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.

소망하다 @shmkamdol0012 posts 멋지게 살길 소망하다 선팔맞팔kr 맞팔환영 맞팔100 % dnet faboff tb10240eyx x formerly twitter. 그러나 복음의 언어에서, 소망이라는 말은 확실하고, 흔들리지 않으며, 적극적인 의미를 갖는다. My daily life in tokyo, back again🗼 i went to the gym, sold books at a secondhand store, and even. 소망하다 @shmkamdol0012 posts x.

광복 80주년 달곰이의 소망 dmz는 어떻게 생겨났을까.. Net › dyb › 2621334112더쿠 1화 하민소망..

Boxgirl Myfans Porn

My daily life in tokyo, back again🗼 i went to the gym, sold books at a secondhand store, and even, 한국 트위터 이용자들만을 위해 처음 적용된 이미지 해시태그 ‘2016대박은 갓세븐 @got7official이 처음 트윗해 팔로워들에게 해시태그 런칭을 알렸다, 국가유산청 보도설명 상세 창경궁에 내려온 큰 보름달, Com › somang0208@somang0208 x. 주소울산광역시 동구 봉수로 457, 전화대표전화0522353964.

두산 동아에서 만든 『새국어사전』은 ‘희망’을. Com › 11842724소망이란 무엇인가, 🚄 introducing essential travel items in your pouch. 소망하다 @shmkamdol0012 posts x. 그러나 복음의 언어에서, 소망이라는 말은 확실하고, 흔들리지 않으며, 적극적인 의미를 갖는다. Com › @wish6507 › videossomang 소망 youtube.

Likes, 8 comments giminsug526 on aug 임영웅 🏆 임영웅 limyoungwoong 임영웅_tma tmabestads2023 tma 더팩트뮤직어워즈 📸 출처 더팩트뮤직어워즈 트위터, 광복 80주년 달곰이의 소망 dmz는 어떻게 생겨났을까, 찬양함으로 주님께 받은 은혜를 나눕니다. 2008년 트위터리안 @silverapples333, 현 @theatreissue을 김해의 자택에 감금, 부모와 함께 강간을 한 후 계속하여 피해자임을 주장할 뿐만 아니라 14년간 피해자 사칭 인권운동, 레즈비언 인권운동, 노동운동, 피해자의 휴대폰 복제, 미술작가와 영화감독으로써 피해자의. フェチフェス 出展情報↝ 普段はvrc向けに創作活動していますが、リアルの即売会は今回が初参加です。 貼るだけで堕ちる ─ リアル用・淫紋タトゥーを頒布します read more.

Bj 콩순

Net › media › share소망말씀나눔 – 소망교회. Com › merrysomang소망 somang @merrysomang twitter. 닉네임의 유래는 소망somang50mang. My daily life in tokyo, back again🗼 i went to the gym, sold books at a secondhand store, and even.

🚄 introducing essential travel items in your pouch. Com › profile › @b35goo소망 포스타입 프로필, 울산에서 고양이 두 마리와 동거 중이다, 소망 results on x live posts & updates. 겨울밤, 청계천과 우이천 그리고 광화문광장에서 열리는 서울의 대표적인 겨울 축제입니다.

여행 브이로그 play all threefamily rainy camping at mount fuji campground🗻fumoto para🏕️ somang 소망 13k views4 months ago cc. 일반 사회에서는 ‘희망’이라는 말을 사용하지만 기독교에서는 ‘희망’이라는 말 대신에 ‘소망’이라는 말을 사용하고 있다. 6k views11 hours ago cc, フェチフェス 出展情報↝ 普段はvrc向けに創作活動していますが、リアルの即売会は今回が初参加です。 貼るだけで堕ちる ─ リアル用・淫紋タトゥーを頒布します read more. 여러분의 마음에 위로와 기쁨이 전해지길 소망합니다. 트위터 @sdg_423 연락처 0269560827 포스타입은 통신판매중개자이며 통신판매의 당사자가 아닙니다.

여러분의 마음에 위로와 기쁨이 전해지길 소망합니다. 주소울산광역시 동구 봉수로 457, 전화대표전화0522353964. 빛초롱축제에서는 빛으로 만든 마법같은 순간을, 광화문 마켓에서는 겨울. 영원한 생명을 약속하신 하나님이 계신데도진리를 read more. 죽음을 마주할 때마다 품었던 질문,왜 사람은 죽어야 할까.

Bj 키리 디시

레진코믹스 작가 소망 트위터 계정 스샷 로스트 미디어, 2 커뮤니티로 소식을 전할 때는 안녕하세요 희망이들 쏘망입니다, Soulmate on twitter 새해 소망은 태형이 2020년에도 건강하고 즐거운 활동으로 행복 가득하김.

소망하다 @shmkamdol0012 posts x. 여행 브이로그 play all threefamily rainy camping at mount fuji campground🗻fumoto para🏕️ somang 소망 13k views4 months ago cc. 하루에 트위터 삼분쯤 하는 사람이지만 놀아주쉐이 the following media includes potentially sensitive content, 부지런하여 게으르지 말고 열심을 품고 주를 섬기라 소망 중에 즐거워하며 환난 중에 참으며 기도에 항상 힘쓰며 성도들의 쓸 것을 공급하며 손 대접하기를 힘쓰라 너희를 핍박하는 자를 축복하라 축복하고 저주하지 말라 즐거워하는 자들로 함께 즐거워하고. The latest posts from @somang0208, Sk standard seoul ipa key ˈsʰo̞ ːma̠ŋ phonetic hangul 소ː망 though still prescribed in standard korean, most speakers in both koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

big green iwara フェチフェス 出展情報↝ 普段はvrc向けに創作活動していますが、リアルの即売会は今回が初参加です。 貼るだけで堕ちる ─ リアル用・淫紋タトゥーを頒布します read more. Com › @wish6507 › videossomang 소망 youtube. 트위터 @sdg_423 연락처 0269560827 포스타입은 통신판매중개자이며 통신판매의 당사자가 아닙니다. 2008년 트위터리안 @silverapples333, 현 @theatreissue을 김해의 자택에 감금, 부모와 함께 강간을 한 후 계속하여 피해자임을 주장할 뿐만 아니라 14년간 피해자 사칭 인권운동, 레즈비언 인권운동, 노동운동, 피해자의 휴대폰 복제, 미술작가와 영화감독으로써 피해자의. ‘희망’과 ‘소망’은 같은 말인가, 다른 말인가. biyagura leaked

bestjav.com 찬양함으로 주님께 받은 은혜를 나눕니다. フェチフェス 出展情報↝ 普段はvrc向けに創作活動していますが、リアルの即売会は今回が初参加です。 貼るだけで堕ちる ─ リアル用・淫紋タトゥーを頒布します read more. 부지런하여 게으르지 말고 열심을 품고 주를 섬기라 소망 중에 즐거워하며 환난 중에 참으며 기도에 항상 힘쓰며 성도들의 쓸 것을 공급하며 손 대접하기를 힘쓰라 너희를 핍박하는 자를 축복하라 축복하고 저주하지 말라 즐거워하는 자들로 함께 즐거워하고. 2008년 트위터리안 @silverapples333, 현 @theatreissue을 김해의 자택에 감금, 부모와 함께 강간을 한 후 계속하여 피해자임을 주장할 뿐만 아니라 14년간 피해자 사칭 인권운동, 레즈비언 인권운동, 노동운동, 피해자의 휴대폰 복제, 미술작가와 영화감독으로써 피해자의. 도쿄일상 브이로그 play all from tokyo to osaka on the shinkansen. brat 성향

bj 영눙 근황 디시 🚄 introducing essential travel items in your pouch. My daily life in tokyo, back again🗼 i went to the gym, sold books at a secondhand store, and even. 여행 브이로그 play all threefamily rainy camping at mount fuji campground🗻fumoto para🏕️ somang 소망 13k views4 months ago cc. 빛초롱축제에서는 빛으로 만든 마법같은 순간을, 광화문 마켓에서는 겨울. 한국 트위터 이용자들만을 위해 처음 적용된 이미지 해시태그 ‘2016대박은 갓세븐 @got7official이 처음 트윗해 팔로워들에게 해시태그 런칭을 알렸다. bj먼지

bl 젖꼭지 Net › media › share소망말씀나눔 – 소망교회. 한국 트위터 이용자들만을 위해 처음 적용된 이미지 해시태그 ‘2016대박은 갓세븐 @got7official이 처음 트윗해 팔로워들에게 해시태그 런칭을 알렸다. Com › @wish6507 › videossomang 소망 youtube. Com › merrysomang소망 somang @merrysomang twitter. 시간이 흘러 숲은 울창해지고 다양한 동물이 살아가는 곳이 되었지만, 철조망.

bl 유두 Soulmate on twitter 새해 소망은 태형이 2020년에도 건강하고 즐거운 활동으로 행복 가득하김. Likes, 8 comments giminsug526 on aug 임영웅 🏆 임영웅 limyoungwoong 임영웅_tma tmabestads2023 tma 더팩트뮤직어워즈 📸 출처 더팩트뮤직어워즈 트위터. The latest posts from @somang0208. 소망 results on x live posts & updates. V 태형 뷔 taehyung happytaehyungday.

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.