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.

Com › 2843ヤったもん勝ち！孕ませ新法 デジタル特装版 syosetu manga raw. Day ago 「才能の器」で目指す迷宮最深部 スキル横伸ばしのはずが、万能チートだった！ （7） 嘆きの亡霊は引退したい 〜最弱ハンターによる最強パーティ育成術〜 （11） 神に届かぬ祈りでも 前編. Days ago イラマチオ の作品 ヒプノブリンク ver. Com › 2843ヤったもん勝ち！孕ませ新法 デジタル特装版 syosetu manga raw.

로이킴 가족 손절

Hours ago 総集編 傍姦 ーきみが抱かれてるところなんて見たくないーfanza限定特典付き いろいろいろごとblack4 異世界エルフ発情の魔眼8〜サキュバス寝取り編〜 神に届かぬ祈りでも 前編 異種族コミュニケーション 婚期ぎりぎりシスター、せめて処女を捨てたい。.. Days ago 2 めんどくさい巨乳姉妹と都合の良い人妻をセフレにした件 なんでアタシはこんなヤツに勝てないんだ！ ヌードモデルを講師自らやってくれる画塾の話 お前の母ちゃんすげェ良かったよ。 2 全巻コンプリートパック義理の姉との七日間生活18禁.. 12 アナルアナルセックスイラマチオコミック 電子書籍シスターファンタジーフェラミャモワニマガジン社処女単話巨乳神に届かぬ祈りでも触手 m男.. 0 デジタル特装版 妻と欲デジタル特装版 蚕のひとつ覚え comic失楽天 2026年02月号 神に届かぬ祈りでも 前編 彼の知らない秘密を入れて。 牝虐淫習通常版 整形ギャルさん、クラスの底辺男子に弱み握られて鬼畜調教されちゃいました にーと..

로라 직캠 디시

링크판 74

神に届かぬ祈り 死の予感は、まだ胸の奥でくすぶっていた。 だが、目を開けたとき——ヒューゴは気づく。 まだ生きている、と。 湿った空気が肺を刺す。 古びた木の天井が、軋みながら今にも崩れ落ちそうに鳴った。 「ここは、どこだ？ 」. 雜誌&短篇 漢化 ミャモ 神に届かぬ祈りでも 前編 異世快楽天 vol. 51｜即使这份祈祷传不到神明耳中 前篇 紫藤汉化组 阅读浏览.

루루나 X

Com › 27116甘オホ神様に背いて発情しちゃった癒し系爆乳シスターと甘々純愛. 初音ミクofficial audio／ frechdachs_05 投稿日時 2023年6月6日 21時06分02秒 長さ 00335 投稿者 frechdachs_05 id128730759 動画説明. Hours ago 総集編 傍姦 ーきみが抱かれてるところなんて見たくないーfanza限定特典付き いろいろいろごとblack4 異世界エルフ発情の魔眼8〜サキュバス寝取り編〜 神に届かぬ祈りでも 前編 異種族コミュニケーション 婚期ぎりぎりシスター、せめて処女を捨てたい。, 初音ミクofficial audio／ frechdachs_05 投稿日時 2023年6月6日 21時06分02秒 長さ 00335 投稿者 frechdachs_05 id128730759 動画説明. Days ago 2 めんどくさい巨乳姉妹と都合の良い人妻をセフレにした件 なんでアタシはこんなヤツに勝てないんだ！ ヌードモデルを講師自らやってくれる画塾の話 お前の母ちゃんすげェ良かったよ。 2 全巻コンプリートパック義理の姉との七日間生活18禁.

마 운자 로 효과 언제부터 디시 早くシよ？ 神に届かぬ祈りでも 前編 おもらし侑希ちゃんシリーズ part3 母さんとセックスに溺れる電子版特典付き 初デートは観覧車に乗れ！ 求愛少女fanza限定版 畜産ニ愚者ヲ単話 元カレとは絶対しません！ 全自動精液便所. 初音ミクofficial audio／ frechdachs_05 投稿日時 2023年6月6日 21時06分02秒 長さ 00335 投稿者 frechdachs_05 id128730759 動画説明. Com › 2843ヤったもん勝ち！孕ませ新法 デジタル特装版 syosetu manga raw. hontoネットストアおよび、丸善・ジュンク堂・文教堂の提携書店にて対象の紙書籍を購入すると、同一の電子書籍が紙書籍の購入から5年間、50%offで購入できるサービスです。 購入時点で電子書籍が未発売でも、紙書籍の購入時期にかかわらず、電子書籍の発売後5年間、50%offで購入できます。. Home 動画情報 sm42319444 動画id sm42319444 動画タイトル ネガティブ思考法 ft. 린다 린다 린다 ott

로블록스 세미 Com › 2392異世界子作りハーレムパーティー！！ syosetu manga raw. Day ago 「才能の器」で目指す迷宮最深部 スキル横伸ばしのはずが、万能チートだった！ （7） 嘆きの亡霊は引退したい 〜最弱ハンターによる最強パーティ育成術〜 （11） 神に届かぬ祈りでも 前編. Days ago 神に届かぬ祈りでも 前編 女神に愛（エッチ）な祝福を fanza限定デジタル特装版 comic e×e 65電子版限定特典付きfanza限定特典付き 異種族コミュニケーション ユアソング 1話無料サンプル付き 肛逝絶頂！ アナルファイターズ！. 人格排泄復讐 〜雑魚異能で女たちを性処理道具に〜 第2話 真白の夜は 濃く深く 8月46日 第三話 もっと好きになって 神に届かぬ祈りでも 前編 女友達と宅飲みエッチ！ 〜ノーブラ巨乳をしれっとモミモミ〜 （34） 同人作家は売れっ子作家の夢を見るか. hontoネットストアおよび、丸善・ジュンク堂・文教堂の提携書店にて対象の紙書籍を購入すると、同一の電子書籍が紙書籍の購入から5年間、50%offで購入できるサービスです。 購入時点で電子書籍が未発売でも、紙書籍の購入時期にかかわらず、電子書籍の発売後5年間、50%offで購入できます。. 로제 팬티 디시

릴리나 0 デジタル特装版 妻と欲デジタル特装版 蚕のひとつ覚え comic失楽天 2026年02月号 神に届かぬ祈りでも 前編 彼の知らない秘密を入れて。 牝虐淫習通常版 整形ギャルさん、クラスの底辺男子に弱み握られて鬼畜調教されちゃいました にーと. Days ago 神に届かぬ祈りでも 前編 2026. Days ago 2 めんどくさい巨乳姉妹と都合の良い人妻をセフレにした件 なんでアタシはこんなヤツに勝てないんだ！ ヌードモデルを講師自らやってくれる画塾の話 お前の母ちゃんすげェ良かったよ。 2 全巻コンプリートパック義理の姉との七日間生活18禁. Com › 27116甘オホ神様に背いて発情しちゃった癒し系爆乳シスターと甘々純愛. Com › 2392異世界子作りハーレムパーティー！！ syosetu manga raw. 리즈 남동생

로드리게스 형 Days ago 神に届かぬ祈りでも 前編 2026. Home 動画情報 sm42319444 動画id sm42319444 動画タイトル ネガティブ思考法 ft. 読むかどうかはこのq&aを見てから決めよう！ 20260131に発売になった作者甘噛本舗のエロ漫画入り浸りギャルにま〇こ使わせて貰う話5の気になる質問に答えました！ この漫画が気になっている貴方にとっておきの情報を教えます！ download. Com › 2392異世界子作りハーレムパーティー！！ syosetu manga raw. Com › 27116甘オホ神様に背いて発情しちゃった癒し系爆乳シスターと甘々純愛.

리오 히토미 Days ago 2 めんどくさい巨乳姉妹と都合の良い人妻をセフレにした件 なんでアタシはこんなヤツに勝てないんだ！ ヌードモデルを講師自らやってくれる画塾の話 お前の母ちゃんすげェ良かったよ。 2 全巻コンプリートパック義理の姉との七日間生活18禁. Com › 27116甘オホ神様に背いて発情しちゃった癒し系爆乳シスターと甘々純愛. Days ago 2 めんどくさい巨乳姉妹と都合の良い人妻をセフレにした件 なんでアタシはこんなヤツに勝てないんだ！ ヌードモデルを講師自らやってくれる画塾の話 お前の母ちゃんすげェ良かったよ。 2 全巻コンプリートパック義理の姉との七日間生活18禁. 12 アナルアナルセックスイラマチオコミック 電子書籍シスターファンタジーフェラミャモワニマガジン社処女単話巨乳神に届かぬ祈りでも触手 m男. Com › 2392異世界子作りハーレムパーティー！！ syosetu manga raw.

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.