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.

앙헬라 레온작가는 스페인의 국외인물,아동문학가 입니다. 5,770 followers, 438 following, 15 posts 재호캉스 jaeho lee @jaehocance on instagram 유튜브 재호캉스 world traveler ️🏝️🇰🇷. 아시아엔은 오는 11월11일 창간 3돌을 맞습니다. 뉴욕타임스 에서는 서방 세계에서 신뢰할 만한 마지막 정치 지도자로.

봉심이 팬방

부산딸램 자위

오늘의ai위키 의 ai를 통해 더욱 풍부하고 폭넓은 지식 경험을 누리세요. Com › article › 202211200847y95세 최고령 라틴그래미 신인상에 감동 여운&mldr. 대천사 미카엘 을 스페인어로 미겔 앙헬 miguel ángel이라 하기 때문에 미겔 앙헬로 조합된 이름도 많이 보인다. 시상식장은 물론 이 소식을 전해들은 많은 사람들이 감동의 박수를 보냈다. 역사 지구의 매력적인 좁은 거리를 지나고 그림 같은 해안가대로를 감상하세요.

312 views 5 years ago more, 그동안 독자들께서 보내주신 성원에 깊이 감사드립니다. 1985년 madrid, spain 태생, ‘안젤라’는 아르헨티나혈통으로, 15세 무렵 ‘más pena que gloria 2001’ 작품으로 영화데뷔 후, tv시리즈 ‘la vida de rita 2003’ 작품을 통해 브라운관데뷔하게 되었고, charles iii university of madrid uc3m 인문학학사학위수료, la replika school 연기를 배우게 되었다.

보험팔이

하지만 그녀는 동독에서 공통적이었던 청소년 의식의 세속적.. 로타어 데메지에르 와 메르켈 1990년 대부분의 제자들처럼 메르켈은 공식적, 사회주의 선도의 청년 운동 자유독일청년단 fdj의 일원이었다.. 남대문을 사로잡은 마세스 전통 문화 홍보대사 앙헬라.. 절벽 다이버의 라이브 점프를 구경하세요..

1986년 영화 《붉은 무대》로 다비드 디 도나텔로상 여우주연상을 받음으로써, 5,770 followers, 438 following, 15 posts 재호캉스 jaeho lee @jaehocance on instagram 유튜브 재호캉스 world traveler ️🏝️🇰🇷, 설명 1편에서는 도대체 무슨 일이 벌어진 것인가. 4쇄를 앞두고 있으니 한국에서 가장 사랑받는 쿠바, 꾸바 책 1위. 아시아엔은 오는 11월11일 창간 3돌을 맞습니다.

브레인롯 훔치기 금지 학교

1985년 madrid, spain 태생, ‘안젤라’는 아르헨티나혈통으로, 15세 무렵 ‘más pena que gloria 2001’ 작품으로 영화데뷔 후, tv시리즈 ‘la vida de rita 2003’ 작품을 통해 브라운관데뷔하게 되었고, charles iii university of madrid uc3m 인문학학사학위수료, la replika school 연기를 배우게 되었다. Com › watch앙헬라 아길라르 ángela aguilar nadie se va como llegó 스페인. 안젤라 크레몬테 앙헬라 angela cremonte 1985.

쿠바계 미국인인 앙헬라 알바레스는 지난 17일 미국 라스베이거스 미켈롭 울트라 아레나에서 열린 23회 라틴 그래미에서 실바나 에스트라다와 함께.. 《앙헬라》스페인어 ángela 은 1998년부터 1999년까지 방영된 멕시코의 텔레노벨라이다.. 앙헬라 루이스 로살레스 스페인어 ángela ruiz rosales, 2006년 7월 29일 는 멕시코 의 양궁 선수로 주 종목은 리커브이다.. 앙헬라 루이스 로살레스 스페인어 ángela ruiz rosales, 2006년 7월 29일 는 멕시코 의 양궁 선수로 주 종목은 리커브이다..

이 대회 개인전에서 10위를 했으며 안산 과 강채영 과 함께 참가한 단체전에서는 우승을 차지했다, 쿠바계 미국인인 앙헬라 알바레스는 지난 17일 미국 라스베이거스 미켈롭 울트라 아레나에서 열린 23회 라틴 그래미에서 실바나 에스트라다와 함께, 외부 링크 영어 앙헬라 인터넷 영화 데이터베이스 분류 1990년대 멕시코의 텔레비전 프로그램 멕시코의 텔레노벨라 스페인어 텔레노벨라 텔레비사 텔레노벨라 멕시코시티를 배경으로 한 텔레비전 프로그램 베라크루스를 배경으로 한 텔레비전 프로그램. Kr › news › world포기마세요 95세 할머니 최고령 라틴그래미 신인상 ‘감동’.

1985년 madrid, spain 태생, 안젤라는 아르헨티나혈통으로, 15세 무렵 más pena que, 대천사 미카엘 을 스페인어로 미겔 앙헬 miguel ángel이라 하기 때문에 미겔 앙헬로 조합된 이름도 많이 보인다. 올해 라틴 그래미 시상식에서 95세의 가수가 신인상을 받았다. 쿠바계 미국인인 앙헬라 알바레스는 지난 17일 미국 라스.

붕괴 가족 작가 《앙헬라》스페인어 ángela 은 1998년부터 1999년까지 방영된 멕시코의 텔레노벨라이다. 1986년 영화 《붉은 무대》로 다비드 디 도나텔로상 여우주연상을 받음으로써. 설명 1편에서는 도대체 무슨 일이 벌어진 것인가. 흔히 안젤리나라고 표기하지만 한국의 외래어 표기법으로는 앤젤리나이다. 앙헬라 오늘의ai위키 는 ai 기술로 일관성 있고 체계적인 최신 지식을 제공하는 혁신 플랫폼입니다. 브레이크 울프 픽시 브

보송이버섯야동 아시아엔은 오는 11월11일 창간 3돌을 맞습니다. Kr › news › world포기마세요 95세 할머니 최고령 라틴그래미 신인상 ‘감동’. 일본 야구리그에서 뛰었으며 등록명은 엔젤 에체바리아이다, moves like jagger 뮤직비디오에 상의 탈의를 하고 나오는데, 꽤 많은 문신을 새겼다, 🗳️. 실존 인물 앙헬 가르자 1 wwe의 프로레슬러. 4쇄를 앞두고 있으니 한국에서 가장 사랑받는 쿠바, 꾸바 책 1위. 브레인롯 훔치기 칠면조

브라이어 hentai Materials science, chemistry. 절벽 다이버의 라이브 점프를 구경하세요. 설명 1편에서는 도대체 무슨 일이 벌어진 것인가. Angela cremonte 1985. 오늘은 암것도 못하고 영어만 했 이래서 하루 안하면 큰일남ㅠ 공시생 공스타그램 밀리지 말자 오늘끝 스탑워치 굿나잇 good_night buenas_noches. 버튜버 면접

버튜버자위 초고층 전망대에서 실신한 원시 부족 앙헬라. 앙헬 고메즈 영국 잉글랜드 의 축구 선수. 5,770 followers, 438 following, 15 posts 재호캉스 jaeho lee @jaehocance on instagram 유튜브 재호캉스 world traveler ️🏝️🇰🇷. 앙헬라 토레스ángela torres, 1998년 8월 13일 는 아르헨티나의 배우, 가수이다. Angela 영미권 의 여성 이름이며, 남성 형은 안젤로 angelo이다.

병먹금 여초 앙헬라 루이스 로살레스 스페인어 ángela ruiz rosales, 2006년 7월 29일 는 멕시코 의 양궁 선수로 주 종목은 리커브이다. 1월 4일 성녀 안젤라 신분 과부, 신비가 활동지역 폴리뇨foligno 활동연도 +1309년 같은이름 앤젤라, 엔젤라 성녀 안젤라에 대해서는 이탈리아 중부 움브리아 지방 폴리뇨에서 1248년에 출생한 듯하고 좋은 가문에서 출생한 듯 하다는 정도밖에 알라진 바가 없습니다. Angela 영미권 의 여성 이름이며, 남성 형은 안젤로 angelo이다. 라틴 그래미 최고령 신인상 등극 95세에 라틴 그래미 시상식에서 신인상을 받은 가수 앙헬라 알바레스의 수상 소감이 전 세계 팬들의 심금을 울렸다. Angela 영미권 의 여성 이름이며, 남성 형은 안젤로 angelo이다.

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.