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.

기본얼굴 중에선 그나마 제일 잘생김 2. 콘텐츠 주로 포켓몬스터 주로 리멘트나 가챠, 팝마트 중국의 아트토이 브랜. 코맙습니다 사랑합니다🫶 연박사 농담곰 담곰이 치이카와 하치와레 우사기 이브이 우사하나 웨이들디 마키마 폼폼푸린 라부부 피카츄 칩앤데일 커비 미도리야 포챠코 모루카 그녀석. 박사특채 전문직 전환 등 다양함 과거 평가사가 회사 메인중에 메인이였는데 기본연봉 29,360,000원연 기본급 19,360,000원연 직무급 10,000,000원.

우츠노미야 시온 품번 추천

코맙습니다 사랑합니다🫶 연박사 농담곰 담곰이 치이카와 하치와레 우사기 이브이 우사하나 웨이들디 마키마.. 113 followers, 252 following, 71 posts 연박사 @heo_yeun on instagram.. 파생 캐릭터로 쌍둥이 동생인 이안이 있다..

포켓몬을 사랑하고 아트토이, 식품완구, 피규어 등 귀여우면 전부 내 것으로 만들고 있습니다.. Besab8305cbcc민족사관고등학교 신학기 2008.. 언론상으로 알려진 순제작비는 2억원 남짓이며 감독 본인의 사비가 투입되었다고 한다.. 류제승 한국국가전략연구원장, uae서 가장 영향력 있는 한국인 1위..

파생 캐릭터로 쌍둥이 동생인 이안이 있다. 고인은 한국 현대미술과 단색화를 대표하는 read more, 독일 보훔bochum대학교에서 역사학 박사 산연관 상생 뉴스1 2026.

201 likes, 12 comments yeonbaksa_lab on aug 👨‍🔬연박사의 요즘 장식장 3탄 바로 저번에 올렸던 디무 라부부 윗칸입니다 여기는 색깔을 좀 맞춰본 포켓몬존🌈 리멘트랑 가챠가 가득가득🥳 그 옆칸도 포켓몬존이니까 또 보여드릴게요😉 포켓몬 피규어 장식장 연박사 키덜트 리멘트 가챠, 하도 카더라격 소문이 많아서 저도 공포 read more. 이전글 남자들이 좋아하는 겨울철 여자 패션여성 필수 아이템.

각각 위도는 물의 축복을 받은 세이렌, 이안은 불의 축복을 받은 픽시이다, 지금도 야시장3가면 이얼굴 한 본헬름 스피어맨들이 구룡도 존나 갈기고있음 남자. 독일 보훔bochum대학교에서 역사학 박사 산연관 상생 뉴스1 2026. 25 사람이 없는 요정들의 세계에 살고 있다고 한다. 113 followers, 252 following, 71 posts 연박사 @heo_yeun on instagram, 350 likes, 19 comments yeonbaksa_lab on aug 디금 당쟝 유튜브 달료가 미틴🥹🫶🔥 연박사 도쿄 오타쿠.

이 제품은 텔론이라고 쓰고 롤 쟁이라고 읽습니다. Com › @yeonbaksa연박사 youtube, Com › @yeonbaksa연박사 youtube. 고인은 한국 현대미술과 단색화를 대표하는 read more.

웹화보 보지

코맙습니다 사랑합니다🫶 연박사 농담곰 담곰이 치이카와 하치와레 우사기 이브이 우사하나 웨이들디 마키마. Com › board › view메이플랜드 관상별 특징 실시간 베스트 갤러리, 그의 흰색은 무지개길 만들던 예술 인생, 마침내 끝에 닿다. 실제로 좀 멍청한 유저들이 많이 고르는 얼굴임 4.

201 likes, 12 comments yeonbaksa_lab on aug 👨‍🔬연박사의 요즘 장식장 3탄 바로 저번에 올렸던 디무 라부부 윗칸입니다 여기는 색깔을 좀 맞춰본 포켓몬존🌈 리멘트랑 가챠가 가득가득🥳 그 옆칸도 포켓몬존이니까 또 보여드릴게요😉 포켓몬 피규어 장식장 연박사 키덜트 리멘트 가챠. 7월말 촬영에 들어가 8월중에 크랭크업하였다. 박사 후, 위촉 연구원 박사학위를 받고 처음으로 들어가는 비정규직 연구원 자리로 최대 5년까지 할 수 있다, 그의 흰색은 무지개길 만들던 예술 인생, 마침내 끝에 닿다, 지금도 야시장3가면 이얼굴 한 본헬름 스피어맨들이 구룡도 존나 갈기고있음 남자. 7월말 촬영에 들어가 8월중에 크랭크업하였다.

콘텐츠 주로 포켓몬스터 주로 리멘트나 가챠, 팝마트 중국의 아트토이 브랜. 단색화 거장 정상화 화백이 28일 별세했다. 근데 그건 초딩의 시선일뿐 일반 유저들 사이에서는 정박아, 찐따 관상으로 통함 3.

유우지 작가 트위터

350 likes, 19 comments yeonbaksa_lab on aug 디금 당쟝 유튜브 달료가 미틴🥹🫶🔥 연박사 도쿄 오타쿠. 5,856 followers, 205 following, 281 posts 연박사 @yeonbaksa_lab on instagram 포켓몬, 농담곰, 가챠, 아트토이, 작은 장난감 세상 all about tiny little toys. 각각 위도는 물의 축복을 받은 세이렌, 이안은 불의 축복을 받은 픽시이다.

Com › yeonbaksa_lab연박사 @yeonbaksa_lab instagram photos and videos. 실제로 좀 멍청한 유저들이 많이 고르는 얼굴임 4, 안녕하세요, 연박사의 귀여운 연구소입니다.

유럽미장 디시 이 제품은 텔론이라고 쓰고 롤 쟁이라고 읽습니다. 콘텐츠 주로 포켓몬스터 주로 리멘트나 가챠, 팝마트 중국의 아트토이 브랜. 까먹기 전에 삼성 인적성ㅂㄷㅂㄷ 그놈의 gsat. Com › board › view메이플랜드 관상별 특징 실시간 베스트 갤러리. Pokémon, capsuletoys, arttoys, blindboxes. 움짤 레전드 디시

우츠노미야 시온 작품 각각 위도는 물의 축복을 받은 세이렌, 이안은 불의 축복을 받은 픽시이다. 그의 흰색은 무지개길 만들던 예술 인생, 마침내 끝에 닿다. 각각 위도는 물의 축복을 받은 세이렌, 이안은 불의 축복을 받은 픽시이다. 5,856 followers, 205 following, 281 posts 연박사 @yeonbaksa_lab on instagram 포켓몬, 농담곰, 가챠, 아트토이, 작은 장난감 세상 all about tiny little toys. 코맙습니다 사랑합니다🫶 연박사 농담곰 담곰이 치이카와 하치와레 우사기 이브이 우사하나 웨이들디 마키마 폼폼푸린 라부부 피카츄 칩앤데일 커비 미도리야 포챠코 모루카 그녀석. 유주 페트리온

유인영 실물 디시 까먹기 전에 삼성 인적성ㅂㄷㅂㄷ 그놈의 gsat. 언론상으로 알려진 순제작비는 2억원 남짓이며 감독 본인의 사비가 투입되었다고 한다. 박사특채 전문직 전환 등 다양함 과거 평가사가 회사 메인중에 메인이였는데 기본연봉 29,360,000원연 기본급 19,360,000원연 직무급 10,000,000원. 350 likes, 19 comments yeonbaksa_lab on aug 디금 당쟝 유튜브 달료가 미틴🥹🫶🔥 연박사 도쿄 오타쿠. 그의 흰색은 무지개길 만들던 예술 인생, 마침내 끝에 닿다. 유두 애무 디시

위험한 거래와 옆집 소녀 25 사람이 없는 요정들의 세계에 살고 있다고 한다. 201 likes, 12 comments yeonbaksa_lab on aug 👨‍🔬연박사의 요즘 장식장 3탄 바로 저번에 올렸던 디무 라부부 윗칸입니다 여기는 색깔을 좀 맞춰본 포켓몬존🌈 리멘트랑 가챠가 가득가득🥳 그 옆칸도 포켓몬존이니까 또 보여드릴게요😉 포켓몬 피규어 장식장 연박사 키덜트 리멘트 가챠. 350 likes, 19 comments yeonbaksa_lab on aug 디금 당쟝 유튜브 달료가 미틴🥹🫶🔥 연박사 도쿄 오타쿠. 350 likes, 19 comments yeonbaksa_lab on aug 디금 당쟝 유튜브 달료가 미틴🥹🫶🔥 연박사 도쿄 오타쿠. 7월말 촬영에 들어가 8월중에 크랭크업하였다.

유소영 gif 단색화 거장 정상화 화백이 28일 별세했다. Com › board › view메이플랜드 관상별 특징 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 독일 보훔bochum대학교에서 역사학 박사 산연관 상생 뉴스1 2026. 이전글 남자들이 좋아하는 겨울철 여자 패션여성 필수 아이템. 실제로 좀 멍청한 유저들이 많이 고르는 얼굴임 4.

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.