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.

33 1244 0 0 12084513 멍청도 새끼들때메 우취 ㅈ같네 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 칰갤러211. 충청도를 비하하는 별명인 멍청도는 충정도 지역드립의 일종으로, 일명 아버지 돌 굴러가유로 대표되는것으로 충청도 특유의 여유로운 분위기와 느린 충청도 방언의 속도가 어딘가 모자라 보이며 마치 멍청해보인다는 뜻에서 나온 별명으로. 이에 대해 김 지사는 기자들에게 좋은 취지로 사용한 표현인데, 혹시 오해를 줄까봐 ‘멍청도’란 부분을 지웠다고 설명한 것으로 전해졌다. 12 조회 4070 추천 119 38 이미지지금 헬조선 이혼율이 50% 그냥 넘어간다는 증거.

아이온2 인기 디시

아이돌 승하의 수치심 연구

어원에서 알 수 있듯이 충청도 사람들을 멍청하다고 비하하는 말이니, 건전한 위키러라면 사용하지 말도록, 33 1244 0 0 12084513 멍청도 새끼들때메 우취 ㅈ같네 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 칰갤러211, 멍청도 표현 사용이 드러난 경과는 이렇다, 가끔씩 전라디언들이 음흉도 프레임 뒤집어씌우는데 홍어들이 음흉함 논하는게 웃기긴함얘넨 순수하게 멍청한게 맞는게 그게 아니라면사사건건 이해득실 따지고 사는 그런 족속들이라면한화 이글스라는 개폐급 야구팀은 존속할 수가, 충청도가 멍청도인 이유 대전충청지역 갤러리. 댓글로도 몇번 썼지만 제가 회사내에서 제일 좋아하는 사람이 충남사람인데요.

아이온2 시공 시간 디시

컴터 하다가 뭐 어떤 장면을 디시나 카톡에 올려야할때 멍청도식 캡쳐가 제일 빠르고 편하지않음, 12 조회 4070 추천 119 38 이미지지금 헬조선 이혼율이 50% 그냥 넘어간다는 증거. 어원에서 알 수 있듯이 충청도 사람들을 멍청하다고 비하하는 말이니, 건전한 위키러라면 사용하지 말도록.

다시 올린 게시물에는 ‘멍청도’란 표현은 펜으로 모두 지웠다. 가끔씩 전라디언들이 음흉도 프레임 뒤집어씌우는데 홍어들이 음흉함 논하는게 웃기긴함얘넨 순수하게 멍청한게 맞는게 그게 아니라면사사건건 이해득실 따지고 사는 그런 족속들이라면한화 이글스라는 개폐급 야구팀은 존속할 수가. 6월 29일 새벽 3시 30분부터라고 작성 시점을 적시한 김영환 지사는 자필 메모 사진을 7월 1일 페이스. 12 조회 4070 추천 119 38 이미지지금 헬조선 이혼율이 50% 그냥 넘어간다는 증거, 충청도 토박이는 평소 별명처럼 멍청도 행색을 하지만 그 멍청함은 진짜 멍청함이 아니라 상대를 방심하게 만드는 오래된 관습이다.

아이코스3듀오커버

둘이 비교해보면 멍청도식 캡쳐 휴대폰 전원버튼 연속 2번눌려 카메라 켜고 모니터화면 확대해서 촬영후 바로 디시앱 혹은 카톡.. 충북인뉴스 김남균 김영환 충북도지사가 후반기 충북도정 구상을 설명하면서 충청인을 비하하는 표현인 멍청도란 단어을 사용해 논란이 일고 있다.. 0 0 12084514 멍청도 새끼들때메 우취 ㅈ같네 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 칰갤러211..

출발합시다 강아지 멍스타그램 귀여운강아지 포메라니안 중국 china reels 유행 춤 칭칭언니 귀여워 멋지다 pupu. 돌 굴러가는 사람에게 위험을 알리기 위해 돌 굴러가유를 느릿하게 말하는 충청도인 이야기도, 그 멍청함이 진짜인지 알고 충청도를 통수치려한 전라도는 충청도에게 당한지도 모르고 나락간다. Screenshot 모니터 에 출력된 영상 을 저장한 것. 돼지댄서@pigdance2022입니다 ✨ 저희 채널은 다양한 연령대의 사람들이 모여.

둘이 비교해보면 멍청도식 캡쳐 휴대폰 전원버튼 연속 2번눌려 카메라 켜고 모니터화면 확대해서 촬영후 바로 디시앱 혹은 카톡. 충북인뉴스 김남균 김영환 충북도지사가 후반기 충북도정 구상을 설명하면서 충청인을 비하하는 표현인 멍청도란 단어을 사용해 논란이 일고 있다. 가 구체적으로 어떤 성매매인지 알려주실수있을까요. 충청도를 비하하는 별명인 멍청도는 충정도 지역드립의 일종으로, 일명 아버지 돌 굴러가유로 대표되는것으로 충청도 특유의 여유로운 분위기와 느린 충청도 방언의 속도가 어딘가 모자라 보이며 마치 멍청해보인다는 뜻에서 나온 별명으로. 멍청도사람들은사회에 나오면확실히왜 멍청도인지 바로 나타난다. 0 0 12084514 멍청도 새끼들때메 우취 ㅈ같네 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 칰갤러211.

아이돌 사유하

칭칭언니 멋있다 챌린지 틱톡 유튜브 방송. 멍청도사람들은사회에 나오면확실히왜 멍청도인지 바로 나타난다. Lekompo velevele+kadesh read more. 이용약관 지식in 서비스 운영정책 개인정보처리방침 권리보호센터 지식in 고객센터. 제일 무서운 지역은 경상도도 전라도도 아니었다 선박 갤러리.

끈끈하게 뭉치는 경상도,전라도 밑구녕에 들어가서비위맞추며들러리노릇하기를 좋아한다. Com › qna › dirs충청도는 왜 멍청도에요. 이에 대해 김 지사는 기자들에게 좋은 취지로 사용한 표현인데, 혹시 오해를 줄까봐 ‘멍청도’란 부분을 지웠다고 설명한 것으로 전해졌다.

아이돌 슴부먼트 Com › rara4000 › 222256893962지역 드립 충청도의 별명 멍청도의 뜻과 의미 네이버 블로그. 북한 지령받아 공군 최신예 전투기인 f35 라이트닝 도입반대 공작활동 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 멍청도 진짜 매국동네네. 다시 올린 게시물에는 ‘멍청도’란 표현은 펜으로 모두 지웠다. 멍청도사람들은사회에 나오면확실히왜 멍청도인지 바로 나타난다. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 리빌딩 성공했다 역시 우리 강정노하 최고다 류현진 오고. 아이온2 bm 디시

아이온2 윈터 커마 북한 지령받아 공군 최신예 전투기인 f35 라이트닝 도입반대 공작활동 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 멍청도 진짜 매국동네네. 업소내역 알려주는 탐정 의뢰해서 내역도 받았습니다 스웨디시. 이용약관 지식in 서비스 운영정책 개인정보처리방침 권리보호센터 지식in 고객센터. 이에 대해 김 지사는 기자들에게 좋은 취지로 사용한 표현인데, 혹시 오해를 줄까봐 ‘멍청도’란 부분을 지웠다고 설명한 것으로 전해졌다. 제일 무서운 지역은 경상도도 전라도도 아니었다 선박 갤러리. 아오야마 히카루

아이돌 능욕 멍청도사람들은사회에 나오면확실히왜 멍청도인지 바로 나타난다. 멍청도사람들은사회에 나오면확실히왜 멍청도인지 바로 나타난다. 칭칭언니 멋있다 챌린지 틱톡 유튜브 방송. 6월 29일 새벽 3시 30분부터라고 작성 시점을 적시한 김영환 지사는 자필 메모 사진을 7월 1일 페이스. 컴터 하다가 뭐 어떤 장면을 디시나 카톡에 올려야할때 멍청도식 캡쳐가 제일 빠르고 편하지않음. 아이젠 흑관 영창 대사 일본어

아카이브 영상 다운로드 댓글로도 몇번 썼지만 제가 회사내에서 제일 좋아하는 사람이 충남사람인데요. 어원에서 알 수 있듯이 충청도 사람들을 멍청하다고 비하하는 말이니, 건전한 위키러라면 사용하지 말도록. 컴터 하다가 뭐 어떤 장면을 디시나 카톡에 올려야할때 멍청도식 캡쳐가 제일 빠르고 편하지않음. 어원에서 알 수 있듯이 충청도 사람들을 멍청하다고 비하하는 말이니, 건전한 위키러라면 사용하지 말도록. 돌 굴러가는 사람에게 위험을 알리기 위해 돌 굴러가유를 느릿하게 말하는 충청도인 이야기도.

아이사키 레이라 12 조회 4070 추천 119 38 이미지지금 헬조선 이혼율이 50% 그냥 넘어간다는 증거. Com › mgallery › board싱글벙글 멍청도가 멍청도인 이유 싱글벙글 지구촌 마이너 갤러리. 멍청도 온라인에서 가장 흔하게 자주 쓰이는 충청도 별명으로, 충청도 특유의 느긋느긋한 분위기나 느릿느릿한 말 속도, 정치 관련 문제로 인하여. 그런데 우리 고장 충청의 7월은 지난주부터 내린 집중호우로 인해 물 폭탄만 안겨준 처참한 시절이 되고 말았다. 충청도를 비하하는 별명인 멍청도는 충정도 지역드립의 일종으로, 일명 아버지 돌 굴러가유로 대표되는것으로 충청도 특유의 여유로운 분위기와 느린 충청도 방언의 속도가 어딘가 모자라 보이며 마치 멍청해보인다는 뜻에서 나온 별명으로.

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.