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.

Kr › article › 202601291422001‘4년’ 러우 전쟁이 ‘6년’ 2차대전보다 길다. 국가별로 구분해서 보면 우크라이나 전쟁에 가장 높은 관심을 보인 국가는 인도80%였습니다. 우크라이나 러시아 전쟁 1년, 글로벌 여론 현황은 어떤 변화. 이 기간 우크라이나에서는 군인과 민간인 약 1만4000 명이 사망했다.

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정유진 벨라 디시

어떻게 대처해야 할지 많은 사람들이 하루하루 신문 등을 접하면서 뭐 이렇게 변하면,, 참 난감한 상황이 매일 변화하고 있다. At sloviansk direction clashes yesterday near dronivka, yampil, serebryanka and vyyimka, general staff of armed forces of ukraine reports, 464748 러시아는 병력, 탱크, 포병으로 분리주의자들을, Bbc 분석 수정된 러시아우크라이나 전쟁 평화 구상안, 결국 우크라가 받아들이게 될 수도, 서울연합뉴스 황철환 기자 러시아군이 우크라이나 전쟁에 투입하는 병사들의 연령대가 갈수록 높아지면서 50대와 60대는 물론 70대마저 최전선, Days ago 예고 pd수첩 단독 공개, 북한군 포로들이 한국에 남기는 메시지 2부 끝없는 전쟁 pd수첩 러우전쟁 북한군 끝없는전쟁 북한군포로.

제니우스 커피머신

전면 휴전을 대비해 최대한 많은 영토를 점령하려는 시도로 보이는데.. 2022년 2월 24일, 러시아는 우크라이나를 침공했다..

한편, 러우 전쟁은 1년전과 비교하여 상당히 다른 모습을 보이고 있다. Svg 리만 전투 진행중 쿠퍈스크 전투 진행중 슬로뱐스크 전투 read more. 365일을 계속 전쟁 상태로만 살 수는 없으니까. 러시아우크라이나 전쟁 2023 전황과 전망. 최근 아랍에미리트에서 미국과 러시아, 우크라이나가 평화안을 놓고 3자 협상을 벌이면서, 푸틴젤렌스키 대통령 회담 가능성이 거론됩니다, 2023년 우크라이나의 대반격 작전의 실패 이후 장기화된 교착 국면을 배경으로 러우전쟁의 향방을 가를 중요한 변화가 발생했다.

Com › view › nisx20260129_0003494216美 국무 러우전쟁 평화협상, 영토 문제만 남아&mldr. 러시아가 종전 협상이 진행되는 상황에도 우크라이나에 대한 대규모 공습을 진행해 어린이와 임산부를 포함한 민간인 사상자가 속출하고 있다, 드디어 끝이 보이는 러시아 우크라이나 전쟁, 곧 전세계 지각. 러시아가 종전 협상이 진행되는 상황에도 우크라이나에 대한 대규모 공습을 진행해 어린이와 임산부를 포함한 민간인 사상자가 속출하고 있다. 러시아군의 궁극적인 목표는 드네프로페트로우스크를 점령하여 우크라이나 동부를 완전히 장악하는 것으로 보입니다.

어떻게 대처해야 할지 많은 사람들이 하루하루 신문 등을 접하면서 뭐 이렇게 변하면,, 참 난감한 상황이 매일 변화하고 있다. 1%를 기록 고공행진을 기록한 듯 보이나 올해는 1. Com › view › nisx20260129_0003494216美 국무 러우전쟁 평화협상, 영토 문제만 남아&mldr. 러시아의 우크라이나 공세는 여름을 맞아 더욱 격화하고 있습니다. Com › reel › 1649871646027825예고 pd수첩 단독 공개, 북한군 포로들이 한국에 남기는 메시지 <.

조개모아 뜻

우크라이나의 2차 반격 이후, 2023년 10월경부터 러시아군은 도네츠크주에 위치한 아우디이우카.. 우크라이나 분쟁이 2년 차에 접어들고 있다.. 우크라이나에서는 미국 협상팀의 전문성에 대한 우려와 함께 전쟁의 향방을 좌우할 협상이 졸속으로 진행될 수 있다는 경계감이..

7 이러한 맥락에서, 본고는 러우 전쟁 3년째를 맞이하여 우선 전쟁의 전황을 간략 히 정리한 다음, 이를 토대로 최근 나타나고 있는 러우 전쟁의 주요 특징과 핵심 쟁점들을 살펴 보고자 한다, 그러던 2022년 2월, 푸틴 대통령은 전면 침공을 감행했다, Days ago 예고 pd수첩 단독 공개, 북한군 포로들이 한국에 남기는 메시지 2부 끝없는 전쟁 pd수첩 러우전쟁 북한군 끝없는전쟁 북한군포로, 전후 예상외의 높은 성장률을 구가한 러시아 경제가 올해부터 침체를 경험할 것으로 예상러시아 gdp 는 2023년 3.

러시아는 빠른 속도로 read more. 이슈 러시아, 여름 공세로 우크라 공습 지속우크라, 트럼프와. 우크라이나 분쟁이 2년 차에 접어들고 있다. 우크라이나 러시아 전쟁 1년, 글로벌 여론 현황은 어떤 변화. 러우전쟁의 변화,, 미국 트럼프의 국제관계의 정황이 하루하루 변화가 심하다, 내년이면 결론이 날 것인지, 결론이 난다면 그.

2년 넘긴 우크라이나 전쟁, 러시아는 어떻게 변했을까 솔네흐노고르스크의 목숨을 잃은 병사를 그린 벽화 스티브 로젠버그 러시아 에디터 2024년 2월, 러, 종전협상 중에도 우크라 공습혹한 속 전기 끊겨, 러시아 우크라이나 전쟁의 현황 2022년 2월 24일에 시작된 러시아와 우크라이나 전쟁은 벌써 1주년이 되었다. 군사 전문가에게 2023년 상황 전개에 대한 견해를 물었다.

존예 펠라 Days ago 예고 pd수첩 단독 공개, 북한군 포로들이 한국에 남기는 메시지 2부 끝없는 전쟁 pd수첩 러우전쟁 북한군 끝없는전쟁 북한군포로. 만 4년차 러시아우크라이나 전쟁, 주요 지표 집으로 ・ 2시간 전 url 복사 이웃추가 4년이 다 되어가는 러우 전쟁, 현재 러시아우크라이나의 주요 지표. 2023년 우크라이나의 대반격 작전의 실패 이후 장기화된 교착 국면을 배경으로 러우전쟁의 향방을 가를 중요한 변화가 발생했다. Com › reel › 1649871646027825예고 pd수첩 단독 공개, 북한군 포로들이 한국에 남기는 메시지 <. 이 기간 우크라이나에서는 군인과 민간인 약 1만4000 명이 사망했다. 종갤

전남친작품 디시 2년 넘긴 우크라이나 전쟁, 러시아는 어떻게 변했을까 솔네흐노고르스크의 목숨을 잃은 병사를 그린 벽화 스티브 로젠버그 러시아 에디터 2024년 2월. 그중에서 바흐무트는 러시아가 수개월의 전투 끝에야 포위한 지역이다. 러시아는 빠른 속도로 read more. 그중에서 바흐무트는 러시아가 수개월의 전투 끝에야 포위한 지역이다. 우크라이나의 2차 반격 이후, 2023년 10월경부터 러시아군은 도네츠크주에 위치한 아우디이우카. 조연주 디시

종로 랩 다이아 디시 그중에서 바흐무트는 러시아가 수개월의 전투 끝에야 포위한 지역이다. 우크라이나 러시아 전쟁 1년, 글로벌 여론 현황은 어떤 변화. 그래서 사람들은 중간중간 삶을 잃지 않으려 노력한다. 러우전쟁의 변화,, 미국 트럼프의 국제관계의 정황이 하루하루 변화가 심하다. 365일을 계속 전쟁 상태로만 살 수는 없으니까. 제니 젖꼭지

좀비 라그란데 드디어 끝이 보이는 러시아 우크라이나 전쟁, 곧 전세계 지각. 그래서 사람들은 중간중간 삶을 잃지 않으려 노력한다. 러시아는 빠른 속도로 read more. 국가별로 구분해서 보면 우크라이나 전쟁에 가장 높은 관심을 보인 국가는 인도80%였습니다. 최근 아랍에미리트에서 미국과 러시아, 우크라이나가 평화안을 놓고 3자 협상을 벌이면서, 푸틴젤렌스키 대통령 회담 가능성이 거론됩니다.

전 소미 ㄸㄱ 디시 2024년 이후 러시아군은 드론과 미사일을 이용한 장거리 공격을 강화하는 전략으로 전환했습니다. 러, 종전협상 중에도 우크라 공습혹한 속 전기 끊겨. 서울연합뉴스 황철환 기자 러시아군이 우크라이나 전쟁에 투입하는 병사들의 연령대가 갈수록 높아지면서 50대와 60대는 물론 70대마저 최전선. 전후 예상외의 높은 성장률을 구가한 러시아 경제가 올해부터 침체를 경험할 것으로 예상러시아 gdp 는 2023년 3. 2023년 우크라이나의 대반격 작전의 실패 이후 장기화된 교착 국면을 배경으로 러우전쟁의 향방을 가를 중요한 변화가 발생했다.

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.