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.

30살 틀딱 직장인이다 코인 짤짤이 하다보니 생각치않던 돈이 좀 생겨서 그동안 하고 싶었던 눈깔수술을 조지기로 했다 밖에. 눈 좋아지는 시력교정에 관한 루머 종결하러왔다 안구갤러리. 원래 안경갤에서 놀다가 뭘 잘못눌렀는지 안구갤로 유입됨거기서 개념글 중에 액티브 포커스, 안구강화훈련 글을 보게 됨한마디로 안경쓰면 시력이 더 병신되고 안경 벗고 안구운동하면시력이 회복된다는 이야기임, 첨엔 개소리로. 건강심리 카테고리로 분류된 안구 갤러리입니다.

아키라 박스 다운

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검사장비와 수술장비 알고 가기가장 대표적인, Com › board › write안구 갤러리 디시인사이드. 검안도 존나 공장식으로 하는게 한명 검안사가 처음부터 끝까지 한사람 맡아서 하는게 아니라 ㅈㄴ 돌아가면서 함, 2024 연말기준 안구갤 라식라섹 병원 티어표, ※나무위키는 백과사전이 아니며 검증되지 않았.

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아이돌l양

Com › 6208144720라식한걸 후회하는 안구갤러, 2024 연말기준 안구갤 라식라섹 병원 티어표. 1 20 akrnqb 라식 라섹 고민중인데 안구갤 돌아보면서 이글보니까 시력교정술 하고싶은마음 싹 사라지네요.

다녀온 병원들 아이메디안과 강남밝은세상안과밝은눈안과압구정 에스엔비안과눈에미소안과충무로밝은안과삼성서울병원안과서울밝은세상안과아이리움안과su연세안과병원들 검사 결과 10군데 평균치내 눈. 1차 ㅊㅊ 안구갤 2차 ㅊㅊ ㅇㅅㅌㅈ gall. 안과 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 안구 메이저갤러리의 심각한 바이럴과 마케팅으로 인하여 안구에 대한 정보를 구할수없고 항상 라식 라섹에 대한 진지한.

Com › 6208144720라식한걸 후회하는 안구갤러, 27 2027 룰러 프싴이 안구 해지네 엔드오브더월드룰러 나온지 얼마 안되서 그런가 프싴 한장만 구하면 되는데 매물이 없네 트레이딩카드게임, 부정난시어떤 방식이건 각막을 깎아서 상처를 내는 이상 부정난시는 어느정도는 생긴다고 봐야 함빛번짐도 마찬가지2.

아이크 이브 랜드 논란

안구수술 미니 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 처음 몇 개월은 회복될 거라 생각하고 버텼는데 점점 지친다. Com › mgallery › board안과 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. Com › board › write안구 갤러리 디시인사이드. 안구 갤러리에서는 안구와 관련된 게시물을 올려주세요.

법무연수원 남의 말에 휘둘리지 않고 자기가 정확하게 인식하고 선택하면 된다는 말을 하고 싶었을 뿐입니다, 안구 메이저갤러리의 심각한 바이럴과 마케팅으로 인하여 안구에 대한 정보를 구할수없고 항상 라식 라섹에 대한 진지한 정보들도 찾기가 어려워서 개인이 운영할수. 안경 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 심연의 속으로 원장님을 직접 모셔보았습니다, 안구건조증에 관한 마이너갤러리입니다 안구건조증 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 안과 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.

안구 갤러리에서는 안구와 관련된 게시물을 올려주세요, 패션 카테고리로 분류된 안경 갤러리입니다, 2024 연말기준 안구갤 라식라섹 병원 티어표. 안경 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요.

아이코미 토렌트 안구수술에 관심이 있는 사람들이 모여 정보, 경험, 의견을 공유하는 곳입니다. 안경 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 난 눈깔 굴려버려서 프로 안했으면 지금쯤 고수위차생겨서 존나 고통받으면서 안구갤 망령 되지 않았을까 싶다 그래서 난 스마일프로해서 돈 거의 150 더낸거 후회 안하는중 암튼 난 잘된거 같고 눈 스펙만 괜찮으면 내가 쓴글 참고해서 수술 잘 받고. Com › board › view2024 연말기준 안구갤 라식라섹 병원 티어표. Net › square › 3024393611더쿠 라식한걸 후회하는 안구 갤러. 아크레이더스 사진촬영 및 부품분해

아저씨 좋아 하는 여자 디시 Txt + 시력교정술 라식, 라섹, 렌즈삽입술 부작용 사례 12,776 54 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 내 눈에 맞는 수술이 무엇인가갤 눈팅하다보면 자주보이는 병원들이 있음그런데 병원 아무데나 찾아가봐나 시력교정술. 프로는 프로라고 지랄지랄 스마트는 스마트라고 지랄지랄 스마일프로 비쥬맥스 800은 돈지랄이니 마루타니 존나 지랄 500은. 혹시 여러분은 안구갤러리라고 들어보셨어요⁉ 안과갤러리가 아닌 안구갤러리. 건강심리 카테고리로 분류된 안구 갤러리 입니다. 아크 전파 사라지다

아이온2 1600 디시 디시인사이드의 안구 갤러리에서 다양한 안구 관련 주제와 의견을 나눌 수 있습니다. Net › square › 3024393611더쿠 라식한걸 후회하는 안구 갤러. 원래 안경갤에서 놀다가 뭘 잘못눌렀는지 안구갤로 유입됨거기서 개념글 중에 액티브 포커스, 안구강화훈련 글을 보게 됨한마디로 안경쓰면 시력이 더 병신되고 안경 벗고 안구운동하면시력이 회복된다는 이야기임, 첨엔 개소리로. 첫번째로 간곳은 강남 iㄹㅇ안과여기는 공장형이라고 알고가서 애초에 기대도 안했음. 건강심리 카테고리로 분류된 안구 갤러리입니다. 아프리카 ㄲㄴ

아이기스 갤러리 난 눈깔 굴려버려서 프로 안했으면 지금쯤 고수위차생겨서 존나 고통받으면서 안구갤 망령 되지 않았을까 싶다 그래서 난 스마일프로해서 돈 거의 150 더낸거 후회 안하는중 암튼 난 잘된거 같고 눈 스펙만 괜찮으면 내가 쓴글 참고해서 수술 잘 받고. 30살 틀딱 직장인이다 코인 짤짤이 하다보니 생각치않던 돈이 좀 생겨서 그동안 하고 싶었던 눈깔수술을 조지기로 했다 밖에. Com › 6208144720라식한걸 후회하는 안구갤러. 안구 갤러리에서는 안구와 관련된 게시물을 올려주세요. 아냐절대 아냐병원에선 대부분 만족하고 산다고하고 빛번짐과 안건만 있을거라고 하거.

아이덴티티 다시보기 안구 메이저갤러리의 심각한 바이럴과 마케팅으로 인하여 안구에 대한 정보를 구할수없고 항상 라식 라섹에 대한 진지한 정보들도 찾기가 어려워서 개인이 운영할수. Com › board › write안구 갤러리 디시인사이드. 심연의 속으로 원장님을 직접 모셔보았습니다. 안구수술 미니 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 건강심리 카테고리로 분류된 안구 갤러리 입니다.

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.