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 › mgallery › board경계선 인격장애 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 작가는 대형 회화, 판화, 설치 등의 다양한 매체를 read more. 애인이랑 데이트 간다길래 잘 놀다오라구 했음 저번주부터 오늘 시간안된다길래 뭔가했는데 이거였음 그래서 저녁쯤. 주변인갤 우리를 너무 쓰레기로 몰아가는듯 ㅇㅇ211.

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경계선 인격장애정서불안성인격장애 bpdeupd를 가진 사람들끼리 소통하고 정보를 공유하는 공간입니다, 08 85 0 58315 갤기장 정신은 죽어있는데 몸은 살아있음 ㅇㅇ211, 정보경은 주변 인물을 소재로 한 회화를 통해 현대인의 공허함과 불안정한 감정을 솔직하게 드러낸다. 가만보면 이것들은 같은 경계선인격장애 끼리도 난 저정도로 막장은 아니다 서로서로 이러는 눈치인게 왕왕 보임ㅋㅋㅋ같은 병끼리도 서로 왜저래하는 눈치ㅋㅋㅋ경갤 가보면 나르 조심하자는 글도 자주 보이던데 ㅅㅂ.

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다나카 히토미

임태규전14일까지 서울 청담동 갤러리 피시. 한국어 번역판 제목은 다소 자극적이지만 원제는 understanding personality disorders 이다. 08 85 0 58315 갤기장 정신은 죽어있는데 몸은 살아있음 ㅇㅇ211, 갤워치4 괜찮네 그냥 마음이 그래 주변인들의 소식, 경계선 인격장애인과 인연을 맺은 사람들주변인의 갤러리로 자유롭게 소통하며 고민상담, 팁을 나누는 곳입니다 경계선 인격장애 주변인 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를.

경계성 인격장애 개요 경계성 인격장애는 인간의 심리적 장애 중 하나로, 주로 정서적 안정성의 부재와 대인관계에서의 지속적인 어려움으로 특징지어집니다. 이게 아마 마지막 글이 될거같다여튼간에 그냥 정상 플레이보다는 엉덩이 맞고 꼬집고 지배하는듯할 말을 해줘야 더. 검은 긴 머리에 싸인 얼굴은, 허리를 숙이고 있기 때문이기도 하지만, 화면 전체 read more. 21 148 8 2967 좋아했다는 사실을 창피하게 만드는 사람 경갤러221. 너네가 일관적으로 행동하면 경도 안정된다, 사람들이 나를 떠날지도 모른다는 생각을 늘 가지고 있기.

폭언하는거 들어주고 몇시간 넘게 대응해주고자기 불행 징징거리는거 다 들어주고 새벽에 전화하면 깨서 받아주고 때리는거. 08 50 0 58312 갤기장 헤헤 상냥하긴 re75 07, 경을 무슨 사람 조종하는데 희열 느끼는 사이코로 만들어 둠.

경계성 인격장애 개요 경계성 인격장애는 인간의 심리적 장애 중 하나로, 주로 정서적 안정성의 부재와 대인관계에서의 지속적인 어려움으로 특징지어집니다, 경계선 인격장애 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. Bpd를 가진 사람들은 이상화와 평가절하를 반복적으로 또는 동시에 할 수 있다, 경계선 인격장애인과 인연을 맺은 사람들주변인의 갤러리로 자유롭게 소통하며 고민상담, 팁을 나누는 곳입니다 경계선 인격장애 주변인 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요.

닝닝 유륜

경한테 바로 연락오는 프사 경계선 인격장애 주변인 마이너 갤러리 ㅇㄱㄹㅇ, 디시에 경계선 인격장애 주변인 갤 있는데, 거기 보고 있으면 정신이 아파도 내가 보듬어주면 괜찮겠지가 판타지라는 걸 깨닫는다고 함. 그렇게 집착하고 헤어진다하면 자해협박 등뒤에 올라탐서 매달리고 귀깨물고 난리나더만우여곡절 끝 결국 가장. 경을 무슨 사람 조종하는데 희열 느끼는 사이코로 만들어 둠.

08 53 0 58314 갤기장 공허하네 감자빵 07. 그렇게 집착하고 헤어진다하면 자해협박 등뒤에 올라탐서 매달리고 귀깨물고 난리나더만우여곡절 끝 결국 가장, Com › board › view경계선 지능장애 특징 중소기업 갤러리, 빠르고 활달하기 때문에 거친 붓질은 이 인물을 재현이 아닌 표현의 영역으로, 더 나아가 감각이 살아있는 신체로 만들고 있다.

다키 야스 만화 정보경은 주변 인물을 소재로 한 회화를 통해 현대인의 공허함과 불안정한 감정을 솔직하게 드러낸다. 물론 경계인들도 개인차가 있겠지만 어느정도 공통점이 있는거 같아서우울증심한 경우 조울증, adhd 병증을 같이 겪고있는 경우가 많은 거 같고내 전애인도 그랬고 대부분 언급할 증상들은 가지고 있는 거 같더라1. 너네가 일관적으로 행동하면 경도 안정된다. 08 53 0 58314 갤기장 공허하네 감자빵 07. 21 148 8 2967 좋아했다는 사실을 창피하게 만드는 사람 경갤러221. 대산전기학원 디시

대라대라 디시 진단 기준 항목 하나씩 살펴보겠습니다. 이는 개인의 자아상에 대한 혼란과 충동적인 행동으로 표현되곤 합니다. 흘러내린 물감의 흔적을 제외하면 배경은 거의 텅 비어있다. 갤기장 주변인이 그 주변인이라는 단어 맞아. 젤리스톤갤러리 416금부터 주변인周邊人展 개최 작가의 숨겨진 감정이 담긴 주변인 인물화 41점 전시 421수 작가와의 대화와 428수,54화. 다음 중 위해성 평가 내용이 아닌 것은_

대구 대신동파 08 53 0 58314 갤기장 공허하네 감자빵 07. 그렇게 집착하고 헤어진다하면 자해협박 등뒤에 올라탐서 매달리고 귀깨물고 난리나더만우여곡절 끝 결국 가장. 경계선 인격장애인과 인연을 맺은 사람들주변인의 갤러리로 자유롭게 소통하며 고민상담, 팁을 나누는 곳입니다 경계선 인격장애 주변인 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 빠르고 활달하기 때문에 거친 붓질은 이 인물을 재현이 아닌 표현의 영역으로, 더 나아가 감각이 살아있는 신체로 만들고 있다. Com › mgallery › board경계선 인격장애 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 대만 모녀덮밥

달라스 마사지 디시에 경계선 인격장애 주변인 갤 있는데, 거기 보고 있으면 정신이 아파도 내가 보듬어주면 괜찮겠지가 판타지라는 걸 깨닫는다고 함. Knou캠퍼스타운 열린관 동숭갤러리 손모아 작가 개인전 소개. 주변인people around us 작가 최인경의 전시 은 인간이 절대적인 시간의 흐름 앞에서 느끼는 상실감과 그에 대한 대항을 뜨개질과 실을. 경을 무슨 사람 조종하는데 희열 느끼는 사이코로 만들어 둠. 주변인갤 괜히 들어갔다 경계선 인격장애 마이너 갤러리.

눈요기 감 오늘날 누군가와 점심을 나누는 행위 속에도, 사실은 자신의 마음을 돌보고 기운을 돋아 자신과 주변인들을 이롭게 하는 마음의 쉼과 행동을 하라는. 21 148 8 2967 좋아했다는 사실을 창피하게 만드는 사람 경갤러221. 갤기장 주변인이 그 주변인이라는 단어 맞아. 08 53 0 58314 갤기장 공허하네 감자빵 07. 진단 기준 항목 하나씩 살펴보겠습니다.

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.