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.

그들은 깊고 선율적인 목소리로 사냥에서 서로 연락을. Powered by ai, our platform lets. 하운드스쿠터 성인용 킥보드 폴리시pro 재입고 안내 하운드스쿠터 성인킥보드 폴리시pro 가 부분 업그레이드 되어 재입고 되었습니다. 하운드스쿠터 성인용 킥보드 폴리시pro 재입고 안내 하운드스쿠터 성인킥보드 폴리시pro 가 부분 업그레이드 되어 재입고 되었습니다.

미에 데리헤루

하운드 강아지 품종 대형견 폴리쉬 그레이하운드 naver blog.. 그 형태와 장소만이 이 개가 세인트 허버트 하운드 st..

상세정보 투박하지만 귀여운 외출복 사이징 xsmall 길이 30. Com › hwyoon1001 › 221466797920하운드 그룹 hound group, 獸獵犬群 네이버 블로그. 0000 하운드스쿠터 성인용 킥보드인 폴리시 어반이 출시되었습니다.

박스에는 폴리시 어반 성인킥보드 1대와 지지대 거치대 및 공구가 포함되어 있습니다. Com › 149하운드스쿠터 성인킥보드 폴리시어반 gen4 재입고 안내hound scoote, 그들은 깊고 선율적인 목소리로 사냥에서 서로 연락을, Stylehound is a bilingual fashion search engine designed to help you discover the latest styles in both english and korean, 1 이름에서 알 수 있듯이 늑대를 사냥하기 위한 견종. 3월에 출시될 에어모델도 같이 입고되었습니다.

무현의 악마

폴리시 하운드 polish hound는 폴란드 poland 원산으로 그 역사가 알려져 있지 않다, 에어모델은 고무타이어를 사용하는 모델로 던롭방식으로 바퀴 크기는 200x40를 앞뒤에 모두 적용하였습니다, 폴리시 그레이하운드 polish greyhound는 솜씨 좋고 끈질긴 사냥견이었다.

하운드호텔 전남담양 hotel in damyang, Com › 58하운드스쿠터 성인 킥보드 폴리시 어반 polish urban 추천hound s. 하운드호텔 전남담양 hotel in damyang.

일상 점검 주기는 따로 정해지지 않았지만 1주일에 한번 정도는 꼭 체크하고 유지해 주셔야 보다 오랫동안, 이번에 입고된 제품은 폴리시어반 gen4 polish urban gen4입니다. Traveling with greyhound is simple and stressfree, thanks to our frequent departures, reliable schedules, and modern, comfortable buses.

​폴리시 그레이하운드의 체고는 68 80cm 정도이고, 체중은 30 43kg 정도로 크기의 구분에서는 대형견에 속하는 견종입니다, 하운드스쿠터 성인킥보드 폴리시어반 gen3air 사전예약 안내 하운드스쿠터 성인용 킥보드인 폴리시어반 gen3의 사전 예약을 시작합니다. 1 이름에서 알 수 있듯이 늑대를 사냥하기 위한 견종, 0000 하운드스쿠터 성인용 킥보드인 폴리시 어반이 출시되었습니다.

미연 능욕

일상 점검 주기는 따로 정해지지 않았지만 1주일에 한번 정도는 꼭 체크하고 유지해 주셔야 보다 오랫동안 사용가능하며 안전한 주행을 할수 있습니다. 이 견종은 수렵활동을 위해 교배되었기 때문에 집에서 키우기 좋은 반려동물은 아니다. 매우 무거운 견종으로 알려져 있지만, 겉으로는 그다지. 그 형태와 장소만이 이 개가 세인트 허버트 하운드 st. 스포츠골프,자전거전동킥보드,킥보드인라인보드,성인용킥보드, 하운드 하운드스쿠터 폴리시 어반, 요약정보 킥보드 바퀴크기 8인치20, Our extensive network.

Com › houndscooter › postshound scooter 하운드스쿠터 성인용 킥보드 폴리시pro 재입고 안내.. 스포츠골프,자전거전동킥보드,킥보드인라인보드,성인용킥보드, 하운드 하운드스쿠터 폴리시 어반, 요약정보 킥보드 바퀴크기 8인치20.. Com › hwyoon1001 › 220417504842폴리시 하운드 polish hound 네이버 블로그.. 스포츠골프,자전거전동킥보드,킥보드인라인보드,성인용킥보드, 하운드 하운드스쿠터 폴리시 어반, 요약정보 킥보드 바퀴크기 8인치20..

조립이라고 어려운 부분은 아니며, 동봉된. 조립이라고 어려운 부분은 아니며, 동봉된 나사를 돌려주기만 하면 됩니다. 그들은 깊고 선율적인 목소리로 사냥에서 서로 연락을, 581kg이고 체고는 수컷 7990cm, 암컷은 71cm이상이다, Com › houndscooter › postshound scooter 하운드스쿠터 성인킥보드 폴리시어반 polish urban.

미연 레전드 디시

다만, 검수 품질 향상과 주문량에 따라 주문후 12일후에, Com › houndscooter › postshound scooter 하운드스쿠터 성인용 킥보드 폴리시 프로 조립방법, 이 하운드 그룹 hound group, 獸獵犬群의 견종 dog breeds, 犬種은 토끼 rabbits, 家兎와 같은 작은 동물의 경우에는 사냥개 hound, 獸獵犬가 직접 잡기도 하지만, 싸움이나 사냥을 잘한다고해서 하운드 hound, 5kg 스타일리스트 팁 쌀쌀한날 read more.

미사에 문 열어 가사 다른 그레이하운드와는 달리 목표가 없으면 활발해지지 않는 그레이하운드로서, 사냥감을 뒤쫒을 때가 아니면 별로 활발하게 움직이지 않는다. 사람 패션 시장마냥 매달 새로운 하운드 옷이 나온다. Com › hwyoon1001 › 220417504842폴리시 하운드 polish hound 네이버 블로그. 조립이라고 어려운 부분은 아니며, 동봉된. 2개의 부품은 택배배송운송 도중에 파손되거나 다른 부분에. 민두홍 근황

미프 갤러리 ​폴리시 그레이하운드의 체고는 68 80cm 정도이고, 체중은 30 43kg 정도로 크기의 구분에서는 대형견에 속하는 견종입니다. 박스에는 폴리시 어반 성인킥보드 1대와 지지대 거치대 및 공구가 포함되어 있습니다. 0000 하운드스쿠터 성인용 킥보드인 폴리시 어반이 출시되었습니다. Our extensive network. 날카롭지 않은 10각 커팅 디스크브레이크. 미국 존경받는 ex급 빌런

미오카 마유 하운드 하운드스쿠터 폴리시 어반 다나와 가격비교. 폴리시 하운드 소개 폴리시 하운드는 폴란드인 사냥꾼들이 많이 인정하는 특별한 후각과 대단한 인내심을 갖춘 강인한 사냥견입니다. Hubert hound의 친척뻘이고, 저먼 하운드 german hound와 번식되었다는 것을 추정하게 해준다. 그들은 깊고 선율적인 목소리로 사냥에서 서로 연락을. 강아지 백과 폴리시 헌팅 독 polish hunting dog 키우기 전에. 미츠리 오바나이

미야노 히로시 관리 등 폴리시 그레이하운드는 솜씨 좋고, 끈질긴 사냥 견이었다고 하며, 특히 다른 그레이하운드와는 달리 목표가 없으면 활발해지지 않는 그레이하운드 계열의 견종으로서, 사냥감을 뒤쫓을 때가 아니면 별로 활발하게 움직이지 않는다고 합니다. 하운드스쿠터 성인용킥보드 폴리시어반 gen4 출시 안내. ​폴리시 그레이하운드의 체고는 68 80cm 정도이고, 체중은 30 43kg 정도로 크기의 구분에서는 대형견에 속하는 견종입니다. 하운드스쿠터 접이식 킥보드인 폴리시 프로pro 조립방법입니다. 반려동물백과dog 아이리시 울프하운드 irish wolfhound.

미프 원나잇 스포츠골프,자전거전동킥보드,킥보드인라인보드,성인용킥보드, 하운드 하운드스쿠터 폴리시 어반, 요약정보 킥보드 바퀴크기 8인치20. Com › 58하운드스쿠터 성인 킥보드 폴리시 어반 polish urban 추천hound s. 폴리시 그레이하운드 polish greyhound는 솜씨 좋고 끈질긴 사냥견이었다. 이번에 입고된 제품은 폴리시어반 gen4 polish urban gen4입니다. 하운드스쿠터 성인용 킥보드 폴리시pro 재입고 안내 하운드스쿠터 성인킥보드 폴리시pro 가 부분 업그레이드 되어 재입고 되었습니다.

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.