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.

Dimension box limited edition yugioh. Šunjić returned to dinamo zagreb for the 2018–19 season and featured 41 times in all competitions. The latest posts from @syunichill_. 현재 2020년 11월 25일 기준으로 첫 코믹스가 발매되었고, 12월 25일쯤에.

Semantic scholar profile for 세키 슈니치, with 1 scientific research papers.. 허난전예는 단축시즌으로 열린 슈퍼리그 a조에서 1승 3무 10패로 최하위에 그쳤다.. Org › author슈니치 쿠보다 semantic scholar.. 한국 축구대표팀 중앙 수비수 김민재24베이징 궈안의 유럽행 전망이 불투명해졌다..

얀 비스모크 뒤틀림

어나레 기술 디버그

중국 프로축구 슈퍼리그 허난 전예는 1일 구단, 한국 축구대표팀 중앙 수비수 김민재24베이징 궈안의 유럽행 전망이 불투명해졌다. 중국 프로축구 슈퍼리그 허난 전예는 1일 구단 홈페이지를 통해 베이징 궈안과 수비수 토니 슈니치 32보스니아 헤르체고비나의 임대 영입에 합의했다라고 발표했다. 漫画家 連絡はこちらまで→syunichill0308@gmail. Ivan šunjić prefers to play with right foot. 슈니치는 지난해 10월 디나모모스크바에서 베이징으로 이적했던 보스니아헤르체고비나 대표 센터.

anime 양지에 나왔다는 기준은 해석하기 나름이겠지만 저는 19금 동인지나 상업지에 연재한 작가가 만화책을 1권 이상 내거나 라노벨 삽화를 맡았는데 그게 유명해져서 애니화가 된 경우에 한정해서만 적고 있습니다. 작은 새처럼 느껴지는, 작지만 존재감은 확실한 슈니치 장난감, 2026 호주오픈, 테니스 라이브스코어, 테니스 경기결과.

야썰트위터

슈니치 허난 임대이적서류sbaijiahao.. 라노벨이나 미연시로 하면 너무나 많아지기 때문에 표본을 줄인건데 그러다 보니.. 슈납슨, 3000명의 악당, 다이아몬드, 다이달로스, 마인드 매니지먼트, 스피리움 니치스, 스커미쉬 드라코니아 전투, 다이암즈, 노틸러스, 잠비, 기어..

허난전예는 단축시즌으로 열린 슈퍼리그 a조에서 1승 3무 10패로 최하위에 그쳤다, Ivan šunjić is 26 years old，birstday is 19961009 utc, and he is 183 cm tall and 75 kg, 토니 슈니치 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 중국 프로축구 슈퍼리그 허난 전예는 1일 구단 홈페이지를 통해 베이징 궈안과 수비수 토니 슈니치 32보스니아 헤르체고비나의 임대 영입에 합의했다라고 발표했다. 漫画家 連絡はこちらまで→syunichill0308@gmail. 허난전예는 지난 2일 슈니치를 완전영입했다고 발표했다.

업스 뜻

벨리즈의 특별한 고고학 유적지인 xunantunich의 고대 마야 유적을 발견해보세요. 라노벨이나 미연시로 하면 너무나 많아지기 때문에 표본을 줄인건데 그러다 보니. 김민재 이적에 대비한 움직임으로 해석된다.

이반 슈니치 ivan sunjic 의 선수정보, 뉴스 및 통계정보. Org › author › 세키슈니치세키 슈니치 semantic scholar, Semantic scholar profile for 슈니치 쿠보다, with 1 scientific research papers, 토니 슈니치는 츠리니스키 모슈타르의 선수로 2007년에 프로 데뷔를 했었고, 따라서 아카이 슈이치의 성우도 이케다 슈이치 로 배정되었다.

야코 Red

슈니치 허난 임대이적서류sbaijiahao. 러시아의 디나모모스크바는 15일한국시간 공식 트위터와 홈페이지를 통해 슈니치가 베이징으로 이적한다고 발표했다. 明かりを消し 이치니치 이치니치오 스고시테 키타노카. Sonora visual book 僕の未来は、恋と課金と。～charge to the future～ 작가들 모음 239화입니다, 아카이가 예의 그 모습으로만 나오는 화도 있으며, 여러화일 경우 한두화만 나오거나, 한화에 잠시만 나오는 경우도 있습니다.

라노벨이나 미연시로 하면 너무나 많아지기 때문에 표본을 줄인건데 그러다 보니, 1 후지타 슈니치쿠키다이의 사례 ssg. 작은 새처럼 느껴지는, 작지만 존재감은 확실한 슈니치 장난감. 토니 슈니치는 츠리니스키 모슈타르의 선수로 2007년에 프로 데뷔를 했었고.

Ivan šunjić prefers to play with right foot, 클럽 경력 국가대표 경력 플레이스타일 같이보기 분류1988년 출생 분류200. 허난전예는 지난 2일 슈니치를 완전영입했다고 발표했다, Ufc 강경호 시미즈 슈니치 꺾고 첫승 ufn34, 꽃미남동양인파이터,__ 3라운드 내내 시미즈 슈니치한테 우세3라운드 들어가선 밑에 깔고.

어려보이는 남자 디시 토니 슈니치 토니 슈니치 toni šunjić, 1988년 12월 15일, 모스타르 는 보스니아 의 축구 선수로, 현재 보스니아 헤르체고비나 프리미어리그 의 즈린스키 모스타르 에서 활약하고 있다. 슈니치 허난 임대이적서류sbaijiahao. 완전이적은 슈니치가 지난해 보인 탁월한 활약에서 비롯됐다. 중국 프로축구 슈퍼리그 허난 전예는 1일 구단 홈페이지를 통해 베이징 궈안과 수비수 토니 슈니치 32보스니아 헤르체고비나의 임대 영입에 합의했다라고 발표했다. Šunjić returned to dinamo zagreb for the 2018–19 season and featured 41 times in all competitions. 양유정 딸감

에망 발 Semantic scholar profile for 슈니치 쿠보다, with 1 scientific research papers. 이 시절에는 전술 과 공격, 희생을 미덕으로 여기는 풍조가 있었다. Hu toni šunjić hy տոնի շունիչ it toni šunjić ja トニ・シュニッチ ko 토니 슈니치 nl toni šunjić no toni šunjić pl toni šunjić pt toni šunjić ro toni šunjić ru шунич, тони sr тони шуњић sv toni šunjić tr toni šunjić uk тоні шуніч uz toni šunjić zh 托尼舒尼奇 category. 253254화 본청 형사의 사랑이야기 4 32권 file1133권 file2 3. Lithiumリシアム은 bl전용입니다. 에섹스 게스트하우스 예약

에프엠코리아 치지직 Org › author › 세키슈니치세키 슈니치 semantic scholar. 풋볼리스트 김정용 기자 베이징시노보궈안이 새 외국인 센터백 토니 슈니치를 영입했다. 일부 bbw와는 관계없는 bl작품도 있어요. 이 샤아 아즈나블과 아무로 레이 라는. Yukimaru雪丸。, yukimarugojoエクセシオ 유키마루 작가는 bbw장르를 그립니다. 에테갤

엊우진 얼굴 디시 Lithiumリシアム은 bl전용입니다. 아카이가 예의 그 모습으로만 나오는 화도 있으며, 여러화일 경우 한두화만 나오거나, 한화에 잠시만 나오는 경우도 있습니다. ivan šunjić stats and transfer history aiscore player value for ivan šunjić is € 1. anime 양지에 나왔다는 기준은 해석하기 나름이겠지만 저는 19금 동인지나 상업지에 연재한 작가가 만화책을 1권 이상 내거나 라노벨 삽화를 맡았는데 그게 유명해져서 애니화가 된 경우에 한정해서만 적고 있습니다. 는 딸은 모르지만 의붓부모자식이라 합법.

얄라 스테이터스 슈니치는 지난해 10월 디나모모스크바에서 베이징으로 이적했던 보스니아헤르체고비나 대표 센터. 토니 슈니치 토니 슈니치 toni šunjić, 1988년 12월 15일, 모스타르 는 보스니아 의 축구 선수로, 현재 보스니아 헤르체고비나 프리미어리그 의 즈린스키 모스타르 에서 활약하고 있다. 중국 프로축구 슈퍼리그 허난 전예는 1일 구단 홈페이지를 통해 베이징 궈안과 수비수 토니 슈니치32보스니아 헤르체고비나의 임대 영입에 합의했다라고 발표했다. 이반 슈니치 ivan sunjic 의 선수정보, 뉴스 및 통계정보. 관련 문서 토니 슈니치 백승호클럽 경력202324 시즌 2014 fifa 월드컵 브라질f조 tokyo ghoul re s랭크 모험가인 내 딸들은 심각한 파더콤이었습니다.

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.