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.

전역함 @21roka22 twitter profile. 라이브장인 재환군 덕에, 눈높이가 높아질 대로 높아진 나를 더 소름돋게 하는. @icboong twitter profile. 181107_전역기념_팬싸인회 twitter hashtag.

놀쟈 방귀녀

호빵 @hobbang85 twitter profile.. 인사명령은 소급 발령은 물론 장래의 행위에 대한 발령도 가능하기 때문에, 전역일자에 맞춰서 인사부서에서 사전에 전역 명령을 발령해 놓는다.. 전역과 동시에 보내주신 메세지입니다 모든 아미님들께 전 하시고픈 메세지인것 같아 당사자의 허락을 받고 공유합니다 우리 호석이 잘 지켜주세요 아미에게_아미.. 전역을 기다리며 음총팀과 함께 하는 우당탕탕 dday challenge 무대장인..

노발 작음 디시

러시아 하루 에 미사일 122발 우크라이나 공습 100여명 사상 현지시간 29일 오전 러시아군이 우크라이나 전역에 대규모 more than 100 people killed. 너무 꿈만 같던 시간이었어오 그 시절, 그 순간은 다시 오지 않겠지만 그. Covdpocy8eps 멕시코올림픽대표 w 대학생로렉스 하하전역 제주바다풍경. 형원 전역 알티해주신 한분께 채채냥 요키채 채채냥 포카홀더 세트로 보내드립니다 mbb 한정. Neredeyse 4 yıl önce. 22b65511906s tweet photo.

라이브장인 재환군 덕에, 눈높이가 높아질 대로 높아진 나를 더 소름돋게 하는. 방탄소년단 전역일 카운트 @bts_d_day twitter profile. 250721 woodz 전역 무즈의 기니여니가 돌아왔습니다‼️ 그동안 아낌없는 사랑을 보내준 무즈 덕분에 woodz가 건강하게 전역했습니다 앞으로의 시간들을 기대하며, 러시아 하루 에 미사일 122발 우크라이나 공습 100여명 사상 현지시간 29일 오전 러시아군이 우크라이나 전역에 대규모 more than 100 people killed. 전역을 기다리며 음총팀과 함께 하는 우당탕탕 dday challenge 무대장인.

따라서 전역 역시도 당연히 인사명령이 발령되어야 한다. 형원 전역 알티해주신 한분께 채채냥 요키채 채채냥 포카홀더 세트로 보내드립니다 mbb 한정. 하하전역 twitter hashtag. Hys_z1ps tweet video, People and tweets found by searching 김석진 전역, 화전역조건강추 twitter hashtag.

노로바이러스 출근 디시

방탄소년단 전역일 카운트 @bts_d_day twitter profile, See top tweets, photos and videos tagged as 181107_전역기념_팬싸인회. People and tweets found by searching 김석진 전역. 하하전역 twitter hashtag.

Bahasa indonesia 복숭아녹차전역. See top tweets, photos and videos tagged as 하하전역. 전역함 @21roka22 twitter profile, See top tweets, photos and videos tagged as 하하전역.

See tweets, replies, photos and videos from @heungay twitter profile. 무료앱 화전역조건 화전역조건강추 불금이니 화전역톡 네오비즈 화전역누수전문 클럽행사 화전역짐정리 여성세럼 화전역업소용가구 한규정 부계. 10➿ 방탄소년단 알엠 오늘 전역합니다, 원통쪽 군인 @22b65511906 twitter kullanıcısı.

Bahasa indonesia 복숭아녹차전역. Hys_z1ps tweet video. 10➿ 방탄소년단 알엠 오늘 전역합니다.

남자 평균 사이즈 디시 22b65511906s tweet photo. Joined february 2018. See top tweets, photos and videos tagged as 하하전역. See top tweets, photos and videos tagged as 하하전역. Neredeyse 4 yıl önce. 네토성향+스타킹페티쉬

냥코 스탯 사이트 Neredeyse 4 yıl önce. @kkkkk1123538282 twitter profile. @kkkkk1123538282 twitter profile. 인사명령은 소급 발령은 물론 장래의 행위에 대한 발령도 가능하기 때문에, 전역일자에 맞춰서 인사부서에서 사전에 전역 명령을 발령해 놓는다. 따라서 전역 역시도 당연히 인사명령이 발령되어야 한다. 놀쟈 영상

네시 포켓몬 전역함 @21roka22 twitter profile. 호빵 @hobbang85 twitter profile. 안녕하세요, 성공하고 싶은 남자 successyoung입니다. Hys_z1ps tweet video. 슬이 @you_seul_ twitter profile. 노익스강 키 디시

남자 왁서 여자 손님 디시 전역함 @21roka22 twitter profile. 토끼왕쟈 @hopbunny522 twitter profile. 전역을 기다리며 음총팀과 함께 하는 우당탕탕 dday challenge 무대장인. 형원 전역 알티해주신 한분께 채채냥 요키채 채채냥 포카홀더 세트로 보내드립니다 mbb 한정. 화전역조건강추 twitter hashtag.

노은솔 시스루 전역과 동시에 보내주신 메세지입니다 모든 아미님들께 전 하시고픈 메세지인것 같아 당사자의 허락을 받고 공유합니다 우리 호석이 잘 지켜주세요 아미에게_아미. Hys_z1p twitter profile. 무료앱 화전역조건 화전역조건강추 불금이니 화전역톡 네오비즈 화전역누수전문 클럽행사 화전역짐정리 여성세럼 화전역업소용가구 한규정 부계. Covdpocy8eps 멕시코올림픽대표 w 대학생로렉스 하하전역 제주바다풍경. 따라서 전역 역시도 당연히 인사명령이 발령되어야 한다.

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.