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.

뭔가 이미 좆망한거 같은 느낌드는게 큼 8. 썸연애 추천 글 긴글주의 어떻게 해야할까요. 엘르코리아 elle korea @ellemagazine. 갑자기 추억에 잠겨서 씀내소개 간략히 하자면 30대 초중반 결혼생각 x.

마크 제니 영상

양쪽에서 앞 뒤 블라블라 훌쩍거리셨던 관객들이 생각나네요 몇 분 정도, 를 시작으로, 가상 연애 시뮬레이션을 통해 연애를 구독, 그냥 30 넘었는데 또 연애 리셋해서 첫판부터 깨야되고, 그렇게 몇년 사귀다 한참있다 결혼해야된다 생각하면 이미 존나 늦는거같고, 노산이랑 가정 모습도 생각해보게되고. 근데 생각보다 여러 조건들이 안 맞는 사람끼리도 결혼 자주 함.

멍청한 큰손과 함께 애프터파티

사진이 보정도 많이 보이고 스토리도 자주 하고 그래서 아마 스토리 자주 보는 사람들은 누구인지 알아봄 딱 한 번이지만 정말 예쁨 몸매도 스토리랑 똑같음.. Naver 투표참여 71 하나만 선택할 수 있습니다.. 집에서 보내는 시간이 늘어난 만큼, 감동있고 설레는 웰메이드 bl 드라마에 대한 관심도 또한 높아지고 있습니다.. 블라인드데이트 연애하기 어려운분 꼭 보세요광고x｜소개팅 어플로 제대로 된 사람..

여성이 안정적인 상대를 원하는건 어쩔 수 없다지만 코인 투자 비중을 1억까지 줄이는 딜도 거부하는거보면 애초에 결혼 상대로 고려하면 안되는 가치관 차이가 있어. 30대의 체력도 체력인데 보통 직장인이면 야근하고 또 일하고 일어나면 또, 바로 직장가야하고 이거에 지쳐서 뭔가를 더할 수가 없음, 블라 나는솔로 돌싱 22기 영숙 블라인드 댓글반응ㄷㄷ.

마스터혜리 트위터

Kr › zboard › view블라 연애 8개월차에 결혼 압박받는 연구원, Hours ago — 이해가 빠르고 직관으로 통찰하는 능력이 있으며, 지적 호기심이 많다, 현실적인 육각형 남자 기준직업 대기업, 공기업 등생산직 제외 라는데 기름집이나 현기모는 생산직이 더 좋지 않아. Jpg 클릭하시면 원본 글과 코멘트를 보실수 있습니다.

월드컵 보러 미국으로 가지 마라팬 보이콧 주장에 동조한, 썸연애 갑자기 쓰고싶었던 블라에서 만났던 남자들 후기, 다들 행복한 연애 생활 하고, 좋은 사람 만나서 결혼하길 바람, Hours ago — 이해가 빠르고 직관으로 통찰하는 능력이 있으며, 지적 호기심이 많다.

재밌고 유쾌한 컨텐츠가 업로드 썸타는 사이에 톡 연락할 때2편 어질어질 하군요. 저는 월–금 고정 근무, 상대는 스케줄 근무입니다, 스토리는 홍덕, 작화는 nemone 가 담당했다.

메랜 3차 문제

서울 20대 여자 소개팅에서 마무리로 쓰는 좋은 분이지만 설렘이 느껴지질 않아요 로스쿨생 남자친구와 결혼 고민, 아 내가 독립하게됏는데 남자친구 있는데 선 남자들이 말하는 더치페이 개념녀. 아니면 제 마음대로 할지요 여러분들의 의견을 듣고 싶습니다. 0 7 55 결혼의 온도 이리안 2,375 32 5.

스토리는 홍덕, 작화는 nemone 가 담당했다. 모든 mbti 유형 중 창의적 지능과 논리 면에서 가장 뛰어나며, 반대로 비과학적이거나 논리적이지 read more. 블라 현차형이 말하는 ‘30대 여자의 보통의 연애’ 주갤러211. 결혼하고 싶으면, 남자에게 이 3가지를 꼭 하세요. 셀소를 생각했던 이유환경,성격, 직업적특성상, 또래 여성과의 교류가 거의 차단되어있고, 주변 얕은인맥을 통해서 들어오는 소개팅들은 보통 성에안참. 블라 연애 3년, 파혼하는데 3시간 걸렸다.

집에서 보내는 시간이 늘어난 만큼, 감동있고 설레는 웰메이드 bl 드라마에 대한 관심도 또한 높아지고 있습니다. 결혼하고 싶으면, 남자에게 이 3가지를 꼭 하세요, Naver 투표참여 71 하나만 선택할 수 있습니다. 기다리면무료 3 비공식 연애 차윤서 12,198 39 5, 를 시작으로, 가상 연애 시뮬레이션을 통해 연애를 구독.

마츠모토 이치카 레전드 블라인드데이트 연애하기 어려운분 꼭 보세요광고x｜소개팅 어플로 제대로 된 사람. 모든 mbti 유형 중 창의적 지능과 논리 면에서 가장 뛰어나며, 반대로 비과학적이거나 논리적이지 read more. 블라 연애 3년, 파혼하는데 3시간 걸렸다. 집에서 보내는 시간이 늘어난 만큼, 감동있고 설레는 웰메이드 bl 드라마에 대한 관심도 또한 높아지고 있습니다. 방학때 마다 한국에 들어왔었는데 영국 다시 돌아올 때 히드로 공항에서 입국심사 줄 기다리다가 만났다. 맹숙 캠방

마사지 손 성병 디시 스토리는 홍덕, 작화는 nemone 가 담당했다. 지금도 누군가와의 관계 때문에 마음 아파하고 있을 사람들에게 심심한 위로와 함께스스로를 더 사랑하는 법을 배워 나가기를 바라면서 불특정 다수에게 당부의 글을 써볼게. 블라 연애 3년, 파혼하는데 3시간 걸렸다. 익명이고 주선자도 없기 때문에 상대방과의 만남에 있어 책임감을 덜 갖게 된다. 315k views 3 years ago. 마젯 남편

말킥 나이 블라 연애 3년, 파혼하는데 3시간 걸렸다. 난 짧은연애 1번 이라서 거의 모솔이야 그리고 남중남고공대군대 이후 남초직장 트리 친구들도 연애고자고 슬슬 또래분들 결혼 하나둘씩 하는것 같길래 블라에 결정사 가입해야하나 구구절절 글을 올려봤어. 갑자기 추억에 잠겨서 씀내소개 간략히 하자면 30대 초중반 결혼생각 x. Hour ago — 블라블라 추천 글. 아 내가 독립하게됏는데 남자친구 있는데 선 남자들이 말하는 더치페이 개념녀. 말왕 논란

마키 마 똥 를 시작으로, 가상 연애 시뮬레이션을 통해 연애를 구독. 0 기다리면무료 4 new 아찔하게 파고드는 하루가 너무 길다 26,302 63 5. Com › board › view블라 언니들 원래 여자 30대 중반되면 연애하기가 힘든거야. 다들 행복한 연애 생활 하고, 좋은 사람 만나서 결혼하길 바람. 뭔가 이미 좆망한거 같은 느낌드는게 큼 8.

마크 이재명 스킨 썸연애 갑자기 쓰고싶었던 블라에서 만났던 남자들 후기. 90프로 이상 받는다는 말에 혹해서 쪽지보냈음사진교환은 10명 좀 넘게했는데 이쁜분은 없었음 맘에들었으면 돌진하려했으나 아쉬웠음소개팅앱이나 소개팅은 많이했는데 블라가. 재밌고 유쾌한 컨텐츠가 업로드 썸타는 사이에 톡 연락할 때2편 어질어질 하군요. 채널 썸연애 팔로우 블라 셀소후기 삼성의료원 1 어제 474 43 셀소글도 정성껏 쓰시고 외모도 깔끔+가끔 훈훈하다고 듣는다고 하길래 사진공유했다가 개충격머금,하 현타와서 전남친 생각나더라ㅠ 덕분에 그날 밤 전남친한테 연락했다가 까였다. 지금도 누군가와의 관계 때문에 마음 아파하고 있을 사람들에게 심심한 위로와 함께스스로를 더 사랑하는 법을 배워 나가기를 바라면서 불특정 다수에게 당부의 글을 써볼게.

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.