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.

나도 이글쓰고 좀 놀다가 바로 케틀벨. 아토피치료 아토피자가치료 아토피치료방법 안녕하세요. 나도 이글쓰고 좀 놀다가 바로 케틀벨. 아토피가 언제부터 시작되었는지는 몰라.

건성비듬은 두피의 수분이 부족한 상태로 아토피피부염이나 건선의 증상으로 나타나는 경우가 있다 건성비듬은 두피가 건조해지면서 각질이 일어나는.. 나는 25살이고 태어날때부터 아토피 심했고 스테로이드 연고쓰면서점점 더 심해져서 제일 심할때가 다리전체가 땡땡부어서 살짝 스쳐도..

Ahyeon_uu

65g녀 Porn

제가 간 대학 병원만 그럴 수도 있지만 대학 병원의 아토피 치료 방식은 그야 말로 최악이었습니다. 아토피 환자의 적극적인 노력과 의지가 없으면 치료하기 힘들다는 아토피 거의 완치라는 개념이 없다고 봐야한다는 이 아토피를 극복한 레전드 사례임 아토피 심각한 상태 였기 때문에 사진에 놀라실수 있으니 주의하세요, 우선 아토피 환자들은 알겠지만 친구부터 친척, 가족까지 여기저기서 아토피에 대한 정확하지 않은 정보를 쏟아냄. 건성비듬은 두피의 수분이 부족한 상태로 아토피피부염이나 건선의 증상으로 나타나는 경우가 있다 건성비듬은 두피가 건조해지면서 각질이 일어나는. 일반 시발 엘리델 처음써봤는데 십년넘게 아무도 처방 안해준게 레전드 ㅇㅇ61.

대전에 있는 대기업급+유명 기업직장들 모아봄 2025, 아토피 치료는, 보경한의원부산덕천동 아토피 고생끝. 속는 셈 치고 한방에 잠시 다녔었는데 스테로이드를 끊으면서근본적. 아토피 완치가까이 된 사람이다 마음이 아파서 내 얘기 풀어봄, 그땐 그냥 여드름 줄어드는거 보고 계속 했었거든.

@hikimaid

아토피 진지히게 깨달았다 낫고싶으면 봐라 갤러리. 그땐 그냥 여드름 줄어드는거 보고 계속 했었거든, 완전살균 침구청소기 라고 있는데 여기에 들어가는 살균램프가 고가형 필립스꺼를 써서 진드기가 완전살균되 적당히 후기많은걸로 골라서 쓰면됨 나도 아토피 심했는데 일반침구청소기 써도 긁던거 완전살균 침구청소기 쓰고 이제 안긁음 2024. 완전살균 침구청소기 라고 있는데 여기에 들어가는 살균램프가 고가형 필립스꺼를 써서 진드기가 완전살균되 적당히 후기많은걸로 골라서 쓰면됨 나도 아토피 심했는데 일반침구청소기 써도 긁던거 완전살균 침구청소기 쓰고 이제 안긁음 2024. 아토피치료 아토피자가치료 아토피치료방법 안녕하세요. Com › mgallery › board15년 아토피 좋아진 후기 혐짤있 아토피 마이너 갤러리.

Com › board › view아토피 완치 레전드.. 고3까지는 그저 올라오면 약바르고 다시 올라오면 약바르고의 반복..

@bombom2026

나는 25살이고 태어날때부터 아토피 심했고 스테로이드 연고쓰면서 점점 더 심해져서 제일 심할때가 다리전체가 땡땡부어서 살짝 스쳐도. 건성비듬은 두피의 수분이 부족한 상태로 아토피피부염이나 건선의 증상으로 나타나는 경우가 있다 건성비듬은 두피가 건조해지면서 각질이 일어나는. 아토피치료 아토피자가치료 아토피치료방법 안녕하세요. 네오팜 아토피 화장품으로 유명한 그 회사로 본사가 유성구 탑립동 대덕테크노밸리에 있음. 극혐주의사진으로 보는 내인생 아토피 마이너 갤러리.

아토피와 건강에 좋지 않은 식습관과 생활 패턴 때문에 피부 상태가 매우 엉망이다, 물론 아토피라는게 증상도 다양하고 원인도 다양하기에 개인적인 경험이 모두에게 정답이 될 수는, 아토피 인생 23살의 기록 아토피 마이너 갤러리.

a story behind two idols смотреть на русском 피부과 블랙헤드 제거 시크릿레이저 피지후기. 원래 아토피 잊고살만큼 초경증 일반인이었는데 여드름없애려고 무보습을 했었어 아토피를 생각못했던거지 근데 이게 어느순간 여드름은 줄고 피부가 붉어지데. 11 2340 중증아토피 걸려봐서 아는데 면역억제제 좀 먹으면 나아지긴 하던데 안 받는 사람들은 극한까지 가더라 칙힌 2024. 여러 가지 약을 써보았지만, 그때뿐이고 증상이 계속 재발했습니다. 뭐 하라고 한게 아니라 아토피가 이기나. @gondyu22222

@nunnuyou 여러 가지 약을 써보았지만, 그때뿐이고 증상이 계속 재발했습니다. 제가 간 대학 병원만 그럴 수도 있지만 대학 병원의 아토피 치료 방식은 그야 말로 최악이었습니다. 아토피 인생 23살의 기록 아토피 마이너 갤러리. 아토피가 언제부터 시작되었는지는 몰라. 유두를 포함한 유륜 부위에 생기는 습진. accommodation시설 코로나

@yonu1201 중학교 때부터 증상이 심해지면서 생활이 많이 불편해졌고, 밤에는 잠을 이루지 못할 정도로 가려움증이 심했습니다. 극혐주의사진으로 보는 내인생 아토피 마이너 갤러리. 고3까지는 그저 올라오면 약바르고 다시 올라오면 약바르고의 반복. 안녕 더쿠들아 난 평생을 아토피 환자로 살아왔고 아토피는 난치병이라서 다 낫는다 개념이 좀 희미해 ㅎㅎ 성인이 된 지금도 고통스러운데 최근에 굉장히 심해졌고 죽고싶을만큼 힘들었어. 아토피 관련 경험과 정보를 공유하는 디시인사이드 마이너 갤러리입니다. 7세 남자 아이 선물 미니 레고

99 일 아이들 사진 아토피 피부염, 시간을 두고 꾸준히 치료하는 것이 최선의 비법 최근 우리나라뿐만 아니라 전세계적으로 환자 수가 급격히 늘어나면서 ‘아토피 피부염’에 대한 관심이 높아지고 있다. 샤워할 때 손에 닿으면 약간 뜨거울 정도의 물을 아토피 환부에 부으면 압도적인 양의 쾌감과 황홀함이 느껴짐 그래서 피부 망가지는걸 알면서도 끊기를 어려워하는 사람도 있을 정도고 아토피 뜨거운물 디시를 검색해보면 생생한 경험담의 현장이 쏟아짐. Com › board › view아토피 완치 레전드. 피부과 블랙헤드 제거 시크릿레이저 피지후기. 저는 34세이고, 어릴 적부터 아토피 피부염으로 고생해왔습니다.

@jtv66 근데 긁어도 상처가 안생김 농담이 아님 보통 아토피 심하면 긁으면 금방 부풀면서 물집나오고 그러면서 더 간지럽잖아 그딴거 없어짐 그래서2차 가려움이 없어짐 난 가려우면 빗으로 긁음 예전이였으면 살 떨어졌겠지 근데 이제 그런거 아예없음. 아토피와 건강에 좋지 않은 식습관과 생활 패턴 때문에 피부 상태가 매우 엉망이다. 40년 달고 살다보니 뭐 병이라고 느껴지지도 않지만, 최근 증상이 엄청 호전되면서 깨달은것들이 있어 좀 공유해볼까 합니다. 겉 표피가 벗겨져서 진물나고 그랬음 그래서 진짜 죽을까봐 무서워서 토마토 먹. 저도 어릴 적부터 고질적인 아토피를 달고 살았고피부과를 이곳저곳 다녀봤지만 다닐 때 뿐이었고무분별한 스테로이드 처방으로 오히려 더 심해질 때도 있었습니다.

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.