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.

‘마이클’을 연기한 핀 울프하드는 작은 체구에서 나오는 흡입력 있는 연기력으로 시리즈를 이끄는 주인공 역할을 완벽히 해냈다. Net › ktalk › 4049948900더쿠 핀 울프하드 이름 인터뷰도 좋음. 잡담 핀 울프하드 이름 인터뷰도 좋음 183 3. 핀 울프하드는 16일 오전한국시간 자신의 인스타그램 스토리에 블랙핑크로부터 받은 첫 정규앨범 the album디 앨범을 인증했다.

Net › square › 1662617783더쿠 넷플릭스 다큐 축하해.. A native of vancouver, british columbia, actor finn wolfhard stars as mike wheeler in the critically acclaimed netflix original series stranger things 2016..

혜정잉

비글미 넘치는 친구들 사이에 껴 웃음을 주는가 하면, 일레븐과의 귀여운 러브라인을 형성하기도 했다, Com › name › nm6016511finn wolfhard imdb, 넷플릭스 의 드라마 시리즈 《기묘한 이야기》의 마이크 역으로 출연하였다.

해 르시 방송 중단

Finn이라는 문구와 함께 각 멤버들의 싸인이 담겨있어 시선을 끈다. 핀 울프하드 프로필 나이 키 기묘한 이야기 영화 드라마 핀 울프하드 프로필 2002년 12월 23일 나이 19살 고향 캐나다 브리티시 컬럼비아 주 밴쿠버 국적 캐나다 직업 배우, 음악가, 영화감독, 작가 키 179cm 데뷔 2013년 드라마 the 100 핀 울프하드는 캐나다 배우로 음악가, 영화 감독, 작가, 음악가로서, Net › ktalk › 4049948900더쿠 핀 울프하드 이름 인터뷰도 좋음. 넷플릭스 의 드라마 시리즈 《기묘한 이야기》의 마이크 역으로 출연하였다. 공지가 길다면 한번씩 눌러서 읽어주시면 됩니다. 넷플릭스의 제작진은 팬데믹으로 잠시 중단했던 시즌 4의 막바지 촬영을 진행 중이다.

스띵 보고 헛헛한 마음 달래려고 핀울프하드 나온 그것 보기. 인물 핀 울프하드 finn wolfhard 직업 배우 생년월일 20021223 성별 남 참여작품 7 배우 트레버 스펭글러 배우 트레버 스펭글러 참여작품 영화 7 고스트버스터즈 오싹한 뉴욕, 핀 울프하드 finn wolfhard 2002, 09 711,911 공지 알림결과 아니 걍 다른건 다 모르겠고.

배우뿐만 아니라 모델, 그리고 calpurnia 라는 락밴드의 싱어이자 기타리스트로도 활동하고 있다. Two mtv movie & tv awards for show of the year. 핀 울프하드 프로필 나이 키 기묘한 이야기 영화 드라마 핀 울프하드 프로필 2002년 12월 23일 나이 19살 고향 캐나다 브리티시 컬럼비아 주 밴쿠버 국적 캐나다 직업 배우, 음악가, 영화감독, 작가 키 179cm 데뷔 2013년 드라마 the 100 핀 울프하드는 캐나다 배우로 음악가, 영화 감독, 작가, 음악가로서. 어느새 훌쩍 커버린 핀의 강렬하고 예술적인 영혼에 빠져들 수밖에 없었던 경쾌한 이야기. Net › square › 1662617783더쿠 넷플릭스 다큐 축하해, 2017년 그는 스티븐 킹 stephen king원작 영화 it 그것에서 소년 리치를 연기했지만, 그가 처음 인기를 얻게된 작품은 sf스릴러 시리즈 stranger.

입술 움직임이랑 제스처가 뭔가 이상해. 이슈 살인의 추억 보는 기묘한 이야기 마이클 핀 울프하드 3,192 6 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 얘 아역 배우로선 괜찮았는데, 시즌 3, 4에선 진짜 이 시리즈 통틀어서 최악의 연기력임. 비글미 넘치는 친구들 사이에 껴 웃음을 주는가 하면, 일레븐과의 귀여운 러브라인을 형성하기도 했다. 마을에서 처음으로 초자연적인 현상을 믿는 소년으로, 친구를 구하기 위한 의리있는 행보를 보인다. Com › qalissma › 221984186347핀 울프하드 finn wolfhard 배우의 모든것 기묘한이야기, 더터닝.

호시노리코

에 나온 핀 울프하드넘 훈훈하게 컸어 ㅠㅠ, 그 이름의 주인 마이크 휠러 역할의 핀. 본명 핀 마이클 울프하드finn michael wolfhard 출생 2002년 12월 23일 21세 1 밤 11시 30분에 태어났다고 한다. 핀 울프하드는 순수하고 용감한 마이크 역을 맡았다.

현아 재산 디시 마스크 유니크하고좋음 심지어 이름까지 힙해 2. 배우뿐만 아니라 모델, 그리고 calpurnia 라는 락밴드의 싱어이자 기타리스트로도 활동하고 있다. Org › wiki › 핀_울프하드핀 울프하드 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 《기묘한 이야기》에 함께 출연한 노아 슈냅, 세이디 싱크, 핀 울프하드와 매우 절친한 사이이다. Com › haewonlee7 › 221590973369핀 울프하드 네이버 블로그. 허중싱 논란

헨타른 뜻 넷플릭스 기묘한 이야기의 주연 마이크 역으로 유명한 배우 핀 울프하드가 블랙핑크를 향한 애정을 드러냈다. 넷플릭스 의 드라마 시리즈 《기묘한 이야기》의 마이크 역으로 출연하였다. 입술 움직임이랑 제스처가 뭔가 이상해. 그 이름의 주인 마이크 휠러 역할의 핀. Net › square › 1269202637더쿠 핀 울프하드. 허중싱

협박플 디시 26m followers, 1,107 following, 1,428 posts finn wolfhard @finnwolfhardofficial on instagram @hellofasummermovie now streaming my debut album ‘happy birthday’ out now. 넷플릭스 기묘한 이야기의 주연 마이크 역으로 유명한 배우 핀 울프하드가 블랙핑크를 향한 애정을 드러냈다. 핀 울프하드 역시 인터뷰에서 왜 이렇게 80년대 호러 작품에 많이 등장하는 것 같냐는 질문에 제 신비로운 분위기 덕이라고 너스레를 떨기도 했다. 어느새 훌쩍 커버린 핀의 강렬하고 예술적인 영혼에 빠져들 수밖에 없었던 경쾌한 이야기. 마스크 유니크하고좋음 심지어 이름까지 힙해 2. 화사 워터밤 사고 디시

헤어다이아 시스루댄디컷 Org › wiki › 핀_울프하드핀 울프하드 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 배우뿐만 아니라 모델, 그리고 calpurnia 라는 락밴드의 싱어이자 기타리스트로도 활동하고. Finn이라는 문구와 함께 각 멤버들의 싸인이 담겨있어 시선을 끈다. 시즌이 거듭될수록 블록버스터 반열에 합류한 데는 작품성을 비롯해 여러 요인이 있지만, 아역 배우들의 활약도 컸다. 넷플릭스 의 드라마 시리즈 《기묘한 이야기》의 마이크 역으로 출연하였다.

해연갤 클리 공지가 길다면 한번씩 눌러서 읽어주시면 됩니다. 핀 울프하드는 캐나다의 배우이자 모델이며, 칼푸르니아 calpurnia 라는 락밴드의 싱어이자 기타리스트로도 2019년까지 활동했고, 현재는 디 어브리즈 the aubreys라는 밴드로 활동중입니다. 그 이름의 주인 마이크 휠러 역할의 핀. 넷플릭스의 제작진은 팬데믹으로 잠시 중단했던 시즌 4의 막바지 촬영을 진행 중이다. 기묘한 이야기의 사려깊고 성숙한 캐릭터보다 잇에서 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.