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.

최근 jtbc 유자식 상팔자 녹화에서 부모에게 가장 상처받았던 말은이라는 주제로 얘기하던 중 강용석의. 사진 jtbc `유자식 상팔자`강용석의 둘째 아들 강인준15군이 아버지 때문에 화장실서 통곡한 사연을 털어놨다. 강인준이라는데 연대 아이들이 나온것 같은데 키며 얼굴이 강용석 아들 같네. 첫째 원준이는 경희대를 다니다가 반수를 해서 입학했고, 둘째 인준이는 고교.

Mama Sexo 뜻

이로 인해 강용석 이혼 전부인 강용석 재혼 루머가 돌았지만 사실이 아니다.. 강용석변호사와 김용호연예부장 지지 갤러리 강변의 인싸it, knl 외에도 강변과 관련된 모든것 강용석 유튜브 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨.. 흙수저 강용석이 부잣집 아들 김세의보다 훨씬 젠틀한듯..

Mib19 요금

과거 강용석 전 의원의 팬 1호로, 디시인사이드. 지난해 10월 방송된 종합편성채널 jtbc 유자식 상팔자에서 강용석 아들 고백이 다시금 눈길을 끌고 있다, 단독 강용석, 무고교사 집유확정4년간 변호사 박탈 ㅇㅇ 2024.

김세의金世毅, 1976년 6월 26일는 대한민국의 기자 출신 유튜버이다. 강용석 부인은 법조인 및 정치인으로 활동했던 윤재기의 딸 윤원경 이며 강용석 자녀인 세 아들은 장남 강원준 1998년생, 차남 강인준 1999년생, 막내 강세준 2009년 생으로 각각 강용석 아들 셋을 출산하였습니다. 다만 이준석 본인의 저서 에 따르면, 박근혜 전 대통령은 본인을 영입하기만 하고.

Maa 소속사 더쿠

강용석 아들이 예전에 예능나와서 재산탕진, 고부갈등은 다 이해할 수 있어도 배우자의 바람은 참을 수 없다면서 바람을 피우다 걸리면 가만두지 않을 것이라고 강하게 말한 바 있다. 미국 정치 마이너 갤러리미정갤 보다가 봤는데 강변 아들 탄핵을반대하는청년모임인가바, 흙수저 강용석이 부잣집 아들 김세의보다 훨씬 젠틀한듯. 강용석 때문에 강용석 아들 쪽팔려서 얼국 못들고 다니겠네 하고 아들 걱정했었는데ㅋㅋㅋ. Kr › articles › 991972한동안 잠잠했는데&mldr.

Mhyoonk

현재 강용석의 지지율이 5%이고 여론조사 결과 김동연, 김은혜 후보의 지지율 차이가 5% 이내이기 때문에 강용석 지지층이 캐스팅 보터가 될 수 있다.. 19 0710 강용석 이미지가 완전 망이라 부정선거로 코인도 빨고 혹시 사실로 밝혀지면 일발역전도 가능할거라고 보는듯하긴 한데 가족에게는 정말 ㄷㄷ 리버풀08제라드 2021.. 제20대 대통령 선거 당시 더불어민주당 이재명 대선 후보에 대해 과거 소년원에 다녀왔다는 등의 허위 사실을 방송한 혐의로 기소된 전 가로세로..

강용석 막내 아들 강세준 7이 영리하고 똘똘한 모습을 보여 이목을 집중시키고 있는 것. 207 댓글 아들 공부도 잘할꺼 같음 ㅋ. 9%를 자랑하는 둘째 아들 강인준은 과거 방송된 jtbc 가족 예능 토크쇼 jtbc ‘유자식 상팔자’에 출연했다, 이는 이준석이 정치에 입문하게 된 계기가 박근혜의 직접 영입인사에 의한 것이었기 때문, 강용석 막내 아들 강세준 7이 영리하고 똘똘한 모습을 보여 이목을 집중시키고 있는 것.

Mfc-350 배우

강용석 부인은 법조인 및 정치인으로 활동했던 윤재기의 딸 윤원경 이며 강용석 자녀인 세 아들은 장남 강원준 1998년생, 차남 강인준 1999년생, 막내 강세준 2009년 생으로 각각 강용석 아들 셋을 출산하였습니다, 늦둥이 강용석 아들이 관심을 모으고 있다, 정말 진절머리 난다 강용석 유튜브 마이너 갤러리. 당시 방송에서는 내가 힘들다고 느꼈던 순간은. 강용석은 두 아들 공부하는거 못마땅한 눈치더군요, Com › board › uspolitics강용석 아들 아님.

marotix twitter 박근혜 키즈 라고 불리었을 만큼 이준석은 대중들에게 박근혜와 연관성이 높은 인물로 인식되고 있다. 이날 강인준군은 자신에게 가장 힘들었던 순간으로 아빠가 아나운서 사건에. 하회탈같은 가면을 쓰고 사회 풍자하는 영상을 올리던 인기 유튜버 윾튜브의 정체가 공개됐다. 강용석 아들, 아빠 영어실력 폭로 하버드 학생대표 믿기지 않아 강용석 아들이 아빠의 영어 실력을 폭로했다. 최근 jtbc 유자식 상팔자 녹화에서 부모에게 가장 상처받았던 말은이라는 주제로 얘기하던 중 강용석의. lpsg forum

mib19 겨울 3명의 아들 중 성인인 첫째와 둘째는 연세대학교에 다니고 있다고 한다. 3명의 아들 중 성인인 첫째와 둘째는 연세대학교에 다니고 있다고 한다. 강용석 둘째아들, 방심하다가 실수로 낳았다‥아들이 폭로 변호사 강용석이 둘째 아들의 출생과 관련한 비하인드 스토리를 공개했다. 19 0710 강용석 이미지가 완전 망이라 부정선거로 코인도 빨고 혹시 사실로 밝혀지면 일발역전도 가능할거라고 보는듯하긴 한데 가족에게는 정말 ㄷㄷ 리버풀08제라드 2021. 3명의 아들 중 성인인 첫째와 둘째는 연세대학교에 다니고 있다고 한다. loli missav

maxim pixiv 이라는 주제로 스타와 자녀들의 고백이 이어졌다. 세 아들의 외할아버지, 즉 강용석의 장인이 외손자들에게 산의 임야를 증여했는데, 강용석이 장남 원준이와 차남 인준이의 산은 처분했다고 한다. 2020년에는 대한민국 제21대 국회의원 선거 를 앞두고 있던 미래한국당 의 비례대표 공천 과정에 참여했으나 탈락했다. ` 강용석이 처음부터 병역비리에 대해서 뭐라고 했을때부터 느낌이 좋지 않았는데 박주신 아들 mri하고 병무청 mri. 강용석 근황, 현재 크게 주목받고 있다 +이유. mib chu-104

mib 수지 사쿠라 정말 진절머리 난다 강용석 유튜브 마이너 갤러리. 김세의 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 사회 생활 시작도 안 했는데 3루에 데려다 줌 ㄷㄷ 능력도 없으면서 자식한테 젊을 때 고생해봐야 철든다 그런 소리나 하는 위선적인 부모보다 100배 훌륭 막만졌잖아 20220524 1400 ip 1. 9%를 자랑하는 둘째 아들 강인준은 과거 방송된 jtbc 가족 예능 토크쇼 jtbc ‘유자식 상팔자’에 출연했다. 19 0750 jm이분 영상보고 샤오미 가방 샀었는데ㅋㅋ dclinsid 2021.

lily 온리팬스 윾튜브, 가면속 정체 드러나디시인사이드 풍동, 강용석 팬. 2020년에는 대한민국 제21대 국회의원 선거 를 앞두고 있던 미래한국당 의 비례대표 공천 과정에 참여했으나 탈락했다. 20 050722 프로필펼치기 강용석 때문에 강용석 아들 쪽팔려서 얼국 못들고 다니겠네 하고 아들 걱정했었는데ㅋㅋㅋ 스크랩 공유 203 0. ` 강용석이 처음부터 병역비리에 대해서 뭐라고 했을때부터 느낌이 좋지 않았는데 박주신 아들 mri하고 병무청 mri. 박원순 아들 mri 일치, 강용석 망했스요글 내용.

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.