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.

금사향유은애으내아프리카 시절 김진우 방송 여고생. 맨날 천안문 당하던 김뚜띠 인성질 목록txt 스트리머 갤러리. 뚜띠 금사향한테 찝적거리던거 찾았다 스트리머 갤러리. 157 2024년도에 pc를 바꾸면서 편지가 함께 날아갔다고 한다.

인스타 이재명 Gif

내가 못본걸수도 있고 아 금사향도있네 킬랑 2024, 지누, 공파리파, 금사향, 댕균, 망개 옵치, 아프리카시절 램램티비로 좀 뜨니까 그당시 친하던 김진우듁황가 합방하자고 하니 이제 하꼬랑은 안논다고 바로 손절침 이 당시의 업보로 유튜브에 read more.

처음엔 닉네임 지어서을 사용했지만 모두 금사향 지인이어도 지인간에는 서로 모르는 경우도 있고, 인원수가 늘어나면서 그냥 방송네임을 사용하는 것으로 바뀌었다. 탬탬버린 2016년 테일즈러너 합방을 계기로 굉장히 빠르게 친해진 스트리머, 김진우랑 죽고 못사는 사이 71506820 ㅇㅇ 잠깐 마스크 내리거나 입부분 나오거나 그런건 있는데 기본 마캠이고, 앞시절에는 그냥 쌩캠 방송도 했던걸로 기억나서. 157 2024년도에 pc를 바꾸면서 편지가 함께 날아갔다고 한다. 저 채팅내역에서도 김뚜띠가 어색하게 말 건네는건. 아프리카시절 램램티비로 좀 뜨니까 그당시 친하던 김진우듁황가 합방하자고 하니 이제 하꼬랑은 안논다고 바로 손절침 이 당시의 업보로 유튜브에 read more.

팬들은 지누, 코렛트, 탬탬버린을 일명 지코탬 근본 조합으로 보고 있다.. 이미 논란이 일어나기 훨씬 전에 편집이 완료되었던 영상.. 치지직 사진영상 인기글 목록 2024.. 101 대리 컨텐츠로 진행했고 대다수의 아이템을 금사향이 갖게 됐다..

원래는 스트리머 방송을 기다리는 방송 목적이 강했으나 지인들의 read more. 맨날 천안문 당하던 김뚜띠 인성질 목록txt 스트리머 갤러리. Netxbbfw 지누 겜블러 뿡이 윤이샘 금사향 실프 양노을 김지누가 갑자기 다같이 밥먹자고 모아서 급현실합방ㅋㅋ simg.

일본 광대플

156 2019년도에 쓴 편지는 사라져서 읽지 못했으나 2020년도에 쓴 편지는 잘 보존됐다. 팬들은 지누, 코렛트, 탬탬버린을 일명 지코탬 근본 조합으로 보고 있다, 지누는 아직덕질 대상이지만 김진우는 아닌 케이스 ㅋㅋㅋ 노래방하면 꼭옴 ㅋㅋ. 이전 모여봐요 동물의 숲을 플레이할 때 금사향의 어머니께서 개복치보고 금사향 닮았다는 언급을 우스갯소리로 한 말.

맨날 천안문 당하던 김뚜띠 인성질 목록txt 스트리머 갤러리. 금사향유은애으내아프리카 시절 김진우 방송 여고생. 28 2321 가나다라 최근까지 합방 자주한다 하는 멤버는 똥겜동으로 금사향 정도 견찹도 아프리카로 찢어지면서 교류 뜸해지고 다른 멤버랑도 뭔가 잘 안하게 됐던, 그만큼 오랫동안 케미가 좋았다는 얘기. 탬탬 그건 조금 긁혔다 그때 지누방송 보는데 지누가 얘기를. 저는 방송중인 김진우라고 합니다 혹시 제가 금사향님께 같이 게임을 라디오 안마 의자에 앉은 지누님과 통화하는 영상.

작은 일진님 다시보기 20

장지수 마젠타 디시

금사향 의 주변 인터넷 방송인에 대한 문서, 그만큼 오랫동안 케미가 좋았다는 얘기. 처음엔 닉네임 지어서을 사용했지만 모두 금사향 지인이어도 지인간에는 서로 모르는 경우도 있고, 인원수가 늘어나면서 그냥 방송네임을 사용하는 것으로 바뀌었다. 금사향 스트리머와 팬에서 발전한 사이, 원래는 스트리머 방송을 기다리는 방송 목적이 강했으나 지인들의 read more, Redirecting to sgall.

이전 모여봐요 동물의 숲을 플레이할 때 금사향의 어머니께서 개복치보고 금사향 닮았다는 언급을 우스갯소리로 한 말. 08 잡담 러스트악귀김진우 조회361 추천4. Com › 5780860714금사향유은애으내아프리카 시절 김진우 방송 여고생 회장님 치지. 지누, 공파리파, 금사향, 댕균, 망개 옵치.

장원영 꼭지

저 채팅내역에서도 김뚜띠가 어색하게 말 건네는건, 시청자가 만든 플레이리스트이며 금사향 본인의 멜론 플레이리스트에는 약 3,000곡 이상이 있다고. 뚜띠 금사향한테 찝적거리던거 찾았다 스트리머 갤러리. 08 1232 금사향 나 김진우랑 뭔 관계인데, 멤버는 지누김뿡램램 쿠레나이 나츠키 로, 김뿡과 지누는 설백이 너무 못한다며 깔개 취급을 했지만 놀랍게도 설백이 2연속 우승했다. 시청자가 만든 플레이리스트이며 금사향 본인의 멜론 플레이리스트에는 약 3,000곡 이상이 있다고.

장원영 보지 08 잡담 러스트악귀김진우 조회361 추천4. 원래는 스트리머 방송을 기다리는 방송 목적이 강했으나 지인들의 read more. Netxbbfw 지누 겜블러 뿡이 윤이샘 금사향 실프 양노을 김지누가 갑자기 다같이 밥먹자고 모아서 급현실합방ㅋㅋ simg. 아프리카시절 램램티비로 좀 뜨니까 그당시 친하던 김진우듁황가 합방하자고 하니 이제 하꼬랑은 안논다고 바로 손절침 이 당시의 업보로 유튜브에 read more. 101 대리 컨텐츠로 진행했고 대다수의 아이템을 금사향이 갖게 됐다. 일반인 존예 야동

있지 류진 도끼 금사향 스트리머와 팬에서 발전한 사이. 상세 10년 넘게 방송을 해오면서 여러 사람들과 콘텐츠를 진행하다보니. 금사향유은애으내아프리카 시절 김진우 방송 여고생. 저는 방송중인 김진우라고 합니다 혹시 제가 금사향님께 같이 게임을 라디오 안마 의자에 앉은 지누님과 통화하는 영상. 101 대리 컨텐츠로 진행했고 대다수의 아이템을 금사향이 갖게 됐다. 자기만의방 입으로

장원영 유두 Redirecting to sgall. 157 2024년도에 pc를 바꾸면서 편지가 함께 날아갔다고 한다. 팬들은 지누, 코렛트, 탬탬버린을 일명 지코탬 근본 조합으로 보고 있다. 상세 10년 넘게 방송을 해오면서 여러 사람들과 콘텐츠를 진행하다보니. 탬탬버린 2016년 테일즈러너 합방을 계기로 굉장히 빠르게 친해진 스트리머. 인스타녀 korean bj (1)

저챗 컨텐츠 추천 2025년 8월 3일에는 마리오 카트 합방을 담은 영상을 올렸다. 요약지누는 현실친구들한테 모조리 손절당한 불쌍한 찐따였고 이후 마음을 다잡아 제대로 방송을 시작해 성공했다. 그 듁황을 느그주인이 손절쳐서 아프리카 트위치사이 공백동안 한번도 연락도안하고 지낸건 알지. 지누, 공파리파, 금사향, 댕균, 망개 옵치. 28 2321 가나다라 최근까지 합방 자주한다 하는 멤버는 똥겜동으로 금사향 정도 견찹도 아프리카로 찢어지면서 교류 뜸해지고 다른 멤버랑도 뭔가 잘 안하게 됐던.

인스 타 백업 코드 디시 Com › mgallery › board요약x지누가 현생사람들이랑 못어울리는 이유 모르는애들 많아서 적. 뚜띠 금사향한테 찝적거리던거 찾았다 스트리머 갤러리. 지누는 아직덕질 대상이지만 김진우는 아닌 케이스 ㅋㅋㅋ 노래방하면 꼭옴 ㅋㅋ. 저는 방송중인 김진우라고 합니다 혹시 제가 금사향님께 같이 게임을 라디오 안마 의자에 앉은 지누님과 통화하는 영상. 이전 모여봐요 동물의 숲을 플레이할 때 금사향의 어머니께서 개복치보고 금사향 닮았다는 언급을 우스갯소리로 한 말.

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.