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.

2 63 공지 국제결혼 갤러리 이용 규칙 안내43 관리담당 23. 13 공지 상시 국제결혼 갤러리 좋은글 이벤트 안내3 관리담당 23. Com › board › internationalcouple몽골인 여자친구와 200일 국제커플 마이너 갤러리. 잠자리에 있어서도 이게 안나 개인성향인지 몽골여자 특징인지 모르겠는데 남자를 만족시켜야 한다는 의무감 같은게 보였음.

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잠자리에 있어서도 이게 안나 개인성향인지 몽골여자 특징인지 모르겠는데 남자를 만족시켜야 한다는 의무감 같은게 보였음. 13 공지 상시 국제결혼 갤러리 좋은글 이벤트 안내3 관리담당 23. 이미지 몽골인 여자친구랑 커플링 맞춤, Com › mgallery › board몽골인 여자친구와 200일 국제커플 마이너 갤러리.

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위 네이버 커뮤니티 의 글을 읽어보시면 몽골 여성에게 관심이 많은 우리나라 남성들을 알아볼수 있는데요. 얼굴에 찐빵 넣은것같음한국남자 존나 좋아함물론 젊은 한국 남자폭력적임적극적임남자가 가정적임마동석 스타일 좋아함불교 혹은 기독교 많음한국말 잘하는 애들 많음몸매는 다들 좋음혼인신고없이 애만 낳고 사는경우 꽤됨춤 존나. 몽골 여자친구가 있다면 그냥 너가 옳다고 생각하는 대로 하고, 그 여자친구한테 어떻게 하고 싶은지 물어봐, Com › board › internationalcouple몽골인 여자친구와 200일 국제커플 마이너 갤러리, 디시인사이드 여행 마이너 갤러리에서 몽골 관련 정보와 경험을 공유하는 다양한 게시글을 확인하세요. 몽골이면 어떻고 북한이면 어떻고 중국 여자면 어때 사람만 괜찮으면 되는거지 ㅎㅎ 힘내.

요약 몽골 여성들의 연애 스타일은 전통과 현대의 조화를 이루며, 독립적이고 강인한 성격을 바탕으로 정서적 유대와 로맨틱한 관계를 중요시합니다, 이로 인해 몽골 여자친구는 어려운 상황에도 적응하고 강인하게 대처하는 능력이 있을 수 있습니다, Com › community › board한국남자가 몽골여자와 국제연애 하면 생기는 일. 이로 인해 몽골 여자친구는 어려운 상황에도 적응하고 강인하게 대처하는 능력이 있을 수 있습니다. 0000 하이라이트 0119 한국남자가 몽골여자랑 사귀면 충격받는 이유 1401 몽골은 진짜 아내를 다른 남자에게 빌려줄까.

몽골은 한국보다 연애문화 훨씬 보수적이라 썸을 최소 몇달1년까지도 타는편이라 그 기간까지 합치면 220일 좀 넘음 그리고 제대로 사귀고 이제 100일됨 썸탈때도 한국기준에서 보면 거의 연애하는거마냥 지냈어서, 위 커뮤니티 글을 읽어보시면 몽골 여성의 특징에 대해 설명이 나와 있으니 잘 읽어보시고 참고하시길 바라겠습니다, Com › board › internationalcouple몽골인 여자친구와 200일 국제커플 마이너 갤러리, 이기적이고, 자기밖에 모르고, 거짓말을 밥 먹듯이 했어요. 저는 몽골 여자인데 엄마가 몽골 남자랑 결혼하지 말라고 했어요 ㅋㅋㅋ 왜냐면 연애는 서로의 개인적인 공간을 존중해야 하는데, 안 그러면 둘 다. Com › mgallery › board몽골여자랑 결혼은아니고 2년넘게 연애중이다 국제결혼 마이너 갤러.

이를 고려하여 결혼을 준비하는 것이 중요합니다.. 이기적이고, 자기밖에 모르고, 거짓말을 밥 먹듯이 했어요.. 0 60 공지 아랍녀 연애 결혼 guide141 아기믿음 23..

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몽골연애 한국연애 오늘은 지난주에 말씀드렸던 두근두근 연애편. 독립적이고 강인한 기질 몽골 사람들은 유목 문화의 영향으로 강인하고 독립적인 성향이 강합니다. 특히 몽골 여성들은 자신의 것을 스스로 해결하려는 경향이 있어, 남성에게 의존하거나 과도한 배려를 받는 것을 불편하게 여기기도 합니다. 몽골이면 어떻고 북한이면 어떻고 중국 여자면 어때 사람만 괜찮으면 되는거지 ㅎㅎ 힘내.

이은미 젊은엄마 내 주위에 혼자 즐기면서 동호회 활동 하면서 사는 450대 형들 꽤 있는데. 강인함과 적응력 몽골 문화에서는 여성들도 몽골 전통의 기술과 역할을 수행하며 강인함을 발휘합니다. Redirecting to sgall. 추천 11 15 이미지 몽골여친이랑 오늘 100일되는날이다 일반. 몽골 여성을 만나기 위한 방법은 위 커뮤니티에 자세히 나와 있으니 꼭 접속해보시길 바라겠습니다. 이케부쿠로 풍속

이재명 vs 코쿠시보 9 170434 흔한 일 차콜그레이 1138 3 0 170433 엉덩이 인증. 이기적이고, 자기밖에 모르고, 거짓말을 밥 먹듯이 했어요. 언성을높이지마라 11 394878 중갤 싱글벙글 플레이스테이션 근황 37 언성을높이지마라 9 394876 잡갤 2001년 인천신공항 버스 운전사들의 실태 37 디시최연소고닉 21 394874 싱갤 싱글벙글 요즘 네이버 검색기능 근황 153 ㅇㅇ 5 187. 특히 몽골 여성들은 자신의 것을 스스로 해결하려는 경향이 있어, 남성에게 의존하거나 과도한 배려를 받는 것을 불편하게 여기기도 합니다. 몽골은 한국보다 연애문화 훨씬 보수적이라 썸을 최소 몇달1년까지도 타는편이라 그 기간까지 합치면 220일 좀 넘음 그리고 제대로 사귀고 이제 100일됨 썸탈때도 한국기준에서 보면 거의 연애하는거마냥 지냈어서. 이타도리 유지 죽음

이하늬 윤계상 실루엣 언성을높이지마라 11 394878 중갤 싱글벙글 플레이스테이션 근황 37 언성을높이지마라 9 394876 잡갤 2001년 인천신공항 버스 운전사들의 실태 37 디시최연소고닉 21 394874 싱갤 싱글벙글 요즘 네이버 검색기능 근황 153 ㅇㅇ 5 187. 장거리 연애중인 한몽커플 남자는 결혼을 허락받으러 몽골에 간다 짐을 챙기고 몽골로 출발 3시간30분이 걸린다고 한다. 몽골인 외모가 흔히 생각하는 아시아 느낌이 아니라 약간 아시아+슬라브 섞어놓은 중앙아시아쪽 느낌이던데 이목구비 존나 진하고 수수하게 생겨서 만나는데 몽골 가보면 원래 이런사람 많음. 이기적이고, 자기밖에 모르고, 거짓말을 밥 먹듯이 했어요. 한국남자와 몽골여자가 국제연애 했을때. 이채영 야짤

이주은 학창시절 외국인 만난다 몽골, 베트남, 스탄계열 백인. Com › board › view진지한 고민글 30대 후반인데 몽골여자랑 결혼하는 거 어때. 얼굴에 찐빵 넣은것같음한국남자 존나 좋아함물론 젊은 한국 남자폭력적임적극적임남자가 가정적임마동석 스타일 좋아함불교 혹은 기독교 많음한국말 잘하는 애들 많음몸매는 다들 좋음혼인신고없이 애만 낳고 사는경우 꽤됨춤 존나. Ep22 doo doo doo doo doo♥ how are dating in mongolia. 행복한 국제결혼을 준비하며 꿈꾸는 분들이 모여계신 네이버 커뮤니티 몽골리안 중국 지나족 2024.

이혼숙려캠프 갤 강인함과 적응력 몽골 문화에서는 여성들도 몽골 전통의 기술과 역할을 수행하며 강인함을 발휘합니다. 0000 하이라이트 0119 한국남자가 몽골여자랑 사귀면 충격받는 이유 1401 몽골은 진짜 아내를 다른 남자에게 빌려줄까. 몽골 여성과 한국남성의 국제결혼을 알아보자 +장단점,특징. 선교사로 파송된 부모님을 따라 초등학교 3학년 때부터 중학교 1학년까지 약 5년간 몽골에서 거주했다. Com › community › board한국남자가 몽골여자와 국제연애 하면 생기는 일.

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.