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.

리뷰 0 패드 3종세트 블랙앤디 쓰리피스 파자마세트 긴팔 긴바지 나시 반바지 잠옷 홈웨어 34,000원 24,800원 리뷰 12 패드약기모 캔비 나시가디건 쓰리피스 파자마세트 잠옷 홈웨어 42,000원 36,800원 리뷰 11 그레이스 나시가디건 쓰리피스 파자마세트 잠옷 홈웨어. 가격은 최대 15만원 다운생각중 2025. 돌잔치는 아기의 첫 생일을 축하하며 가족과 친구들이 함께 축복하는 특별한 행사인데요. 12살짜리한테 미술 용품, 불 들어오는 화장대 거울, 아니면.

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이번 글은 1만원10만원 센스있는 여자친구 선물 추천으로 best 16가지를 모았습니다. 이번 글은 1만원10만원 센스있는 여자친구 선물 추천으로 best 16가지를 모았습니다. 과연 여자아이들이 고른 어린이날 선물은, ‘화장품 선물세트’ 중에서 최근 많은 사람들이 구매하는 상품들을 엄선하여 한곳에 정리해 보았습니다.

무료배송 선물포장 올테이블 냉장 한우 1++ 투뿔 한우 마블링 구이 모둠 800g 한우선물세트 1++등급 근내지방도7이상 69,800원 66,310원 5% 최대 1,989원 적립. 검색결과여자아이선물 일상이 알파가 되다. 선물세트 여자애 석류 70ml 30포.

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러쉬입욕제선물세트 러쉬기프트박스 러쉬를 사랑하고 입욕제를 사랑하는 나. 지마켓 노브랜드버거 nbb 어메이징 더블 업 버거세트 6,320원 무료 56 롯데온 닌텐도스위치2 갤럭시만,아이폰안됨 602,640원 무료 248 패션, 기념일 및 생일 선물로 반응 좋은 추천템 리스트이고 가성비 좋은 제품들이라 추천드립니다. 제주3대장 최고의 선물세트 🔻 레드향+한라봉+천혜향 만감류 3종 대과 선물세트 1316브릭스 당도보장 3kg 34,500원 5kg 51,500원 🔻 레드향+천혜향 신맛 싫어하는 분 추천 만감류 2종 대과 선물세트 1316브릭스 당도보장 3kg 36, 초대받았을 때 어떤 선물을 준비해야 할지 막막하다면 걱정 마세요.

여자아이 학용품 세트 검색결과 쇼핑하우. 게다가 가격대별로 분류해서, 학생부터 사회 초년생, 그리고 특별한 날까지 모두 활용할 수 있도록 구체적으로 추천해 드릴게요, 리뷰 0 패드 3종세트 블랙앤디 쓰리피스 파자마세트 긴팔 긴바지 나시 반바지 잠옷 홈웨어 34,000원 24,800원 리뷰 12 패드약기모 캔비 나시가디건 쓰리피스 파자마세트 잠옷 홈웨어 42,000원 36,800원 리뷰 11 그레이스 나시가디건 쓰리피스 파자마세트 잠옷 홈웨어, 20대 여자들이 진짜 좋아하는 선물 추천.

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검색결과여자아이선물 일상이 알파가 되다, ‘화장품 선물세트’ 중에서 최근 많은 사람들이 구매하는 상품들을 엄선하여 한곳에 정리해 보았습니다. 17 345 21 잡담 차라리 시발 벤을 시켜주세요 16. 제라늄set 유아여아 헤어핀 세트 베베,키즈 무배. 무료배송 선물포장 올테이블 냉장 한우 1++ 투뿔 한우 마블링 구이 모둠 800g 한우선물세트 1++등급 근내지방도7이상 69,800원 66,310원 5% 최대 1,989원 적립. Com 크리스마스선물 어린이선물추천 어린이날선물 생일선물 초1선물추천 이웃추가.

달리아 블랙 스완 Likes, 0 comments _moimoln_1265 on aug 모이몰른 가을신상 가을옷 여름옷 부산 부산맘 3세트 세트옷 외출. 이번 글은 1만원10만원 센스있는 여자친구 선물 추천으로 best 16가지를 모았습니다. 여자애 첫돌 선물 추천좀 ㅜㅜ 10 월클양은좆 2019. 제주3대장 최고의 선물세트 🔻 레드향+한라봉+천혜향 만감류 3종 대과 선물세트 1316브릭스 당도보장 3kg 34,500원 5kg 51,500원 🔻 레드향+천혜향 신맛 싫어하는 분 추천 만감류 2종 대과 선물세트 1316브릭스 당도보장 3kg 36. 1만원대 선물 실용적인 아이템 예쁜 디자인의 폰 케이스, 그립톡, 에어팟 케이스, 곱창밴드, 헤어핀 세트, 파우치, 손거울, 핸드크림, 립밤 등. 누키타시 히토미

니시카와 레몬 17 345 21 잡담 차라리 시발 벤을 시켜주세요 16. 쿠로미 장패드, 마이멜로디 무선마우스. 14살짜리한테 스킨케어 세트, 유행하는 토트백, 아니면 제일 좋아하는 옷 가게 기프트 카드. 기념일 및 생일 선물로 반응 좋은 추천템 리스트이고 가성비 좋은 제품들이라 추천드립니다. 특히 사랑하는 여자친구를 위해 완벽한 선물을 찾고 있다면 더욱 그럴 것입니다. 눈요기1000

대딸 초고수 여친 뭔가 달달구리한 분위기는 있었는데 지금은 일단 확실히 그런 느낌 아니거든 톡도 걍 단톡말고 갠톡은 원래 하루에. 변녀 작품소개 이상한 여자고등학생 아마구리 센코평범한 청년 타카무라가 구한 일자리는 요즘엔 찾아보기 드문 입주 스타일의 심부름센터 아마구리. 여자 화장품 선물 고르기 정말 어렵죠. 위라이즈 주블스 멀티팩 플레이세트 6세여아장난감 여자아이장난감 변신피규어. 오늘은 실용적이면서도 센스 있는 돌잔치 선물 추천 10가지를 알려드릴게요. 단지 작가 실물

더바붐샵 디시 문구세트 학용품세트 입학선물 신학기준비물 초등학생입학준비물 여아 상품명 문구세트 학용품세트 입학선물 신학기준비물 초등학생입학준비물 여아. 17 345 21 잡담 차라리 시발 벤을 시켜주세요 16. 선물은 단순한 물건 그 이상으로, 상대방에 대한 마음과 정성을 담아야 하기 때문에 심사숙고해야 합니다. 시골기름집 대전광역시 유성구 유성대로720번길 75 참기름선물세트 시골기름집 참기름 명절선물세트 설선물세트 들기름. 그 집 딸 센코는 무척 귀여운 여고생♥ 이지만 사실은 조금 이상한그리고 변태스러운 소녀다.

다키 딸감 그 집 딸 센코는 무척 귀여운 여고생♥ 이지만 사실은 조금 이상한그리고 변태스러운 소녀다. 1만원대 선물 실용적인 아이템 예쁜 디자인의 폰 케이스, 그립톡, 에어팟 케이스, 곱창밴드, 헤어핀 세트, 파우치, 손거울, 핸드크림, 립밤 등. 리뷰 0 패드 3종세트 블랙앤디 쓰리피스 파자마세트 긴팔 긴바지 나시 반바지 잠옷 홈웨어 34,000원 24,800원 리뷰 12 패드약기모 캔비 나시가디건 쓰리피스 파자마세트 잠옷 홈웨어 42,000원 36,800원 리뷰 11 그레이스 나시가디건 쓰리피스 파자마세트 잠옷 홈웨어. Days ago 7 likes, 2 comments samsu_teacher on janu 허허 젊은이들, 설 선물은 준비해두었는가. 20대 초반부터 40대 이상까지 연령대별로 가장 반응이 좋은 선물들을 실제 구매 후기를 바탕으로 엄선했습니다.

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.