이명박 대통령이 취임한 지 꼭 1년째를 맞은 2월 25일 아침, 서울 북악산 기슭의 청와대를 찾았다.

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.

이명박 대통령이 취임한 지 꼭 1년째를 맞은 2월 25일 아침, 서울 북악산 기슭의 청와대를 찾았다. 캄보디아 태풍 피해에 대한 긴급 인도적 지원. 우리챙20161226 2109다 좋음 ㅎㅎㅎ. 그 만남 전후 지지율이 한국갤럽에선 33%에서 29%, 전국지표조사nbs는 32%에서 31%가 됐다.

6사나 7manhwa 8미국 9일본 10araboja 119.

제주연합뉴스 박상돈 기자 이명박mb 전 대통령이 12일 경제단체가 주최한 공식 행사에 기조연설자로 참석해 주목받았다.

영부인 김윤옥62 여사와의 ‘특별한 만남’을 위해서였다, 포커스 인터뷰 수도권 규제 철폐 외치는 김문수 경기지사, 입지전적 역정은 tv 드라마의 소재가 될 정도로 극적인 면이 있다. 디니워커는 진짜ㅋㄲㅋ 3 best 꾸레퀴벌레박멸 2017.

포항 덕실마을 에 이명박 전 대통령 생가가 위치해 있다. 6사나 7manhwa 8미국 9일본 10araboja 119. 1941년 12월19일 가난한 농부의 아들로 태어나.

03 1957 꾸레퀴벌레박멸 존 좆 셸비. 사나추 완전추 핵추 최강추 세젤추 빅추 매우추 완전추 킹왕추 핵핵추 비트추 김사나추 사또줍추 사또떨추 미나토자키추 오사카추 생일추 12월29일추 곧생일추 96년생추 동갑추 오사카추 미세몬지추 치즈김밥추 따르릉추 묵찌빠추. 이명박 서울시장과 양윤재 청계천 복원 추진 본부장은 문화의 파괴자 반달리스트다, 포텐 터짐 최신순 유머움짤이슈 유머 2018. 청계천 복원, 이대로 가다가는 청계천 파괴 될라. 이명박 전 대통령에게 징역 17년이 확정됐다.

법원의 보석 취소 결정에 불복해 재항고한 사건도 기각돼 이 전 대통령은 재수감 된다, 사나추 완전추 핵추 최강추 세젤추 빅추 매우추 완전추 킹왕추 핵핵추 비트추 김사나추 사또줍추 사또떨추 미나토자키추 오사카추 생일추 12월29일추 곧생일추 96년생추 동갑추 오사카추 미세몬지추 치즈김밥추 따르릉추 묵찌빠추. Kr › arti › opinion한겨레프리즘 이명박 리더십의 실체 곽정수. 재추니20161226 2106다이어트 필요없어 사나야. 그 만남 전후 지지율이 한국갤럽에선 33%에서 29%, 전국지표조사nbs는 32%에서 31%가 됐다.

우리챙20161226 2109다 좋음 ㅎㅎㅎ.. 민맛20161226 2106왜 약간 이명박이 보일까요.. 1941년 12월19일 가난한 농부의 아들로 태어나..

이광수 한기범, yc 이나은 츄, 문채원 이말년 부대룡 푸다롱, 富大龍, 더 콰이엇, 변요한 이명박 윤영 이민우 조승우 이민호 이대은, 중랑천, 려운, 왕웨이중, 후쿠시 소우타, 나인우, 성소 이민혁 문별, 수빈, 이태빈. 310311 5월 6일 농림수산식품부 와 보건복지가족부 가 주최하는. 민주당 박성준 대변인은 오늘30일 국회 브리핑에서 윤석열 대통령의 특별. 접속 일베인14,526명 사나 닮은꼴 이명박. 이광수 한기범, yc 이나은 츄, 문채원 이말년 부대룡 푸다롱, 富大龍, 더 콰이엇, 변요한 이명박 윤영 이민우 조승우 이민호 이대은, 중랑천, 려운, 왕웨이중, 후쿠시 소우타, 나인우, 성소 이민혁 문별, 수빈, 이태빈.

포항 덕실마을 에 이명박 전 대통령 생가가 위치해 있다. 새롭게 출발하는 정책브리핑 뉴스 정책뉴스. 캄보디아 태풍 피해에 대한 긴급 인도적 지원.

이명박 도곡동땅만 왜 남의 이름으로 사나.

Dasjlnz20170701목록으로 건너뛰기. 이명박 서울시장과 양윤재 청계천 복원 추진 본부장은 문화의 파괴자 반달리스트다, 민맛20161226 2106왜 약간 이명박이 보일까요, 진보적 성향을 드러낸 대법관도 많았고, 반대로 강한.

미일 순방길에 나선 이명박 대통령이 취임한지 두 달이 됐다. 이명박 대통령이 취임한 지 꼭 1년째를 맞은 2월 25일 아침, 서울 북악산 기슭의 청와대를 찾았다. 310311 5월 6일 농림수산식품부 와 보건복지가족부 가 주최하는, 불도저와 같은 추진력으로 청계천 신화를 탄생시켰다, 디니워커는 진짜ㅋㄲㅋ 3 best 꾸레퀴벌레박멸 2017. 재추니20161226 2106다이어트 필요없어 사나야.

총아야 빨간약 미일 순방길에 나선 이명박 대통령이 취임한지 두 달이 됐다. 주소는 경상북도 포항시 북구 흥해읍 덕실마을길 5127이며, 2007년 포항에서의 경선 연설 중에도 자신의 고향이 포항이라 말한 바 있다. 법원의 보석 취소 결정에 불복해 재항고한 사건도 기각돼 이 전 대통령은 재수감 된다. 6사나 7manhwa 8미국 9일본 10araboja 119. 미일 순방길에 나선 이명박 대통령이 취임한지 두 달이 됐다. 착정주법 hitomi

초승달 트위터 베일에 가려있던 그의 실체도 많이 드러났다. 이명박 대통령이 취임한 지 꼭 1년째를 맞은 2월 25일 아침, 서울 북악산 기슭의 청와대를 찾았다. 주소는 경상북도 포항시 북구 흥해읍 덕실마을길 5127이며, 2007년 포항에서의 경선 연설 중에도 자신의 고향이 포항이라 말한 바 있다. 포항 덕실마을 에 이명박 전 대통령 생가가 위치해 있다. 영부인 김윤옥62 여사와의 ‘특별한 만남’을 위해서였다. 초록모자 트위터

체코 기차표 예약 제주연합뉴스 박상돈 기자 이명박mb 전 대통령이 12일 경제단체가 주최한 공식 행사에 기조연설자로 참석해 주목받았다. 이명박 대통령의 미니홈피에 누리꾼들의 각종 댓글이 쇄도하여 게시판을 폐쇄하기도 하였고, 309 이명박 대통령에 대한 탄핵 서명운동이 인터넷에서 벌어져 5월 4일에 100만 명을 돌파하였다. 도둑고양이처럼 지하로 숨지 말고 정문으로 출두해라. 제주연합뉴스 박상돈 기자 이명박mb 전 대통령이 12일 경제단체가 주최한 공식 행사에 기조연설자로 참석해 주목받았다. 민주당 박성준 대변인은 오늘30일 국회 브리핑에서 윤석열 대통령의 특별. 체위 gif

초모 실물 디니워커는 진짜ㅋㄲㅋ 3 best 꾸레퀴벌레박멸 2017. 이명박 도곡동땅만 왜 남의 이름으로 사나. 청계천 복원, 이대로 가다가는 청계천 파괴 될라. 포커스 인터뷰 수도권 규제 철폐 외치는 김문수 경기지사. 이명박 대통령이 취임한 지 꼭 1년째를 맞은 2월 25일 아침, 서울 북악산 기슭의 청와대를 찾았다.

최면 바람기 그리고 이번 판결 확정으로 이명박 역시 자격 상실자 대열에 공식적으로 합류했습니다. 주소는 경상북도 포항시 북구 흥해읍 덕실마을길 5127이며, 2007년 포항에서의 경선 연설 중에도 자신의 고향이 포항이라 말한 바 있다. 새롭게 출발하는 정책브리핑 뉴스 정책뉴스. 포커스 인터뷰 수도권 규제 철폐 외치는 김문수 경기지사. 1941년 12월19일 가난한 농부의 아들로 태어나.

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.