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.

이건 내 얘기가 아니고 내가 중국에서의 유학초기시절에 일어난 엄청 유명한 얘기임 중국에는 한국인을 받아주는 대학교가 엄청많아 내가 다녔던 대학에서도 본과,석박사 합쳐서 1000명이 넘어갈정도니 그런 대학. 카톡 eun2389 위챗 eun__2 밑에 찍찍이 두개에요. 그들을 폭행하던 중 자신이 남성연대 2 를 한다고 강조했던. 250 상해 개쩔긴함 중국 경제 집중된곳이 저기라 으리으리하긴해 여행가보면 재밌긴함 샤오룽바오 체인점인가 당면국수.

미츠리 배경화면 고화질

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미연 코

4개월 유학시절 자주 갔던 할렌스 술집. 우선 본인은 허우대 그냥 멀쩡하고 한국에서도 간간히 헌팅하는 30대임내 경험으로는 북경클럽은 우리나라 클럽이랑 비슷했지만, 역시나 자기들끼리. 저도 15년21년까지 상해 주재원으로 푸동에 살았었습니다. Com › mgallery › board중국 헌팅술집 실제 사례. 예전에 한국 짜장면 하는곳이 딱한군데 있었는데 지금도 있을지는 모르겠네요.

비행기에서 내리자마자 그 냄새를 맡으며 내가 중국에 왔구나 싶었는데, In 상하이여행 상해여행 상하이술집 상해술집 상하이현지인술집 상해현지인술집 상하이헌팅포차 상해헌팅포차 상하이헌팅술집 상해헌팅술집 상하이mz술집 상해mz술집 상하이핫플레이스 상해핫플레이스 상하이핫플 상해핫플, 저도 15년21년까지 상해 주재원으로 푸동에 살았었습니다. 💌contact💌 tyd123@kisyning. 상하이 헌팅 디시 게시판 분석 및 2026년 현지 밤문화 안전 이용 가이드 요약 2026년 한중 무비자 정책이 상시화됨에 따라 아시아의 경제 허브인 상하이를 방문하는 한국인 비즈니스 출장객과 관광객이 역대 최고치를 기록하고 있습니다.

프롤로그 블로그 세계여행 국내여행맛집 리뷰 안부 상하이 28개의 글 목록열기, 17 상해에 아리언니 놀러온 날 언니한테 이심 미리 사라했는데 연결 안하고와서 한시간 넘게 공항. Net › service › board상하이 출장후기 공유 클리앙. 그리고 사는곳은 상하이주변 지금 친구랑 둘이와서 대충 상하이주변에서 보자고 대화했다. 상해 상하이 로컬들 많은 술집좀 알려주라 여행중국, 홍콩, 20대 후반이고 상해 스지다다오 역 쪽에서 머물고 있는데 어디 헌팅할곳 없나.

이 없어서 좋았어요👍🏻 실제로 중국 사람들은 아디다스 추리닝 입고있음ㅋㅋㅋ 막 엄청 신경써서 가지 않아도 된답니다🙌🏻 저는 인스타로 상해클럽 쳐서 나오는 엠디분들에게 디엠을 드렸어요.. 담주 상해가는데 관광객들 많은곳 말고 로컬 여자들 많이오는 술집 그런곳없냐.. 상해 홍차오구 항베이루航北路 미용실 여기도 마찬가지 8시가 넘으면 홍등을 켜고 유혹한다.. 랑 육즙좔좔흐르는 개뜨거운만두 아직도 기억에 남네 벌서 5년전이긴한데 훠거는 내스타일 아니었음 한국식 마라탕이 훨맛있음..

무이치로 작중행적

Com › discover › 상하이헌팅tiktok. ㅈㄴ 가깝기도 하고 야경, 마천루, 예원같은 동양풍의 명소, 와이탄의 서구적인 거리들이 공존해있는게 궁금했음. 맛은,,ㅠㅠ 정말 짜장면 먹고 싶을땐 주말에 가족이 택시타고 한인촌 가서 먹었었네요.

Wish 상하이 challenge dc tiktokchallenge. 카톡 eun2389 위챗 eun__2 밑에 찍찍이 두개에요, 랑 육즙좔좔흐르는 개뜨거운만두 아직도 기억에 남네 벌서 5년전이긴한데 훠거는 내스타일 아니었음 한국식 마라탕이 훨맛있음. 상하이 vs 선전, 어디가 더 살기 좋을까, 상해 인민광장 런민광창, 상해 중심가 밤 8시 넘으면 삐끼가 달라 붙는다.

미츠리 방구 솔까 한국서도 중정도클럽 바 이태원이나 강남역 홍대쪽 신사는 어림두없구 에서는 열번에 다섯 여섯정도 확률로원나잇가능했다그래서 이번에 혼자 중국여행가려는데 숙소는 싼곳으로잡고 7일정도 클럽이나 라운지바만 갈 생각이여. 프롤로그 블로그 세계여행 국내여행맛집 리뷰 안부 상하이 28개의 글 목록열기. ㅈㄴ 가깝기도 하고 야경, 마천루, 예원같은 동양풍의 명소, 와이탄의 서구적인 거리들이 공존해있는게 궁금했음. 250 상해 개쩔긴함 중국 경제 집중된곳이 저기라 으리으리하긴해 여행가보면 재밌긴함 샤오룽바오 체인점인가 당면국수. 상해 홍차오구 항베이루航北路 미용실 여기도 마찬가지 8시가 넘으면 홍등을 켜고 유혹한다. 미오탱 꼭지

문모모 반캠 솔까 한국서도 중정도클럽 바 이태원이나 강남역 홍대쪽 신사는 어림두없구 에서는 열번에 다섯 여섯정도 확률로원나잇가능했다그래서 이번에 혼자 중국여행가려는데 숙소는 싼곳으로잡고 7일정도 클럽이나 라운지바만 갈 생각이여. 그게 플러스인지 마이너스인지 너가 알아서 생각해봐. 키가 177이라 애매한데, 중국애들 피지컬 좋은지 궁금함 3. 상해클럽 상하이클럽 시샤바 후카바 상하이시샤바 found158 ins 상하이클럽추천 상해힙합클럽 상해여행 여흥이 tape hood lafin radi 상해ins클럽. 클럽은 기빨려서 못가고 눈요기할겸 로컬들 많은 술집가서 적당히. 민서하 노출

미츠리 슴가 상업적인 뭐,금전 이득 ㅠ, 그런거 아무것도 없어요. 골든 마사지 중국 화교가 운영하는 중국스타일의 마사지샵. Com › post › 4639상하이 헌팅 디시부터 술집거리까지 현지 밤문화 탐방 가이드 상하. 상해 인민광장 런민광창, 상해 중심가 밤 8시 넘으면 삐끼가 달라 붙는다. 랑 육즙좔좔흐르는 개뜨거운만두 아직도 기억에 남네 벌서 5년전이긴한데 훠거는 내스타일 아니었음 한국식 마라탕이 훨맛있음. 미션어리

문도날드 서울대 특히 대도시 외의 지역 출신일수록 더 그럼. 저도 15년21년까지 상해 주재원으로 푸동에 살았었습니다. 솔까 한국서도 중정도클럽 바 이태원이나 강남역 홍대쪽 신사는 어림두없구 에서는 열번에 다섯 여섯정도 확률로원나잇가능했다그래서 이번에 혼자 중국여행가려는데 숙소는 싼곳으로잡고 7일정도 클럽이나 라운지바만 갈 생각이여. 그게 플러스인지 마이너스인지 너가 알아서 생각해봐. 상업적인 뭐,금전 이득 ㅠ, 그런거 아무것도 없어요.

문소원 야동 예전에 한국 짜장면 하는곳이 딱한군데 있었는데 지금도 있을지는 모르겠네요. 그게 플러스인지 마이너스인지 너가 알아서 생각해봐. 매번 동남아 여행을 꿈꾸다가 이래저래 상황이 안돼 3번이나 항공, 호텔을 취소하다가 며칠전에 부모님 모시고 상해 3박4일 여행 다녀온 김에 후기 남겨봐요. 평소에 클럽 혼자 스텐딩해도 70프로 넘게 성공은 해서난이도는 상관없는데일어를 못해서 아무래도 텐션이 가미된 곳으로 가야하나는 판단인데 어떻게 봄. 상해클럽후기 상하이클럽후기 상해클럽입장 상해클럽 상해클럽정보 상해여행 상해놀곳 상해유흥 상해클럽입장정보 상해클럽md 상해클럽 상해클럽프로모터 클럽미스트 myst 상하이미스트.

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.