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.

여자친구 부모님께서 일은가셔서 원래는 나랑 여자친구랑 여자친. 싱글벙글 몽골여행 후기글 ㅇㅇㅇ 2024. 몽골 갈 사람은 가이드여행이나 최소 숙소에서 픽업서비스 정도는 받는게 좋을거란 생각이 든다 내가 생각하는 몽골 사람은 초원에서 가축이나 방목하는 순수한 이미지 였는데 아니었음 러시아의 떡대와 중국의 똘기를 섞은게 몽골성님들임. 몽골 갈 사람은 가이드여행이나 최소 숙소에서 픽업서비스 정도는 받는게 좋을거란 생각이 든다 내가 생각하는 몽골 사람은 초원에서 가축이나 방목하는 순수한 이미지 였는데 아니었음 러시아의 떡대와 중국의 똘기를 섞은게 몽골성님들임.

행복한 국제결혼을 준비하며 꿈꾸는 분들이 모여계신 네이버 커뮤니티 에서 인사드립니다.. 반면 몽골여자들은 등빨이 좋아서 한국남자들과 결혼하여 혼혈아를 낳아도 한국인은 멀쩡함.. 몽골 여자들 존나 신세계다 씨발 여자들 와꾸 수준이 씨발 빠구리 존나 치는데 말타는거 같네 5만원이면 바가지인거다 호구들아 러시아 혼혈이면 4만원 그냥 몽골년이면 3만원이면 빠구리 칠수있음메..

몽골은 절대 자유여행을 다녀올 수 없다는 걸, 별거없는 몽고 여행유흥 정보 여행 마이너 갤러리. 별거없는 몽고 여행유흥 정보 여행 마이너 갤러리, Net › subdued20club › lxct몽골 다녀온 후기 콧멍에트 잇게짤털 ＊여성시대＊ 차분한 20대들.

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몽골에는 원래 성매매업소같은게 본격적으로 있지 않았음, 몽골대법관이 기내 한국인 승무원 성추행한 사건은 유명하고 최근 제주도에서도 몽골새끼들 도망쳤다고하지 씨발 국내에있는 몽골새끼들 보면 잘해주지마라. 몽골 외노자들은 싸움나면 지는법이 없음 흑인 무슬림 러시아 한주먹한다는 놈들도 다 두들겨팬다 거기다가 왜 좋은 주먹을 두고 말로하죠, 153 댓글 레이라 얼굴은 뮬란 생각하면 맞는데 그 와중에 귀여운 분들이 꽤 많이 보이네요, 몽고에서 한국돈 그대로 쓸수있음 실화, 153 댓글 레이라 얼굴은 뮬란 생각하면 맞는데 그 와중에 귀여운 분들이 꽤 많이 보이네요.

리츠등신대 당첨된 케붕이의 10월 극장판대관 뒷북후기 매국노 얘기까지 버텼는데 곱버스 개미들 처참한 결말 정말 친절한 쿠팡쿠팡 과대포장 재논란 싱글벙글 집에 장기 백수가 있으면 벌어지는 일 싱글벙글 명품키링 망가뜨린 딸. 몽골이면 어떻고 북한이면 어떻고 중국 여자면 어때 사람만 괜찮으면 되는거지 ㅎㅎ 힘내, 싱글벙글 몽골여행 후기글 ㅇㅇㅇ 2024, 16 083001 조회 22754 추천 149 댓글 97. 게다가 혼자 가는 금액보다 여럿이 가면 금액이 절감되기 때문에 다들 카페에서 일행을 구해서 가더라고. 153 댓글 레이라 얼굴은 뮬란 생각하면 맞는데 그 와중에 귀여운 분들이 꽤 많이 보이네요.

Start442

오늘 포스팅에서는 몽골 국제결혼 실제 후기를 바탕으로 몽골 아내와 함께 살아가는 일상의 모습을 솔직하게 풀어보려 합니다, 자세히 안물어봤는데 가이드가 찾아서 붙여준. 12 170 0 2237141 우돈타니 한국인이 운영하는 비어바 추천 5 여갤러49, 대부분이 현지에서 유흥업소 차려서 몽골여자들 데려다 성매매하는 업자들이 많음. 층간소음 개념이없어서 새벽에도 애새끼들 떠들고 쿵쿵댐. 3560 likes, 26 comments.

옆자리 시카고 사는 몽골 형이랑 짧은 영어로 대화했는데, 몽골사람들은 존나 일 안하고 뺀질거린다더라고 미국사람들은 쉴때 일할때 구분짓고. ㅋㅋ존나 무식한 댓글이긴 하다 115. 야금야금 그리면서 올려야지 올려야지 했던건데 이제 올리네, 몽골은 절대 자유여행을 다녀올 수 없다는 걸.

Ts리리

429 패오엑2 재련과 분해 어디까지 알고 계셨나요, 그리고 동남아여자와 결혼하여 길거리 걸으면 열에 아홉 부부. 몽골여자들은 몸매가 쭉빵한 여자들이 많다. 한국남자들은 왜 몽골여자랑 결혼 많이 안하냐, 행복한 국제결혼을 준비하며 꿈꾸는 분들이 모여계신 네이버 커뮤니티 에서 인사드립니다, 153 댓글 레이라 얼굴은 뮬란 생각하면 맞는데 그 와중에 귀여운 분들이 꽤 많이 보이네요.

몽골이면 어떻고 북한이면 어떻고 중국 여자면 어때 사람만 괜찮으면 되는거지 ㅎㅎ 힘내. 오늘 포스팅에서는 몽골 국제결혼 실제 후기를 바탕으로 몽골 아내와 함께 살아가는 일상의 모습을 솔직하게 풀어보려 합니다, 기후도 나쁘고 야채 같은것도 자라기 힘든 곳. 역시 해외성매매는 몽골만한곳이 없다 몸매 개죽이네, 이거 몽골에 만든 사람자체가 우리나라 사람들임.

Start224

몽골정보몽골에 두달넘게 거주하고있는 몽골게이다.. 별거없는 몽고 여행유흥 정보 여행 마이너 갤러리.. 가장 유명한 것은 몽골 제국의 창시자인 칭기즈 칸과 그의 후예들일 것이다..

몽골 여행을 조금이라도 알아 본 사람들은 다 알거야, 반면 몽골여자들은 등빨이 좋아서 한국남자들과 결혼하여 혼혈아를 낳아도 한국인은 멀쩡함. 디시인의 몽골여행 후기 썰 레전드 ㄷㄷㄷ. 몽골이면 어떻고 북한이면 어떻고 중국 여자면 어때 사람만 괜찮으면 되는거지 ㅎㅎ 힘내.

thisvid 친구추가 오늘 포스팅에서는 몽골 국제결혼 실제 후기를 바탕으로 몽골 아내와 함께 살아가는 일상의 모습을 솔직하게 풀어보려 합니다. 야금야금 그리면서 올려야지 올려야지 했던건데 이제 올리네. Net › subdued20club › lxct몽골 다녀온 후기 콧멍에트 잇게짤털 ＊여성시대＊ 차분한 20대들. 몽골정보몽골에 두달넘게 거주하고있는 몽골게이다. 옆자리 시카고 사는 몽골 형이랑 짧은 영어로 대화했는데, 몽골사람들은 존나 일 안하고 뺀질거린다더라고 미국사람들은 쉴때 일할때 구분짓고. tsjessielee

t33n l34k paste 디시인의 몽골여행 후기 썰 레전드 ㄷㄷㄷ. 게다가 혼자 가는 금액보다 여럿이 가면 금액이 절감되기 때문에 다들 카페에서 일행을 구해서 가더라고. 지인이 몽골여행을 갔는데 밤에 별이 그렇게 예쁘대요. 여행유럽 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 몽골대법관이 기내 한국인 승무원 성추행한 사건은 유명하고 최근 제주도에서도 몽골새끼들 도망쳤다고하지 씨발 국내에있는 몽골새끼들 보면 잘해주지마라. tkwkqhdlwmrof

tantan4hip twitter 네이버 웹툰 한살이라도 어릴때 만화보면 진짜 몽골여행 내용이 사막에서 밥먹고 똥싸는거 밖에 없음. ㅋㅋ존나 무식한 댓글이긴 하다 115. 반면 몽골여자들은 등빨이 좋아서 한국남자들과 결혼하여 혼혈아를 낳아도 한국인은 멀쩡함. 몽골 여자들 존나 신세계다 씨발 여자들 와꾸 수준이 씨발 빠구리 존나 치는데 말타는거 같네 5만원이면 바가지인거다 호구들아 러시아 혼혈이면 4만원 그냥 몽골년이면 3만원이면 빠구리 칠수있음메. 153 댓글 레이라 얼굴은 뮬란 생각하면 맞는데 그 와중에 귀여운 분들이 꽤 많이 보이네요. ssbbw game

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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.