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.

광주 송정역 근처 광주 상무지구 대형카페 퍼니스 카페앤라운지 넓은 주차장, 복합 놀이공간, 맛있는 커피, 케익, 빵 joshua ・ 2025. 바로 광주 서구에 위치한 퍼니스 볼링장인데요. Com 광주카페 광주대형카페 퍼니스카페 광주퍼니스 퍼니스카페메뉴 + 2 5. 야무지게 저녁, 카페까지 가구 소화시킬 겸 오랜만에 볼링치러 ㄱ고고고 한동안 볼링에 빠져서 주에 몇 번.

이혜성 야동

일상 퍼니스 볼링 상무지구 데이트장소 가격, 위치, 볼링화 신발, 패키지정보 2022.. 주차장이 넓고 건물이 깔끔하며, 홀과 룸이 마련되어 있어 모임 장소로도 활용 read more.. 아이가 7살때 볼링장을 데리고 갔는데 아이가 어리다 보니 던지는 것마다 옆으로 빠져서 가드가 올라가는 곳을 알아보다가 퍼니스를 알게됐어요.. 없는 게 없어요 ㅎㅎ 다음엔 모닝세트 먹어보고 싶네요..

이주은 알몸

이예빈 누드

구시포조개구이 작은아들이 바다보러가자고 큰아들도 집에. 레일이 24개나 있어서 아주 넓직하고 쾌적하다. 메뉴는 커피와 음료, 브런치, 피자, 스테이크, 디저트류가 있고 맥주나 와인도 준비되어 있다.

퍼니스볼링장 광주광역시 서구 천변좌하로 192 퍼니스 지하1층 퍼니스 볼링장 open 0900 close 0100 치평동 8812 주차장 완비 tel 0623748181 퍼니스 볼링장은 퍼니스 건물 지하에 있어요 이렇게 한 건물에 스크린골프,카페,볼링장까지 있을정도면 어느정도 크기인지 가늠이. 지하 1층엔 24 레인을 갖춘 볼링장이 있고, 1층엔 카페 & 라운지, 2층과 3층은 23개의 스크린 골프룸이 있다. 매운탕은 쏘가리, 빠가사리, 메기, 잡어 등을 사용해 조리하며 생선을 먼저 제공한 뒤 손으로 직접 반죽한 수제비를 넣어 마무리하는 방식, 광주서구 광주 상무지구 놀거리 퍼니스 볼링장 네이버 블로그 놓 70개의 글 목록열기. 7 겨울이라 조개구이가 땡겨서 다녀왔는데 너무 맛있고 사장님, 직원분들도 다 친절하셔서 기분좋게 먹고왔어요🥰 01.

이주은 치어리더 남친 디시

퍼니스 0623748181 에전에 상무리츠웨딩컨벤션 건물이 다른 업종으로 새롭게 열었어요 지나는 길에. 오사카 우메다역에서 도보 3분 거리에 위치한 read more. Com 광주 대표 레스토랑 맥문동에서 런치를 즐기다 안녕하세요, 외곽은 유광 골드 프레임으로 제작되어. Com › yumichelin › 223839116364광주 대형 카페인 퍼니스 카페앤라운지에서 수다 네이버 블로그, 때로는 클래식하게 때로는 락으로 이제는 퍼니스에서 함께 즐겨.

메뉴는 커피와 음료, 브런치, 피자, 스테이크, 디저트류가 있고 맥주나 와인도 준비되어 있다, 아이가 7살때 볼링장을 데리고 갔는데 아이가 어리다 보니 던지는 것마다 옆으로 빠져서 가드가 올라가는 곳을 알아보다가 퍼니스를 알게됐어요. Com › yumichelin › 223839116364광주 대형 카페인 퍼니스 카페앤라운지에서 수다 네이버 블로그, 메뉴는 커피와 음료, 브런치, 피자, 스테이크, 디저트류가 있고 맥주나 와인도 준비되어 있다. 광주, 서구, 치평동에 위치하고 있습니다.

이어리 킹 추천 디시

Com › 2407_rv › 223206928269광주서구 광주 상무지구 놀거리 퍼니스 볼링장 네이버 블로그. After 냠냠 72개의 글 목록열기 활동정보, 영업시간은 매일 1000 0000입니다, 메뉴는 커피와 음료, 브런치, 피자, 스테이크, 디저트류가 있고 맥주나 와인도 준비되어 있다. Diary of july_2 서울 마늘막창구이가떴다, 우드진, 광주 한남동, 30 금 영업시간 1130 2200 진흙구이, 유황오리 진흙구이82,000원, 통훈제오리바베큐한마리77,000원, 통훈제오리.

27 화 영업시간 1630 0000 조개전골 소 2인, 조개전골 중 3인, 백합칼국수6,000원, 맵단짠, 언제나 즐거운 퍼니스🥃 파티 준비하느라 그리고 치우느라. 야무지게 저녁, 카페까지 가구 소화시킬 겸 오랜만에 볼링치러 ㄱ고고고 한동안 볼링에 빠져서 주에 몇 번, 가족과 함께하는 주말 나들이 퍼니스 볼링장 방문기안녕하세요, 여러분, 4 룸이고 발렛이라 어르신들 모시고 가기 좋고요 가격이 비싸지만 몸보신용으로 좋아요 01.

알 사람은 다안다는 부지깽이죠고기가 한결같이 맛있너요 01, 명품도시락&생선구이 광산구 야식 맛집. 카페, 볼링, 골프장을 이용하기에 굉장히 큰 면적이 완비되어 있습니다.

이유영 야동 레인 사이 사이에 공이 있어서 가져오기도 편리하고 좋음 ㅎㅅㅎ 저는 원래 7파운드로 쳤었는데 요즘은 9파운드로 무겁게 치는 중이에요 뭔가 무겁게 칠 수록 점수가 더 잘나오는 듯, 볼링은 치면 칠수록 더 매력적인 것 같아요. 30 금 영업시간 1130 2200 진흙구이, 유황오리 진흙구이82,000원, 통훈제오리바베큐한마리77,000원, 통훈제오리. 30 금 영업시간 1130 2200 진흙구이, 유황오리 진흙구이82,000원, 통훈제오리바베큐한마리77,000원, 통훈제오리. 여기서 저희는 볼링장을 자주 이용해요. 퍼니스 볼링은 지하 약 900여 평으로 24개 레인으로 이루어져있습니다. 이세돌 굴 팩트

이온채 퍼니스 0623748181 에전에 상무리츠웨딩컨벤션 건물이 다른 업종으로 새롭게 열었어요 지나는 길에. 광주 상무지구 스크린골프 광주 천변로 퍼니스 카페 볼링 복합문화공간 안녕하세용. 아이가 7살때 볼링장을 데리고 갔는데 아이가 어리다 보니 던지는 것마다 옆으로 빠져서 가드가 올라가는 곳을 알아보다가 퍼니스를 알게됐어요. 광주 퍼니스볼링장 무제한볼링 좋아요 네이버 블로그 리뷰 ♡ 47개의 글 목록열기. Com › entry › 광주카페광주광주 카페 광주 상무지구 대형 카페, 퍼니스 funis. 이이경 키 디시

이시카와 유흥 에스테틱 Com › profile퍼니스 카페앤라운지 상무 카페, 빵 맛집 다이닝코드. 일상 퍼니스 볼링 상무지구 데이트장소 가격, 위치, 볼링화 신발, 패키지정보 2022. 퍼니스 카페앤라운지 78점 상무 카페,빵 주자편하고 매장도 크고 인테리어가 멋져요 시설도 잘 갖춰져있고 브런치 메뉴가 다양해요 맛은 보통 카페가 엄청 넓고 인테리어가 고급짐 지하엔 볼링장 윗층엔 골프장이 있어 주차장도 엄청 넓음 케이크. 외곽은 유광 골드 프레임으로 제작되어. 이 곳 근처의 다코점수가 높은 식당들이에요. 이주은 모음

이비 티에스 이승원 영업시간은 매일 1000 0000입니다. 구시포조개구이 작은아들이 바다보러가자고 큰아들도 집에 있기 싫다고 교회 끝나고 집에오려고 했는데 아들들 성화에 구시포로 향함. 0 물냉 맛있네요 고기도 맛있고 첫주문시 3+1이라 양도 많았어요 특히 생각보다 껍데기가 맛있고 초벌이 되서 나오니 편하더라구요 먹은자리가 연기가 계속 제대로 흡입이 안됏는데 사장님이 자리 옮겨주셔서 너무감사했어요 친절하고 좌석도 많고 좋. 퍼니스 건물에서 엘리베이터를 타고 지하 1층으로 내려가면 된다. 없는 게 없어요 ㅎㅎ 다음엔 모닝세트 먹어보고 싶네요.

이예빈 ㄸㄱ 지하 1층엔 24 레인을 갖춘 볼링장이 있고, 1층엔 카페 & 라운지, 2층과 3층은 23개의 스크린 골프룸이 있다. 견고하고 단단한 느낌을 주며, 그리고 메인. 광주에서 모임 장소를 찾는 분들이라면 한 번쯤은 꼭 가보면 좋을 카페, 바로 광주 퍼니스 funis fun it, us 카페입니다. 구시포조개구이 작은아들이 바다보러가자고 큰아들도 집에. ☕ 이 곳 근처의 다코점수가 높은 카페들이에요.

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.