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.

뿌리탈색과 클리닉도 포함된 완벽한 컬러 시술. Pinterest에서 전미현 202160908님의 보드 반반 염색머리을를 팔로우하세요. Com › 홍대미용실 탈색 염색반반염색 브라운 핑크. 오늘은 여러분께 염색 색깔 종류알아보러 고고 참고로 제가 올려논 사진을 보시면 머리카락중에 반반 색깔이 다를겁니다.

Pinterest에서 전미현 202160908님의 보드 반반 염색머리을를 팔로우하세요.. 멜라니 마티네즈가 발명한거라는 사람들도 많던데..

윤공주 나이

위에있는 반은 백모에 한 염색이고 밑에 있는 모발은 일반모 염색을 한번도 하지 않은 모발에 한것입니다참고해, 멜라니 마티네즈가 발명한거라는 사람들도 많던데. Com › discover › 반반머리염색tiktok. 일종의 헤어스타일이며, 현실에서는 투톤 염색이 여기에 해당된다.

응애 나 아기 짤

헤어스타일 염색머리 반반머리 민트머리. 과거시험에 합격하는 방법이 연중된것은 아쉽지만 각각의 단편도 굉장히 재미있어서 위로가 된다. Pinterest에서 soa_jung jung님의 보드 반반머리을를 팔로우하세요. 이럴 경우엔 머리를 염색했냐고 의심받기도 한다.

반반염색 시작해 볼게요 반반염색은 우선 얼마만큼 나뉘어서 염색을 할 건지를 보고 들어가야 해요 헤어는 나뉘는 선에 따라 느낌이 완전히 달라져요 커트할 때도 마찬가지로 투 클럭 높이를 어떻게 하느냐에 따라서 헤어스타일 느낌이 달라지는 거 아시죠. 울산미용실 예다연삼산2호점 일목 10102000 금,토 10102100 울산 남구 삼산중로74번길 28 tel, Com › postview2024 여자 염색 추천, 시크릿투톤, 옴브레, 솜브레, 발레아쥬, 반반염. 시크릿투톤 반반염색 대전미용실 용두동미용실 선화동미용실 목동미용실 중촌동미용실 문화동미용실 트렌트컬러 시세이도컬러 시세이도 댓글 1 인쇄. 반반염색 시작해 볼게요 반반염색은 우선 얼마만큼 나뉘어서 염색을 할 건지를 보고 들어가야 해요 헤어는 나뉘는 선에 따라 느낌이 완전히 달라져요 커트할 때도 마찬가지로 투 클럭 높이를 어떻게 하느냐에 따라서 헤어스타일 느낌이 달라지는 거 아시죠.

헤어컬러 반반 신기한뒈 헤어컬러 여자염색 염색추천 반반염색 컬러테스트 셀카 릴스초보 여자헤어스타일 여자머리스타일 여자펌, 과거시험에 합격하는 방법이 연중된것은 아쉽지만 각각의 단편도 굉장히 재미있어서 위로가 된다, 오늘은 분당 정자역 미용실 하루 실장이 유행하는 크루엘라 반반 머리 염색에 대한 블로그 포스팅을 준비했습니다, 정도 만에 탈염색모를 벗어나 블랙으로 덮기로 마음 먹고 염색약 세 통을 사왔다. 헤어컬러 반반 신기한뒈 헤어컬러 여자염색 염색추천 반반염색 컬러테스트 셀카 릴스초보 여자헤어스타일 여자머리스타일 여자펌.

헤어컬러 반반 신기한뒈 헤어컬러 여자 instagram, 다산동미용실 디오드 인싸메이커 다인입니닷. 헤어스타일, 염색 머리, 머리에 관한 아이디어를 더 확인해 보세요.

윤수빈 비키니

세일때 저렴한 가격으로 겟 한 파루티 멧챠후렛쉬. 크루엘라 스트레이키즈필릭스 머리 @hair_hanjoon 안녕하세요. 이럴 경우엔 머리를 염색했냐고 의심받기도 한다.

Com › c_he › 220919612297반반염색 split dye 네이버 블로그, Com › flatyoung › 222147096172유니크한 염색을 원한다면 반반염색 해보자 네이버 블로그, 겨우 겨우 하고는 20분 기다리고 씻은 결과. 위에있는 반은 백모에 한 염색이고 밑에 있는 모발은 일반모 염색을 한번도 하지 않은 모발에 한것입니다참고해.

눈썹염색 눈썹탈색 눈썹염색탈색 반반 해봤어요. Pinterest에서 전미현 202160908님의 보드 반반 염색머리을 를 팔로우하세요. Lybostonjjun 이메일 222terry@naver, 5% 성장률을 보이며, 2025년까지 약 42억 달러 규모 read more. Home 반반염색 애쉬+체리핑크 특이한염색 반반염색 애쉬+체리핑크 특이한염색.

육흥복 근황 반반염색 시작해 볼게요 반반염색은 우선 얼마만큼 나뉘어서 염색을 할 건지를 보고 들어가야 해요 헤어는 나뉘는 선에 따라 느낌이 완전히 달라져요 커트할 때도 마찬가지로 투 클럭 높이를 어떻게 하느냐에 따라서 헤어스타일 느낌이 달라지는 거 아시죠. 블로그 she did it 안부 여성과학자 칼럼 80개의 글 목록열기. 헤어스타일 염색머리 반반머리 민트머리. 세일때 저렴한 가격으로 겟 한 파루티 멧챠후렛쉬. Soonsiki hair is a hair salon that speaks foreign languages. 윤수빈 deepfake

윤민아 야동 울산미용실 예다연삼산2호점 일목 10102000 금,토 10102100 울산 남구 삼산중로74번길 28 tel. Com › postview2024 여자 염색 추천, 시크릿투톤, 옴브레, 솜브레, 발레아쥬, 반반염. 마곡남자머리 맨즈강헤어 현기실장 @hyunki1706 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 블루와 핑크의 반반염색으로 스타일을 업그레이드하세요. Jmgallery follow ️ how to 전체염색 전체탈색 탈색 염색 뿌리염색 뿌리탈색 rootbleach 디자인염색 디자인탈색 bleachhair. 영어로는 splitcolor hair, 또는 half and half hair 라고 부른다. 이래아요

의회지기의 부름 반반염색 split dye 네이버 블로그. 이럴 경우엔 머리를 염색했냐고 의심받기도 한다. 현실적으로 염색 을 거치지 않고서는 얻기 힘들지만, 유전적으로 머리카락의 한 부분이 다른 색이 나오는 경우도 존재한다. Com › watch반반염색 꼭 추천하는 이유_보스턴쭌의 톡톡톡 염색하기 염색추천. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ결정에 한표씩 던져주신 유쾌한 이지헤어 직원분들짱좋아요 제가 연남 이지헤어를 좋아하는 또하나의 이유. 유희동 벗방

윤잉 19 동시에 여러 색의 머리카락을 가지는 것을 말한다. 반반염색 을 해봤는데 너무 좋네요ㅋㅋ 그래서 추천. 블로그 she did it 안부 여성과학자 칼럼 80개의 글 목록열기. 이 독특한 스타일은 영화 크루엘라에서 영감을 받아 탄생했으며, 개성과 스타일을 드러내고 싶은 분들에게 인기가 높습니다. 평택에서 찾아와주신 고객님이신데, 평범한 디자인은 싫고, 고민하다가 흑백 반반머리 디자인을 가지고 오셨습니다.

윤공주 김소은 신상 디시 어떻느냐고 묻는 정도가 아니라 추천에 왕 추천+사진까지 찾아가며 꼬드기기 정도. 1857 이웃추가 위치 아이디헤어 주엽1호점 아이디헤어주엽1호점 크루엘라염색 반반염색 투톤염색 안녕하세요 아이디헤어주엽1호점 엄지희부원장입니다 오늘소개해드릴 헤어스타일은 크루엘라염색반반염색 입니다 고객님께서 영화 크루엘라 를 보고 영감을 얻으셨나봐요 전아직 못. 눈썹염색 눈썹탈색 눈썹염색탈색 반반 해봤어요. 과거시험에 합격하는 방법이 연중된것은 아쉽지만 각각의 단편도 굉장히 재미있어서 위로가 된다. 염색은 연남 이지헤어에요 여러분패션위크를 위해서무슨 염색을 할지 고민하다가앞머리만 새로 염색할까반반을할까.

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.