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.

수직으로 떨어지는 드롭 슬라이드부터 천장과 맞닿아 있는 로프 코스까지. 어른들 입장료는 음료값으로,ㅋㅋ 단 3천원 짜리만. 딸아이가 놀이터에 쉽게 흥미를 잃게 되었습니다. 어른이들 모여라 어른이를 위한 놀이터 추천.

수직으로 떨어지는 드롭 슬라이드부터 천장과 맞닿아 있는 로프 코스까지.. 어른들의 놀이터 @adult_kor instagram photos and videos..

Mnimzi 망구

이런 스트레스들은 실컷 놀면서 푸는 것이 정석.. 그 마음을 받아 아이들만큼 반짝이는 눈빛을 보내는 어른들에게 이야기를 시작했다.. 팽이치기, 공기놀이, 딱지치기 등 추억놀이 대회를 개최하여 최고의 어른이놀이왕을 가리는 축제에요.. 베이식, 익사이팅, 어드벤처, 디지털 네 가지 존으로 나뉘어 다양한 액티비티를 경험할 수 있다..

Minasimp Socialmediagirls

어디에서도 경험하지 못한 실내 짚라인과 로프코스, 시민교육이라는 영역을 개척하고 그 안에 다양한 장르를 디자인해온 주은경. 메자닌 영화관 어른과 아이 모두를 위한 레고방 유쾌한 악기 연습실 집중력을 높여주는 피규어룸 작은 공간에 만드는 피트니스 몸과 마음을 녹이는 히노끼탕 집 안에 만드는 pc방 고요한 휴식, 요가룸 손을 놀리는 놀이터, 수작업방 음료는 즐기는 당신을 위해. 어른들의 놀이터라고 부르는 스포츠 몬스터에 다녀왔어요, 팽이치기, 공기놀이, 딱지치기 등 추억놀이 대회를 개최하여 최고의 어른이놀이왕을 가리는 축제에요, 어린이들에게 키즈카페가 있다면 어른들에게는 스포츠 몬스터가 있어요.

어른들이 놀이터에서 노는 거, 사회적으로 용납되어야 해. 동막골 찜질방+ 친구들 놀러와서 숙취 푸는데 최고ㅎㅎㅎ 장작불 활활 타올라 뜨끈뜨끈 죽여줍니다 전곡에서 연천을 가다보면 보이는 어른들의 디즈니랜드. 하고 싶은 것 테니스치기, 피아노배우기, 뜨개질, 그림그리기, 1주일1뮤지컬, 비행기타기, 바이올린배우기, 인형만들기, 스킨스쿠버배우기, read more. 스포츠와 엔터테인먼트를 결합한 세계 최초 스포츠 놀이 문화공간 스포츠몬스터는 하남, 고양, 안성 스타필드 세 곳에서 찾아갈 수 있다. 하며 내민 봉지에는 모두가 저녁으로 먹기에 충분한 먹을거리가 들어 있었다. 스타필드 수원 가신다면 무조건 한 번 체험해 보세요.

다음 날 5시, 놀이터 탁자로 어른들이 봉지를 들고 하나둘 모여들었다, 이런 스트레스들은 실컷 놀면서 푸는 것이 정석, 악어는 본인이 놀다가 질리면 종료될 예정이라고 했다.

Kr › @younghealer › 402. prologue blog daily my love food guest day by day 332개의 글 목록열기. Log in open app adult_kors profile picture. 저녁마다 놀이터에서 만나는 어른들에게 역사 특강을 하겠다고 큰소리쳤다. 어른인데도 여전히 어린 시절의 감성과 즐거움을 기억하고 이를 추구하는 ‘키덜트족 아이 kid와 어른 adult의 합성어’이 늘고 있다.

딸아이가 놀이터에 쉽게 흥미를 잃게 되었습니다, 어라운드폴리는 어른들의 놀이터, 놀이공원이다, 스트레스 날려버리자 회사생활로 지친 어른들, 시험에 지친 대학생들 성인을 위한, 즉 어른을 위한 놀이터가 있습니다, 성동구 왕십리도선동에 ‘도선어린이공원’이 아이들의 모험심을 키우고 개성 넘치는 놀이기구를 겸비한 ‘어린이 모험놀이터’로 탈바꿈하여 11월 5일 개장하였습니다.

🧑🏼어른을 위한 놀이터가 있단 얘기 들어봤니, 당초 악어 본인이 즐기려고 제작한 서버라서 악어의 놀이터라는 이름이다, 수직으로 떨어지는 드롭 슬라이드부터 천장과 맞닿아 있는 로프 코스까지.

어른들을 위한 신개념 놀이터, smob 추천합니다, 저녁마다 놀이터에서 만나는 어른들에게 역사 특강을 하겠다고 큰소리쳤다. 호모 루덴스 homo ludens를 주창한 네덜란드의 역사학자 요한 하위징아 johan huizinga의 주장을 시작으로 놀이는 문화적 학습과 전파에 중요한 배경 또는 매개물로 이해되기 시작했다.

Minbody

바깥과 명확하게 구분된 리셉션을 통과하면, 어른들을 위한 고급스러운 놀이기구가 곳곳에서 기다리고 있다. Kr › @younghealer › 402. Prologue blog 사장님 제휴문의 데이트팝 추천 이색적인 여행맛집 300개의 글 목록열기. 성동구 왕십리도선동에 ‘도선어린이공원’이 아이들의 모험심을 키우고 개성 넘치는 놀이기구를 겸비한 ‘어린이 모험놀이터’로 탈바꿈하여 11월 5일 개장하였습니다. Kr › @stayfolio › 230어른들의 놀이터 브런치.

myfans 영상 당초 악어 본인이 즐기려고 제작한 서버라서 악어의 놀이터라는 이름이다. ⠀ 수직 낙하하는 버티컬 드롭 슬라이드 장애물을 피해. 어린이들에게 키즈카페가 있다면 어른들에게는 스포츠 몬스터가 있어요. Kr › @rayejin › 5어른 놀이문화애들처럼 논다, 스트레스 확 날린다. 어디에서도 경험하지 못한 실내 짚라인과 로프코스. mma 3개월 디시

missav fns-157 이런 스트레스들은 실컷 놀면서 푸는 것이 정석. 하고 싶은 것 테니스치기, 피아노배우기, 뜨개질, 그림그리기, 1주일1뮤지컬, 비행기타기, 바이올린배우기, 인형만들기, 스킨스쿠버배우기, read more. 수직으로 떨어지는 드롭 슬라이드부터 천장과 맞닿아 있는 로프 코스까지. 악어는 본인이 놀다가 질리면 종료될 예정이라고 했다. 성동구 왕십리도선동에 ‘도선어린이공원’이 아이들의 모험심을 키우고 개성 넘치는 놀이기구를 겸비한 ‘어린이 모험놀이터’로 탈바꿈하여 11월 5일 개장하였습니다. mr deep fakes

missav wnth 어린이들에게 키즈카페가 있다면 어른들에게는 스포츠 몬스터가 있어요. 어른들의 놀이터, 스몹 on instagram 어디서 많이 봤던 이곳. 바로 꿈과 희망의 나라 놀이공원입니다. 바깥과 명확하게 구분된 리셉션을 통과하면, 어른들을 위한 고급스러운 놀이기구가 곳곳에서 기다리고 있다. 어른인데도 여전히 어린 시절의 감성과 즐거움을 기억하고 이를 추구하는 ‘키덜트족 아이 kid와 어른 adult의 합성어’이 늘고 있다. mochinchi kemono

mpga Log in open app adult_kors profile picture. 이미 키덜트들을 위한 놀이터 및 데이트 코스로 유명한 핫플레이스다. 핫클립 아찔함 넘치는 어른 놀이터를 가다 ytn 사이언스. 어른들이 놀이터에서 노는 거, 사회적으로 용납되어야 해. 공기정청기, 가습기, 정수기는 기본으로 어디나 다 갖춰져 있을것 같지만.

mybro webcam 성동구 왕십리도선동에 ‘도선어린이공원’이 아이들의 모험심을 키우고 개성 넘치는 놀이기구를 겸비한 ‘어린이 모험놀이터’로 탈바꿈하여 11월 5일 개장하였습니다. 어른들이 놀이터에서 노는 거, 사회적으로 용납되어야 해. 그때의 자유로움과 순수한 기쁨은 어른이 되면서 점점 멀어져 갑니다. 어른들의 놀이터라고 부르는 스포츠 몬스터에 다녀왔어요. 어른들의 놀이터 @adult_kor instagram photos and videos.

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.