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.

근데 혼수 오브제 비스포크 완전 비싼거로 하지마라 개후 회함. 대부분 신카들이 무이자할부는 적립안되더라구 지금 갖고잇는게 신한 하이포인트 딥드림, 삼성 탭탭에스인데 대충 사용하고있슴. 블라인드 결혼생활 결혼준비할때 신용카드. 혼수 카드결제 시 카드사에 전화하면 일시적으로 한도 상향해주기 때문에 한도 걱정할 필요 없음.

하랑 라이키

이번에 결혼 준비해서 대충 백화점에서 1000, 신혼여행 1000 + 가전정도 하려고하는데 이왕 큰돈쓰는거 카드 혜택을 뽑고싶은데 뭐가좋을까요.. 난 국민카드 딱2개밖에안쓰는데결혼준비할때 돈왕창쓰니까뭘쓰면 좋은가해서국민으로만 썼으묜 국민카드에서 하는게낫나아님 현대카드 핑크.. Com › ayy2011 › 223757238412결혼준비 결혼준비 신용카드 추천 & 혼수가전구매 꿀팁 총정리 202..

하지원 사주 디시

특히 신용카드 소득공제 한도 최대 250300만원을 초과할 것으로 예상된다면, 소득이 높은 사람으로 모는 것도 괜찮다, 전월 실적 없는 카드부터 항공권 마일리지까지 신혼부부에게 꼭 필요한 실속 카드 정보만 모아 비교했습니다, 혼수가전, 렌탈, 신혼여행까지 카드 하나로 예산을 절약할 수 있습니다.

왜냐면, 카드사는 우리를 고객으로 유지하기 위해 혜택을 조금 더 줄테니까요, 마지막으로, 혼수 신용카드를 사용한 후에는 항상 지출을 점검해야 해요, Com › beenduty5 › 223709425119결혼준비 chapter 2.

가전을 사려고 하는데 신혼부부 프로모션하는 카드가 있을까요, Com › board › viewlg전자 천만원어치 혼수 할건데 어디카드 만들어야함. 높은 포인트 적립률 프리미엄 쇼핑 영역에서 5% m포인트 적립 온오프라인 백화점, 아웃렛, 면세점, 패션, 잡화, 명품 매장에서의. 근데 혼수 오브제 비스포크 완전 비싼거로 하지마라 개후 회함. 신혼여행으로 2000 사용 예정이고, 혼수로 약 5000 생각하고 있는데 어떤 카드를 사용하면 좋을까요.

Com › beenduty5 › 223709425119결혼준비 chapter 2. 현대카드 더 핑크의 혜택 몰아보기 현대카드 더 핑크는 적립형 신용카드에요 기본 적립은 국내외 가맹점에서 1% m포인트적립 100만원 이상 이용시 1. 마일리지 혜택이 가득한 신용카드 6종 안녕하세요 시소럽입니다 결혼 준비를 하며 신혼부부나 예비 부부. 신혼여행으로 2000 사용 예정이고, 혼수로 약 5000 생각하고 있는데 어떤 카드를 사용하면 좋을까요.

기본빵은 토와고, 혼수고려라면 로카프로도 무난함. 현아플은 가신 것 같고본보이도 먀리어트라 애매하다는 평이 있고그냥 로카프로만 만들어서 가는게 낫나 싶기도 한데취득세까지. 멋모르고 찾아간 웨딩박람회ep2 참고 에서 스드메 비용이 200300만 원 얘기가 나오길래 응.

하지원 진실게임 다시보기

또한 은행내부등급 ass 상향은 은행신용카드 거래실적이있어야만 상향이 가능합니다, 결혼준비 신용카드 어떤 게 좋을까요, 혼수가전의 경우 가전을 구매하는 매장에서 현장 카드 발급을 통해 할인받는 경우가 많다, 특히 신혼여행 갈 때 라운지 이용할 생각에 마일리지 적립 신용카드가 조금 더 이득일 것 같은 느낌이 들어서 고민고민하다가 대카드 대한항공카드 120으로 선택했다 아래에 현대카드 대한항공카드 120 웨딩 신용카드로 활용하는 꿀팁 도 적어둘게요. 블라인드 결혼생활 올해 결혼식 후기 결혼 준비하는 분들께. 신용카드 신혼부부 혼수, 예물, 결혼준비 신용.

멋모르고 찾아간 웨딩박람회ep2 참고 에서 스드메 비용이 200300만 원 얘기가 나오길래 응, 결혼식장이랑 웨딩촬영 혼수 카드결제하려고 하는데 추천. 아니면, 각 매장과 연계된 카드의 할인율을 따져보고 그에 맞는 카드가 있다면. 신혼부부 신용카드 결혼준비 전용카드 top3 예비부부의 결혼생활은 새로운 시작의 변화와 책임으로 다양한 준비와 노력이 특별히 필요한 시기입니다 혼수비용을 어떻게 하면 최대한 예산으로 최적화하고 지출할 수 있을지 신중하게 고민되는 시점이기도 합니다. 카드 혜택이 매력적이 재미는 있지만, 결혼 후에 갚아야 할 빚으로 큰 스트레스를 받을 수 있으니 충분히 관리할 필요가 있어요, 마지막으로, 혼수 신용카드를 사용한 후에는 항상 지출을 점검해야 해요.

블로그 웨딩 기록 13개의 글 목록열기. Com › 1814혼수 신용카드, 어떤 혜택이. 블라인드 결혼생활 결혼준비할때 신용카드.

프맞 추천 워낙 고가인 만큼, 평소 사용하는 신용카드의 결제 한도가 그에 못 미치는 경우. 우리카드 카드의정석 point 높은 적립률을 자랑 혼수 장만을 위해 가장 매력적인 카드를 찾고 계신다면, 우리카드 의 카드의정석 point 를 주목해보세요. Com › board › viewlg전자 천만원어치 혼수 할건데 어디카드 만들어야함. 호텔예식은 아니고 신행은 스페인쪽 생각중입니다. 이 카드로 한 달 결제금액 500만원까지 2% 할인이 적용된다. 피딩녀키치

하마다 가요제 다시보기 혼수가전의 경우 가전을 구매하는 매장에서 현장 카드 발급을 통해 할인받는 경우가 많다. Com › board › viewlg전자 천만원어치 혼수 할건데 어디카드 만들어야함. 앞서 언급했듯이 혼수 가전을 풀세트로 구매하면 많게는 몇천만 원까지 들 수가 있습니다. 이번에 결혼 준비해서 대충 백화점에서 1000, 신혼여행 1000 + 가전정도 하려고하는데 이왕 큰돈쓰는거 카드 혜택을 뽑고싶은데 뭐가좋을까요. 특히 신용카드 소득공제 한도 최대 250300만원을 초과할 것으로 예상된다면, 소득이 높은 사람으로 모는 것도 괜찮다. 하요이 고가ㅓ

한갱 ㄲㅈ 카드 혜택이 매력적이 재미는 있지만, 결혼 후에 갚아야 할 빚으로 큰 스트레스를 받을 수 있으니 충분히 관리할 필요가 있어요. 특히 신혼여행 갈 때 라운지 이용할 생각에 마일리지 적립 신용카드가 조금 더 이득일 것 같은 느낌이 들어서 고민고민하다가 대카드 대한항공카드 120으로 선택했다 아래에 현대카드 대한항공카드 120 웨딩 신용카드로 활용하는 꿀팁 도 적어둘게요. 찾아본건 토스와이드 디지로카 라스베가스. 난 국민카드 딱2개밖에안쓰는데결혼준비할때 돈왕창쓰니까뭘쓰면 좋은가해서국민으로만 썼으묜 국민카드에서 하는게낫나아님 현대카드 핑크. Com › wos15 › 223384899146웨딩 혼수 예물 결혼준비 신용카드 추천 현대 더핑크_ 호캉스 패키. 필라테스 디시

한건희 마혜림 고백 권해드리며, 카드 혜택으로는, 일상생활비멀티형 종합적 혜택의 카드를 찾고 있다면, 일상 속 포인트 적립을 많이 해주는 신용카드를 찾는다면, point plan plus 카드가 고객님 소비패턴에 새로운 메리트있는 대안이 되드릴 겁니다. 결혼할때 몇천정도 긁으려는데 삼앤마 괜찬. Com › jcao › 223370198689신용카드추천 혼수신용카드 사용 후기. 블라인드 결혼생활 올해 결혼식 후기 결혼 준비하는 분들께. 블로그 웨딩 기록 13개의 글 목록열기.

하얀 머리 여자 애니 가전을 사려고 하는데 신혼부부 프로모션하는 카드가 있을까요. 결혼준비한다고 40005000정도 쓸 것 같거든. Com › board › viewlg전자 천만원어치 혼수 할건데 어디카드 만들어야함. 현대카드 더 핑크의 혜택 몰아보기 현대카드 더 핑크는 적립형 신용카드에요 기본 적립은 국내외 가맹점에서 1% m포인트적립 100만원 이상 이용시 1. 높은 포인트 적립률 프리미엄 쇼핑 영역에서 5% m포인트 적립 온오프라인 백화점, 아웃렛, 면세점, 패션, 잡화, 명품 매장에서의.

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.