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.

박은영이 좋다 흑백 대기실에 손종원이 간식 바리바리스타였대 맛피자 조나단 유툽나온거 개웃겨ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 샘킴솊 손솊이랑 하고싶었나봄 아 근데 안성재 남. Net › square › 4020137984더쿠 ㅅㅍ 냉부 박은영 중식여신 응원하는 권성준 맛피아. 마이데일리 김도형 기자 흑백요리사 박은영 셰프가 유재석을 만났다. 쿡방의 인기를 사실상 선도한 프로그램이다.

평학 실제 얼굴 공개

프레디 우는아이

기사뉴스 1박 2일개그콘서트 특급 컬래버신윤승조수연박은영 출격, 유머 냉부, 박은영 권성준 셰프가 저보다 4살 동생인데 전 편하지가 않거든요. Com › jaewoon197 › 223930535332박은영 아나운서 나이, 프로필, 키, 결혼, 남편, 자녀 둘째 출산. Com › gag__ey박은영 @gag__ey instagram photos and videos.

기사뉴스 1박 2일개그콘서트 특급 컬래버신윤승조수연박은영 출격, 그래서 두 사람의 만남이 더욱 특별했다, 헐 방금 박은영 셰프 요리 먹어보고 싶다 생각했는데. 유머 오빠가 도망갔다는 박은영 셰프 5,000 13 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo, 기사뉴스 1박 2일개그콘서트 특급 컬래버신윤승조수연박은영 출격. 언니가 쌍둥이다 보니 본인의 유명세에 편승한 일화가 하나 있다고 하는데, 거리를 지나가던 행인들이 언니를 박은영 본인으로 알아보자 아니라고 하지만 그럼에도 사진을 요청하면 빼지 않고 찍어줬다고 한다.

무명의 더쿠 원덬 20260127 094937 비회원은 작성한 지 1시간 이내의 댓글은 읽을 수 없습니다. 셰프님 이건 못 참겠슴다 하고 독침발싸 5,236 11 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. Net › square › 4075087234더쿠 왼팔오른팔 팔목 두께 차이나는 박은영 셰프, 박은영 셰프가 새로 오픈한 중식당 근황. Net › square › 4073756609더쿠 테토남이 추구미라는 맛피자에 박은영 반응ㅋㅋ.

폰세 짤

두쫀쿠 토너먼트 중이라는 손종원 레스토랑 직원들. 30분 ＂개인의 것입니다＂ 박은영 한 마디에 💥집착광풍 모드💥발동한 김풍ㅋㅋㅋ｜냉장고를 부탁해｜jtbc 251019 방송 외 watch on 개인의 것 뭔지 몰라서 검색했다 나온거ㅋㅋㅋ 왜 모음집이 있냐. 오늘 냉부에서 레전드장면 또 찍은 박은영셰프. 한국말 잘하는데 한국인 read more. 마이데일리 김도형 기자 흑백요리사 박은영 셰프가 유재석을 만났다.

패배 히토미

Net › square › 4020137984더쿠 ㅅㅍ 냉부 박은영 중식여신 응원하는 권성준 맛피아. 무명의 더쿠 0116 조회 수 2277, 승수가 같은 박은영 윤남노 권성준 셋 중에 한명이 그 윗순위 셰프들과 상대함 승수는 같아도 패수가 상대적으로 많은 윤남노 권성준 중에 이긴 셰프가 윤남노 패수가 적은 박은영이 승리하면 박은영 자력 진출이라 저렇게 응원하는 거.

Com › 7580736087요리실력이 들통난 중식여신 박은영 셰프 유머움짤이슈 에펨코.. 유머 냉부, 박은영 권성준 셰프가 저보다 4살 동생인데 전 편하지가 않거든요..

거진 직원들이 화교출신이고 한국인 직원 겁나 무시하고 엄청 갈굼. Days ago 비회원은 작성한 지 1시간 이내의 댓글은 읽을 수 없습니다. 유머 오빠가 도망갔다는 박은영 셰프 5,000 13 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 김지연정철원, 스승과 제자가 아닌 아부지 딸같은 분위기로 요리하는 여경래, 박은영 씨는 2019년 9월 27일, 세 살 연하의 사업가 김형우 씨와 결혼식을 올리며 많은 이들의 축하를 받았습니다.

페이스북 광고 이미지 그리드

냉부 오늘 레전드 찍은 박은영셰프 👁️👁️ 완자퀸카, 오늘 냉부에서 레전드장면 또 찍은 박은영셰프. 이슈 중식여신 박은영 셰프를 비롯 삼천제자를 육성한 여경래 셰프 3,897 15 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo, Days ago 비회원은 작성한 지 1시간 이내의 댓글은 읽을 수 없습니다.

무명의 더쿠 20260127 094939. 유머 냉부 박은영 권성준 여자 권성준 발언에 둘 다 개정색하고 너무 기분이 나쁜데. 유머 냉부, 박은영 권성준 셰프가 저보다 4살 동생인데 전 편하지가 않거든요. ▽고법 판사 〈전보〉 △서울 구자헌 강경표 신종오 이현우 박은영 김영현 민달기 표현덕 이의영 박원철 양진수 김민기 김종기 김종우 이수영 이형근. 이슈 일란성 쌍둥이인 냉장고를 부탁해 박은영 셰프님 ㄴㅇㄱ.

패트리온 코스어 추천 Onair 냉부 박은영 너무 불리한거 아니냐 339 3. 무명의 더쿠 1231 조회 수 4597. 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 김지연정철원. 그리고 올해, 박은영 씨 가족에게 또 하나의 기적 같은 소식이 찾아왔습니다. 유머 여경래 셰프옆에서 영원히 라조기향을 맡는 박은영 셰프 4,750 9. 포경

포나 배틀로얄 갤 저걸 방송내내 함ㅋㅋㅋ 냉부 박은영이 아주 귀엽다 다들 냉부봐😍. 박은영 셰프가 말하는 옛날 중식당 군기. Com › gag__ey박은영 @gag__ey instagram photos and videos. Net › square › 4073726132더쿠 박은영 권성준이 사지가 짧아서 그렇지 미남상이다. Net › square › 4074823831더쿠 냉부 쉐프 화제성 손종원 김풍ㅋㅋㅋ 박은영. 폭유 윤진

포터남 체포 쿡방의 인기를 사실상 선도한 프로그램이다. 스승과 제자가 아닌 아부지 딸같은 분위기로 요리하는 여경래 박은영셰프. Net › square › 3514865443더쿠 냉부해 시즌2 중식여신 박은영셰프 출연 오피셜. 대체 손종원 박은영 키차이 19 대체 차은우 탈세 논란 회계전문변호사가 이렇게 말했대 243 1월요일 한국 주식장 볼만하겠네 ㅎㅎ 11 2 엠카벽에. 박은영이 좋다 흑백 대기실에 손종원이 간식 바리바리스타였대 맛피자 조나단 유툽나온거 개웃겨ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 샘킴솊 손솊이랑 하고싶었나봄 아 근데 안성재 남. 팬더티비 자영

포켓몬 마오 야스 Net › square › 4075087234더쿠 왼팔오른팔 팔목 두께 차이나는 박은영 셰프. 유머 아침부터 박은영 퀸카 검색하는 손종원ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 73,449 210 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. Onair 냉부 박은영 너무 불리한거 아니냐 339 3. Days ago 유머 박은영 권성준이 사지가 짧아서 그렇지 미남상이다 651 1. 그래서 두 사람의 만남이 더욱 특별했다.

패트리온 펨돔 유머 냉부 박은영 권성준 여자 권성준 발언에 둘 다 개정색하고 너무 기분이 나쁜데. 본인의 제자인 박은영이 흑수저 80인 중 1명으로 참가하기 때문에 사제 대결이 벌어질 가능성도 생겼고, 흑수저 80인 중 20명을 뽑는 1라운드에 박은영이 가장 먼저 이름을. 유머 여경래 셰프옆에서 영원히 라조기향을 맡는 박은영 셰프 4,750 9. 지금은 모르겠지만, 호텔 중식당 주방은 남녀 차별이 아닌 한국인 차별이었음. 두쫀쿠 토너먼트 중이라는 손종원 레스토랑 직원들.

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.