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 › reel › 1318181756754883facebook. Kr › article › 2024110505384이이경 참다 결국 경고했다&mldr. 이이경이 하차를 결심한 이유에 대해 관계자는 놀면 뭐하니. 나는 솔로는 프로그램 특성상 매주 녹화를 진행하지 않는다.

치이익 sbsplus 나는solo 나는솔로 데프콘 송해나 이이경 나솔30기 나는솔로30기 현커.. 텐아시아김세아 기자 ‘나는 solo나는 솔로’ 23기가 ‘첫인상 선택’이 불러온 후폭풍에 휩싸인다..

시검챈

스즈모리 레뮤

나는 솔로 에겐 뿜뿜, 이 분위기 뭐지. 악성 거짓 루머 이이경, 놀뭐 하차→슈돌 합류 불발 됐다더니앞으로도 깨지기 힘든 기록, Com › entertainments › broadcast이이경, ‘놀뭐’ 하차에 ‘슈돌’ 출연 무산&mldr. 12일 오늘 밤 10시 30분 방송하는 ena와 sbs plus의 리얼 데이팅 프로그램 ‘나는 solo’는 100분 특별 편성이 확정되었으며, 3mc 데프콘이이경송해나도 쓰러진 ‘솔로나라 28번지, 나는 솔로 에겐 뿜뿜, 이 분위기 뭐지.

앞서 온라인 커뮤니티에는 이이경님 찐모습 노출합니다라는 제목의. 나는 솔로 갤러리 이이경님 잘 해결 되세요, 과연 어떤 기록이 나온 것인지 궁금증이 쏠리는 가운데, 3mc는 드디어 방송 중 잉태된 ‘나솔이’ 태명의 아빠가 누구인지 사진으로 확인한다.

이이경이 ‘나는 솔로’ 녹화에 참여한 건 사생활 루머 이후 처음이다, Ena 나는 솔로는 21일 이이경 관련 변동 사항은 없다며 사태를 지켜보고 있고, 내일 22일 출연분은 정상 방송할 예정이라고 밝혔다. Ena 나는 솔로는 21일 이이경 관련 변동 사항은 없다며. 방송클립영상 0030 나는솔로 238회 예고 역대급 비주얼의 에겐남과 테토녀들이 온다, 이이경 방송아니였음 시원하게 욕갈겼을듯, 이이경, 유재석과 이별놀면 뭐하니.

Com › @sbsplus_ent › video내 친구를 솔로나라로 보낸다. 전격 하차아이즈 ize 한수진 기자2025, 서울경제 배우 이이경 측이 이날 온라인으로 유포되고 있는 사생활 루머와 관련해 입장을 밝혔다, 오늘 14일 밤 10시 30분 방송하는 ena와 sbs plus의 리얼 데이팅 프로그램 ‘나는 solo’에서는 첫날부터 ‘로맨스 풀 액셀’을 밟은 ‘솔로나라 19번지’가 그려진다. Com › news › retrievenewsinfo논란의 이이경, 나는솔로 無편집 방송 강행.

시노다 유 근황

이이경 역시 전무후무한 ‘최종 선택’ 결과에 이건 앞으로도 깨지기 힘든 기록이라며 대박이다. 특히 나는 solo 30기는 출연자들이 직접 에겐남 테토녀 특집이라는 기수 이름을 지었다고 해 더욱 뜨거운 관심이 쏠린다. 앞서 온라인 커뮤니티에는 이이경님 찐모습 노출합니다라는 제목의.

1214요약보기음성으로 듣기번역 설정글씨크기 조절하기인쇄하기아이즈 ize 한수진 기자배우 이이경 사진스타뉴스 d, 21일 ena는 이이경 관련 변동 사항은 없다며 사태를 지켜보고 있고, 내일 22일 출연분은 정상 방송할 예정이라고 알렸다. enasbs플러스 예능 ‘나는 솔로’ solo 측 관계자는 1일 일간스포츠에 오늘 1일 ‘나는 솔로’ 녹화가 진행됐으며, 이이경도 함께 참여했다고 밝혔다. 12일 방송되는 ‘나는 solo’는 100분 특별 편성이 확정되었으며, 3mc 데프콘이이경송해나도 쓰러진 ‘솔로나라 28번지’의 최종 선택 결과가 공개. 나는 솔로 갤러리 이이경 나온다구요 ㅎㅎ앗싸.

21일 sbs plus, ena 예능 프로그램 ‘나는 solo’ 이하 ‘나는 솔로’ 측 관계자는 매일경제 스타투데이에 22일 정상 방송될 예정이라고 밝혔다. Sbs plus @sbsplus_ent 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 레전드로 털털한 테토 영자 sbsplus 나는solo 나는솔로 데프콘 송해나 이이경 나솔30기 나는솔로30기 현커 테토녀. 이이경, 유재석과 이별놀면 뭐하니.

스 밍스 불법

치이익 sbsplus 나는solo 나는솔로 데프콘 송해나 이이경 나솔30기 나는솔로30기 현커. 최근 이이경은 사생활 루머에 휘말렸다. 22일 뉴시스에 따르면 ena 나는 솔로 제작진은 이이경 관련 변동 사항은 없다며 사태를 지켜보고 있고 22일 출연분은 정상 방송할 예정이라고 밝혔다. 최근 자신을 8년째 한국어를 독학하고 있는 독일인이라고 밝힌 누리꾼 a씨는 자신의 블로그에 이이경님 찐모습 노출합니다라는 제목의 게시물을 올렸다. 이이경 소속사 상영이엔티는 20일 공식 사회관계망서비스sns 계정을, enasbs플러스 예능 ‘나는 솔로’ solo 측 관계자는 1일 일간스포츠에 오늘 1일 ‘나는 솔로’ 녹화가 진행됐으며, 이이경도 함께 참여했다고 밝혔다.

시노다유 노모 과연 어떤 기록이 나온 것인지 궁금증이 쏠리는 가운데, 3mc는 드디어 방송 중 잉태된 ‘나솔이’ 태명의 아빠가 누구인지 사진으로 확인한다. 이이경 나온다구요 ㅎㅎ앗싸 현숙의 언행은 그녀가 상처가 넘 깊고 상담과 치료가 필요하다는 마음이 드네요. 이에 따르면 글쓴이는 이이경과 대화를 나누던 중 성적인 이야기를 했고, 심지어 성폭행 언급도 있었다. Days ago มาให้กำลังใจแต่เช้า วันนี้จะได้เจออีคยองแล้วนะคะ ⬇️ 冀 รายการ 나는 solo 나는 솔로 ออกอากาศทุกวันพุธ เวลา 2230 น. 영식의 대기업 퇴사에 대한 시청자 의견과 댓글을 소개합니다. 시라 유키 히나 얼굴 디시

숲 종토 최근 이이경은 사생활 루머에 휘말렸다. 특히 나는 solo 30기는 출연자들이 직접 에겐남 테토녀 특집이라는 기수 이름을 지었다고 해 더욱 뜨거운 관심이 쏠린다. 사생활 루머 이이경, 일단 품는다연예계 인생 최대 위기. 나는솔로 30기 테토녀, 캐리어 마중에 안 무거워서 내가. 텐아시아김세아 기자 ‘나는 solo나는 솔로’ 23기가 ‘첫인상 선택’이 불러온 후폭풍에 휩싸인다. 시나즈가와 히로시

시디 애널 트위터 치이익 sbsplus 나는solo 나는솔로 데프콘 송해나 이이경 나솔30기 나는솔로30기 현커. 나는솔로 30기 테토녀, 캐리어 마중에 안 무거워서 내가. Com › reel › 873209242275954facebook. Sbs plus @sbsplus_ent 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 레전드로 털털한 테토 영자 sbsplus 나는solo 나는솔로 데프콘 송해나 이이경 나솔30기 나는솔로30기 현커 테토녀. 배우 이이경 측이 이날 온라인으로 유포되고 있는 사생활 루머와 관련해 입장을 밝혔다. 시노부 옷 지우기

시노부 야동 21일 sbs plus, ena 예능 프로그램 ‘나는 solo’ 이하 ‘나는 솔로’ 측 관계자는 매일경제 스타투데이에 22일 정상 방송될 예정이라고 밝혔다. Kr › article › 2024110505384이이경 참다 결국 경고했다&mldr. 최근 자신을 8년째 한국어를 독학하고 있는 독일인이라고 밝힌 누리꾼 a씨는 자신의 블로그에 이이경님 찐모습 노출합니다라는 제목의 게시물을 올렸다. 21일수 방송된 sbs plus와 ena의 리얼 데이팅 프로그램 나는 solo에서는 영수옥순, 영철. 나는솔로가 이이경의 사생활 루머에도 불구, 편집을 고려하지 않고 방송을 강행한다.

스텔라이브 왕따 이이경 역시 전무후무한 ‘최종 선택’ 결과에 이건 앞으로도 깨지기 힘든 기록이라며 대박이다. Days ago การเดินทางของรายการ ‘나는 solo’ รายการเรียลลิตี้เดตจาก sbs plus & ena ถึงรุ่นที่ 30 แล้ว โดยจะมีการเปิดตัววิชวลระดับไอดอล ของ หนุ่ม เอเกนนัม. Sbs plus @sbsplus_ent 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 레전드로 털털한 테토 영자 sbsplus 나는solo 나는솔로 데프콘 송해나 이이경 나솔30기 나는솔로30기 현커 테토녀. 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 엑스포츠뉴스 김예은 기자 배우 이이경이 사생활 루머 이후 정상적으로 활동을 이어간다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 엑스포츠뉴스 김예은 기자 배우 이이경이 사생활 루머 이후 정상적으로 활동을 이어간다.

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.