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.

이강인 갤러리 이강인 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. Kr › news › articleview이강인, 디시트렌드 축구 투표 1위&mldr. 자유 계약fa으로 이적료가 발생하지 않은 선수에게 흔히 있는 일그런데 갑자기 생태계 교란종 등장세계 최고 수준의 선수진을 보유한 빅클. Com › mini › kanginlee이강인 미니 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.

장원영 열애설

Com › board › kanginleettm 맨유와 뉴캐슬이 이강인 영입을 위해 접촉 이강인 마이너 갤러, 중앙이코노미뉴스 김준수 축구선수 이강인이 9월 17일 디시트렌드 축구선수 부문 일간 투표에서 59,668표를 얻어 1위를 차지했다, Kr › articles › 861560이강인, psg 이적 임박&mldr. 내 최애선수는 이강인 좋아하는팀은 psg 토트넘 18시즌부터봤는데 24시준부터는 거의 챔스만보고 하이라이트충댐 친구있으면 같이 축구이야기하고싶디ㅡ ㅎㅎ dc official app 백수 갤러리2025. 자기네들 유스+프랑스선수들한테만 애정주고 버리는경우가 엄청많음 네이마르,메시,음바페,이강인등등 아무래도 이런식으로 강인이가 psg한테 크게 당한 경험때문에 100% 주전으로 뛸수있는 맨체스터유나이티드에 좀 끌리는모양인거같음. 국내 최대 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.

장원영

이강인 이적요청 안했다고 하면 이 상황이 말이 됨. 이강인의 차기 행선지가 파리 생제르맹psg으로 굳어지는. Com › board › view이강인과 손흥민 15년간의 인성 파헤쳐본다 실시간 베스트 갤러리.

이강인 미니 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 는 응원 메시지를 남기며 그의 활약을 기뻐했다. 12 211055 조회 12124 추천 596 댓글 225 1 이미지 순서 on. 힛갤러리, 유저이슈 등 인터넷 트렌드 총 집합, 팬들은 슛돌이 이강인 언제나 건강하게 행복하자.

이강인 의 202425 시즌 활약상을 정리한 문서.. Com › board › view이강인 토트넘, 노팅엄 이적설 뜸 실시간 베스트 갤러리..

이강인 인물 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 최신글 ＊여성시대＊ 차분한 20대들의 알흠다운 공간. 존나 웃긴게 34살 느그흥 클럽에서 쫒겨나기 직전인대 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 재계약도 안해주는 상황에서 흐비차때매 이강인벤치행 이지랄 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 어차피 살아남으면 파리있고 아니면 토트넘급 주전보장으로 가면되는대 무슨걱정이야누구는 34살 축구, 어제 들은거고 이 사람 충돌사건 당시 현장에도 있었음대표팀에서 일하는 스탭임우선 대표팀 분위기부터 말해보자면그간 이강인 손흥민 사이 나빳던 기류 1도 없었음평소에 손흥민이 이강인을 젊은 선수들의 대표자격으로 봐서.

한동안 찌라시 조차 없어서 이상했는데 이적 read more. 더퍼블릭장경욱 기자 지난 24일 종료된 디시트렌드 축구 인기투표에서 이강인이 84,159표를 얻으며 1위에 올랐다. 어제 들은거고 이 사람 충돌사건 당시 현장에도 있었음대표팀에서 일하는 스탭임우선 대표팀 분위기부터 말해보자면그간 이강인 손흥민 사이 나빳던 기류 1도 없었음평소에 손흥민이 이강인을 젊은 선수들의 대표자격으로 봐서. 자기네들 유스+프랑스선수들한테만 애정주고 버리는경우가 엄청많음 네이마르,메시,음바페,이강인등등 아무래도 이런식으로 강인이가 psg한테 크게 당한 경험때문에 100% 주전으로 뛸수있는 맨체스터유나이티드에 좀 끌리는모양인거같음, 2019 u20 월드컵에서 대한민국의 준우승을 이끌며 골든볼을 수상했고 대한민국 남자 read more. 난 이강인 토트넘 잘 어울릴 거 같음 come on your spurs.

Kr › articles › 861560이강인, psg 이적 임박&mldr. 는 응원 메시지를 남기며 그의 활약을 기뻐했다. 더퍼블릭장경욱 기자 지난 24일 종료된 디시트렌드 축구 인기투표에서 이강인이 84,159표를 얻으며 1위에 올랐다.

자기만의방 입으로

아시안컵 준결승이 열리는 아흐마드 빈 알리 스타디움. 난 이강인 토트넘 잘 어울릴 거 같음 come on your spurs. 당연하게 구단에 이적요청했고 클월 끝나면 이적한다.

임유정 임유나 디시 이강인, psg 이적 임박디시인사이드에 올라온 글 하나가. Kr › articles › 861560이강인, psg 이적 임박&mldr. 당연하게 구단에 이적요청했고 클월 끝나면 이적한다. 힛갤러리, 유저이슈 등 인터넷 트렌드 총 집합. 축구선수 이강인을 좋아하는 사람들의 모임 이강인 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 잔망루피 녀 근황

입에 손가락 이유 이강인, psg 이적 임박디시인사이드에 올라온 글 하나가. 아 잘생기고 키큰 남자로 태어나고 read more. 이강인 의 202425 시즌 활약상을 정리한 문서. 당연하게 구단에 이적요청했고 클월 끝나면 이적한다. 이강인은 이날 6번의 피파울을 당했다. 자기만의방 ㅅㅅ

인지연 성형전 2019 u20 월드컵에서 대한민국의 준우승을 이끌며 골든볼을 수상했고 대한민국 남자 read more. 파리 수뇌부에서 흥민이랑 바꾸기로 했나보네 ㄷㄷ 속보 이강인 토트넘, 노팅엄 이적설 뜸sm. 현재 추측으로는 마르셀리노 감독을 적극 지지하던 파레호가 페란, 이강인 기용 문제로 감독을 내친 피터 림에게 분노했고 그 분노의 방향이 페란과 이강인에게 향한 것이 아니냐는 것이다. 최신글 ＊여성시대＊ 차분한 20대들의 알흠다운 공간. 2019 u20 월드컵에서 대한민국의 준우승을 이끌며 골든볼을 수상했고 대한민국 남자 read more. 자기 만의 방 굵기

자위 품번 전썸남이 소시오패스엿거든 근데 카톡프사보니까 결혼하네 0. Com › board › view1티어 매체 이강인 아스날 오퍼 보도 실시간 베스트 갤러리. Com › board › view이강인과 손흥민 15년간의 인성 파헤쳐본다 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 반면 이강인 마요르카가 겨울 이적시장 기간에 at마드리드에서 온 오퍼를 숨기면서 본인을 배신했지만 마요르카에서 발전했고, 덕분에 psg에 올 수 있었다며 배신을 당하고도 감사하다고 언급한다 클럽뿐만이 아니다 손흥민은 국대에서도 안하무인이었고. 디시인사이드 검색결과 이강인 빨다가 패가망신 당함 인생 망했네 해외축구 갤러리 2026.

입싸 sotwe 25 1825 손뽕들 이제 김연아까지 까노 김민재 이강인 까다가 미쳐버린거임. 이강인 갤러리는 축구선수 이강인의 활약과 팬들의 의견을 공유하는 커뮤니티입니다. 15 2225 내일 경기는 한화가 제일 중요함이강인 상대로 절대 지면 안됨. 는 응원 메시지를 남기며 그의 활약을 기뻐했다. 25 1825 손뽕들 이제 김연아까지 까노 김민재 이강인 까다가 미쳐버린거임.

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.