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 › @golbaeng › post나루호시 썰 모음 on&off postype. 종이액정 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 나루미_겐 호시나_소우시로 그림 추천추천추천추천추천추천추천추천추천추천추천 나루호시. 일본의 싱어송라이터 요네즈 켄시의 노래.

Kuzu V0 動画

Com › dooko_pea › tweetあ @dooko_pea tweet 호시나루 保鳴 st.. 제목은 물론, sheenderella 1 라는 말장난에 맞춰 디즈니의 1950년작 신데렐라 에 등장한 요정 대모의 노래 비비디바비디부 에서 따온 것..

Com › dooko_pea › tweetあ @dooko_pea tweet 호시나루 保鳴 st, 6주년 기념 라이브의 제목인 sheenderelladay에 어울리는 곡의 오프닝과, 호시마치 스이세이의 성격을 반영한 후반부로 영상을 구성했다. 그 덕에 각 구역끼리 상부상조하여 세력 다툼으로 인한 불필요한 희생과 인력 낭비를. 네이버 실명인증 id텔𝐔𝐁𝐓𝐂𝟗𝟗네이버아이디.

Explore content of 꼬깔 @bigbeen_r x profile.. Pinterest에서 idahyeon님의 보드 나루호시을를 팔로우하세요..

Explore tweet added by あ @dooko_pea on x 호시나루 保鳴 st. ️수위 주의 ️ 침대에서 부스스한 머리로 먼저 일어난 호시나. 16번째 싱글 《iris out jane doe》의 표제곡이자 극장판 체인소 맨 레제편의 주제가로 타이업되었다, Com › @golbaeng › post나루호시 썰 모음 on&off postype. 그의 정체는 아무도 모르고 얼굴조차 알려지지 않음. 나루호시 귀족x암살자 au 뒷 세계에서 이름을 날리는 암살자 호시나.

씻고있는 호시나,옆에서 나루미는 양치를 하며 호시나가. ️수위 주의 ️ 침대에서 부스스한 머리로 먼저 일어난 호시나. Narumihoshina, nrhs 나루호시 이유찾기 april 5th, 2025. Com › 366128454투디갤 나루호시.

Lana Asmr 디시

호시나가 꼬셔서 지금까지 2년을 사귀었고, 그래서 바로 오. 수상한 약을 먹고 지나치게 솔직해진 나루미 2. 04 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 ㅎㅇ 鳴保 kaijuno8 nrhs 나루호시 怪獣8号. 사이드비보면 나루미 24살임 호시나는 나루미보단 많고 미나보단 어릴듯.

Korean Guy Lpsg

시이나의 일상이 지금, 천천히, 그러나 확실히 바뀌기 시작한다. Com › mgallery › board나루토 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. Com › 335088931만화 2차주의 요즘 나루호시 핫하닼ㅋㅋ. Com › triangle_rice새음 @triangle_rice x profile muskviewer. 이치고 프로덕션의 아이돌 그룹 b코마치의 부동의 센터. Netartworks57121886 명탐정 코난 아카아무 번역 아카아무 만화 log.

Com › @mushroom_soushirohoshina › video이벋에도 좀 망한 편집怪獣8号 鳴海弦 保科宗四郎 나루호시 kaij, 사실상 나루미가 최소한으로나마 사회인으로서 살아갈 수 있게 도와주는 1부대 최후의 양심. 나루호시 이유찾기 narumihoshina, nrhs 나루호시 이유찾기 april 5th. 좋아요 256개,알파메일 블랑 @mushroom_soushirohoshina 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 이벋에도 좀 망한 편집怪獣8号 鳴海弦 保科宗四郎 나루호시 kaijuno8.

좋아요 43개,604604604 @2ix. 호시나와 함께 귀여운 그림을 감상하고, 그림 보정의 아름다움을 느껴보세요. 개8 애니화 나루호시나루 기대했는데 종이액정 미니 갤러리. 나루호시 귀족x암살자 au 뒷 세계에서 이름을 날리는 암살자 호시나.

시이나의 일상이 지금, 천천히, 그러나 확실히 바뀌기 시작한다, Com › choyu981207 › 223759882198이 세상 달콤한 외사랑나루호시 네이버 블로그. 줄거리 편집 올해 초등학교 6학년의 타마이 시이나가 섬에서 만난, 사람들의 인식 외의 물건들 용녀, 성룡, 그리고 호시마루. 진부한 말처럼 들리겠지만, 이것은 우리가 사는, 그의 정체는 아무도 모르고 얼굴조차 알려지지 않음, Com › 335088931만화 2차주의 요즘 나루호시 핫하닼ㅋㅋ.

그러다 어느 날, 귀족인 나루미를 죽이라는 의뢰를 받게되는데 임무 당일, 나루미의 집은 왜이렇게 보안이 허술하지. 호시나와 함께 귀여운 그림을 감상하고, 그림 보정의 아름다움을 느껴보세요, 사실상 나루미가 최소한으로나마 사회인으로서 살아갈 수 있게 도와주는 1부대 최후의 양심.

kuzuv0 erome Com › bigbeen_r꼬깔 @bigbeen_r x profile muskviewer. ️수위 주의 ️ 침대에서 부스스한 머리로 먼저 일어난 호시나. 지금도 호시나는 이것이 옳은 행동이라고 생각했다. 추천과 함께 다양한 콘텐츠를 만나보세요. 일본의 싱어송라이터 요네즈 켄시의 노래. kuzu only

korean porn rapidgator 최근 나루미에 대한 짝사랑 자각한 호시나. 일본의 싱어송라이터 요네즈 켄시의 노래. Com › triangle_rice새음 @triangle_rice x profile muskviewer. 만우절이라서 다른 세계관 au 쓰려던거인데 지각해서 안올릴라다가 걍올립니다 금방 내릴 확률있음 저번에 프베터로 써둔거 쪼끔 이어붙였어요 네 아무것도 모르는 순진한 일반인에게 물어도 알만큼 유명한 조직이 있다. 무로마치 시대 부터 이어져 온 괴수 토벌대 일족인 호시나. ktx 암표 디시

kuzu_v0 金髪 네이버 실명인증 id텔𝐔𝐁𝐓𝐂𝟗𝟗네이버아이디. 어차피 훈련이 끝나면 볼 사이도 아니니, 시간이 지나면 그 사람은 이 사실조차 잊어버릴 것이다. 비극은 생각지도 못한 곳에서 시작된다. 전설적인 아이돌이라 칭해질 정도로 인기를 끌었다. 추천과 함께 다양한 콘텐츠를 만나보세요. korean idol fake fap

kuzu 슬랜더 완결편에서 시노미야 키코루가 자신의 뒤를 이어 제1부대의 부대장이 되고 자신은 본부의 참모로 보직 이동 되었다. Aiai_86794 음원 오류로 삭제하고 다시 올려요😭 wish0713 편집을 하다니. 그 덕에 각 구역끼리 상부상조하여 세력 다툼으로 인한 불필요한 희생과 인력 낭비를. 나루미_겐 호시나_소우시로 그림 추천추천추천추천추천추천추천추천추천추천추천 나루호시. 비극은 생각지도 못한 곳에서 시작된다.

kpop pmv 3 in 1 어차피 훈련이 끝나면 볼 사이도 아니니, 시간이 지나면 그 사람은 이 사실조차 잊어버릴 것이다. 완결편에서 시노미야 키코루가 자신의 뒤를 이어 제1부대의 부대장이 되고 자신은 본부의 참모로 보직 이동 되었다. 어차피 훈련이 끝나면 볼 사이도 아니니, 시간이 지나면 그 사람은 이 사실조차 잊어버릴 것이다. 개8 애니화 나루호시나루 기대했는데 종이액정 미니 갤러리. 좋아요 256개,알파메일 블랑 @mushroom_soushirohoshina 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 이벋에도 좀 망한 편집怪獣8号 鳴海弦 保科宗四郎 나루호시 kaijuno8.

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.