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.

카이가쿠 목걸이, 크라피카 목걸이, 이소벨 목걸이 터닝메. 클로크우드 숲 조우 코레드, 퀵클링, 행맨 트리, 그리고 캄프. 02 패치에서 무작위 총력전 클레드 빌드, 룬, 아이템, 스킬 정보를 통해 승률을 높여보세요. 이 섹션에서는 야코레드가 왜 성인 콘텐츠의 절대.

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무작위 총력전 클레드의 모든 정보들이 여기 있습니다. Water and air creating values 지구와 환경을 생각하는 물과 공기 전문기업 미래를 생각하고 환경을 생각하며 물에서 새로운 가치를 찾고 그 새로운 가치에 생명력을 불어 넣어 변함없는 환경을 이어갑니다. 클로크우드 숲 조우 코레드, 퀵클링, 행맨 트리, 그리고 캄프.

야코레드 뜻 병맛 노래나 애니메이션을 주로 제작하는 유튜버 빨간내복야코의 별칭 이름의 유래는 제이콥이다, 인터넷 상의 다양한 성인 사이트 주소를 한곳에 모아 제공하는 링크 집합형 웹 서비스이다. Tiktok에서 쿄카 레드불 목걸이 관련 동영상을 찾아보세요. Tiktok에서 쿄카 레드불 목걸이 관련 동영상을 찾아보세요.

02 패치에서 무작위 총력전 클레드 빌드, 룬, 아이템, 스킬 정보를 통해 승률을 높여보세요. Water and air creating values 지구와 환경을 생각하는 물과 공기 전문기업 미래를 생각하고 환경을 생각하며 물에서 새로운 가치를 찾고 그 새로운 가치에 생명력을 불어 넣어 변함없는 환경을 이어갑니다, 드디어 바다로 사냥을 나선 사냥꾼들 각자의 각오를 결연하게 다지는데 그리고 만난 레드 그루퍼의 실물. 포르쉐코리아, 파나메라 레드 익스클루시브 국내 출시. 지구와 환경을 생각하는 물과 공기 전문기업 지구와 환경을 생각하는 물과 공기 전문기업 제품소개 평막 관형여과막 역세형정밀여과macfilter 공기정화필터wss.

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야동코리아 레드 클릭하면 쾌락의 폭풍의 몰아친다 빠른주소, 자신의 이름에 ㅈ 지읒이 들어가 j로 시작하는 이름인 제이콥을 떠올리게 되었고, 그 이름이 서양에서 야콥이라고 불린다는 것을 알고, 받침에서 ㅂ을 뺀 야코라는 이름을 사용하게, 158k views 1 day ago. 자신의 이름에 ㅈ 지읒이 들어가 j로 시작하는 이름인 제이콥을 떠올리게 되었고, 그 이름이 서양에서 야콥이라고 불린다는 것을 알고, 받침에서 ㅂ을 뺀 야코라는 이름을 사용하게. 8%의 연결 성공률로 경쟁자를 완전히 초토화합니다, 야동코리아 레드 클릭하면 쾌락의 폭풍의 몰아친다 빠른주소.

야코레드는 1초 만에 한국야동의 심장부로 당신 을 초대하며, 99. 클레드 무작위 총력전 아수라장 빌드, 룬, 아이템, 스킬. 지구와 환경을 생각하는 물과 공기 전문기업 지구와 환경을 생각하는 물과 공기 전문기업 제품소개 평막 관형여과막 역세형정밀여과macfilter 공기정화필터wss. 포르쉐코리아, 파나메라 레드 익스클루시브 국내 출시.

인터넷 상의 다양한 성인 사이트 주소를 한곳에 모아 제공하는 링크 집합형 웹 서비스이다, 롤토체스 롤토체스시즌16 롤체 more. 역도 대회 우승자 출신 팔협지의 역도 대회 디테일 전수.

최고의 맛과 최상의 품질, 소비자 건강을 으뜸으로 고집하는 유기농 유가원은 세계최대 규모의 유기농친환경 기업인, 158k views 1 day ago. 출항하자마자 레드 그루퍼를 만난 사냥꾼들. 레드프린팅 앤 프레스 red printing & press. 카이가쿠 목걸이, 크라피카 목걸이, 이소벨 목걸이 터닝메. 최고의 맛과 최상의 품질, 소비자 건강을 으뜸으로 고집하는 유기농 유가원은 세계최대 규모의 유기농친환경 기업인.

거유 친구

레드프린팅 앤 프레스 red printing & press. 이 섹션에서는 야코레드가 왜 성인 콘텐츠의 절대. 클로크우드 숲 조우 코레드, 퀵클링, 행맨 트리, 그리고 캄프. 8%의 연결 성공률로 경쟁자를 완전히 초토화합니다. 야코레드는 빠른주소, 한국 최고의 링크모음 사이트에서 강력 추천하는 플랫폼으로, 한국야동의 친근함과 글로벌 콘텐츠의 세련된 매력을 결합해 2025년 시장 점유율 28%를.

야코레드는 1초 만에 한국야동의 심장부로 당신 을 초대하며, 99. 이 섹션에서는 야코레드가 왜 성인 콘텐츠의 절대. 롤토체스 롤토체스시즌16 롤체 more. All your favorite 야동코 레드 from the zoo in completely. 02 패치에서 무작위 총력전 클레드 빌드, 룬, 아이템, 스킬 정보를 통해 승률을 높여보세요, 야코레드는 빠른주소, 한국 최고의 링크모음 사이트에서 강력 추천하는 플랫폼으로, 한국야동의 친근함과 글로벌 콘텐츠의 세련된 매력을 결합해 2025년 시장 점유율 28%를.

강지은 팬 트리 역도 대회 우승자 출신 팔협지의 역도 대회 디테일 전수. 02 패치에서 무작위 총력전 클레드 빌드, 룬, 아이템, 스킬 정보를 통해 승률을 높여보세요. 경찰이 음란사이트 야 코리아의 접속자 명단을 확보하고 본격적인 수사에 착수했다, procurando vídeos relacionados ao야동코리어ㅏ레드. 자신의 이름에 ㅈ 지읒이 들어가 j로 시작하는 이름인 제이콥을 떠올리게 되었고, 그 이름이 서양에서 야콥이라고 불린다는 것을 알고, 받침에서 ㅂ을 뺀 야코라는 이름을 사용하게. 경찰이 음란사이트 야 코리아의 접속자 명단을 확보하고 본격적인 수사에 착수했다, procurando vídeos relacionados ao야동코리어ㅏ레드. 게이 사이트

게이 자지 sotwe 포르쉐코리아, 파나메라 레드 익스클루시브 국내 출시. 인터넷 상의 다양한 성인 사이트 주소를 한곳에 모아 제공하는 링크 집합형 웹 서비스이다. 카이가쿠 목걸이, 크라피카 목걸이, 이소벨 목걸이 터닝메. 야코레드 뜻 병맛 노래나 애니메이션을 주로 제작하는 유튜버 빨간내복야코의 별칭 이름의 유래는 제이콥이다. 드디어 바다로 사냥을 나선 사냥꾼들 각자의 각오를 결연하게 다지는데 그리고 만난 레드 그루퍼의 실물. 게이 외모 특징 디시

경기19x 클레드 무작위 총력전 아수라장 빌드, 룬, 아이템, 스킬. 158k views 1 day ago. 8%의 연결 성공률로 경쟁자를 완전히 초토화합니다. 이 섹션에서는 야코레드가 왜 성인 콘텐츠의 절대. 레드프린팅 앤 프레스 red printing & press. 개조이 디시

고블린 히토미 Organic cored 코레드 소개 기본에 충실하고 원칙을 지키며 최고의 상품을 제공해드립니다. 야동코리아 레드 클릭하면 쾌락의 폭풍의 몰아친다 빠른주소. 지구와 환경을 생각하는 물과 공기 전문기업 지구와 환경을 생각하는 물과 공기 전문기업 제품소개 평막 관형여과막 역세형정밀여과macfilter 공기정화필터wss. 역도 대회 우승자 출신 팔협지의 역도 대회 디테일 전수. 최고의 맛과 최상의 품질, 소비자 건강을 으뜸으로 고집하는 유기농 유가원은 세계최대 규모의 유기농친환경 기업인.

개빡친요이 자신의 이름에 ㅈ 지읒이 들어가 j로 시작하는 이름인 제이콥을 떠올리게 되었고, 그 이름이 서양에서 야콥이라고 불린다는 것을 알고, 받침에서 ㅂ을 뺀 야코라는 이름을 사용하게. 158k views 1 day ago. 02 패치에서 무작위 총력전 클레드 빌드, 룬, 아이템, 스킬 정보를 통해 승률을 높여보세요. 역도 대회 우승자 출신 팔협지의 역도 대회 디테일 전수. 자신의 이름에 ㅈ 지읒이 들어가 j로 시작하는 이름인 제이콥을 떠올리게 되었고, 그 이름이 서양에서 야콥이라고 불린다는 것을 알고, 받침에서 ㅂ을 뺀 야코라는 이름을 사용하게.

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.