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.

Com › likez2 › 224160253326중국 상하이 혼자 여행 가볼만한곳 상해 자유여행 3박 4일, 4박 5일. 1990년대부터는 한국인들의 1인당 소득이 증가함에 따라 중국, 일본이나 동남아, 중앙아시아, 동유럽 지역으로 기생관광을 떠나는 사례가 늘면서 악명을 떨치고 있다. Com › mgallery › board중국 자유여행 난이도 싱글벙글 지구촌 마이너 갤러리. 비수기 기준으로는 1상하이 왕복급은 아낌 2024.

길티 서클

자유여행 하기 괜찮고 친구가 상해에서 학교다녔어서 그 친구랑 가면 될거 같음나는 일본어하고 중국어 못하고 그친구는 일본어 못하고 중국어 해서 오사카 갔을때 내가 의사소통 다 해줘서 중국가면 해줄거 같긴 함1.. 이 곳에는 이국적인 카페들과 부띠크 샵, 맛있는 유럽의 먹거리를 맛볼 수.. 7, 16, 18호선으로 갈아탈수 있어, 난징동루나 인민광장 등 많은 관광객이 숙소를 잡는 곳으로 쉽게 이동할 수 있어요..

기저귀 아카라이브

귀칼짤

복 많이 받아 그래서 나도 도움이 될까 싶어 후기를 남겨볼게 나는 관광비자 단수로 발급. Com › mgallery › board상하이 가본사람 있냐 배낭여행 마이너 갤러리. 그리고 다시 가보고 싶은 곳을 방문해서 기분좋은 여행을 할 수 있었어요, Kr › @yukinyang › 3혼자라도 외롭지 않았던 상하이, 상하이 여행 3박 4일을 준비 중이신가요.

그 비스크 돌은 사랑을 한다 꼭지

특히 여자 혼자 상하이 여행은 중국이라는 이국적인 장소에서 자신만의 특별한 시간을 보내기 좋은 선택입니다. 상하이 3박4일 혼자여행 경비 총 476,469원 항공권 142,804원 제주직항 숙소 82,851원 환전 204,814원 비자 46,000원 간단하게 먼저 요약하자면 3박4일 상하이 혼자여행 총 경비는 476,469원 비용 지불하였습니다. 이번 여행도 기분좋게 마칠 수 있었습니다. 3박만 가도 거의67만원 정도는 아끼는데 일행들이랑 합치면 꽤 아낄수 있음. 혼자 여행을 떠나는 일은 두려움보다는 설렘으로 가득 찬 도전입니다. Com › mgallery › board상하이 가본사람 있냐 배낭여행 마이너 갤러리.

혼자서도 충분히 다녀올 수 있는 3박4일 여행코스 총정리 포스팅 시작합니다, 여행기 상하이 여행 느낀점 짤막하게 마요홀릭 2025, 1990년대부터는 한국인들의 1인당 소득이 증가함에 따라 중국, 일본이나 동남아, 중앙아시아, 동유럽 지역으로 기생관광을 떠나는 사례가 늘면서 악명을 떨치고 있다. 사실 주가각은 중국 상하이여행 가볼만한곳으로 너무나 유명하지만, 이번에 상해여행 2박3일 여자혼자해외여행 오면서 여길 갈까 말까는 고민을 많이 했다.

기저귀 차는 여자친구

상하이 혼자여행 숙소 3박 82,851원으로 아주 저렴하게 묵을 수 있었던 다인유스호스텔 객실이나 공용공간은 깔끔했지만 화장실 세면대가 그것만 빼면 좋았던 숙소.. 그리고 다시 가보고 싶은 곳을 방문해서 기분좋은 여행을 할 수 있었어요.. 총 경비는 476,469원 들었습니다.. 요즘 주변에서 상하이 여행 은근 가는듯..

간단하게 상하이 3박4일 여행코스 정리해봤어요‼️ 1일차 도착 시간에 따라 일정은 바꾸시면 되는데, 저는 상하이 디즈니랜드를 하루 full로 가고싶어서 1일차는 시내 위주로 정리해 봤습니다. 첫걸음이 향한 곳은 상하이의 작은 유럽 마을로 불리는 프랑스 조계지이다. 상하이 여행 3박 4일을 준비 중이신가요, 세상의 중심에서 상하이를 외치다 지금껏 수많은 여행을 다녔지만 홀로 계획해서 혼자 떠나보는 여행은 처음이었다, 1년을 살았던 덕분에 여전히 상해에서 생활을 하고 있는 친구들도 만났구요, 세상의 중심에서 상하이를 외치다 지금껏 수많은 여행을 다녔지만 홀로 계획해서 혼자 떠나보는 여행은 처음이었다.

안녕하세요 상해여행 브이로그 본편을 가지고 왔습니다 하루 2만 4천보씩 걸으면서 발터지게 ㅆㅏ돌아다녔는데용. 요즘 주변에서 상하이 여행 은근 가는듯, 혼자서 돌아다니기 위험하지도 않고 재밌게 즐기고 온 여행이라 또 가고싶어질 정도인데요.

김가인 방귀 3박만 가도 거의67만원 정도는 아끼는데 일행들이랑 합치면 꽤 아낄수 있음. 총 경비는 476,469원 들었습니다. 11111114일까지 3박 4일 여행기록 스타트. 중국에서 가장 인기있는 여행지를 하나 떠올린다면 단연 상해를 꼽을 수 있을겁니다. 원나잇가능했다 그래서 이번에 혼자 중국여행가려는데 숙소는 싼곳으로잡고 7일정도 클럽이나 라운지바만 갈 생각이여ㅋㅋ 낮에는 점심쯤 일어나서 관광다니고 결론은 베이징 상해 어디가 더 중국애들하고 놀기쉽냐. 김말복 설사

그록 탈옥 프롬프트 디시 세상의 중심에서 상하이를 외치다 지금껏 수많은 여행을 다녔지만 홀로 계획해서 혼자 떠나보는 여행은 처음이었다. 사실 주가각은 중국 상하이여행 가볼만한곳으로 너무나 유명하지만, 이번에 상해여행 2박3일 여자혼자해외여행 오면서 여길 갈까 말까는 고민을 많이 했다. 백팩하나 들고 상하이 다녀왔습니다 배낭여행 마이너 갤러리. 첫걸음이 향한 곳은 상하이의 작은 유럽 마을로 불리는 프랑스 조계지이다. 아직도 주숙등기 필요한 곳이 있는데 트립닷컴에 있는 4성급이상 호텔이면 호텔에서 다 알아서 해준대ㅋㅋ 난 혼자가는거라 욕심내서 비싼 호텔 했드니 다행히 시설도 좋고 어메니티 이런거도 다 있었음ㅋㅋㅋ 아침밥도 머 먹을만하게는 나왔어ㅋㅋ 자느라고. 글로리홀 트위터

그록 이매진.디시 가까운 다이마루 백화점에 사람들이 깨끗. 23만원 호스텔 혼자 여행객이면 으쌰으쌰. 숙소도 혼자여행이라 도미토리 이용했고. 상하이 여행 3박 4일을 준비 중이신가요. 그럼 이제 각 일정별로 세부적인 상하이 여행 후기 알려드릴게요. 그록 이미지 생성 검열 해제

기래민 레전드 디시 이 곳에는 이국적인 카페들과 부띠크 샵, 맛있는 유럽의 먹거리를 맛볼 수. 오늘 트래블우디와 함께 갈 여행지는 중국 상하이입니다. 요금이 굉장히 저렴해서 저처럼 혼여하신다면, 경비를 아끼고 싶으시다면 좋을 것 같아요. 그리고 다시 가보고 싶은 곳을 방문해서 기분좋은 여행을 할 수 있었어요. 상하이 3박4일 혼자여행 경비 총 476,469원 항공권 142,804원 제주직항 숙소 82,851원 환전 204,814원 비자 46,000원 간단하게 먼저 요약하자면 3박4일 상하이 혼자여행 총 경비는 476,469원 비용 지불하였습니다.

근돼 디시 상하이 여행 3박 4일을 준비 중이신가요. 중국에서 가장 인기있는 여행지를 하나 떠올린다면 단연 상해를 꼽을 수 있을겁니다. 공군 대위 출신이라는 뜻에서 캡틴, 그리고 중국 14년 거주 이력을 살려 따거라는 별명을 붙여서, 캡틴따거라는. 혼자서 돌아다니기 위험하지도 않고 재밌게 즐기고 온 여행이라 또 가고싶어질 정도인데요. 배낭여행중 쉬다가는 호스텔마냥 편안히 있으시면서 여행정보, 여행이야기, 여행지추천, 배낭자랑, 여행기, 여행중 생긴썰등 편안하게 올려주시면 됩니다.

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.