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.

라쿠라쿠라이프 at mania dpmi. 楽天市場raku raku lifeの通販. 접이식침대의 명가, 라꾸라꾸침대 본사 홈페이지, 합리적이고 편안한 제품 라꾸라꾸접이식침대좌식의자1인용가구라쿠라쿠1인용접이식침대캠핑사무실침대휴식간이침대재택라꾸라꾸마스크kf94kf80비말차단마스크kfad마스크rakurakurakurakumaskrakuraku라꾸라꾸침대슈퍼싱글마스크야전. 라꾸라꾸 본사 유로탑 포켓스프링 64 접이식 프리미엄침대 1인용 슈퍼싱글 024pn 449,000원.

라쿠진은 스타일리시하고 현대적인 대한민국 대표 생활&주방 가전 브랜드로,컨템퍼러리 라이프스타일과 소비자의 문화적 감수성을 자연스럽게 조화시킵니다.. 젤 유명한 가전렌탈 업체 ㅎㅍㄴㅅㅋㅇ는 도쿄23구만 가능해서 도쿄 옆동네 사이타마 주민인 저는 렌탈 업체가 두개로 추려지는데용 바로 카시테와 라쿠라쿠라이프.. Raku table portable sh8 라쿠 테이블 포터블블루 그린.. 마지막으로 본 곳이 라쿠라쿠라이프 좀 더 저렴하고 괜찮은데 없나하고 찾은 곳 무난하다 가격도 카시테보다 저렴하다..

두바이 발코니 집단 누드

가리유시 콘도미니엄 오션 힐스 조라쿠 스테이.. 送料について 配送設置料一律5,500円（税込） 対応地域は全て配送設置料一律5,500円（税込）で提供させて頂いております。 商品のメンテナンスなども迅速に対応することが可能です。 ※撤去回収費用は無料で対応させていただいております。.. 楽天市場「raku raku life」20547件 人気の商品を価格比較・ランキング･レビュー・口コミで検討できます。ご購入でポイント取得がお得。セール商品・送料無料商品も..

동굴을 따먹은 소년

침대1인용 미니침대18탄 싱글 접이식침대 cbk018n 간이침대 온열매트 추가. 마지막으로 본 곳이 라쿠라쿠라이프 좀 더 저렴하고 괜찮은데 없나하고 찾은 곳 무난하다 가격도 카시테보다 저렴하다. 고대 건축물의 아름다움을 재해석한 다기능 디자인 오브제입니다, 할인해서 32,340엔 1년+운송료 3,850엔 이면 솔직히 2년 렌탈이면 카시테로 하는게 더 저렴합니다.

라쿠라쿠라이프서비스 서울특별시 용산구 한강로3가, 밴드 라쿠나 인사영상 greetings. 라쿠나스 레트로 클락 오브제 스틸,블랙, 화이트. 라쿠라쿠라이프는 배달 희망 날짜를 3지망까지 적을 수 있고, 시간을 am, pm으로만 정할 수 있습니다, 라쿠나 240511 beautiful mint life 2024. Com › jiminniy › 223388626966도쿄 워홀 가전&가구 렌탈신청방법 with.

Raku table portable sh8 라쿠 테이블 포터블블루 그린. Lacuna 에서 그는 페루의 수도 리마에서 86일간의 여정을 시작하며 자신의 한계를 시험하고, 복잡한 감정을 스스로 다루며 성장하는 모습을 read more. 5kg 가 있지만 연단위로 해야해서 좀 귀찮았어요. 라쿠나스 레트로 클락 오브제 스틸,블랙, 화이트, 접이식침대의 명가, 라꾸라꾸침대 본사 홈페이지, 합리적이고 편안한 제품 라꾸라꾸접이식침대좌식의자1인용가구라쿠라쿠1인용접이식침대캠핑사무실침대휴식간이침대재택라꾸라꾸마스크kf94kf80비말차단마스크kfad마스크rakurakurakurakumaskrakuraku라꾸라꾸침대슈퍼싱글마스크야전, 라꾸라꾸 라꾸라꾸 데이라이프 접이식 소파베드 1인용소파 등받이 각도조절 쿠션 의자 미니침대 토퍼.

디시 신태일 근황

Jp 月払いの家電レンタル・家具レンタルはらくらくライフ 月払 いの 家電レンタル 家具レンタル サービス 驚きの安さ 家電 3 点セット が 2,970 円 ご利用者数 30,000 世帯. 라쿠라쿠라이프는 학생 30%할인이 있고 세탁건조기 5. 오늘 주문하면 내일on다 라꾸라꾸 라꾸라꾸 접이식침대 4탄 싱글 1인용 간이침대 원룸 라꾸라꾸 라꾸라꾸 4탄 싱글 new cbk004sg 접이식침대 라꾸라꾸 라꾸라꾸 온열 read more.

라쿠라쿠라이프는 학생 30%할인이 있고 세탁건조기 5. 할인해서 32,340엔 1년+운송료 3,850엔 이면 솔직히 2년 렌탈이면 카시테로 하는게 더 저렴합니다, 送料について 配送設置料一律5,500円（税込） 対応地域は全て配送設置料一律5,500円（税込）で提供させて頂いております。 商品のメンテナンスなども迅速に対応することが可能です。 ※撤去回収費用は無料で対応させていただいております。, 마지막으로 본 곳이 라쿠라쿠라이프 좀 더 저렴하고 괜찮은데 없나하고 찾은 곳 무난하다 가격도 카시테보다 저렴하다.

덕르코프갤

라꾸라꾸 본사 유로탑 포켓스프링 64 접이식 프리미엄침대 1인용 슈퍼싱글 024pn 449,000원. 라쿠나 beautiful mint life 2022 220513, 북엔드로서 책을 고정하고 위쪽 트레이는 액세서리나 소품을전시 할 수 있습니다, Jp 月払いの家電レンタル・家具レンタルはらくらくライフ 月払 いの 家電レンタル 家具レンタル サービス 驚きの安さ 家電 3 点セット が 2,970 円 ご利用者数 30,000 世帯.

데일리 플랜 데이 피크 더쿠 고대 건축물의 아름다움을 재해석한 다기능 디자인 오브제입니다. 마지막으로 본 곳이 라쿠라쿠라이프 좀 더 저렴하고 괜찮은데 없나하고 찾은 곳 무난하다 가격도 카시테보다 저렴하다. レンタル前のq&a レンタル中のq&a レンタル終了後のq&a レンタル前のq&a らくらくライフのしくみについて q レンタル期間は選べますか？ a はい、期間は 3ヶ月、6ヶ月、1年、2年、3年が選べます。学生様割引プラン（2年、4年）もございます。 q 3ヶ月未満のレンタルは可能ですか？ a はい、可能. 5kg 가 있지만 연단위로 해야해서 좀 귀찮았어요. 1인용 웰빙온열 라꾸라꾸침대 6 cbk006s 슈퍼싱글 전동 라꾸라꾸침대 8 cbk008 홈쇼핑제품☆라꾸라꾸 6 read more. 덕코프 갱

동급생 히토미 라꾸라꾸 라꾸라꾸 데이라이프 접이식 소파베드 1인용소파 등받이 각도조절 쿠션 의자 미니침대 토퍼. 1년 렌탈이면 라쿠라쿠가 더 저렴한 것 같아요. 다만 접이식이라 접히는 부분에 허리가 좀 꺼지는 부분은 아쉽네요 ㅎㅎ 그렇다고 특별히 사용에 불편함은 없습니다. Jp 月払いの家電レンタル・家具レンタルはらくらくライフ 月払 いの 家電レンタル 家具レンタル サービス 驚きの安さ 家電 3 点セット が 2,970 円 ご利用者数 30,000 世帯. レンタル前のq&a レンタル中のq&a レンタル終了後のq&a レンタル前のq&a らくらくライフのしくみについて q レンタル期間は選べますか？ a はい、期間は 3ヶ月、6ヶ月、1年、2年、3年が選べます。学生様割引プラン（2年、4年）もございます。 q 3ヶ月未満のレンタルは可能ですか？ a はい、可能. 드근드시 드그드그디시 챌린지

둥즤 onlyfans 라쿠나 beautiful mint life 2022 220513. 배송비가 무료가 아니지만, 합쳐도 카시테보다 저렴하다. レンタル前のq&a レンタル中のq&a レンタル終了後のq&a レンタル前のq&a らくらくライフのしくみについて q レンタル期間は選べますか？ a はい、期間は 3ヶ月、6ヶ月、1年、2年、3年が選べます。学生様割引プラン（2年、4年）もございます。 q 3ヶ月未満のレンタルは可能ですか？ a はい、可能. 아름다운 공간 라쿠🕊 꺄 넘예뻐🤍🤍 파리여행도 생각나고. 다만 접이식이라 접히는 부분에 허리가 좀 꺼지는 부분은 아쉽네요 ㅎㅎ 그렇다고 특별히 사용에 불편함은 없습니다. 데카트론 디시

덕코프 갱 라쿠라쿠라이프를 선택한 이유는요 그냥 카시테보다 몇백엔. Jp › faqよくある質問 月払いの家電レンタル・家具レンタルはらくらくライフ. レンタル前のq&a レンタル中のq&a レンタル終了後のq&a レンタル前のq&a らくらくライフのしくみについて q レンタル期間は選べますか？ a はい、期間は 3ヶ月、6ヶ月、1年、2年、3年が選べます。学生様割引プラン（2年、4年）もございます。 q 3ヶ月未満のレンタルは可能ですか？ a はい、可能. 라쿠나스 레트로 클락 오브제 스틸,블랙, 화이트. 라쿠나스 레트로 클락 오브제 스틸,블랙, 화이트.

디시 야동 レンタル前のq&a レンタル中のq&a レンタル終了後のq&a レンタル前のq&a らくらくライフのしくみについて q レンタル期間は選べますか？ a はい、期間は 3ヶ月、6ヶ月、1年、2年、3年が選べます。学生様割引プラン（2年、4年）もございます。 q 3ヶ月未満のレンタルは可能ですか？ a はい、可能. 라쿠라쿠라이프서비스 서울특별시 용산구 한강로3가. 楽天市場raku raku lifeの通販. 도난이의 탐방소라코스테 가디건 후기, 가장 무난하고 기본 아이템 중 고급스러운 가디건. 라쿠라쿠라이프는 배달 희망 날짜를 3지망까지 적을 수 있고, 시간을 am, pm으로만 정할 수 있습니다.

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.