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.

이건 모든 학원 포함임 자비든 국비든영업사원이 와서 상담해주는 곳 모조리 거르면 됨. Com › koco976 › 2241018131342d원화 국비과정 누리마루학원 솔직후기 네이버 블로그. Ui도 어떤 식으로 진행해야 잘 보이는지, 어떻게 해야 더 모바일 가독성이 좋은지 이런 조언을 많이 받아서 좋은 결과물이 나오고 있어요. 어쩌다 인터넷을 통해 국비라는 것을 알게 되었는데 취업하는데 도움이 많이 되겠다 싶어 언른 내일배움카드를.

히토미 한국인

Max의 기초 수업이 끝나면 이렇게 zbrush라는 프로그램으로 좀 더 생각했던 캐릭터 모델링을 하실 수가 있는데요 처음에는 선생님과 같이 간단한 작업을 시작합니다.. 누리마루 국비학원 후기 cg, 3d 갤러리.. 국비학원때문에 고민이신 분들을 위해 3d과정 다닌 후기를 좀 써보려고 합니다 조금이리도 선택에 도움이 되셨으면 하네요 편의상 음슴체로 하겠습니다일단 본인 노베이스, 그림배운적없음,관련과 나오지도 않음.. 진짜 생 노베이스로 가서 들음 지브러쉬,맥스 등등 학원가서 살면서 처음 만져봄 다니게된 계기 대학졸업하고 알바만하면서 이리저리 방황하던 찰나에 3d 그래픽이 재밌어 보여서 배워보고 싶은 마음이 들었는데, 수중에 돈은없고 국비알아봐서 다니게 됨..

히토미 외모지상주의

최근엔 과제에 치여 사느라 포스트를 못 올렸는데ㅠㅜ 복습이라고 생각하며 더 자주오도록 노력해봐야겠다 여하튼 그래서 후기겸 수업노트. 게임 3d 분야로 취업하고자 하는 학생. 국비 지원 학원의 장단점과 선택 시 고려해야 할 점을 알려주는 글입니다. 국비로 3d 과정 들으려하는데 모델링 이런거 한번도 안해본 초보라서 실력 조금 키우고 나중에 사설 가려구요.

히토미 산제물

Com › board › view국비 학원 비추이긴 한데 추천을 하면 cg, 3d 갤러리. 거기에 출석을 열심히하면 훈련장려금으로 교통비나 식비같은 학원다니며 필요한 경비도 줄일 수 있고. 국비로 3d 과정 들으려하는데 모델링 이런거 한번도 안해본 초보라서 실력 조금 키우고 나중에 사설 가려구요. Com › jp___guno › 224077968730누리마루학원 2d 그래픽 국비지원수업받은 후기 네이버 블로그. 근데 그걸 악용해서 정부로 부터 수업료만 받을려고 만든게 국비 학원이야, 44 교대 국비 한곳밖에 없음 누리마루 2018.

마루게임스쿨 3d2d웹툰게임그래픽 전문 교육, Com › board › view국비 학원 비추이긴 한데 추천을 하면 cg, 3d 갤러리. 진짜 생 노베이스로 가서 들음 지브러쉬,맥스 등등 학원가서 살면서 처음 만져봄 다니게된 계기 대학졸업하고 알바만하면서 이리저리 방황하던 찰나에 3d 그래픽이 재밌어 보여서 배워보고 싶은 마음이 들었는데, 수중에 돈은없고 국비알아봐서 다니게 됨.

히토미 애드블럭

국비로 더조은 어때요 cg, 3d 갤러리, 23년도 슬슬 취업이 필요한 시기가 되기도 하고 포트폴리오를 어떻게 해야할지 갈팡질팡 하다가 저희 어머니 공방에 수업을 다니시는 분이 누리마루학원 국비 수업을 받으신분이셨는데 소개받고 웹툰 수업도 한다해서 솔깃 했습니다, Com › mgallery › board국비 누리마루 다녀본사람 있음. Com › board › view국비 학원 비추이긴 한데 추천을 하면 cg, 3d 갤러리, 근데 그걸 악용해서 정부로 부터 수업료만 받을려고 만든게 국비 학원이야. 게임 3d 분야로 취업하고자 하는 학생.

히토미 오줌참기 우선 학원이 쾌적하고 관리가 잘 되어있습니다. 국비학원때문에 고민이신 분들을 위해 3d과정 다닌 후기를 좀 써보려고 합니다 조금이리도 선택에 도움이 되셨으면 하네요 편의상 음슴체로 하겠습니다일단 본인 노베이스, 그림배운적없음,관련과 나오지도 않음. 국비학원때문에 고민이신 분들을 위해 3d과정 다닌 후기를 좀 써보려고 합니다 조금이리도 선택에 도움이 되셨으면 하네요. 진짜 생 노베이스로 가서 들음 지브러쉬,맥스 등등 학원가서 살면서 처음 만져봄 다니게된 계기 대학졸업하고 알바만하면서 이리저리 방황하던 찰나에 3d 그래픽이 재밌어 보여서 배워보고 싶은 마음이 들었는데, 수중에 돈은없고 국비알아봐서 다니게 됨. 알아보기 귀찮으면 이곳도 안 왔죠 cg, 3d 갤러리. 히토미 선배

히토미 변신 매주 오전 9시부터 오후 1시반까지 5시간 정도를 학원에서 내내 그림만 그려요. Ui는 과정샷을 전부 업로드하진 않겠지만 이런 식으로 잘 쌓아두고 있습니다. 이번 포스트에서는 최근 다니기 시작한 게임 그래픽학원 누리마루스쿨에 대해서 이야기해볼까한다. 서울에 있는 ㅇㅋㄷㅁ다니고있는데 스브스아님강사 하는짓거리보니 화가난다강의하다가 툴기능이 제대로 안먹음20분 끄적거리다가 잘되지도않고 지체되니까이런건 수동으로 할수밖에없다면서 툴기능버리고버텍트 1개 하나씩 움직이고있. 홈페이지, 전화 상담 당시엔 된다면서. 히토미 아모

히토미 북마크 디시 구글, 네이버, 고용24, 그 외 커뮤니티들. Com › postview누리마루 게임학원 6개월차 후기 캐릭터, 아이콘, ui 네이버 블로. 늦은 건 아는데 그냥 최소 1년은 대가리 박는다고 생각하고 열심히 하면 됨. 홈페이지, 전화 상담 당시엔 된다면서. 주 1회 진행되는 일반 학원들과 다르게 수업이 주 5일로 진행됩니다. 히토미 팝업 새창

히티드 라이벌리 보는곳 제목에 나와있듯이 누리마루 수강을 모두 마쳤습니다. 누리마루인가 마루스쿨인가 괜찮냐 ㅇㅇ175. 뭐랄까 국비는 주 5일 꾸준히 반강제로 그리는식이라 맘에듬 그리고. 누리마루인가 마루스쿨인가 괜찮냐 ㅇㅇ175. 학원으로 연락주시면 친절히 안내해 드리겠습니다.

히토미 와이프 지금 포트폴리오를 만들고 있는 과정에서 상담도 여러 번 했고, 어떤 포트폴리오가 취업에 유리한지 전략적으로 설계할 수 있어서. 224 followers, 955 following, 340 posts 마루스쿨 게임그래픽학원 그래픽학원 @nurimaruacademy on instagram 🎵그래픽전문교육기관🎵 🔶️ 게임그래픽교육 명문학원 🔶️ 주요 게임제작사 출신 전문강사 🔶️ 11 개인 맞춤관리 🔶️ 검증된 게임 전문 커리큘럼 🔶️ 최대 100% 무료 국비과정 🔶️ 수강. 224 followers, 955 following, 340 posts 마루스쿨 게임그래픽학원 그래픽학원 @nurimaruacademy on instagram 🎵그래픽전문교육기관🎵 🔶️ 게임그래픽교육 명문학원 🔶️ 주요 게임제작사 출신 전문강사 🔶️ 11 개인 맞춤관리 🔶️ 검증된 게임 전문 커리큘럼 🔶️ 최대 100% 무료 국비과정 🔶️ 수강. Max의 기초 수업이 끝나면 이렇게 zbrush라는 프로그램으로 좀 더 생각했던 캐릭터 모델링을 하실 수가 있는데요 처음에는 선생님과 같이 간단한 작업을 시작합니다. 강사님 누리마루학원 강사님들에게 정말 좋았던 점은 학생 하나하나 체크를 정말 잘해주신다는 점인데요.

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.