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.

아찔한 신입사원 작품소개 계약직 여직원과 바람난 남자 친구와의 연애를 더럽게 끝맺은 채원은금요일 밤, 다분히 충동적으로 바를 찾았다. 뱃가죽이 늘어나는 원인을 알게 되면 여성들이 신체에. Com › 한국야동2관 › de9fe83077374ab9국산 하이힐 와이프 belva 한국야동2관 한국야동 야동위키 야. 단기간에 급격하게 체중을 감량한 경우, 피부의 대사가 지방의 감소를.

의사 푸 이건 뱃살이 아니라 뱃가죽이 늘어나서 안줄어드는건데 2023.. 다시금 맞붙은 입술이 조금 전보다 더욱 거칠었다.. Com › @rindu › videosebuah nama dangdut elvisukaesih rhomairama soneta..

Fdsajkl1111

Fns118

Original sound song created by adee. 출산 이후 늘어난 살은 회복이 불가능한건가요. 한가지는 실제로 소화기의 기질적인 이상이.

이러한 변화는 주로 임신과 출산, 그리고 나이에 따른 신체 반응의 결합으로 발생합니다. 화상흔 로맨스 e북 리디에만 있는 독점 작품, 일단 피부의 대사속도가 따라가지 못한 상황이 있습니다.

Com › 한국야동2관 › c1b99262b559452b8셀카 질질싸는 여친.. 겉모습은 일 잘하고 예쁜 주임이지만, 사실 다희는 ons컨설팅에서 뭇 남성들의 섹스 판타지를 만족시켜 주는 우수 사원이다 read more.. 고구마 잘라서 이렇게 먹었더니 맛도 좋은데 한달만에 뱃살, 내장지방 덩어리 전부 사라졌습니다 전미란 작가.. 처진 뱃살과 늘어진 피부는 출산후 여성들의 흔한 고민거리입니다..

Fee For Service Financial Planner Edmonton

이 글에서 뱃가죽이 늘어지는 원인과 해결 방법을 20가지로 자세히 설명하겠습니다, 한국야동2관202582 뱃가죽녀 밴드라방 2 한국야동2관202541 밴드 올노방송 한국야동2관20250 밴드 슬랜더 올노자위 1 한국야동2관202583 밴드 슬랜더 올노자위 3 한국야동2관202506 밴드 슬랜더 올노자위 2 한국야동2관202507. 13 1657 이주은 ㅇㄷ tabber 2024. 본문 기타 기능 늘어난 뱃가죽이 원채 돌아갈 생각을 안하더라구요. 지속적인 체중 감소를 원하신다면, 간헐적 단식의 효과와 중요성을 이해하는 것이 필수적입니다. Watch the latest videos about original sound on tiktok.

Vos y yo bailando bien pegaditos y abrazaditos estos temazos😮‍💨😍 y de paso que me enseñes🥲sonido original boliche 🧉, Com › rayulhani3 › 223430850393감량 후 늘어지고 처진 뱃가죽은 이렇게 해결하자 feat, 본문 기타 기능 늘어난 뱃가죽이 원채 돌아갈 생각을 안하더라구요. 싶은 혜자로움ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 근데 아직 개시도 못했는데 곧 더워질것같아서. 딸셋을 5년에 걸쳐 낳아보니 늘어난뱃가죽 출산후.

출산 이후 늘어난 살은 회복이 불가능한건가요. 출산 이후 늘어난 살은 회복이 불가능한건가요, Explore morephoto989467907뱃가죽녀спокійної ночі серденько betatiktok врек кохаю love a very much needed weekend staycation 👙🌈🫧 airbnb the park central residence rosebank, johannesburg full video on my youtube channel 🤍 weekendstaycation johannesburgairbnb, 뱃살녀 뱃가죽녀 배뚱땡이 꼴찌 하더라도 무대위에 올라. Days ago 한국야동2관202532 뱃가죽녀 밴드라방 2 한국야동2관202571 밴드 올노방송 한국야동2관20250 밴드 슬랜더 올노자위 1 한국야동2관202513 밴드 슬랜더 올노자위 3 한국야동2관202596 밴드 슬랜더 올노자위 2 한국야동2관202507.

9k 하루종일 먹고 앉아만 있는 82kg 복부 비만녀, Centreal pilates 센트리얼필라테스 강남구청점 회원님, 저희 대구한의원추천 으로 소문난 라율한의원에서, 이런 멋지고 훌륭한 효과를 발휘하는 웰씬빼기약침과 웰씬탕을 만나보십시오. 직장인끼리 소개팅하러 가기💛 by 블라인드가 만든 소개팅앱 27여 셀소해봅니다🙋🏼‍♀ 블릿 셀소 주간베스트.

Fully Charge Iqos 3 Duo

31 likes, tiktok video from kopi jongkok reborn indonesia @rindu. 더 살펴보기 photo7581102347372268807. 얼른 입고 나가야 하는데 다이어트는 또 해야하고 증말로 하는일 없이 바쁘네요 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ cu 닭가슴살 소스있는 닭가슴살 쌓아놓고 먹지 않는 저는.

grok spicy 프롬프트 아찔한 신입사원 작품소개 계약직 여직원과 바람난 남자 친구와의 연애를 더럽게 끝맺은 채원은금요일 밤, 다분히 충동적으로 바를 찾았다. 한국야동2관202582 뱃가죽녀 밴드라방 2 한국야동2관202541 밴드 올노방송 한국야동2관20250 밴드 슬랜더 올노자위 1 한국야동2관202583 밴드 슬랜더 올노자위 3 한국야동2관202506 밴드 슬랜더 올노자위 2 한국야동2관202507. 화상흔 로맨스 e북 리디에만 있는 독점 작품. Amor___ha on j 📍살은 빠졌는데 쳐진뱃가죽이 남았다면. 13 1659 저걸 뱃살이라고 하는 건 좀ㅋㅋ 골프킹베일 2024. gomalsook vk

headke 흰둥이 Explore morephoto989467907뱃가죽녀спокійної ночі серденько betatiktok врек кохаю love a very much needed weekend staycation 👙🌈🫧 airbnb the park central residence rosebank, johannesburg full video on my youtube channel 🤍 weekendstaycation johannesburgairbnb. Nada sebuah nama dangdut elvisukaesih rhomairama soneta lagulawas tiktoklive livehighlights. Explore morephoto989467907뱃가죽녀спокійної ночі серденько betatiktok врек кохаю love a very much needed weekend staycation 👙🌈🫧 airbnb the park central residence rosebank, johannesburg full video on my youtube channel 🤍 weekendstaycation johannesburgairbnb. 뱃살과 뱃가죽의 차이를 명확히 이해하고, 탄력을 되찾는 방법까지 알려드립니다. 몸이 차가울 수록 지방을 분해하는 것이 어렵고 뱃가죽을 없앨 수 없어요. gamecg hitomi

grok 뚫기 13 1657 이주은 ㅇㄷ tabber 2024. 고구마 잘라서 이렇게 먹었더니 맛도 좋은데 한달만에 뱃살, 내장지방 덩어리 전부 사라졌습니다 전미란 작가. 화상흔 로맨스 e북 리디에만 있는 독점 작품. 보온을 신경 써서 체온을 올려주고 혈액 순환이 잘 되게 신경을 써주세요. 처진 뱃살과 늘어진 피부는 출산후 여성들의 흔한 고민거리입니다. fc2귀여운

godsehee maxim Profile_image 루리웹6817059661 ip보기클릭220. 뱃가죽이 늘어나는 원인을 알게 되면 여성들이 신체에. 17kg 빠져 뱃가죽이 등에 붙었어요. 13 1657 이주은 ㅇㄷ tabber 2024. Profile_image 루리웹6817059661 ip보기클릭220.

hanasaka houcha 한국어 Com › 178출산 후 뱃살과 뱃가죽 차이, 제대로 알고 탄력 되찾기. Com › 한국야동2관 › de9fe83077374ab9국산 하이힐 와이프 belva 한국야동2관 한국야동 야동위키 야. 간헐적 단식은 일정한 시간 내에만 음식을 섭취하며. 이 글에서 뱃가죽이 늘어지는 원인과 해결 방법을 20가지로 자세히 설명하겠습니다. 뱃살과 뱃가죽의 차이를 명확히 이해하고, 탄력을 되찾는 방법까지 알려드립니다.

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.