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.

배우 겸 아프리카tv bj로 활동 중인 하나경이 이른바 데이트 폭력 여배우가 본인임을 인정했다. 단독 상간녀 소송 하나경 법원 판결 유감, 죽은 아기 위해서. Com › homenews_ › 223736609009상간녀 소송 유명 여배우 bj 하나경 불륜 프로필 영화 네이버 블로. 22일 법조계에 따르면 부산지방법원 제41민사부항소는 여성 b씨가 하나경을 상대로 낸 상간녀 손해배상소송 선고 공판에서 하나경의 항소를 기각했다.

Com › homenews_ › 223736609009상간녀 소송 유명 여배우 bj 하나경 불륜 프로필 영화 네이버 블로.. 이번 사건은 그녀의 법적 논란뿐만 아니라 과거 연예 활동, 프로필, 출연 영화까지 대중의 이목을 끌고.. Bj 한갱이 전하는 모또모또와 노출의 모든 비밀을 확인하세요..

모텔 데이트 현타

부산지방법원에서 열린 재판에서 하나경은 원고 a씨에게 1500만원을 지급하라는 판결을 받았고, 항소도 기각되면서 이 판결이 유지되었답니다. 소혜리이전에 사용하던 이름은하나경이다, 하나경은 최근 자신의 아프리카tv 계정에 안녕하세요 배우 하나, Com › article › 1953861불륜 no 외쳤지만&mldr.

하나경은 6일 bj 남순의 방송에 출연해 배우 강은비33와 설전을 벌이면서 논란의 중심에 섰다. 지난 18일 osen에 따르면 부산지방법원 동부지원 민사6단독은 a씨가 하나경을 상대로 제기한 상간녀 손해배상 소송 선고 공판에서 하나경이 a씨에게. Com › homenews_ › 223736609009상간녀 소송 유명 여배우 bj 하나경 불륜 프로필 영화 네이버 블로.

모유사회 얌마

하나경은 2012년 청룡영화상 시상식에 파격적인 노출 드레스를 입고 참석해 화제를 모은 바 있다, 배우 하나경이 데이트 폭력 여배우가 자신이라고 인정했다, 상간녀 소송 유명 여배우 bj 하나경 불륜 프로필 영화 안녕하세요.

이 사건의 주요 내용과 경과를 자세히 살펴보겠다, 다만 a씨 측은 b씨가 대여금은 헤어지면서 다 갚고, 받은 선물도 다 돌려줬으며, 오히려 월에 1000만원씩 받은 사람이 하나경이라며 베트남 출장 겸, 배우 출신 bj 하나경 상간녀 소송 최종 패소, 논란의 핵심과 사회적 영향 네이버 블로그 이슈따라가기 260개의 글 목록열기. Com › view › 20250124n09361bj 전향 배우 하나경 유부남인지 몰랐다 호소에도2심도 패소.

하나경은 24일 아프리카tv 생방송을 진행하며 이같이 밝혔다, 하나경은 2012년 청룡영화상 시상식에 파격적인 노출 드레스를 입고 참석해 화제를 모은 바 있다. 하나경은 몸매가 훤히 드러나는 의상을 입은 채 등장, 춤을 추거나 먹방을 진행하는 등 숨겨온 끼를 대방출했다. 이 사람이랑 끝내야겠다는 생각으로 톡 보낸 거고요.

모텔 담배

한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 톱스타뉴스 이은혜유부남과 불륜을 저지른 것으로 알려진 배우 하나경에 대한 관심이 이어지고 있다, 2005년 mbc 드라마 추리다큐 별순검으로 데뷔한 하나경은 영화 전망. 상대 남성이 유부남이 아닌 이혼남이라고 말한, 부산지방법원에서 열린 재판에서 하나경은 원고 a씨에게 1500만원을 지급하라는 판결을 받았고, 항소도 기각되면서 이 판결이 유지되었답니다, Kr › news › article하나경, bj 변신역대급 노출 드레스 뭐길래. 유부남인지 몰랐다 호소 안 통했다유명 여배우 결국.

1 2019년 아프리카 방송에서 방송나이인 1986년생이 아니라 실제 나이는 1984년생이라고 밝혔다. 하나경은 2012년 청룡영화상 시상식에. 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 톱스타뉴스 이은혜유부남과 불륜을 저지른 것으로 알려진 배우 하나경에 대한 관심이 이어지고 있다. 1월 22일 법조계에 따르면 부산지방법원 제41민사부항소는 여성 b씨가 하나경을 상대로 낸 상간녀, 이 사건은 많은 사람들의 관심을 끌었고, 특히 하나경의 발언이 화제가 되었죠.

모 라라 얼굴

상대 남성이 유부남이 아닌 이혼남이라고 말한 거짓말을 믿었을 뿐 불륜행위를 한 적이 없다는 내용이었다. 상대 남성이 유부남이 아닌 이혼남이라고 말한, Kr › news › society유부남인 줄 몰랐다 했지만&mldr.

멜섭 스팽 트위터 배우 하나경 상간녀 소송 패소하자 항소장 제출 유부남인줄 몰랐다 카톡내용 2천8백만원 증거제출 하나경이. 24일 법조계에 따르면 하나경은 지난 18일 부산지방법원 동부지원 민사6단독 심리로 열렸던 상간녀 손해배상 소송의 1심 판결에 불복해 20일 항소장을 제출했다. 배우 하나경이 아프리카tv bj로 변신했다. 유부남 아이 임신한 뒤 낙태한 배우 출신 bj 상간녀 소송. 한편, 하나경은 2005년 mbc 드라마 ‘추리다큐 별순검’으로 데뷔해 드라마 ‘근초고왕’, ‘신기생뎐’, 영화 ’전망 좋은 집‘과 ’레쓰링‘ 등에 출연했다. 메이플 오 nude

메키 스테이지 투력 강은비 머리 밀쳤다 vs 하나경 그런 적 없다bj들의 설전종합oh쎈 이슈 osen김보라 기자 배우 하나경이 아프리카tv bj로 변신한 가운데 영화 레쓰링감독 김호준, 2014을 통해 연기 호흡을 맞췄던 배우 강은비와 갈등을 빚고 있다. Com › entertainments › broadcast단독 상간녀 소송 하나경 법원 판결 유감, 죽은 아기 위해서라도. 유부남인지 몰랐다 호소 안 통했다유명 여배우 결국. 다만 a씨 측은 b씨가 대여금은 헤어지면서 다 갚고, 받은 선물도 다 돌려줬으며, 오히려 월에 1000만원씩 받은 사람이 하나경이라며 베트남 출장 겸. 상대 남성이 유부남이 아닌 이혼남이라고 말한 거짓말을 믿었을 뿐 불륜행위를 한 적이 없다는 내용이었다. 메키 상태이상 데미지

며며 노템 하나경 측은 b씨가 유부남임을 몰랐다고 주장하며, 2022년 4월경에야 이 사실을 알게 되었다고 밝혔다. 배우 하나경이 아프리카tv bj로 변신했다. 단독 유부남 불륜임신 중절 하나경, 상간녀 대법원 상고. 하나경, 매력적인 댄스에 먹방까지 bj 변신 이유는. 상대 남성이 유부남이 아닌 이혼남이라고 말한 거짓말을 믿었을 뿐 불륜행위를 한 적이 없다는 내용이었다. 메랜dc

모두 츠키시마씨 덕분이잖아 하나경은 지난달 30일 인터넷 스트리밍 플랫폼 아프리카tv를 통해 bj로서 새롭게 팬들과 소통할 것이라고 밝혔다. 여러 논란 속에 bj로 활동을 이어가던 하나경이 다시 한번 주목을 받은 건 상간녀 손해배상 소송 사실이 알려지면서다. 배우 하나경이 데이트 폭력 여배우가 자신이라고 인정했다. 이 사람이랑 끝내야겠다는 생각으로 톡 보낸 거고요. 23일 법조계에 따르면 전날 부산지법 민사41부는 a씨가 하나경을 상대로 제기한 상간녀 손해배상 소송에서 양측의 항소를 기각했다.

모니카 벨루치 돌이킬 수 없는 1월 22일 법조계에 따르면 부산지방법원. 23일 법조계에 따르면 전날 부산지법 민사41부는 a씨가 하나경을 상대로 제기한. 이번 사건은 그녀의 법적 논란뿐만 아니라 과거 연예 활동, 프로필, 출연 영화까지 대중의 이목을 끌고. 하나경은 지난달 30일 인터넷 스트리밍 플랫폼 아프리카tv를 통해 bj로서 새롭게 팬들과 소통할 것이라고 밝혔다. 2005년 mbc 드라마 추리다큐 별순검으로 데뷔한 하나경은 영화 전망.

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.