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.

발랑 까져 보여도 스즈모리 레무는 매우 성실한 여자랍니다. 일본 예쁜 언니들도 덤으로 응원합니다 가끔 독서후기 올립니다. 투명감 넘치는 미소녀와 향수 여름에 잠기는 올 컬러. @tokyostupidcards 🗓 2025年7月9日 水〜11日 金 📍 spaces1 layer57 서울.

메이플 키우기 직업 티어 표 최신

재업도 괜찮다 하시던데 일단 상체위주 가리는선에서 비키니중 안전한 사진 위주로 새로운 사진 추가로 올립니다. 특히 청순미 가득한 비주얼이 심쿵하게 만든다, 특히 청순미 가득한 비주얼이 심쿵하게 만든다.

프로필이름 스즈모리 레무 remu suzumori, 涼森れむ출생일 1997년 12월 03일출생지 미에군키 160cm사이즈 b87 w58 h85 f 혈액형 o형취미 음악감상특기 겐다마데뷔일 2019년 04월활동.. @tokyostupidcards 🗓 2025年7月9日 水〜11日 金 📍 spaces1 layer57 서울.. 森れむ 생년월일 1997년 12월 3일 키 160cm 가슴사이즈 f컵 쓰리 사이즈 b87w58h85 cm 혈액형 o형 출생지 미에군 취미 특기 음악감상, 겐다마 공에 줄을 연결해서 손잡이에 꼽는 장난감 데뷔 2019년 04월 현재 활동 중..

스즈모리 레무 본명 涼森れむ는 1997년 12월 3일생으로, 키 160cm, 신체 사이즈. 스즈모리 레무 1997년 12월 3일생 미에현 출신 t160cm b87cm f w58cm h85cm 미리보기 9,800 원 구매 목차3 소개 저자 댓글0 미리보기 스즈모리 레무 판권정보 전자책 소개. 특히 남심 저격하는 여신 비주얼이 인상적이다. 재업도 괜찮다 하시던데 일단 상체위주 가리는선에서 비키니중 안전한 사진 위주로 새로운 사진 추가로 올립니다. 아키하바라,오사카 시리즈 잘 보고 있으시죠. Com스즈모리 레무미야시타 레나스즈모리 레무 looking for people or posts.

메롱바 분수

청순한 얼굴의 스즈모리 레무를 소개합니다, 발랑 까져 보여도 스즈모리 레무는 매우 성실한 여자랍니다. 공개된 사진 속에는 그녀가 카메라를 향해 아련한 눈빛을 발산하고 있다.

모또모또 모음

인기 정상에 오른 스즈모리 레무, 어떻게 이렇게 빠르게 성장할 수 있었을까요. 투명감 넘치는 미소녀와 향수 여름에 잠기는 올 컬러, We couldnt find anything for 스즈모리 레무무료다운. 713 likes, 6 comments 3mtissue on decem tse 2024 스즈모리 레무 涼森れむ.

발랑 까져 보여도 스즈모리 레무는 매우 성실한 여자랍니다. 224 스즈모리 레무 최신작 여기서 봐라 sdata. 뉴스컬처 이상우 기자 스즈모리 레무 미모가 화제다, Com스즈모리 레무미야시타 레나스즈모리 레무 looking for people or posts.

스즈모리 레무 본명 涼森れむ는 1997년 12월 3일생으로, 키 160cm, 신체 사이즈.. 713 likes, 6 comments 3mtissue on decem tse 2024 스즈모리 레무 涼森れむ.. 공개된 사진 속에는 그녀가 평화로운 일상을 즐기고 있는 모습이다.. 특히 남심 저격하는 여신 비주얼이 인상적이다..

프로필이름 스즈모리 레무 remu suzumori, 涼森れむ출생일 1997년 12월 03일출생지 미에군키 160cm사이즈 b87 w58 h85 f 혈액형 o형취미 음악감상특기 겐다마데뷔일 2019년 04월활동. 뉴스컬처 이상우 기자 스즈모리 레무 미모가 화제다, 스즈모리 레무mgs만의 덤 영상 첨부+30분 여자 애슬리트 작열발한 3sex act. 스즈모리 레무 프로필 총정리_데뷔와 신인 평가 도대체 왜 2019년 신인 중 스즈모리 레무가 단연 최고라는 평가를 받게 되었을까요. 중국집 서빙 분야를 가리지 않고 열심히 일하는 아름다운 그녀.

주식투자책 일본추리소설을 주로 읽습니다. 이름 스즈모리 레무나이 1997년 12월 3일 29세 키 160cm신체 b87 w58 h85가슴 사이즈 d컵국적 일본고향 미에현소속사 tpowers, prestige데뷔 2019년 4월취미 음악감상, 켄다마, 게임배틀그라운드특기 낚시, 골프 sns instagram, xtwitter1, We couldnt find anything for 스즈모리 레무무료다운.

메이플 키우기 동료 조합 디시 문학책 이웃 289 명 akb그룹, 아이즈원, 르세라핌, 아이브, 에스파 응원합니다. 문학책 이웃 289 명 akb그룹, 아이즈원, 르세라핌, 아이브, 에스파 응원합니다. 스즈모리 레무 1997년 12월 3일생 미에현 출신 t160cm b87cm f w58cm h85cm 미리보기 9,800 원 구매 목차3 소개 저자 댓글0 미리보기 스즈모리 레무 판권정보 전자책 소개. 이름 스즈모리 레무 remu suzumori. 공개된 사진 속에는 그녀가 카메라를 향해 아련한 눈빛을 발산하고 있다. 메이플키우기 직업변경권

메이플키우기 썬콜 이름 스즈모리 레무 remu suzumori. 공개된 사진 속에는 그녀가 평화로운 일상을 즐기고 있는 모습이다. 너무나도 반전 매력이 있는 그녀의 작품의 세계도 만나보세요. 주식투자책 일본추리소설을 주로 읽습니다. 재업도 괜찮다 하시던데 일단 상체위주 가리는선에서 비키니중 안전한 사진 위주로 새로운 사진 추가로 올립니다. 메키 상태이상 데미지

명기 판별법 디시 중국집 서빙 분야를 가리지 않고 열심히 일하는 아름다운 그녀. 스즈모리 레무 1997년 12월 3일생 미에현 출신 t160cm b87cm f w58cm h85cm 미리보기 9,800 원 구매 목차3 소개 저자 댓글0 미리보기 스즈모리 레무 판권정보 전자책 소개. 이름 스즈모리 레무나이 1997년 12월 3일 29세 키 160cm신체 b87 w58 h85가슴 사이즈 d컵국적 일본고향 미에현소속사 tpowers, prestige데뷔 2019년 4월취미 음악감상, 켄다마, 게임배틀그라운드특기 낚시, 골프 sns instagram, xtwitter1. 너무나도 반전 매력이 있는 그녀의 작품의 세계도 만나보세요. 공개된 사진 속에는 그녀가 카메라를 향해 아련한 눈빛을 발산하고 있다. 메이플 키우기 공속

메이플키우기 환불 후기 @tokyostupidcards 🗓 2025年7月9日 水〜11日 金 📍 spaces1 layer57 서울. 주식투자책 일본추리소설을 주로 읽습니다. 스즈모리 레무 본명 涼森れむ는 1997년 12월 3일생으로, 키 160cm, 신체 사이즈. 재업도 괜찮다 하시던데 일단 상체위주 가리는선에서 비키니중 안전한 사진 위주로 새로운 사진 추가로 올립니다. 뉴스컬처 이상우 기자 스즈모리 레무 미모가 화제다.

모자이크 제거 디시 스즈모리 레무 涼森れむ remu suzumori 1. @tokyostupidcards 🗓 2025年7月9日 水〜11日 金 📍 spaces1 layer57 서울. 청순한 얼굴의 스즈모리 레무를 소개합니다. 아키하바라,오사카 시리즈 잘 보고 있으시죠. 713 likes, 6 comments 3mtissue on decem tse 2024 스즈모리 레무 涼森れむ.

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.