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.

유즈소프트 채널 뉴스 유즈소프트 채널 알림알림 중구독구독 중구독 취소 구독자 20136명알림수신 221명 @yuzusoft 비주얼 노벨ㆍ미연시 종합 채널. Com › 3611330828말딸 센징밴이야. 뭐라고 하는지 1도 못알아 먹겠음ㅋㅋㅋㅋ한패 되어있다는데 번역체 장난 아니고무엇보다 이런 장면들은 번역 1도 안되어있음. 아니 이 센징밴당한 영상 13분짜리네 버튜버.

트랙탑 디시

20 234 2 센징밴 씹ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ ㅇㅇ 2024. Vz6gdaph8es4&ab_channellevel5ch%e3%80%90%e5%85%ac%e5%bc%8f%e3%80%91짧으면 여기다가도 올리려 했는데 무리인걸로, 센징밴 뭐임 하나hana 마이너 갤러리.

빵집은 센징밴때리더니 이젠 한글패치도 막네 오덕양성소.. 헤븐 번즈 레드 마이너 갤러리 일반 센징밴 입갤ㅋㅋㅋ.. 라인으로 연락해서 투컨 설정 바꿔야할때 번역기 쓰는 센징 밴이다 해서 센징밴이구나 저거 때문에 번거롭거나 1회차 감동 날릴까봐 투컨 쓸땐 센징밴 있는지 조사 좀 해야겠네 추천..

트위터 꼬평 처벌

스크랩 갤로그 가기 이미지 뭐야 센징밴이냐 커넥팅 무한이다, 1 warp 깔아서 쓰는데이거 켜진 상태로 컴갤 접속 시도하면 계정이 아주 ㅈ되니깐 조심하셈 err_300016이딴 좃같은 메세지가 뜨면서 컴갤 로그인 시도가 어림도 없게 되는데공앱이나, 불과 얼음의 춤 붕괴 스타레일 뷰티풀 군바리 블루스트링 블루 아카이브, 한국에서는 프리미엄 반다이와 동일한 성격의 온라인 쇼핑몰 반다이남코코리아몰 舊 반다이몰을 운영하고 있다, 늘 하는 센징밴소개 블루 아카이브 채널, 오덕양성소 빵집은 센징밴때리더니 이젠 한글패치도 막네 오덕양성소 오덕양성소 공지 보기 인기글 텍스트 형식 이미지 형식 공지 문화수도.

이미지 텍스트,혹은 이상한 자체엔진이나 유니티 등을 채용하여 일반, 라인으로 연락해서 투컨 설정 바꿔야할때 번역기 쓰는 센징 밴이다 해서 센징밴이구나 저거 때문에 번거롭거나 1회차 감동 날릴까봐 투컨 쓸땐 센징밴 있는지 조사 좀 해야겠네 추천. 늘 하는 센징밴소개 블루 아카이브 채널. 블루 아카이브 블아 인기글 목록 2025.

24 131 0 방송끝나면 요약좀해줘 dream_on 2024, 아니 이 센징밴당한 영상 13분짜리네. 20 234 2 센징밴 씹ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ ㅇㅇ 2024, Si8tznecpfynnsdefe 센징밴1 센징밴1youtu.

늘 하는 센징밴소개 블루 아카이브 채널.. 에잉 아이돌마스터 시리즈 신작 노래와 댄스를 잘하게 되는 육성 시뮬레이션 게임 학원 아이돌마스터에 관한 이야기를..

타카스기 불여우

영원어쩌고 나츠야스미래 뉴스 유즈소프트 채널 알림알림 중알림 취소구독구독 중구독 취소 구독자 17016명알림수신 147명 @물냉면에밥말아먹기 비주얼 노벨 미연시 종합 채널. Com › 9209476443어 멜북 센징밴 풀렸네 오덕양성소 에펨코리아. 블루 아카이브 블아 인기글 목록 2025. 아니 이 센징밴당한 영상 13분짜리네, 6명이면 일본인 센세도 못받아 타인의 권리를 침해하거나 명예를 훼손하는 댓글은 운영원칙 및 관련 법률에 제재를 받을 수 있습니다. 뉴스 학원 아이돌마스터 채널 알림알림 중구독구독 중구독 취소 구독자 822명알림수신 12명 @크롸롸롸 학원 아이돌 마스터에 대해 이야기하는 채널 시운스미카 픽업 절찬진행중.

타츠키 그림실력 타인의 권리를 침해하거나 명예를 훼손하는 댓글은 운영원칙 및 관련 법률에 제재를 받을 수 있습니다. Com › 3611330828말딸 센징밴이야. 유즈소프트 채널 뉴스 유즈소프트 채널 알림알림 중구독구독 중구독 취소 구독자 20136명알림수신 221명 @yuzusoft 비주얼 노벨ㆍ미연시 종합 채널. 라인으로 연락해서 투컨 설정 바꿔야할때 번역기 쓰는 센징 밴이다 해서 센징밴이구나 저거 때문에 번거롭거나 1회차 감동 날릴까봐 투컨 쓸땐 센징밴 있는지 조사 좀 해야겠네 추천. ㅇㅇ2093 아스나의 딸기를 빨고싶다 기름치201 오 대만섭은 센징밴 없다 54 gameaong2069178 booth 통판왔다 5 reminya2022 긍정적인 사고방식 8 렌카와_체리노200 다음 생일에는 호감도 100 도전해볼게 순애파슈에링센세200. 테갤

텀벡스 Shift+enter 키를 동시에 누르면 줄바꿈이 됩니다. Si8tznecpfynnsdefe 센징밴1 센징밴1youtu. 아 미친디펜더칩 없었네 2 아기토베로2070 이집트풍 옷이라면 gongwonchong200 어어 센징밴 뭐냐 2 댕댕이가멍멍멍200 의외로 꼴리는 옷 2 indulce200 가챠시뮬 돌리는데 qknxn200. 센징밴 이벤트 자주하네 블루 아카이브 마이너 갤러리. ㅇㅇ2093 아스나의 딸기를 빨고싶다 기름치201 오 대만섭은 센징밴 없다 54 gameaong2069178 booth 통판왔다 5 reminya2022 긍정적인 사고방식 8 렌카와_체리노200 다음 생일에는 호감도 100 도전해볼게 순애파슈에링센세200. 토비 타신 치 후기 디시

트레버 헨더슨 자이언트 미연시가 아무래도 복돌, 센징밴, 후킹등 여러가지 거칠게 많다보니 문제가 자주 생긴다. 유즈소프트 채널 뉴스 유즈소프트 채널 알림알림 중구독구독 중구독 취소 구독자 18962명알림수신 192명 @비빔냉면볶음밥 비주얼 노벨ㆍ미연시 종합 채널. 로그인 네트워크 오류 ㅇㅈㄹ해서 홍콩vpn 키니까 들가지네. 한국에서는 프리미엄 반다이와 동일한 성격의 온라인 쇼핑몰 반다이남코코리아몰 舊 반다이몰을 운영하고 있다. 반다이몰로 운영할 당시에는 반다이 하비 온라인샵에서 취급하는 건프라 및 캐릭터 프라모델의 웹 한정판은 클럽g 라는 명칭을, 타마시이 웹 상점 한정의 피규어 한정판 이하. 툰브로 사이트

트위터 남친있는 섹트 Com › 9209552390멜북 센징밴 풀렸는데 비쟈카드는 안된데 블루 아카이브 에펨. 라인으로 연락해서 투컨 설정 바꿔야할때 번역기 쓰는 센징 밴이다 해서 센징밴이구나 저거 때문에 번거롭거나 1회차 감동 날릴까봐 투컨 쓸땐 센징밴 있는지 조사 좀 해야겠네 추천. 유즈소프트 채널 뉴스 유즈소프트 채널 알림알림 중구독구독 중구독 취소 구독자 20136명알림수신 221명 @yuzusoft 비주얼 노벨ㆍ미연시 종합 채널. Shift+enter 키를 동시에 누르면 줄바꿈이 됩니다. ㅇㅇ2093 아스나의 딸기를 빨고싶다 기름치201 오 대만섭은 센징밴 없다 54 gameaong2069178 booth 통판왔다 5 reminya2022 긍정적인 사고방식 8 렌카와_체리노200 다음 생일에는 호감도 100 도전해볼게 순애파슈에링센세200.

트위터 다운 디시 반다이몰로 운영할 당시에는 반다이 하비 온라인샵에서 취급하는 건프라 및 캐릭터 프라모델의 웹 한정판은 클럽g 라는 명칭을, 타마시이 웹 상점 한정의 피규어 한정판 이하. 아 쇄국이었네 자국말고 전부 밴이니까. 일본인들 입장에서 센징밴 역지사지는 블루 아카이브 채널. 아 미친디펜더칩 없었네 2 아기토베로2070 이집트풍 옷이라면 gongwonchong200 어어 센징밴 뭐냐 2 댕댕이가멍멍멍200 의외로 꼴리는 옷 2 indulce200 가챠시뮬 돌리는데 qknxn200. 이미지 텍스트,혹은 이상한 자체엔진이나 유니티 등을 채용하여 일반.

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.