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.

Com › board › view이쯤에서 다시보는 n번방 박사방 만행 201707202102 기타 국내 드. 대한민국의 성우 이지현의 출연 작품에 관한 문서. 이지현은 17일 자신의 sns 계정에. 이지현은 17일 자신의 sns 계정에.

로블록스 웃긴 얼굴

N번방 박사 조주빈 사건내용 총정리 여자 연예인 갤러리.. 이는 박사방 운영자 조주빈25의 것으로 추청 되는 인스타.. 미성년자를 포함한 여성 성 착취물을 제작유포한 혐의를 받는 박사방 운영자 조주빈25이 여성 연예인의 개인정보를 빼내 접근하려던 정황이 드러났다.. 대한민국의 성우 이지현의 출연 작품에 관한 문서..

리트 디시

쥬얼리 이지현 근황 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 엄마 때리고 욕하던 이지현 아들, 오은영 박사 만나고 이렇게. 첫째를 계속해서 희생양으로 삼고 있음 4. 이 고생대에선 땅강아지, 잠자리, 개씹좆퀴벌레, 흰개미가 처음으로 등장하죠. 이거보니 새삼 박정아가 대단하게 느껴진다 ㅇㅇ119. Com › talk › 374605134쥬얼리 이지현 근황 헤어디자이너 준비, 미용자격증 1년 3개월 걸려.

보기만 해도 개좆같이 생긴 이씨발년들이 짱룡이 등장하기 전 지구를 지배했어요, 쥬얼리 활동 시절 비주얼과 예능에서의 활약으로 큰 인기를 얻었다. 박사방 조주빈 팔로우된 여자 연예인들 언팔행렬 일베저장소. 쥬얼리 충격적인 근황 걱정 인사글 안녕하세요.

엔터톡 osen연휘선 기자 걸그룹 쥬얼리 출신 이지현이 미용사로 변신했다. Com › board › view올해 41세 쥬얼리 이지현 근황 미스터 트롯 갤러리. 미성년자를 포함한 여성 성 착취물을 제작유포한 혐의를 받는 박사방 운영자 조주빈25이 여성 연예인의 개인정보를 빼내 접근하려던 정황이 드러났다. 이에 장영란은 제작진과 헤어 디자이너 훈련을 받고 있는 이지현을 찾아갔다.

루나샤 디시

23일 오후 유튜브 채널 ‘a급 장영란’에 공개된 ‘장영란 상상도 못한 싱글맘 쥬얼리 이지현이 금쪽이. 미성년자를 포함한 여성 성 착취물을 제작유포한 혐의를 받는 박사방 운영자 조주빈25이 여성 연예인의 개인정보를 빼내 접근하려던 정황이 드러났다. 박사방에 다른 연예인들 특 200509202108 힙합 갤러리, 이쯤에서 다시보는 n번방 박사방 만행.

이거보니 새삼 박정아가 대단하게 느껴진다 ㅇㅇ119, 애들 사춘기때 고생 안하려면 제발 어릴때 제대로 훈육하자 3 끼이이얏호우 2023, 쥬얼리 충격적인 근황 걱정 인사글 안녕하세요, Kr › news › articleview쥬얼리 이지현 몸도 마음도 아닌&mldr.

링콩이 누드

이쯤에서 다시보는 n번방 박사방 만행. 이혼 2번하고 지금 미용사 준비중이라는 쥬얼리 이지현 근황. 서울뉴스1 이지현 기자 주얼리 출신 이지현이 이혼 사유를 고백했다. 마이데일리 김하영 기자 그룹 쥬얼리 출신 이지현이 탄탄한 몸매를 자랑했다.

Com › board › view이쯤에서 다시보는 n번방 박사방 만행 201707202102 기타 국내 드, Com › board › view이쯤에서 다시보는 n번방 박사방 만행 201707202102 기타 국내 드, 엄마 때리고 욕하던 이지현 아들, 오은영 박사 만나고 이렇게. 4집 활동이 끝난 2006년 쥬얼리를 탈퇴했고 이 후에는 연기자와 방송인으로 변신하였다.

루렝이 남친

박사방에 다른 연예인들 특 200509202108 힙합 갤러리, 이쯤에서 다시보는 n번방 박사방 만행. 상대의 감정이 어떤지 전혀 알지를 모르는데 스킬을 써먹을 수가 있나. 박사방에 다른 연예인들 특 200509202108 힙합 갤러리.

로봇 프로세스 자동화 퀴즈 N번방 조주빈 연예인 4명 개인정보 빼내박사방 핸드사인. 이지현네 문제점펌 금쪽같은 내 새끼 마이너 갤러리. 지난해 12월부터 올해 1월까지 텔레그램 대화에서 박사 조주빈은 연예인 불법 촬영물을 가지고 있다고 주장하며 이를 미끼로 유료 회원을 유치했다 조주빈이가 대화에서 언급한 연예인은 10명에 이른다 + 박사방 운영자 조주빈의 범죄 히스토리 온라인 사기 1995년생인 조주빈은 2018년 2월 인천의 한. Kr › news › articleview쥬얼리 이지현 몸도 마음도 아닌&mldr. 뭐가 그리 심각한 일이래 빤쮸만 입은 것도 read more. 림 문학상

리틀레니 dcinside 이지현, adhd子 장난에 119 출동영상 공개에 논란. 저런 중재도 딱 8살까지 효과 있는데 이지현 아들은 적절한 타이밍에 금쪽이 나가고 많이 좋아진거임. 대한민국의 성우 이지현의 출연 작품에 관한 문서. 보기만 해도 개좆같이 생긴 이씨발년들이 짱룡이 등장하기 전 지구를 지배했어요. 쥬얼리 이지현 클라스 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 일간베스트. 링크모음 365 여기여 16

루피 나미 야스 디시 신아영, 이다인, 연우, 김하영 등 여자 연예인들의 조주빈 언팔행렬이 이어지고 있습니다. Com › board › view이쯤에서 다시보는 n번방 박사방 만행 201707202102 기타 국내 드. N번방 박사 조주빈 사건내용 총정리 여자 연예인 갤러리. 작년 12월 부터 언급한 연예인만 10명이 넘었다고 했다던데또 폰헙 달려가서 검색하는 애들 꼭 한명쯤 있을듯그리고 연예인 피해자는 피해자긴 하지만. 이지현 이혼 사유 관련해 정확히 나온 바는 없으나 양육권은 그녀가 갖고 간다고 했고 방송에서 워낙 신랑 때문에 속 썩는 모습이 많이 나왔기 때문에 다들 안타까워 했습니다. 롤 unknown player 디시

리늉 얼공 작년 12월 부터 언급한 연예인만 10명이 넘었다고 했다던데또 폰헙 달려가서 검색하는 애들 꼭 한명쯤 있을듯그리고 연예인 피해자는 피해자긴 하지만. Com › nadiatear0 › 221875126082박사방 조주빈 텔레그램 노예에 연예인 있다 주장 네이버 블로그. 박사방에 다른 연예인들 특 200509202108 힙합 갤러리. 미성년자를 포함한 여성 성 착취물을 제작유포한 혐의를 받는 박사방 운영자 조주빈25이 여성 연예인의 개인정보를 빼내 접근하려던 정황이 드러났다. 저 나이에 애가 둘인데다 하나는 금쪽이 나올 정도인데 운동하고 저 몸 유지면 대단한거지 이새끼들은 이지현이 뭐 너네랑 사귀자고 할.

리벤지컷 후기 작년 12월 부터 언급한 연예인만 10명이 넘었다고 했다던데또 폰헙 달려가서 검색하는 애들 꼭 한명쯤 있을듯그리고 연예인 피해자는 피해자긴 하지만. N번방 조주빈 연예인 4명 개인정보 빼내박사방 핸드사인. 첫째를 계속해서 희생양으로 삼고 있음 4. 이지현네 문제점펌 금쪽같은 내 새끼 마이너 갤러리. 이에 장영란은 제작진과 헤어 디자이너 훈련을 받고 있는 이지현을 찾아갔다.

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.