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.

보이콧론은 트럼프 대통령이 그린란드를 미국이 통치해야 한다고 주장하고, 군사 개입 가능성과 유럽 국가들에 대한 관세 위협을 시사하면서 힘을 얻었다. 요즘 29기 영식한테 인터넷에서 선 많이 넘던데 솔직히 짝같은 엔딩 나올까 불안함 차라리 그럴빠에는 악플러들 고소하고 공부잘하니까 영어 공부해서 해외취업하는 것도 진지하게 나쁘지 않다고 봄 방송 나온거니 각오는 했겠지만 이게 지금 뭐하는 짓인지. This content isnt available. Day ago ‘나는 솔로’ 30기 영자가 외모와는 다른 반전 매력으로 화제를 모으고 있다.

Arachnid 고화질 무료보기

Av 남배우 검색

방송이 시작되자 실제로 연상연하 특집 + 하이클래스 직군 조합이 나오며 시청자 관심이 폭발했다.. Com › view › nisx20260122_0003485926나는솔로 29기, 영수옥순도 현커&mldr.. 나는 솔로 29기 영호는 지난 23일 자신의 sns에 우리 영식이 잘 지내고 있습니다라는 글과 함께 사진을 게재했다.. 지난 28일 오후 방송된 ena, sbs plus ‘나는 솔로’에서는 에겐남 테토녀 특집 30기가 첫 등장했다..

Av.19야동

Av 얼굴

지난 28일 방송된 ena와 sbs plus 예능 ‘나는 solo’에서는 감성 ‘에겐남’과 박력 ‘테토녀’가 만난 ‘솔로나라 30번지’가 설레는 출발을 알리는. 제이통은 랩네임을 블라스타로 바꾼 이유를 물었고, 정상수는 쇼미더머니3에서 본명이 알려졌는데, 블라스타는 고등학교때부터 갖고 있던 랩네임이다. 논란 정상수 vs 우승후보 김하온, 압도적 올패스로 3차. Im솔로 나는솔로 29기 이번주 한줄평 블라인드. 나는솔로 29기 ‘연상연하 특집’은 2025년 11월 19일부터 방송되기 시작했으며, 출연자들의 직업과 스펙이 화제를 모으고 있습니다, This content isnt available.

나는솔로 30기 영자, 현숙, 옥순, 영숙, 순자, 정. 나는 solo나는 솔로 30기를 빛낼 에겐남과 테토녀가 베일을 벗었다, Im솔로 추천 글 옥순이 결혼까지는 어려워 보이는 이유 29영철 커버 어캐침, 28일 방송된 sbs플러스, ena 예능 나는 솔로에서는 30기 에겐남, 테토녀 특집이 진행됐다.

Autóút Vége

Com › view › 20260130n22967나는솔로 30기 영자 가방도 반전&mldr, Day ago 스포츠한국 이유민 기자 에겐남과 테토녀가 마주한 나는 solo 30기는 첫날부터 결이 달랐다, 나는솔로 29기 ‘연상연하 특집’은 2025년 11월 19일부터 방송되기 시작했으며, 출연자들의 직업과 스펙이 화제를 모으고 있습니다. 이날 옥순은 영수와 마주앉아 나랑 있을 때는, 스포츠한국 신영선 기자 ‘나는 솔로’ 29기 옥순이 마지막 날 밤 마침내 상철, 광수에게 거절 의사를 전했다.

바닷바람이 불 듯 짭조름한 맛에 실려 퍼지는 향기는 우리네 read more. 황금색붕붕이영숙 37세 연구전담교수 정숙 꼬부기상 보컬트레이너순자 제약회사 영업영자 외국계대기업옥순 89년생 서울대학교병원 간호사현숙 연대물리 약대 졸업 약사. 대학 동기가 참다 못해 등판한 이유 나는솔로 나는솔로29기 나솔29기 나는솔로폭로. ‘테토녀 아이유’ 30기 영자의 가방이 온라인 상에서 화제다.

a미츠리 제이통은 랩네임을 블라스타로 바꾼 이유를 물었고, 정상수는 쇼미더머니3에서 본명이 알려졌는데, 블라스타는 고등학교때부터 갖고 있던 랩네임이다. 과연 29기 중 누가 2026년 결혼할 ‘예비부부’인지 궁금증이 쏠리는 가운데, 29기의 첫인상 선택이 시작됐다. Day ago 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 엑스포츠뉴스 황수연 기자 30기 여성들의 첫인상은 영수, 상철, 영식에게 향했다. 아줌마들 단합력 대단하다 느낌 옥순말고는 좋게 봐줘도 평균이상 정도인데 아무튼 너무 예쁘고 성격 좋고 그와중에 진짜 예쁜. Kr › entry › 나는솔로29나는솔로 29기 직업 총정리. asmr.obe

av배우 히카루 28일 방송된 ena와 sbs plus의 리얼 데이팅 프로그램 나는 solo에서는 감성 에겐남과 박력 테토녀가 만난. 요즘 29기 영식한테 인터넷에서 선 많이 넘던데 솔직히 짝같은 엔딩 나올까 불안함 차라리 그럴빠에는 악플러들 고소하고 공부잘하니까 영어 공부해서 해외취업하는 것도 진지하게 나쁘지 않다고 봄 방송 나온거니 각오는 했겠지만 이게 지금 뭐하는 짓인지. 912 참석 영식, 영숙, 순자 불참 최종커플 영수옥순 영철정숙 현실커플 영수옥순 120일 정도 영철정숙 결혼커플 영철정숙 mc영자. 나는 솔로 29기 영호는 지난 23일 자신의 sns에 우리 영식이 잘 지내고 있습니다라는 글과 함께 사진을 게재했다. 영수 95년생 sk이노베이션영호 양산 경찰공무원 영식 효성티앤씨영철 자영업광수 강남 개업 한의사상철. avmov 댓글 디시

avdbs 대체 Com › view › 20260130n22967나는솔로 30기 영자 가방도 반전&mldr. 방송이 시작되자 실제로 연상연하 특집 + 하이클래스 직군 조합이 나오며 시청자 관심이 폭발했다. 이날 영자는 너무 귀엽다 아이유 같다는 mc들 반응 속 등장했다. 20일 직장인 익명 커뮤니티 ‘블라인드’에는 ‘29기. 26일 수 방송한 sbs plus와 ena의 리얼 데이팅 프로그램 ‘나는 solo’에서는 29기 솔로남들의 첫인상 선택 결과와 함께 ‘솔로나라 29번지’에 입성한 연하남들의 리얼 프로필을 낱낱이 공개하는 ‘자기소개 타임’이 펼쳐졌다. asian amateur pmv

babi 작가 디시 Com › view › 20260130n22967나는솔로 30기 영자 가방도 반전&mldr. 월드컵 보이콧 진짜로 가능할까 스포츠경향. Day ago 동양적인 미인을 선호하고 나는솔로 30기 영호 자신이 자존감이 높아 이성도 자존감 높은 여성을 선호한다더니 영자에게 호감을 가지고 말과 전혀 다릅니다. 나는 solo나는 솔로 30기를 빛낼 에겐남과 테토녀가 베일을 벗었다. 나는 솔로 30기 영수, 아이돌급 외모에 2표.

av 자막 Com › entry › %eb%8b%a8%eb%8f%85%ec%98%88나는 solo 29기 남녀 출연자 소개, 9살 차이 상철♥영자, 결혼 확정. 이번 ‘솔로나라 29번지’는 충남 태안에 자리 잡았다. Day ago ‘나는 솔로’ 30기 영자가 외모와는 다른 반전 매력으로 화제를 모으고 있다. 21일 방송된 ena, sbs plus 나는 솔로에서는 최종선택 전날 밤 옥순, 영수가 11 대화를. Day ago ‘나는 솔로’ 30기 영자가 반전 매력으로 시선을 끌었다.

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.