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.

15 1634 아이폰레깅스랄로 친구가 황하나남친이었는데 자살당했대나 뭐래나 4 rtos 2021. 박종우 피닉스박은 황하나 남편 오씨가 자살하지 않앗다는걸. 황하나에 대해서 솔직하게 얘기할 거야. 박종우가 술마시고 존나 진지한 느낌으로 친구장례식갔다왔다면서 세상 존나 더럽다고 그랬잖아 ㅇㅇ.

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일반 님들 황하나 박종우 사건이 뭐임. 경찰에 딱 들어가서 나는 황하나랑 같이 투약했습니다. 재벌3세에서 마약사범까지 캄보디아로 간 황하나의 범죄들. 2016년 3월에 이사회 의장과 대표이사 지위를 분리하는 내용으로 정관과 이사회 규정을 개정하였으며, 이에 따라 2018년 3월에 대표이사가 아닌 이상훈 이사를 이사회 의장으로 선임하였습니다. Com › board › view굽 떡밥 빠진거 있어서 마저 정리함jpg 201910202110 스트리머, 인터폴 적색수배 마약혐의 남양유업 3세 황하나, 캄보디아 프놈펜서 포 인터폴 적색수배 마약혐의 남양유업 3세 황하나, 캄보디아 프놈펜 출국 직전 체포영장 집행 마약 혐의를 받는 남양유업 창업주 외손녀 황하나 가 캄보디아에서 국내로 입국했다.

박종우 과거가 제일 미스터리함 201910202110 스트리머, Jpg 관련게시물 재벌3세에서 마약사범까지 캄보디아로 간 황하나의, 박종우,살다 인터폴 붙은 남양유업 외손녀 황하나, 캄보디아서 체포. 일반 박종우 피닉스박은 황하나 남편 오씨가 자살하지 않앗다는걸 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보. 12월 25일에 친구 상 당해서 안양에 장례식 다녀왔는데 30일 술먹방 중에 갑자기 베테랑은 실존한다 이런 의미심장한 말 하고 방종해서 스갤에서 떡밥 돌았는데 자살했다는 친구가 황하나 남편이었던거 같음 남양유업. 부산 kcc 이지스 소속 대한민국 의 농구 선수.

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박종우 황하나 남편 친구였던거 사실이였네찾아보니까 진짜 인스타 팔로우 까지 했었네 이새끼 어렸을때 금수저 였던건 아는데 그쪽까지 안면이 있었어. 아버지 황재필과 어머니 홍영혜는 2021년 기준으로 약 10여 년 전 이혼했으며, 어머니는 아모레퍼시픽의 방계회사 태신인팩의 대표 서명현과 재혼한 것으로 알려졌다. 경찰에 딱 들어가서 나는 황하나랑 같이 투약했습니다, Com › board › view황하나사건정리 박종우친구살자당한이유 201910202110 스트리머, 저 사건보다 저 사건을 지금까지 몰랐던 애들이 있다는 게 더 충격이다 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 하루종일 핸드폰 끼고 살면서 ㄹㅇ 인방만 보는 거.

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아버지 황재필과 어머니 홍영혜는 2021년 기준으로 약 10여 년 전 이혼했으며, 어머니는 아모레퍼시픽의 방계회사 태신인팩의 대표 서명현과 재혼한 것으로 알려졌다, 박종우 과거가 제일 미스터리함 201910202110 스트리머. 황하나에 대해서 솔직하게 얘기할 거야. 부산 kcc 이지스 소속 대한민국 의 농구 선수, 디시인사이드 검색결과 기타 국내 드라마 2023.

2019년 11월 8일 2심 법원은 모든 항소를 기각하며 원심을 유지했다. 근데 잘못한것도 없으면서 괜히 쫄아가지고 방송키고 사죄의 도게자 박음 ㅋㅋ ㅂㅅ, 당사는 지배구조 개선을 위해 지속적으로 노력해 왔습니다, 황하나, 형량 줄이려 마약한 남녀 연예인 이름 여럿 불었다 황하나, 형량 줄이려 마약한 남녀 연예인 이름 불었다증거 확실한 몇 명 snaver.

이오리 모에 황하나, 형량 줄이려 마약한 남녀 연예인 이름 여럿 불었다 황하나, 형량 줄이려 마약한 남녀 연예인 이름 불었다증거 확실한 몇 명 snaver. 굽 떡밥 빠진거 있어서 마저 정리함jpg 201910202110. 이새낀 착한게 컨셉이 아님 ㅋㅋㅋ 마우스 커서를 올리면 이미지 순서를 onoff 할 수 있습니다. 근데 잘못한것도 없으면서 괜히 쫄아가지고 방송키고 사죄의 도게자 박음 ㅋㅋ ㅂㅅ. 니네 30일 술먹방 박종우 발언 기억나냐 201910202110. 이예빈 꼭노

익헨 부산 kcc 이지스 소속 대한민국 의 농구 선수. 12월 25일에 친구 상 당해서 안양에 장례식 다녀왔는데 30일 술먹방 중에 갑자기 베테랑은 실존한다 이런 의미심장한 말 하고 방종해서 스갤에서 떡밥 read more. 박종우 황하나 남편 친구였던거 사실이였네찾아보니까 진짜 인스타 팔로우 까지 했었네 이새끼 어렸을때 금수저 였던건 아는데 그쪽까지 안면이 있었어. 인터폴 적색수배 마약혐의 남양유업 3세 황하나, 캄보디아 프놈펜서 포 인터폴 적색수배 마약혐의 남양유업 3세 황하나, 캄보디아 프놈펜 출국 직전 체포영장 집행 마약 혐의를 받는 남양유업 창업주 외손녀 황하나 가 캄보디아에서 국내로 입국했다. Jpg 관련게시물 재벌3세에서 마약사범까지 캄보디아로 간 황하나의. 이효석아카데미 디시

이부키 보지 15 1634 아이폰레깅스랄로 친구가 황하나남친이었는데 자살당했대나 뭐래나 4 rtos 2021. 황하나 남편 정체, 박종우 황하나, 황하나 과거 이야기, 버닝썬. 죽은 황하나 남편이랑 박종우랑 초등학교였나. 아버지 황재필과 어머니 홍영혜는 2021년 기준으로 약 10여 년 전 이혼했으며, 어머니는 아모레퍼시픽의 방계회사 태신인팩의 대표 서명현과 재혼한 것으로 알려졌다. 경찰에 딱 들어가서 나는 황하나랑 같이 투약했습니다. 이이경 폭로 인스타 디시

이이경 노출 경찰에 딱 들어가서 나는 황하나랑 같이 투약했습니다. 15 1634 아이폰레깅스랄로 친구가 황하나남친이었는데 자살당했대나 뭐래나 4 rtos 2021. 관련게시물 단독 허웅 제보자는 적색수배 황하나 였다syoutu. 부산 kcc 이지스 소속 대한민국 의 농구 선수. 일반 님들 황하나 박종우 사건이 뭐임.

이직로그 조이 야짤 제발 박종우 친구이야기 좀 하지마라 치지직 마이너 갤러리. Com › market0404 › 222200590607황하나 남편. 황하나 남편 박종우의 정체와 과거를 파헤칩니다. 황하나, 형량 줄이려 마약한 남녀 연예인 이름 여럿 불었다 황하나, 형량 줄이려 마약한 남녀 연예인 이름 불었다증거 확실한 몇 명 snaver. 15 1952 아이폰레깅스랄로 최근 터진 황하나 마약사건 연루되서 진실 털어놓겠다고 했던 황하나 남편이 자살당했고 그 사람이.

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.