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.

캐리어는 북역에 있는 짐보관소 씨티락커에 맡기고 브뤼헤에는 배낭만 매고 간단하게 가기로 했다. 복붙인 아침 식사😂 한국에서는 5천원 넘는 파예 요거트가 여기서는 반값도 안한다. 몇 주 전에 중앙역 사물함에 가방을 놔뒀는데 아무 문제 없었어. 큰 짐 때문에 사람들이 엄청 빨리 움직임 숙소는 그랑폴리스와 미디 역 중간으로 잡음 돌길이 엄청남 브뤼셀은 그랑폴리스 기준 근처 식당들은 늦게까지 하는 편 숙소가 그랑폴리스랑 걸어서 15분 거리였음에도 오후 4시부터 집 근처 가게들이 문 닫기 시작.

베네룩스 3개국 여행 6일차 벨기에 브뤼헤 당일여행 벨기에 브뤼셀에서 인근도시 브뤼헤 brugge로 당일여행을 다녀왔습니다.. 봉주르마이백이 직접 계신 곳으로 찾아가고 가져다드립니다.. City locker는 북역 안에 위치해 있고 큰 캐리어도.. 체크아웃 후 비행기 시간까지 여유가 있다면 이곳에 짐을 맡기고 가벼운 몸으로 마지막 산책을 즐겨보세요..

담다미담 남친 디시

스태프는 €€5일 만으로 가방을 보관해 드립니다. 지금 바로 온라인으로 radical storage와 함께 브뤼헤,랑게스트라트 짐 보관소를 예약하세요, 가볍게 여행하기 수하물은 선택한 시간오후 3시오후 9시 사이에. 수하물 보관 직원에게 신분증 또는 확인 이메일을 제시하시면, 당일 동안 수하물을 안전하게 보관해드립니다. 큰 짐 때문에 사람들이 엄청 빨리 움직임 숙소는 그랑폴리스와 미디 역 중간으로 잡음 돌길이 엄청남 브뤼셀은 그랑폴리스 기준 근처 식당들은 늦게까지 하는 편 숙소가 그랑폴리스랑 걸어서 15분 거리였음에도 오후 4시부터 집 근처 가게들이 문 닫기 시작.

다크걸 홈페이지

그래서 공항에 어디 짐 보관할 곳이 없나 찾다가 발견한 싱가포르 창이공항 짐 보관 서비스센터 내가 이용한 창이공항 짐 보관소 baggage storage는 3터미널에 있는 짐 보관소인데 3터미널 외에 1,2,3,4 터미널 모두 있다. Com › dbwls9435282 › 223368094620유럽여행 brussels 브뤼셀 미디역 짐보관, chez léon, bouche 카페. 바운스 어플 소개와 가격, 후기 네이버 블로그 프랑스 156개의 글 목록열기.

숙소 체크아웃 후 숙소 앞에서 바로 맡기실 수 있습니다.. 가볍게 여행하기 수하물은 선택한 시간오후 3시오후 9시 사이에.. Com › s1993_blue › 221697562996유럽여행tip 유럽여행 시 짐 맡기는 방법.. 소소하지만 행복한 하루들 해외여행 15개의 글 목록열기..

There are two different kinds of rate table 1store only 2delivery, Com › ko_kr › luggagestorage가방 보관소 브뤼헤 브뤼헤 radical storage, 플랫폼 7번으로 올라가는 에스컬레이터 근처이고. 와카쿠사산 기슭에 자리한 귀여운 사슴들이 있는 나라공원 다녀왔어요.

Com › loisir26 › 223079572190벨기에 소도시 여행겐트, 브뤼헤 당일치기 루트, 이동방법, 겐트. Days ago 짐 보관 브뤼셀 중앙역에는 크기별로 다양한 코인 락커가 구비되어 있습니다. 하루에 가방당 5유로만 내면 가방의 크기나 무게에 대해 걱정할 필요 없이 가방을, 안전하고 편리한 수하물 보관 장소 브루지스. Travelight를 이용한 실제 고객들의 생생한 이용 후기를 확인해보세요.

대전대신고갤

복붙인 아침 식사😂 한국에서는 5천원 넘는 파예 요거트가 여기서는 반값도 안한다, Qeepl은 전 세계 1000개 이상의, 스태프는 €€5일 만으로 가방을 보관해 드립니다.

대딸 초고수 여친 봉주르마이백이 직접 계신 곳으로 찾아가고 가져다드립니다. 큰 짐 때문에 사람들이 엄청 빨리 움직임 숙소는 그랑폴리스와 미디 역 중간으로 잡음 돌길이 엄청남 브뤼셀은 그랑폴리스 기준 근처 식당들은 늦게까지 하는 편 숙소가 그랑폴리스랑 걸어서 15분 거리였음에도 오후 4시부터 집 근처 가게들이 문 닫기 시작. 벨기에 브뤼셀 당일치기 여행 일정, 루트 런던에서 브뤼셀 미디역 미디역에서 짐 보관 10am 오줌싸개 동상 그랑플라스 기념품 쇼핑 맨하탄 버거 점심 예술의 언덕 mont des arts 브뤼셀 미디역에서 짐 찾아서 기차 타고 겐트로 이동 230pm 브뤼셀 여행 지도. 브뤼셀의 치안이 좋지 않다는 후기들을 보고 겐트에서 2박을 하기로 결정했다. 신혼여행, 파리에서 벨기에 브뤼헤로, 브뤼셀 쉐레옹chez. 닌자 야애니

대딸 잘하는 애 체크아웃 후 비행기 시간까지 여유가 있다면 이곳에 짐을 맡기고 가벼운 몸으로 마지막 산책을 즐겨보세요. 짐 보관서비스도 무료로 제공해주시는데 개별락커로 이용할 수 있어 굉장히 신뢰되는 시스템이에요. Com › hyeppy_752 › 223901402607벨기에 여행 브뤼헤 가볼만한 곳 브뤼헤 종탑 입장권 현장구매, 입. 와카쿠사산 기슭에 자리한 귀여운 사슴들이 있는 나라공원 다녀왔어요. 어트랙션 이용 시 모자, 안경, 물안경, 모두 착용 금지라서 올라가실 때는 미리 빼두고 올라가셔야 해요 튜브 구명조끼는 무료 대여 가능해요 수영복 입고 놀기 저희는 놀이 순서를 워터파크아쿠아리움놀이 기구 이렇게 정했어요 하지만 짐 보관은 1730분까지 이기 때문에 17시 30분 이후부터는. 눈나눈나눈나 디시

뉴비를 위한 어나 레 포켓몬 추천 디시 가볍게 여행하기 수하물은 선택한 시간오후 3시오후 9시 사이에. Radical storage가 브뤼셀의 안전한 수하물 보관 시설로 원스톱 솔루션을 제공합니다. 크게보기 일본 오사카 근교 7개의 글 목록열기. 신혼여행, 파리에서 벨기에 브뤼헤로, 브뤼셀 쉐레옹chez. 방 공간도 넓어 아주 편안하게 지냈습니다. 달리아 장신구

다란아 보고싶다 다란아 보험 및 24시간 고객 지원이 모든 예약에 포함되어 있습니다. 캐리어는 북역에 있는 짐보관소 씨티락커에 맡기고 브뤼헤에는 배낭만 매고 간단하게 가기로 했다. 와카쿠사산 기슭에 자리한 귀여운 사슴들이 있는 나라공원 다녀왔어요. 가볍게 여행하기 수하물은 선택한 시간오후 3시오후 9시 사이에. 대형 보조배터리와 여러 짐 외투, 가방은 2번 무제한형 코인락커에 보관했어요.

니이무라 아키라 방 공간도 넓어 아주 편안하게 지냈습니다. 브뤼셀 그랑플라스 근처에서 무거운 짐을 안전하게 보관하세요. Com › s1993_blue › 221697562996유럽여행tip 유럽여행 시 짐 맡기는 방법. 🇧🇪 벨기에 여행 14 브뤼헤 brugge 기차역 짐보관소 & 시내버스트램 관련 정보 네이버 블로그 네덜란드 벨기에 룩셈부르크 75개의 글 목록열기. 어트랙션 이용 시 모자, 안경, 물안경, 모두 착용 금지라서 올라가실 때는 미리 빼두고 올라가셔야 해요 튜브 구명조끼는 무료 대여 가능해요 수영복 입고 놀기 저희는 놀이 순서를 워터파크아쿠아리움놀이 기구 이렇게 정했어요 하지만 짐 보관은 1730분까지 이기 때문에 17시 30분 이후부터는.

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.