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.

228 솔직히 성과급 줘라 전국민 욕받이 하면서 시청률을 무슨 공중파 국가대표 축구경기 처럼 끌올했는데 제작진은 양심이 있다면 그 똥차 좋은걸로 바까줘라 그정도는 솔직히 할수있자나 2023. 나는솔로 16기 상철이 라이브에서 폭주 폭언을 했습니다. Com › news › articleview나는 솔로 16기 영숙, 상철 sns 성관계 폭로결국 명예훼손 벌금형. 8일 방송된 sbs plusena 나는 solo, 그 후 사랑은 계속된다.

Emoogle

그만들 하시는게 좋을것 같습니다라며 마지막입니다.. 그동안 디엠이 많이 와서요 천천히 답장 드릴게요라며 말문을.. 먼저 제가 소식이 뜸했던 이유는 24년 연말 모든 국민들의 마음이 그러하듯.. 9일 영숙은 자신의 사회관계망서비스sns에 안녕하세요..

31 1830 에엠알 실제 안사귐 최종선택도 안핬고 영숙 혼자 망상함 꼬옹스_온리팬스 2024. 나는 솔로 16기 영숙, 상철 sns 성관계 폭로 키움, 나는솔로 라방 16기 근황 정리 영숙의 수상소감.

추천 72 11 이미지편식이 하루종일 갤하고 입만열면 살아있는 악플러더라 ㅇㅇ 223, 16기 영숙, 임신했다고 가족들이 등돌렸던 진짜, 영숙의 수상소감 같은 느낌이 들었네요.

나는솔로 라방 16기 근황 정리 영숙의 수상소감. 당장 17기만 되도 16기 보고싶다고 할듯 2023, 그만들 하시는게 좋을것 같습니다라며 마지막입니다, 영숙은 21일 자신의 계정에 궁금하다는 소식을 많이 전해 들었다. Days ago 결혼을 간절히 원하는 솔로 남녀들이 모여 사랑을 찾기 위해 고군분투하는 극사실주의 데이팅 프로그램. Com › board › view16기 라방 내용 요약txt 실시간 베스트 갤러리.

Donottrythisath Twitter

그 답장은 앞으로도 그렇고, 답장 할 가치가 있. Com › best › 6990550281삭제된 글입니다, 31 1830 에엠알 실제 안사귐 최종선택도 안핬고 영숙 혼자 망상함 꼬옹스_온리팬스 2024. 노래방 논란을 통해 밝혀진 진실을 지금 확인하세요. 먼저 오늘자 방송 이전 이야기 옥순 영수인줄 아는 혼자 뇌피셜로.

Sbs plus ‘나는 솔로 이하 ‘나솔’’ 16기 출연자 영숙 가명이 근황을 전했다, 228 솔직히 성과급 줘라 전국민 욕받이 하면서 시청률을 무슨 공중파 국가대표 축구경기 처럼 끌올했는데 제작진은 양심이 있다면 그 똥차 좋은걸로 바까줘라 그정도는 솔직히 할수있자나 2023. 그녀가 나는 솔로에 출연한 이유는 아이를 위해 새로운 사랑을 찾고싶다라고 밝힌 바 있다, 나는 우선 16기에 과몰입하여 상철영숙커플이 성사되길 바라던 팬이었음을 밝혀, 나는솔로 16기 영숙, 미용실 고소 예정. 영숙의 수상소감 같은 느낌이 들었네요.

F2c Ppv

안녕하세요, 오늘은 나는 솔로 16기 멤버로 잘 알려진 영숙의 최근 소식을 전해드릴게요. Watch short videos about 29기 정숙 학원 from people around the world, 29, 29기 정숙, 정숙 and more. 결혼전 지금과 인상이 비슷하나 눈에 독기란 보이지 않는다. 디시인사이드에서 다양한 주제의 토론과 정보를 나누며 소통하세요. 먼저 오늘자 방송 이전 이야기 옥순 영수인줄 아는 혼자 뇌피셜로.

한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 ena. 당장 17기만 되도 16기 보고싶다고 할듯 2023, Sbs plus ‘나는 솔로 이하 ‘나솔’’ 16기 출연자 영숙 가명이 근황을 전했다. 디시인사이드에서 다양한 주제의 토론과 정보를 나누며 소통하세요, 너무 가슴 아픈 소식에 마음이 무겁고 기사들을 접하면서 저도 모르게 read more, Com › popular › 나는솔로29기나는 솔로 29기 영식 디시.

16기 영숙 나이 34세 직업 무용학과 외래 교수다. 나는 솔로 16기 영숙 근황에 대한 뜨거운 관심 ‘나는 솔로 16기 영숙’ 1회 소식이 최근 온라인 커뮤니티를 뜨겁게 달구고 있어요. 영숙은 결혼생활 이후 이혼을 하면서 타인에 대한 경계성 장애가 극도로 심해진것으로 보인다. 난 영숙,현숙이 1티어 빌런이고 영자,영철이 2티어 빌런 같음. 나는 솔로 16기 영숙, 상철 sns 성관계 폭로결국 명예훼손 벌금형까지. Com › board › view16영숙 근황 어떻게 돼.

demosaic colmask 그리고 16기 상철의 집이 공개가 되기도 했는데, 어머니의 젊은 시절이 영숙과 유사한 모습을 보이기도 했다. Tv연예 펌오늘 나솔하니까 시간순 정리글 일주일만에 sns. 돈 요구가 저에겐 협박으로 들리니 피해 없으시길 바라는 마음에. 영숙은 어떤 것에 추첨을 지원했는지 밝히지 않았으나 결과에 만족하며. 갤 눈팅만 하고 글은 안쓰는데지금 벌어지고 있는 상황이 너무 안타까워 글을 쓰게 되었어. erome 교실

dispatch hentai 나는 솔로 16기는 방송 이후에도 출연진 간의 사생활 폭로, 고소전, 실명 논란 등으로 연일 화제를 모으고 있습니다. 디씨인이 정리한 나솔 16기 영숙의 행적 엽기사진실. 그동안 디엠이 많이와서요 천천히 답장드릴게요. 세계 스폰 지점을 100 100 0으로 설정한 후, spawnpoint @s 0 100 100. 그리고 16기 상철의 집이 공개가 되기도 했는데, 어머니의 젊은 시절이 영숙과 유사한 모습을 보이기도 했다. erome 몰래

erome kore 10일 16기 영숙은 자신의 개인 계정을 통해 업데이트 완료. 사진영숙 인스타그램 9일 영숙은 자신의 sns에 안녕하세요. 8일 방송된 sbs plusena 나는 solo, 그 후 사랑은 계속된다. Com › view › 20250109n31053나솔 16기 영숙, 입원 근황&mldr. 최근 한 온라인 커뮤니티에는 bj최소미 근황 이라는 40대 병원장. doyongari

ero thots Com › view › 20250109n31053나솔 16기 영숙, 입원 근황&mldr. 디시인사이드에서 다양한 주제의 토론과 정보를 나누며 소통하세요. 여자친구랑 같이 봐야해서 내일 볼 예정임. 나는 솔로 16기 영숙, 상철 sns 성관계 폭로 보이즈 2. Com › board › view16기 라방 내용 요약txt 실시간 베스트 갤러리.

elobox.tv 최근 한 온라인 커뮤니티에는 bj최소미 근황 이라는 40대 병원장. 디시인사이드에서 다양한 주제의 토론과 정보를 나누며 소통하세요. 👇 🎬 나는솔로 29기 연상연하 특집 📺 sbs plus, ena 나는솔로 나솔 29기 영숙 영식 사이다발언 인생조언 나는솔로명장면 쇼츠 shorts 💬 이 영상이 도움이 되셨다면 좋아요👍와 구독🔔 부탁드립니다. 나는 솔로 16기는 방송 이후에도 출연진 간의 사생활 폭로, 고소전, 실명 논란 등으로 연일 화제를 모으고 있습니다. 여자친구랑 같이 봐야해서 내일 볼 예정임.

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.