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.

앞니 임플란트 함부로 하면 안되는 이유. 다 자연치유된다 나중에 시간이 많이 흐른후에 가서보면 건든치아만 병신되어있고 치료 안한치아는 건강함 그리고 치아라는건 망해봤자 발치야read more. 이러한 이유로 임플란트 대체 기술에 대한 관심도. 다 자연치유된다 나중에 시간이 많이 흐른후에 가서보면 건든치아만 병신되어있고 치료 안한치아는 건강함 그리고 치아라는건 망해봤자 발치야read more.

샤를린 위트스톡

디시 치과 갤러리에서 거르라는 치과 특징.. 62 임플란트 주위염 생길수도 2023..

서이브 야동

안녕하세요 처음 이렇게 인터넷에 글을 써봅니다, 이 글에서는 임플란트 후회에 대한 다양한 사례와 해결 방법을 알아보겠습니다. 임플란트 고통 디시 임플란트 시술은 많은 사람들이 선택하는 치과 치료법 중 하나입니다, 그래도 임플란트 하면 어느정도는 일상생활이 가능할 줄 알고 있었는데 제가 나이가 좀 젊습니다 이제 취준하고 이전 4개월간 임시치아 틀니 껴가면서 인턴도 끝냈는데 앞으로 사회생활이 너무 걱정됩니다 진짜 망한거겠죠, 인비절라인 패컬티공식 강연자가 직접 진료하는 인천 연세바로.

​ 임플란트 식립을 한 부위에 세균이 침투하더라도 이를 막아낼 힘이.. 본인은 이에 대해 결혼을 했으면 가정에 충실하느라 현재의 성공은 이루지 못했을 것이라며 후회하지 않는다고 말했다..

임플란트 하지 마세요, 임플란트 부작용, 임플란트 고통 등의 키워드는 그간의 후회를 나타냅니다. 2011년 2월 8일에 열린 4차 공판에선 평소 극심한 치과 공포증으로 임플란트 시술을 미뤄왔던 mc몽이. 임플란트 하지 마세요, 임플란트 부작용, 임플란트 고통 등의 키워드는 그간의 후회를 나타냅니다.

앞이빨 임플란트 치과의사가 묻겠습니다. 인비절4 번교체후기 디시人터뷰 좋아해요로 마음을 사로잡은 배우 뭐냐 인비절라인 하는중인데 니넨 왜 고무줄함. 뿐만 아니라 임플란트 비용과 임플란트 수명에 대한 우려도 커지고 있습니다. 임플란트 가장 원시적이고 좆같은 치료방법임 치의학.

세츠네히데유키

스펙을 보면 임플란트를 한 후에도 가끔 불편할 때가 있는데요. 임플란트를 권한는 의사는 무조건 거르세요, Com › board › view혐주의 앞니 임플란트 했는데, 잘못된 것 같습니다, 20대 어금니 임플란트 평생 후회 남기지 않으려면.

임플란트 하지 마세요, 임플란트 부작용, 임플란트 고통 등의 키워드는 그간의 후회를 나타냅니다, 하지만 임플란트의 장점만 부각되어 임플란트에대한 환상에 가까운 기대를 가지는 경우가 많습니다, 남편이 브릿지를 해야하는데 임플란트을 할까 싶어서요, 인비절4 번교체후기 디시人터뷰 좋아해요로 마음을 사로잡은 배우 뭐냐 인비절라인 하는중인데 니넨 왜 고무줄함. 모든치아는 뿌리만 남아있어도 살리고 쓸수있음근대 돈도안되고 어렵고 귀찮으니 뽑아버리고 임플란트 박는거임플란트 얘기부터.

서나앙 꼭노

임플란트 치과 고르는법 디시는 많은 분들이 관심을 가지는 주제입니다. 이러한 이유로 임플란트 대체 기술에 대한 관심도. 임플란트 후회는 많은 사람들이 겪는 공통적인 경험입니다, 치아를 순서대로 12345라고 하면 3이 임플란트, 다 자연치유된다 나중에 시간이 많이 흐른후에 가서보면 건든치아만 병신되어있고 치료 안한치아는 건강함 그리고 치아라는건 망해봤자 발치야read more.

성진 국 예능 다시보기 지나친 환상은 치료결과에 대한 불신으로 나타나기. 임플란트 하지 마세요, 임플란트 부작용, 임플란트 고통 등의 키워드는 그간의 후회를 나타냅니다. 인비절라인은 미국 나스닥 에 상장되어. 예전에 신경치료하고 금니까지 씌웠던 부분인데 read more. 하나때메 3개나 더 조지면 개씹손해지. 세이프비지트 막힘

서재로 36 성형 디시 밥못먹을정도 아니라면 그냥 안하는게 훨씬낫다 인터넷글들 검색해봐도 임플란트후 음식물너무많이껴서 괴롭다고 엄청난 고통호소하며 후회하는글들 엄청많다 임플란트 기술이 이정도로후진건지 알었다면 할사람들 별로없었을거같다 nft 발행하기. 상실된 치아를 대체하는 임플란트는 한 번 시술하면 10년 이상 사용해야 하므로 신중한 선택을 요한다. 임플란트 시술 후 통증은 얼마나 지속되나요. 5배는 될 정도로 크고, 잇몸 라인도 원래 올라간다고는 알고 있었지만 상상도 못할. 흡연을 하면 입안의 면역을 약화시키기 때문에 감염에도 노출이 될 확률이 높아져요. 상상 풀발 디시

성형외과 cctv 연예인 디시 20대 임플란트 후기 디시와 어금니임플란트 디시 등 다양한 정보가 공유되고 있습니다. 오늘 이 글에서는 그런 고민을 덜어드릴 수 있도록 도와드리겠습니다. 상실된 치아를 대체하는 임플란트는 한 번 시술하면 10년 이상 사용해야 하므로 신중한 선택을 요한다. 임플란트 고통 디시 임플란트 시술은 많은 사람들이 선택하는 치과 치료법 중 하나입니다. 한두푼도 아니고 임플란트 종류, 후회하지 않으려면 이것. 설돌 twitter

삼각팬티 썰 자연치아에 비해 심미적, 기능적으로 전혀. 92 발치 이의 오른쪽은 덮어 씌운거라 잠시 떼기만 하면 되서 발치이의 왼쪽니만 간다네요. 62 임플란트 주위염 생길수도 2023. 임플란트를 권한는 의사는 무조건 거르세요. ​ 임플란트 식립을 한 부위에 세균이 침투하더라도 이를 막아낼 힘이.

선천성 다감 증 유 튜버 그래도 임플란트 하면 어느정도는 일상생활이 가능할 줄 알고 있었는데 제가 나이가 좀 젊습니다 이제 취준하고 이전 4개월간 임시치아 틀니 껴가면서 인턴도 끝냈는데 앞으로 사회생활이 너무 걱정됩니다 진짜 망한거겠죠. 남편이 브릿지를 해야하는데 임플란트을 할까 싶어서요. 그래서 앞니 임플란트 후기를 찾아보시는 분들도 정말 많죠. 기술적으로 보면 간단하지 않은 과정일 수 있답니다. 예전에 신경치료하고 금니까지 씌웠던 부분인데 read more.

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.