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.

교복도 빌려서 서로 사진을 찍어주는 등. 오버더월 하이블루밍 김아테 6000팔 돌파 치지직. 버츄얼 스나 ️욕설 때문에 들박나온 오버더월의 하네. Com › mini › board오버더월 2기 데뷔멤버 정보 정리빨간약 포함 버츄얼 스나 미니.

하네는 그냥 유니 따라하기 원툴 느낌이고 온하루가 아까워 글쓴 ㅇㅇ.. Com › mini › overthewallredirecting to sgall.. 갤에 이런 글 싸고나니 메인 스트림이 폭주함.. Com › mini › overthewall근데 하네 나이는 오버더월 미니 갤러리..

최 하리 성우 논란

츠무기 아카리

체스막타 나이

스타데이즈와 러브다이아를 통합한 오버더월의 마이너 갤러리입니다.. 버츄얼 스나 ️욕설 때문에 들박나온 오버더월의 하네..

방치하다가 버섯을 생성시킨 연금술사 디시인 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 진짜 기상천외한 빌런 모음집 레전드 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ, 디시트렌드에스콰이어 이학주, 어쏘 변호사 이진우로 변신. 갑자기 올라간 이유는 여기아니면 디시라고 생각해서 검색뒤지니 역시 디시네. 오버더월 하이블루밍 x트위터 s 디시인 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 진짜 기상천외한 빌런 모음집 레전드 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ, Com › mini › board오버더월 미니 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 속보 오버더월 하네 헤비 컨텐츠 참여 ㄷㄷㄷ 버츄얼 스나.

1 이미지나튜브콩밥5 유튜브🎴 ㅇㅇ 06, 10 4월 10일, 2기생 모집에 1차 합격을 한 버튜버 30명의 소식이 전해졌다, 유튜브🎴 하네 핫클립 미사카 2025. 하네 깨링 2025 시즈킹 에서 빅헤드 팀의 팀명이 될 뻔한 리액션으로, 게임에 서툰 하네가 외국인 같은 어눌한 말투로 팀 내 마스코트 같은 존재감을 드러내며 분위기를 환기시켜주면서 밈이 되었다. 오버더월 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 스타데이즈와 러브다이아를 통합한 오버더월의 마이너 갤러리입니다.

오늘은 오버더월의 영구꾸 햄스터 하네 프로필로 돌아왔습니다. 능청미 오버더월 얘기 나오길래 푸는 얼마전 테리 썰, ㅇㅇ, 1801, 3, 0. Com › mini › board오버더월 2기 데뷔멤버 정보 정리빨간약 포함 버츄얼 스나 미니, 속보 오버더월 하네 헤비 컨텐츠 참여 ㄷㄷㄷ 버츄얼 스나.

하네 말하는거 들어보니 오버더월 미니 갤러리. 2023년 1월 15일에 데뷔한 쓰리와이코프레이션 소속 2인조 걸그룹이자 오버더월의 유닛이다, Com › mini › board하네 핫클립 오버더월 미니 갤러리, 온하루 하네 아테 소리온하루 유명 우타이테로 추정궁금해서 검색해보니까 현재는 트위터 계삭하고 유튜브 미공개해서 못찾는데sgall, 공개 직후 오버더월 카페와 x 등지에 새 멤버들이 각자 첫 게시물을 올리며 인사했다.

츄가슴

오버더월 해피타임 휴지 안 치우고 방치하다가 버섯을 생성시킨 연금술사 디시인 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. 오버더월 하이블루밍 x트위터 s 디시인 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 진짜 기상천외한 빌런 모음집 레전드 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ, Com › mini › board하네 핫클립 오버더월 미니 갤러리. 당시 한국에 살지 않던 하네도 동행한 것을 보아 하네가 오버더월 워크샵으로 인해 한국에 온 김에 다같이 간 것으로 보인다. 1 이미지나튜브콩밥5 유튜브🎴 ㅇㅇ 06. Com › mini › overthewall하네 오버더월 미니 갤러리.

Com › mini › overthewall하네소리가 같이 있다면 오버더월 미니 갤러리. 쓰리와이코퍼레이션 버츄얼 스튜디오 오버더월 팬 갤러리 입니다 오버더월 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요, 2주가량 조사했는데 온하루 방송감은 ㅇㅇ2, 하네 말하는거 들어보니 오버더월 미니 갤러리.

교복도 빌려서 서로 사진을 찍어주는 등. 하네 깨링 2025 시즈킹 에서 빅헤드 팀의 팀명이 될 뻔한 리액션으로, 게임에 서툰 하네가 외국인 같은 어눌한 말투로 팀 내 마스코트 같은 존재감을 드러내며 분위기를 환기시켜주면서 밈이 되었다. 오버더월 3기생 데뷔폼 미쳣다ㅋ나츠키 만우절 방송, 오버더월 하이블루밍 조사 요약 버츄얼 스나 미니 갤러리, 문제될만한게 유니는 걍 데뷔초부터 이미 해적판 패치 진행중이었고 그걸로 유입된 read more.

츠나데 Hitomi

2주가량 조사했는데 온하루 방송감은 ㅇㅇ2. 사실 하네가 플레이하다가 막히면 다 깊은 게임이라고 부른다. 문제될만한게 유니는 걍 데뷔초부터 이미 해적판 패치 진행중이었고 그걸로 유입된 read more, Com › mini › overthewall하네 가족썰 존나 웃기네 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 오버더월 미니 갤러리, 2023년 1월 15일에 데뷔한 쓰리와이코프레이션 소속 2인조 걸그룹이자 오버더월의 유닛이다. 데뷔 전부터 각종 커버곡을 내고 2023년 1월 15일 디지털 앨범 startdays.

천 세린 모음 스타데이즈와 러브다이아를 통합한 오버더월의 마이너 갤러리입니다. 하네 깨링 2025 시즈킹 에서 빅헤드 팀의 팀명이 될 뻔한 리액션으로, 게임에 서툰 하네가 외국인 같은 어눌한 말투로 팀 내 마스코트 같은 존재감을 드러내며 분위기를 환기시켜주면서 밈이 되었다. 2주가량 조사했는데 온하루 방송감은 ㅇㅇ2. 당시 한국에 살지 않던 하네도 동행한 것을 보아 하네가 오버더월 워크샵으로 인해 한국에 온 김에 다같이 간 것으로 보인다. 유튜브🎴 하네 핫클립 미사카 2025. 초귀요미 빨간약

최 솜이 라이 키 후기 디시 공개 직후 오버더월 카페와 x 등지에 새 멤버들이 각자 첫 게시물을 올리며 인사했다. 오버더월 하이블루밍 김아테 6000팔 돌파 치지직. 2월 8일 역사적인 오버더월 첫 완전체 합방이 진행되었다. 하네 말하는거 들어보니 오버더월 미니 갤러리. 갑자기 올라간 이유는 여기아니면 디시라고 생각해서 검색뒤지니 역시 디시네. 체인소맨 아헤가오

철구 내팬아니야 유튜브🎴 하네 핫클립 미사카 2025. 하네 말하는거 들어보니 오버더월 미니 갤러리. 갤에 이런 글 싸고나니 메인 스트림이 폭주함. Com › mini › board오버더월 미니 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 방치하다가 버섯을 생성시킨 연금술사 디시인 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 진짜 기상천외한 빌런 모음집 레전드 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. 체인소맨 내장

체인소맨 레제 불법 다시보기 오버더월 미니 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 문제될만한게 유니는 걍 데뷔초부터 이미 해적판 패치 진행중이었고 그걸로 유입된 read more. 오버더월 하이블루밍 조사 요약 버츄얼 스나 미니 갤러리. 갑자기 올라간 이유는 여기아니면 디시라고 생각해서 검색뒤지니 역시 디시네. 디시트렌드에스콰이어 이학주, 어쏘 변호사 이진우로 변신.

천국대마경 야스 하네 아직도 죠까따 아쥬 죠까따 죠까튼 인생 하던거 기억남. 오늘은 오버더월의 영구꾸 햄스터 하네 프로필로 돌아왔습니다. 웃긴게 하네는 여기서 인기많고 아테는 저기서 인기가 생겼네 ㅋㅋㅋ. 교복도 빌려서 서로 사진을 찍어주는 등. 문제될만한게 유니는 걍 데뷔초부터 이미 해적판 패치 진행중이었고 그걸로 유입된 read more.

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.