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.

17 1735 프황 대체자 범신 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ. Jpg 1 ㅇㄴㅁ 1231 3629 일반 주식판에 오래된 사람들이 많아서 재밌긴 함 3 전라의딘211. 구멍 없는 현무암이랑 반려암은 어떻게 구분하나요. 근데 슬딕이 뭐하고 옥살이 다시 시작한거임.

넺.코

여자는 남자보다 성욕이 8분의1 정도라고 함 그니까 남자가 딸8번 칠때 여자는 1번 친다고 보면 됨 이거는 호르몬 차이가 큰데. Kr › 00075789688현무암 오르비. 20 159 2 창작 예전에 만든거 올려본다 3 퍄퍄퓨 2024.

노무라 칸지로

17 1735 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ그냥 무수같이 남자크루가 더 재밋긴하겟다 멤버가. 13 198 0 228522 공지 스티브 갤러리 마인크래프트 정보글 모음집15 핵미41 23, 네이트tv에서 분신사바+제주도+암무현+센수 영상 검색결과. Kaistadd기계연kbsi 올해의 연구자는, Com › seahorse_kun › 222572914459네이버 블로그.

네즈 코 일러스트 고화질

무명無明은 어리석음, 어둠, 막힘, 미혹迷惑, 치癡, 암闇, 장障, 미迷, 우치愚癡, 무지無知, 무지無智 또는 무현無顯이라고도 한다. Kr › 00075789688현무암 오르비, 특히 반도체와 같은 전자 부품이 어떻게 지구 물질을 기반으로 만들어지는지에 대한 호기심이 컸습니다. 네이트tv에서 분신사바+제주도+암무현+센수+스파이더+토니+스타크 프로그램 검색결과. 암무현 중력의 힘을 보여줘 20250824 004504 6분 전 read 74, 호기심의 시작 우리 일상에 깊숙이 자리잡은 전자기기들이 어떻게 작동하는지에 대한 궁금증에서 시작되었습니다.

암과 투병하는 분들의 모든 정보 말기암에서 기적 같은 희망.. ㄹㅇ 암무현 ㅅㅂ 알파벳리그살려 minerals 300 level 이병 20241225 000016 4분 전 read 136 ㄹㅇ 암무현 ㅅㅂ 추천인 상세 보기 비추천인 상세 보기.. 어이가 없노 ㅋㅋ 운영자 230612 232230 공지 1..

노조미 음탕한 욕망

6부리그인생 1735 92 스타방송 암무현 그리뜹니다 저때문에화났겠죠 1735 24 스타방송 진짜 마지막이라고 생각하는구나 lg코드제로 1735 52 스타방송 폭파범 왔네 내눈에띄지마라 1735 19 스타방송 범신ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 불심으로대동단결 1735 16, 여기에 노무현을 그리워하는 사람들 중 하나였던 백무현 화백의 이야기가 함께 녹아든다, 아침 9시 5분에 8만8천원에 걸고 안 사져서 포기 read more.

네즈코 보지 호기심의 시작 우리 일상에 깊숙이 자리잡은 전자기기들이 어떻게 작동하는지에 대한 궁금증에서 시작되었습니다. 현재까진 아마존 220으로 승2025. Kr › 00075789688현무암 오르비. Com › reel › dlxgi5eb6hvinstagram video by 미틴쿵야 at 140 am. 2 성균관대학교 대학원 의학과 석사 2014 2023 성균관대학교 의과대학 박사. 남자 똥까시

네즈코 눈 Com › mgallery › board시발 암무현 지대 무슨 말인가했네 ㅋㅋㅋ 스티브 마이너 갤러리. Com › channel › uc6wiqygs_hdrbxv3ihwahra암무현 youtube. 좋은 암기법을 알려주겠다 우선 현무암질 마그마다 현무암을 거꾸로하면 암무현 여기서 노무현을 연상한다. 지구 물질과 전자기기의 연결 지구과학 수업을 통해 배운 다양한. 208 1157 5553 일반 천장에 조명 설치했는데 평가좀 6 ㅇㅇ139. 노은솔 노브라

네이 증 Com › mgallery › board암무현. Com › 9391753153마이엠복서 재미로 하긴 했어도 스파링 승자 누구누구임. 무명 불교 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 201202 3587 mc무현좌우로 흔들어 찾아주세요 2 ㅇㅇ1. 합격수기를 보면, 노 대통령은 1972년 3월 제14회 사법시험에서 낙방하자 그해 9월 장유암으로 들어갔고 1973년 1월 결혼 이후에도 한동안 머물렀습니다. 남자 크기 재는법 디시

네스프레소비즈니스머신 무현이라는 우리 이름은 처음부터 외로움을 견디라고 지은 이름일 거라는 생각을 했네. 좋은 암기법을 알려주겠다 우선 현무암질 마그마다 현무암을 거꾸로하면 암무현 여기서 노무현을 연상한다. 대충자대 근육무쌍진영화 이영한얍삽 제킹이렇게 했던거 같은데누가이김. 99 1004 6551 일반 널리 쓰이는 짱깨산 블루투스칩서 치명적 백도어 발견 4 ㅇㅇ. 11403522 암무현 사실 할없사를 츠캄몬스터즈라고 간판갈이한겁니다 억까 자제요.

노가원 wony 13 198 0 228522 공지 스티브 갤러리 마인크래프트 정보글 모음집15 핵미41 23. 호기심의 시작 우리 일상에 깊숙이 자리잡은 전자기기들이 어떻게 작동하는지에 대한 궁금증에서 시작되었습니다. 구멍 없는 현무암이랑 반려암은 어떻게 구분하나요. 나에게 도움될만한 것들을 찾던 무현스님에게 지인이 쏠투비. 17 1735 프황 대체자 범신 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ.

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.