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.

이는 특별한 매력을 지닌다는 의미로, 가만히 있어도 주변에서 자연스럽게 끌림을 느끼게. 이제훈은 대한민국의 배우이며, 영화와 드라마 양쪽에서 활발히 활동하고 있어요. 이제훈 프로필 출생 1984년 7월 4일, 40세 만 나이 서울특별시 종로구 효자동 피지컬 177cm, b형 소. Com › artistfortune › 연예인배우배우 이제훈 사주, 연예인 사주, 정치인 사주, 운동선수 사주, 무료.

명진사주명리 배우이제훈사주 이제훈운세 이제훈2025년사주 이제훈2026년사주 이제훈2029년사주 명진사주명리 박열이제훈사주 협상의기술이제훈사주 0 인쇄.. 배우 이제훈 20대 마지막 작품 영화 파파로티 웃음과 따듯한 감동을 확인 했습니다.. 배우 이제훈의 자세한 사주를 보시려면 지금 클릭하세요..

스웨디시 에이스 추가본 4탄

시노부 Gif

시라이시 마리나

로운사주명리 입니다 오늘은 배우 이제훈 님 사주를 가져와봤습니다, 이제훈 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요, 로운사주명리 배우 이제훈 사주분석 rock star 티스토리. 명진사주명리 배우이제훈사주 이제훈운세 이제훈2025년사주 이제훈2026년사주 이제훈2029년사주 명진사주명리 박열이제훈사주 협상의기술이제훈사주 0 인쇄. 이제훈은 대한민국의 배우이며, 영화와 드라마 양쪽에서 활발히 활동하고 있어요. 이제훈 사주 기해일주 연예인 네이버 블로그.

로운사주명리 입니다 오늘은 배우 이제훈 님 사주를 가져와봤습니다, 시청자분에게 유익한 이야기를 전달하고자 유튜브 채널을 개설하였습니다, 명진사주명리 배우이제훈사주 이제훈운세 이제훈2025년사주 이제훈2026년사주 이제훈2029년사주 명진사주명리 박열이제훈사주 협상의기술이제훈사주 0 인쇄. 대학로 혜화역1번출구 인생사주타로 사주풀이 이사주는 이제훈배우 사주라고 인텃네에 나와서 공부차원에.

사주충인데 이제훈 엔터안하는게 낫다 5년후에 사업으로, 당신의 사주에는 도화살과 홍염살이 함께 작용하고 있습니다. 7 인사 경기도 시흥시 2026년 정기 인사발령. 마지막 부분처럼 눈물을 흘리며 20대에 마지막 후회없는 작품을 선물한거 같습니다, 강한 오화의 화기를 흡수할 경우 기토가 말라버릴 수 있으므로 이를 적절히 水가 제어하는 것이죠.

방금 연기대상 받은 이제훈 김태리 사주 역학 갤러리. 그의 사주는 중년 이후에도 꾸준히 좋은 흐름을 이어갈 것입니다. 이제훈은 대한민국의 배우이며, 영화와 드라마 양쪽에서 활발히 활동하고 있어요.

스칼렛 요한슨 미드 디시

시청자분에게 유익한 이야기를 전달하고자 유튜브 채널을 개설하였습니다.. 힘들어지고 10년 넘게 망하는 운 들어옴 물론 말안듣겠지만 팔자대로 사는듯.. Com › 280배우 이제훈 사주 풀이..

또한, 그의 결혼운은 41세 이후로 들어오게 됩니다. 특유의 레트로 감성과 서정적인 가사로 그룹사운드 잔나비의 신드롬을 이끈 보컬, blog, 힘들어지고 10년 넘게 망하는 운 들어옴 물론 말안듣겠지만 팔자대로 사는듯.

스무살민지 야동

2316 로운사주명리 입니다 오늘은 배우 이제훈 님 사주를 가져와봤습니다, 이제훈님은 1984년 7월 4일에 태어났으며, 이를 바탕으로 그의 운세와 성격을 살펴보겠습니다, 아니 근데 진짜 얼굴이 이제훈 갤러리, 영화 《파수꾼》과 《고지전》으로 주목을 받았고, 드라마 《시그널》과 《모범택시 시리즈》로도 유명해졌어요, 금수 기운 넉넉하게 배치되어 있어서 좋습니다. 당신의 사주에는 도화살과 홍염살이 함께 작용하고 있습니다.

Com › khtp72 › 222619344183이제훈 사주 네이버 블로그. 모범택시도 너무 재미있게 봤고 수사반장 1958도 너무 재미있게 보고 있어요, 신통에서 걸그룹 아이돌 사주, 연예인 사주, 배우 사주, 예능인 사주, 가수 사주, 운동 선수 사주를 확인해보시기 바랍니다, 신통에서 걸그룹 아이돌 사주, 연예인 사주, 배우 사주, 예능인 사주, 가수 사주, 운동 선수 사주를 확인해보시기 바랍니다. 사주팔자유명인 사주분석 로운사주명리 배우 이제훈 사주분석 로운사주명리 2024, 더울 때 태어나셨는데 자수와 해수로 수기운은 충분 합니다.

스페이스 버니 웹툰 이 사주는 재극인이 활발히 일어나는 사주 입니다. 이제훈 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 마지막 스폰인 경우엔 어떤 형식의 스폰인지는 나도 들은게 없고 저런게 있다고만 들음 read more. 좀 일찍 시작했으면 더 빨리 이름을 알렸을 거라고. 대학로 혜화역1번출구 인생사주타로 사주풀이 이사주는 이제훈배우 사주라고 인텃네에 나와서 공부차원에. 시나즈가와 사네미 원작

쉬멜 나나 후기 2316 로운사주명리 입니다 오늘은 배우 이제훈 님 사주를 가져와봤습니다. Com › artistfortune › 연예인배우배우 이제훈 사주, 연예인 사주, 정치인 사주, 운동선수 사주, 무료. 당신의 사주에는 도화살과 홍염살이 함께 작용하고 있습니다. 더울 때라 금수기운 필요한데 금수 기운 넉넉하게 배치되어 있어서 좋습니다. 그리고 이런 사주는 정말로 사주, 궁합이 잘 맞는 사람을 만나야 이혼을 안하게 된다. 시나즈가와 겐야 죽음

스페레즈 배우 이제훈의 자세한 사주를 보시려면 지금 클릭하세요. 로운사주명리 입니다 오늘은 배우 이제훈 님 사주를 가져와봤습니다. 큰 흐름이 금 수로 흐르기에 매우 운을 잘타고났으며, 말년까지 특히 재물, 여자 등으로 나타나는 기운이 계속해서 들어온다. 앞으로의 사주 앞으로 이제훈의 사주는 더욱 밝습니다. 이제훈 사주만 보면 쓰레기 그 자체다 200606202109. 슈 버스 출연진

시노다 유이 이 사주는 재극인이 활발히 일어나는 사주 입니다. 또한, 그의 결혼운은 41세 이후로 들어오게 됩니다. 갑술 대운에는 술토가 갑목 관살을 달고 들어옵니다. 그넘의 더블 몰아주기 대상 웃기네 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 요새 대상이 의미있나 싶다 박빙 막상막하 후보에서 딱 한명주는게 정말 대상같지 툭하면 read more. 이제훈의 사주팔자는 그의 직업적 성공과 인간관계에서 긍정적인 요소를 많이 가지고 있어요.

시노부 스캇 Com › 1170로운사주명리 배우 이제훈 사주분석 rock star. 이제훈 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 더울 때라 금수기운 필요한데 금수 기운 넉넉하게 배치되어 있어서 좋습니다. 일단 두명 다 데뷔는 했지만 활동은 오래하지 못했음 1년정도. 그의 사주는 중년 이후에도 꾸준히 좋은 흐름을 이어갈 것입니다.

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.