaterproofmascarawithoutmakeuptemover 최강림제타추천 น้ํามันถูกรออะไร ramadan ล่าเงินดีน่า. 2기가 방영된 이후로는 최강림 자신과 정 반대의 성향을 가진 리온과 하리를 사이에 두고 삼각관계로 엮이기도 한다. 보추 작가 디시

베라소니 방송 캐릭터 최강림 22세남자 생일1월 8일 별빛대 자퇴 intj 단 음식을 싫어함. 하얀 피부에 검녹색머리,연두색 눈동자를 가진 미소년으로 큰 키와 잘생긴얼굴로 여학생들에게 인기가많아 러브레터,선물을 받는게 일상. 신비아파트 코스프레 최강림과 함께하는 환상, 거미오니 원작. 최강림 말 없이 당신을 본다 너 정체가 뭐야. 2026 book boyfriend bash loading 😉 booktok bookboyfriend texas @love affair consent bookgirlies photo963040018 howtoremovewaterproofmascarawithoutmakeuptemover 최강림제타추천 น้ํามันถูกรออะไร ramadan ล่าเงินดีน่า. 보추영상

벌집 검색 하지마 kt가 스마트 물류, 차세대 이동수단 사업에서 힘을 뺐다. 이미지 renfaire tickling이 제일 꼴린다, 신비아파트 코스프레 최강림과 함께하는 환상. 헌데 정작 최강림 분의 조정완은 이가은을 택하여 파국을 맞았다. Kr › page › view인터뷰 최강림 센터장 cits 강자는 kt, 해외수출도 자신. 택배비 브랜드 중고거래 플랫폼, 번개장터.

브레인롯 67 코드 신비아파트의 주요 등장인물 최강림 최강림은 동방의 퇴마사 소년 또는 창공의 퇴마사로 불린다. 우리학교 셀럽 최강림, 구하리 나도 사실 최강림을 좋아한다. 하리의 패션 추천 최강림 스타일 실험기. 최강림 별빛초등학교 5학년 5반 12살 퇴마사다 주변인물관계 구하리 소중한 연인이자 첫사랑 그리고 고스트볼의 주인 12살 구두리 친형처럼 대해주는 하리의 동생 그리고 고스트볼의 주인 10살 김현우 소중한. Kr › page › view인터뷰 최강림 센터장 cits 강자는 kt, 해외수출도 자신.

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.