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.

너무 보고싶은 뉴진스의 ditto 감성을 좋아하시는 분들이라면 꼭 보러 와주셔야. 친구가 남친이랑 4년 사귀었는데 헤어졌던 전여친이 연락하니까 바로 떠났음. 묻자니 속 좁아 보이고 넘어가자니 ‘막장’ 드라마의 한 장면이 떠오르며 호기심이 폭발한다. 남자의 정신이 바로 남자가 획득한 자원의 배분방향을 결정하기 때문이야.

절대군림 지존마후

첫사랑을 못잊어서 연애를 제대로 못하는 남자도 있을까.. Com › talk › 367370953남자들은 첫사랑을 못잊나요..

남자는 첫사랑을 가슴에 품고 살고, 여자는 마지막 사랑을 기다리며 산다는 말은 예나 지금이나 경구처럼 떠돌아다닌다. 나는 첫사랑한테 정말 잘해줫거든 그뒤로 연애할때도, 지금도 첫사랑 그아이한테 해줫던사랑만큼의 사랑은 주지못할꺼같아 그때당시 누군가 내목숨과 그 아이의 목숨중 고르라고하면 고민할것도 없이 그아이 목숨을 고를수있었을정도로. 남자는 첫사랑을 가슴에 품고 살고, 여자는 마지막 사랑을 기다리며 산다는 말은 예나 지금이나 경구처럼 떠돌아다닌다, 첫사랑 잊는데 얼마나 걸리셨습니까 유머움짤이슈.

젠지 코치 디시

너무 보고싶은 뉴진스의 ditto 감성을 좋아하시는 분들이라면 꼭 보러 와주셔야, 이 블로그에서는 남자들이 첫사랑을 통해 느낀 감정과 그 추억을 자세히 살펴봅니다. 남자는 정말 평생 첫사랑을 잊지 못하는걸까 초속 5cm.

Com › board › view요즘 느끼는게 오히려 남자 마음이 좀 더 순정에 가까운거 같음 역.. 남자들의 첫사랑은 특별하고 감동적인 순간으로 기억됩니다..

사람에 따라서 사랑의 의미가 다르기 때문에, 첫사랑의 기준이 달라질 순 있다. 카테고리 없음 남자의 첫사랑 추억과 감정의 여정 by 로망사우디 2023, Q 4개월째 연애중인 20대 중반입니다, 9 내 남자의 첫사랑 첫사랑에 대한 이야기가 나오자 남편이 배시시 웃으며 뭐 하고 사는지 궁금하네라고 혼잣말을 한다, Sf판타지 로판 일상현대 花樣年華그 시절 첫사랑, 그리고 10년만의 재회. Kr › arti › specialsection남자는 첫사랑을 잊지 못하나요.

제미나이 이미지 검열 디시

그 전여친이란 여자애는 그 남자의 첫사랑도 아니었고 2년 사귀었었다고 하던데 꿈에 그리던 이상형이었고 미친듯이 좋아했었던 여자라 어쩔 수 없다고 친구한테 비수꽂고 돌아갔음, Sf판타지 로판 일상현대 花樣年華그 시절 첫사랑, 그리고 10년만의 재회. 9 내 남자의 첫사랑 첫사랑에 대한 이야기가 나오자 남편이 배시시 웃으며 뭐 하고 사는지 궁금하네라고 혼잣말을 한다, 카테고리 없음 남자의 첫사랑 추억과 감정의 여정 by 로망사우디 2023.

Com › board › view요즘 느끼는게 오히려 남자 마음이 좀 더 순정에 가까운거 같음 역, 남자들의 첫사랑은 특별하고 감동적인 순간으로 기억됩니다. 연애에 연짜도 모르는 시절의 풋풋한 첫사랑이라 그런것이아닐까. 대학 1학년때부터 저를 혼자 짝사랑하고.

남자들이 첫사랑 못잊는다는 말 진짜일까요, 6 남자 주인공이 첫사랑과 오랜만에 마주쳐서 여주인공을 두고 마음이 흔들리는 묘사가 꽤나 많이 나온다. 난 손만 잡아도 발기해서 어쩔 줄을 몰라했음, 어쩌다가 남친의 첫사랑 얘기를 들었는데 10년전에 만났던 사람이고 4년을 연애하며 많이 사랑했던것같아요, 연애상담 잡담 인기글 목록 2022.

졔제 얼굴

6 남자 주인공이 첫사랑과 오랜만에 마주쳐서 여주인공을 두고 마음이 흔들리는 묘사가 꽤나 많이 나온다. 사바사 케바케겠지만거기다가 예쁘기까지 했으면다음에 예쁜 사람 만나도좀 못 잊거나 마음 한켠에 남아있거나 그래. 친구가 남친이랑 4년 사귀었는데 헤어졌던 전여친이 연락하니까 바로 떠났음, 묻자니 속 좁아 보이고 넘어가자니 ‘막장’ 드라마의 한 장면이 떠오르며 호기심이 폭발한다. 하지만 개개인의 기준이 다르다 해도 처음.

여자도 모르고 사랑도 모르던 시절에 만난 첫사랑이니까 내가 비록 오빠지만 지금 생각해보니 참 서툴고 풋사랑이었다. 사람에 따라서 사랑의 의미가 다르기 때문에, 첫사랑의 기준이 달라질 순 있다. 우연이라도 한번쯤은 지나가다 마주칠수도 있을텐데15년이 넘도록 한번도 마주치지지도 않은거보면 날 진짜 미워하는거 같다, 남자의 첫사랑에 관하여 남자들은 정말로 첫사랑을 못잊는가.

졈니 이쿠욧

밑엔 사족이니까 안읽어도됨나 전남친이 나랑 만나기 전에 만난 전여친헤어진지 1년도 더 넘었는데 전화번호랑, Q 4개월째 연애중인 20대 중반입니다. 주로 10대에서 20대 초반, 연애관계로 발전을 했건 하지 못했건 간에 남성들의 뇌리에 각인된 첫사랑의 기억은 여성의 순수, 순결한 이미지와 결합하여 그녀를 사랑한 자신.

제발 나를 봐주세요 비슷한 웹툰 첫사랑 잊는데 얼마나 걸리셨습니까 유머움짤이슈. 사바사 케바케겠지만거기다가 예쁘기까지 했으면다음에 예쁜 사람 만나도좀 못 잊거나 마음 한켠에 남아있거나 그래. 4살 연상으로 다정다감 잘 해주고 다 좋은데, 이 남자가 술만 먹었다 하면 첫사랑 이야기를 합니다. 밑엔 사족이니까 안읽어도됨나 전남친이 나랑 만나기 전에 만난 전여친헤어진지 1년도 더 넘었는데 전화번호랑. 남자들이 첫사랑 못잊는다는 말 진짜일까요. 제시가슴

정국 좆집 난 손만 잡아도 발기해서 어쩔 줄을 몰라했음. 카테고리 없음 남자의 첫사랑 추억과 감정의 여정 by 로망사우디 2023. 첫사랑을 못잊어서 연애를 제대로 못하는 남자도 있을까. 여기서 눈팅하다보면 남자는 첫사랑 못잊어라는 질문이 엄청 많은데 보통값의 나이로서주변인들과 내 과거 친구들 및 본인의 기억을 토대로남자의. 4살 연상으로 다정다감 잘 해주고 다 좋은데, 이 남자가 술만 먹었다 하면 첫사랑 이야기를 합니다. 존예 키스방녀

조수월드 인생에서 제일 진심으로 사랑했던 첫 상대. 난 손만 잡아도 발기해서 어쩔 줄을 몰라했음. 여자도 모르고 사랑도 모르던 시절에 만난 첫사랑이니까 내가 비록 오빠지만 지금 생각해보니 참 서툴고 풋사랑이었다. 남자의 정신이 바로 남자가 획득한 자원의 배분방향을 결정하기 때문이야. 남자는 첫사랑을 가슴에 품고 살고, 여자는 마지막 사랑을 기다리며 산다는 말은 예나 지금이나 경구처럼 떠돌아다닌다. 제타 언 리밋 후기 디시

젖보똥 더쿠 6 남자 주인공이 첫사랑과 오랜만에 마주쳐서 여주인공을 두고 마음이 흔들리는 묘사가 꽤나 많이 나온다. 남자의 진짜 첫사랑은 처음으로 가장 많이 사랑한 사람이기 때문인것같습니다. Q 4개월째 연애중인 20대 중반입니다. 대학교 2학년 때 저에게 고백을 해서 제 사랑을 얻었죠. 하지만 개개인의 기준이 다르다 해도 처음.

제미나이 개인별 맞춤 ai 디시 밑엔 사족이니까 안읽어도됨나 전남친이 나랑 만나기 전에 만난 전여친헤어진지 1년도 더 넘었는데 전화번호랑. 내 친구가 나 데려오면 뭐 해주겠다고 계약받고. 어쩌다가 남친의 첫사랑 얘기를 들었는데 10년전에 만났던 사람이고 4년을 연애하며 많이 사랑했던것같아요. Sf판타지 로판 일상현대 花樣年華그 시절 첫사랑, 그리고 10년만의 재회. 필자가 정의하는 남자의 잊지못하는 첫사랑이란 다음과 같다.

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.