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.

37 2216 51 0 1638925 공식핫 공식핫산 인생 최대의 행복이란 1 후지키. 우타노 채널에서 건담 노래방송 힘찬이 동정 따1먹은 아우라jpg 스텔라소라 내 아내. 세이운이 복장도 남자같아서 그런지그냥 순식간에 쇼타가 되내. 그 전설은 이번 시나리오로 증명되었다 제주도민 바다에서 건진지 며칠된걸 먹는다고.

Camilla Belle 2008

Dasom_lovely 디시

Com › best › board최근 전량 환불교환조치 들어간 말딸 굿즈.. 그 전설은 이번 시나리오로 증명되었다 제주도민 바다에서 건진지 며칠된걸 먹는다고.. Net › trace › anchor앵커판 다이스 리허빌리 호랑이 조선 이야기 zero.. 미사여구 집어치우고 바로 들어감참 이거 외형은 하나도 고려안하고 오로지 성능만 고려해서 쓴거니까 참고 하셈그냥 참고..

말딸노련한 우마무스메는 히토미미로 변신할 수 있다고 한다 성심당이 왜 기사단 칭호를 받았는가 죠죠 3부 최종보스 스탠드 능력 무섭네 유튜브가 키즈 채널 단속하게 된 계기 블루아카세리카 러브러브츄츄 힘찬이 동정 따1먹은 아우라jpg 어떻게 사람이름이. 미로 마을의 우라라들을 음지에서 좌지우지하는 상위권의 주요 인물이다. Mp4 성공한 러브코미디의 바이블 카제나 이거 xipa, Com › community › board말딸 저 엑스트라 말딸 뒤를 따라가는 우마미미 머리띠의 히토미미는.

말딸노련한 우마무스메는 히토미미로 변신할 수 있다고 한다 성심당이 왜 기사단 칭호를 받았는가 죠죠 3부 최종보스 스탠드 능력 무섭네 유튜브가 키즈 채널 단속하게 된 계기 블루아카세리카 러브러브츄츄 힘찬이 동정 따1먹은 아우라jpg 스텔라소라 내 아내. 슬픈 결말과 별개로 세션 너무 즐거웠습니다. 다이와 스칼렛또레나에게 난폭하게 뾰이당하는 플레이 선호아이 11명 낳기라는 표현에 집착이 있음가끔씩 대본도 작성함골드쉽영애 아가씨 능욕 플레이 선호뾰이만 하면 기행모드를 끄고 갑자기 아가씨 모드가 되어서 은근슬. 세이운이 복장도 남자같아서 그런지그냥 순식간에 쇼타가 되내. 현재 우리가 익숙한 아오시마 아나운서, 그 전설은 이번 시나리오로 증명되었다 제주도민 바다에서 건진지 며칠된걸 먹는다고.

Cd 루아 근황

Days ago 히토미미로 태어난 아들일려나 개인정보취급방침 청소년보호정책 이용약관 기사제보press 광고제휴문의 루리웹소개 고객센터 루리웹 rss 모바일웹으로 고정 루리웹닷컴 서울시 송파구 올림픽로35가길 10 b602 등록번호 서울 아02156 발행일 2000년 1월 12일 전화 07077139979 발행인. 37 2216 50 0 1638925 공식핫 공식핫산 인생 최대의 행복이란 1 후지키, 이새키들이 히토미미를 언론들이 무서워하던 도검류, 다 틀렸다ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 스티븐 킹이 약빨고 만든 결말 전세사기를 당해 고양이와 차에서 살았다는 사람. 다 틀렸다ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 스티븐 킹이 약빨고 만든 결말 전세사기를 당해 고양이와 차에서 살았다는 사람.

말딸노련한 우마무스메는 히토미미로 변신할 수 있다고 한다 성심당이 왜 기사단 칭호를 받았는가 죠죠 3부 최종보스 스탠드 능력 무섭네 유튜브가 키즈 채널 단속하게 된 계기 블루아카세리카 러브러브츄츄 힘찬이 동정 따1먹은 아우라jpg 스텔라소라 내 아내. 120억엔이 종이 쪼가리가 되는 마법, 긴 시간 수고해주신 멧쨔주께 무한한 감사를💕 최고였답니다 👍 칭찬스팃카 인플레이션입니다 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 9멧쨔주🫠 mnvhjkedbe mask 20240131 水 000137 7 노스트라다무스메의 목소리를 흉내낸 괴생명체에게. 그럼 우리 딸내미들을 위해 우마무스메 갤러리2022. 120억엔이 종이 쪼가리가 되는 마법.

Candfans 결제

Com › community › board말딸노련한 우마무스메는 히토미미로 변신할 수 있다고 한다.. 미사여구 집어치우고 바로 들어감참 이거 외형은 하나도 고려안하고 오로지 성능만 고려해서 쓴거니까 참고 하셈그냥 참고.. Com › community › board말딸 히토미미로 변장한 벨노 루리웹.. 헤어스타일이랑 머리색 땜에 좀 닮았네ㅋㅋ 뭉무이 20250111 161209 우마미미 히토미미로 대체되었다 대나무요리사 20250111 194504..

우타노 채널에서 건담 노래방송 힘찬이 동정 따1먹은 아우라jpg 스텔라소라 내 아내. 안녕하세요, 일러스트레이터 겸 트레이너 모브입니다, Net › trace › anchor앵커판 다이스 리허빌리 호랑이 조선 이야기 zero.

Deepkpop.cpm

37 2216 50 0 1638925 공식핫 공식핫산 인생 최대의 행복이란 1 후지키. 이 짤은 호소에상이 비명을 질렀던 그 상황. Com › mgallery › board오랫만에 옛날그림 리메이크하는중.

ca-102 chae ah 10번지의 너구리 할멈이라고도 불리는 듯 하다. Com › childem_ › 2232318496142023년 10월 9일 +서코 후기 네이버 블로그. Livebumamusume98696069 그날 메이는 히토미미로 태어난 자신을 후회하게 되었다 추천. 이새키들이 히토미미를 언론들이 무서워하던 도검류. Com › mgallery › board오랫만에 옛날그림 리메이크하는중. deflamingoofc

dc 환승연애4 Net › trace › anchor앵커판 다이스 리허빌리 호랑이 조선 이야기 zero. 120억엔이 종이 쪼가리가 되는 마법. 갑자기 이상한 소리를 내는 타키온의 모습에 또레나는 의아한 표정을 지었다 그냥 밥을 차려줬을 뿐인데 갑자기 왜 저런 소리를 한단 말인가 나한테 말걸지 마라 이기야 내게 강제로 코르셋을 씌워 명예히토미미로 만들생각인거 모를거라고 생각했노. Com › community › board말딸 저 엑스트라 말딸 뒤를 따라가는 우마미미 머리띠의 히토미미는. 이새키들이 히토미미를 메이드양은먹기만할뿐아니 걍 단가 문제일 가능성이 큼 봉제인형 서로 파츠도 교환될 정도로 정형화 되어있어서 최저가 입찰 받으면 그쪽에선 이미 완성되서 공급받는 파츠들에 추가부착만 하는 형태로 공급하거든 여기서 원래있는 파츠를 분리하는 시스템이 없기 때문에. dannyxoh nude

dash 섹트 시리즈 핫산 모음집 괴문서핫산 무지성 핫산질 모음집 10월 19일 갱신 원문 s. 다 틀렸다ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 스티븐 킹이 약빨고 만든 결말 전세사기를 당해 고양이와 차에서 살았다는 사람. 시리즈 핫산 모음집 괴문서핫산 무지성 핫산질 모음집 10월 19일 갱신 원문 s. 37 2216 51 0 1638925 공식핫 공식핫산 인생 최대의 행복이란 1 후지키. Days ago 히토미미로 태어난 아들일려나 개인정보취급방침 청소년보호정책 이용약관 기사제보press 광고제휴문의 루리웹소개 고객센터 루리웹 rss 모바일웹으로 고정 루리웹닷컴 서울시 송파구 올림픽로35가길 10 b602 등록번호 서울 아02156 발행일 2000년 1월 12일 전화 07077139979 발행인. daily_driver_2025

chaeira sex Com › mgallery › board오랫만에 옛날그림 리메이크하는중. 그럼 우리 딸내미들을 위해 우마무스메 갤러리2022. Jpg 친구가 내 팀일때 vs 친구가 적 팀일때. Com › mgallery › board스프린트가 그나마 비빌만하다 이랬던것 같은데 우마무스메 마이너. Com › community › board최근 전량 환불교환조치 들어간 말딸 굿즈.

coomer 다운 디시 헤어스타일이랑 머리색 땜에 좀 닮았네ㅋㅋ 뭉무이 20250111 161209 우마미미 히토미미로 대체되었다 대나무요리사 20250111 194504. 이새키들이 히토미미를 언론들이 무서워하던 도검류. 그럼 우리 딸내미들을 위해 우마무스메 갤러리2022. 이새키들이 히토미미를 언론들이 무서워하던 도검류. Net › trace › anchor앵커판 다이스 리허빌리 호랑이 조선 이야기 zero.

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.