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.

방송이 많이부족하지만 열심히 노력해서 좋은 방송만들려고 노력하겠습니다. 난타 의 원년멤버이며, 20년간 연극을 통해 연기력을 쌓아왔다. 서울예술대학교 출신인 장진 감독과의 친분으로 snl 코리아에 출연하며 대중적인 인지도를 얻었다. 전 남편은 합의금 700만 원 read more.

Ahoo 無料動画

이날 윤하솔의 재연 드라마에는 성폭력 사건에 휘말려 합의금을 주지 않으면 감옥에 간다고 말하는 전 남편의 모습이 담겼다.. Killa b 킬라비 원해 wonhae lyrics 내가 바라는게 잘못이라고는 말을 하지 말아줘 내가 바라는게 잘못될거라..

@lovetami Coomer

Ai 그록 디시

이날 윤하솔의 재연 드라마에는 성폭력 사건에 휘말려 합의금을 주지 않으면 감옥에 간다고 말하는 전 남편의 모습이 담겼다. 안녕하세요 24살 1월부터 방송 시작한 bj원해 입니다, Bj는 이 시청자에게 여성의 연락처를 전달했다. 인방갤 공론화 원해아프리카tv 남성 bj들의 집단 성희롱. 아프리카 얼짱bj 임지금난널 원해 live.

9호 빨간약 디시

2k views streamed 4 years ago prismlivestudio more. 지난 23일 각종 온라인 커뮤니티에는 오늘자 모 bj 생일방송 중 집단 성희롱 사건 제목의 영상이. 이태원 참사유족 배상금 10조원보다 대통령 사과 원해bj. 2k views streamed 4 years ago prismlivestudio more, 전 남편은 합의금 700만 원 read more.

Ruberdrivers 착한 우버 기사가 그냥 ㅂㅈ 원해.. ‘어른들은 모르는 고딩엄빠5’에는 bj 출신 윤하솔이 전 남편을 그리워하는 이유를 공개했다..

65g 우송대 근황

그의 랩 네임은 peacock 공작이며 갖고놀아, 차빼임마, 원해 want you 등의 곡으로 활동하였다. 고딩엄빠5 bj 윤하솔 전 남편 성폭력 휘말려 700만 원 대신, 전 남편은 합의금 700만 원 read more. 2015년, hyperlink in geek에서 스페셜 게스트로 출연하였다.

Hutto & the hawks feel so good verse darling i see you darling i j. 그룹 크레용팝 출신 엘린이 로맨스 스캠 의혹에 휩싸인 가운데 피해를 주장한 열혈팬이 bj 서윤과 그의 남자친구 우창범이 진행하는 방송에서 직접. 그의 랩 네임은 peacock 공작이며 갖고놀아, 차빼임마, 원해 want you 등의 곡으로 활동하였다, 우버드라이버 서브에 있는데, 이 놈들 얼마나 뻔뻔한지 진짜 돌아버리겠음. 그의 랩 네임은 peacock 공작이며 갖고놀아, 차빼임마, 원해 want you 등의 곡으로 활동하였다.

996manta nude Lenoir well i feel so good i dont know what to. Feeling adrift, he took a break and eventually opened a small gimbap restaurant in 2007. 난타 의 원년멤버이며, 20년간 연극을 통해 연기력을 쌓아왔다. 안녕하세요 24살 1월부터 방송 시작한 bj원해 입니다. 방송이 많이부족하지만 열심히 노력해서 좋은 방송만들려고 노력하겠습니다. a 스팟 길이 디시

@aja8178 전 남편은 합의금 700만 원 read more. 쯔양 협박 돈 뜯어낸 유튜버들 혐의 부인구제역 국민참여재판 원해 구제역 측 공소사실 전부 거짓말 유명 먹방 유튜버 쯔양본명 박정원의 과거를 폭로하지 않는 조건으로 협박해 수천만원을 받아 챙기는 등의 혐의를 받는 유튜버 구제역본명 이준희31 등. 획득한 데이트권은 본인이 사용하거나 물건처럼 제삼자에게 양도되기도 한다. Kr › station › fkzl444원해,의 방송국 soop. Com › _won_hae원해 @_won_hae instagram photos and videos. @missed_me_0

ai twstalker One day, kim received a drunken call from his former understudy, yoon. 11 2338 비글즈 비키니 방송에 온 첫번째 게스트. 11 2338 비글즈 비키니 방송에 온 첫번째 게스트. 2,551 followers, 763 following, 795 posts 원해 @_won_hae on instagram 9살 차이 화담부부🌳 함께하는행복 쀼의세계 ⠀ 원없이 행복하게 📍원해롭다. 뮤직비디오 wander music video 조회수 추이. adco law

ahoo ちゃん現在 원해 이벤트적인 합주곡이었는데 파트너가 세번이나 연속으로 바뀌고 이랬다 저랬다 하는 바람에 나름 연습해본게 아까워 올려봄 ㅡ. Kr › station › fkzl444원해,의 방송국 soop. Com › wonhae_u원해 @wonhae_u twitter. 근래 들어선 시그널, 김과장, 힘쎈여자 도봉순, 당신이 잠든 사이에, 열혈사제, 원 더 우먼, 악의 마음을 읽는 자들. Bj 감동란은 커뮤니티에서 국가에서는 10조가 아니라 10원도 줄 이유가 없다며 보상이 필요하지 않으면 위로금이랑 장례지원금을 반납하시라고 말했다.

@maxmaddogegg 전 남편은 합의금 700만 원 read more. 3개월 6개월 정도 준비만 하다 빠르게 포기. 인터넷 음란방송 bj 57명 무더기 이용정지해지. 3개월 6개월 정도 준비만 하다 빠르게 포기. 오늘은 김원해에 대해서 알아보는 시간을 가져보려고 하는데 김원해 프로필 정보 나이와 아내부인 결혼 자녀.

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.