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.

이들은 각자의 분야에서 빛나는 활약을 펼치며, 앞으로의 성장이 더욱 기대되는 주목할 인물들인데요. Kr › 출생년도별연예인 › 20062006년생 여자 연예인. 서울특별시청 역시도 2006년 2월 20일, 본관 뒷편에 위치한 1962년 증축된 북관과 1986년 증축된 신관의 철거를 시작하였다. 현대고등학교 축구부 에서 구단 레전드 현영민 감독의 지도를 받으며 1학년부터 현대고의 우승에 기여하는 등 k리그 주니어 에서 두각을 보이는 센터백으로 활약했다.

사이퍼 야짤

빗치가 시골로

Com › jigoovlog › 223672194242내년 스무살을 맞이하는 06년생 연예인 누가 있을까.. 내년에 성인이 된다는 7번방의 선물 아역 갈소원양..

김성주 2006년 김수안 2006년 김승구 바둑 기사 김승모 김승진 바둑 기사 김요셉 김유건 김유래 김윤환 2006년생 배우 김재원 야구 선수 김정엽 김종운 야구 선수 김주아 바둑 기사 김진우 2006년 김채연 피겨스케이팅 선수 김채은 농구 선수 김태형. 규진 본명 장규진 jyp엔터테인먼트 7인조 걸그룹 nmixx 출생 2006년 5월 26일 신체 166cm a형 별명 앙고, 진규, 짱규, 뀨, 짱귲, 귲, 대갓기 mbti esfj 소속사 jyp 귀여우면서 묵직한 특유의 음색이 매력이다. 2006년 가요계, 10위부터 6위까지 함께 보시죠. 강민성 2006 강민우 축구선수 강수연 2006 강주은 배우 강주혁 강청정 거긴 갈수없다 게방 베르나르도 고건 프로게이머 고보현 고소현 바이올리니스트 고종현 고토 와타루 고희서 곤살루 올리베이라 곰새 공지윤 과모립 곽성훈 곽지혜 곽희준 괴크데니즈. 무대에서 규진은 라이브를 제법 안정적으로 소화하는데, 지니, 지우와 함께 군무를 주도한다. 출생 연도별 띠 정리표 자세한 정보는 보기 를 눌러보세요.

아직 2006년생 어린 나이임에도 울산 현대의 차기 센터백으로 꼽힐만큼 기대를 받는 유망주다.. 2025학년도 대학수학능력시험이 하루 앞으로 다가온 가운데 2006년 생 스타들의 수능 응시 여부에 관심이 커지고 있다.. 김다인 2006년생 배우 김동현 2006년 김명준 2006년 김민서 2006년 설린 가수 성영탁 세리우 가이토 세키 미레이 소자 2006년 소피아 로진.. 김주호 대한민국의 가수, 보이그룹 idntt의 멤버..

빨간누이 디시

내년에 성인이 된다는 7번방의 선물 아역 갈소원양. 약 52만 명의 수험생이 응시하는 가운데 연예계 2006년생 스타들도 개개인의 선택에 따라 수능을 응시하기도, 기회를 내려놓기도 한다, 이들은 각자의 분야에서 빛나는 활약을 펼치며, 앞으로의 성장이 더욱 기대되는 주목할 인물들인데요, 2006년생 남자 연예인유명인모델 겸 배우 복대니얼7월 2일생, daniel hyunwoo lachapelle앰퍼샌드원 김승모7월 3일생allhours 현빈7월 12일생, 본명 이현빈 evnne 박지후7월 14일생, パク・ジフ배우 박하준7월 25일생유튜버 마이린 tv9월 1일생, 본명 최린채널명 마이린 tv24. 김주호 대한민국의 가수, 보이그룹 idntt의 멤버.

비챤 말왕 디시 2025 수능 시험장에 나서는 2006년생 연예인들, 누가 응시. 2006년 개띠 연예인 새해 소망발바리처럼 밝고 활기차게. 규진 본명 장규진 jyp엔터테인먼트 7인조 걸그룹 nmixx 출생 2006년 5월 26일 신체 166cm a형 별명 앙고, 진규, 짱규, 뀨, 짱귲, 귲, 대갓기 mbti esfj 소속사 jyp 귀여우면서 묵직한 특유의 음색이 매력이다. 천지일보박혜옥 기자 2025학년도 대학수학능력시험을 하루 앞두고 2006년생 스타들의 수능 응시 여부에 대한 관심이 높아지고 있다. 당시 서울시는 철거에 앞서 경영기획실, 감사관실, 도시계획국, 뉴타운추진본부 등 기본 관리기능 이외의 대다수 부서를 서소문별관과. 비너스 tv 디시

비비 근황 우선 가요계에서는 뉴진스 해린이 올해 수능에 응시하지 않기로 했다. 2025 수능 시험장에 나서는 2006년생 연예인들, 누가 응시. 김성주 2006년 김수안 2006년 김승구 바둑 기사 김승모 김승진 바둑 기사 김요셉 김유건 김유래 김윤환 2006년생 배우 김재원 야구 선수 김정엽 김종운 야구 선수 김주아 바둑 기사 김진우 2006년 김채연 피겨스케이팅 선수 김채은 농구 선수 김태형. 천지일보박혜옥 기자 2025학년도 대학수학능력시험을 하루 앞두고 2006년생 스타들의 수능 응시 여부에 대한 관심이 높아지고 있다. 천지일보박혜옥 기자 2025학년도 대학수학능력시험을 하루 앞두고 2006년생 스타들의 수능 응시 여부에 대한 관심이 높아지고 있다. 비타민 뒷계

블락포디 비바 전면 시공 가격 2006년 네티즌 최고의 관심을 받은 연예인은. Com › age › 20062006년생 나이 개띠 연예인에는 누가있을까요. Com › inter_news › 223659777992수능 시험 보는 2006년생. 아직 2006년생 어린 나이임에도 울산 현대의 차기 센터백으로 꼽힐만큼 기대를 받는 유망주다. 출생 연도별 띠 정리표 자세한 정보는 보기 를 눌러보세요. 블루스카이 초코딸기

빌리 아일리 시 동영상 김성주 2006년 김수안 2006년 김승구 바둑 기사 김승모 김승진 바둑 기사 김요셉 김유건 김유래 김윤환 2006년생 배우 김재원 야구 선수 김정엽 김종운 야구 선수 김주아 바둑 기사 김진우 2006년 김채연 피겨스케이팅 선수 김채은 농구 선수 김태형. 연기자 부문, 영예의 1위는 2006년 최고의 한 해를 보냈던 이준기가 차지했다. 2006년생 남자 연예인유명인축구선수 마테 이브코비치1월 4일생, mate ivkovićtws 한진1월 5일생, 韩振, hán zhèn축구선수 아네르스 노셰1월 9일, anders noshe,anders abdullgaffar haidar noshe nexz 토모야1월 19일생, uemura tomoya앰퍼샌드원 마카야1월 21일생, 한국명 이예준,본명 mackiah yejun mercernexz 하루1월. Com › age › 20062006년생 나이 개띠 연예인에는 누가있을까요. 김성주 2006년 김수안 2006년 김승구 바둑 기사 김승모 김승진 바둑 기사 김요셉 김유건 김유래 김윤환 2006년생 배우 김재원 야구 선수 김정엽 김종운 야구 선수 김주아 바둑 기사 김진우 2006년 김채연 피겨스케이팅 선수 김채은 농구 선수 김태형.

비야 일러스트 레이터 얼굴 출생 연도별로 띠를 알아볼 수 있는 정리표입니다. 천지일보박혜옥 기자 2025학년도 대학수학능력시험을 하루 앞두고 2006년생 스타들의 수능 응시 여부에 대한 관심이 높아지고 있다. 연기자 부문, 영예의 1위는 2006년 최고의 한 해를 보냈던 이준기가 차지했다. 2006년 가요계, 10위부터 6위까지 함께 보시죠. 우선 가요계에서는 뉴진스 해린이 올해 수능에 응시하지 않기로 했다.

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.