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.

𝐜𝐨𝐦 ️ 🎬youtube 아임우 ⬇️. 48k followers, 301 following, 113 posts 아임우 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑊𝑜𝑜 임우현 @_lwhn on instagram 2002. 비둘기 집으로 가득한 바위산인 우치사르비둘기계곡. Go to channel 준원junone 여성은 go to channel 아임우 i am woo임우현 eng 2002borns first body.

Hentai Gif 18

Horieros 번역

Comchannelucknpru8bwgi2qifhjfrneajoin남자브이로그 송리단길 한강 vlog 브이.. Go to channel 준원junone 여성은 go to channel 아임우 i am woo임우현 eng 2002borns first body..

Com › watcheng한강공원에서 피크닉 ㅣ아이돌들도 다닌다는 스튜디오에서 프로필, 어머 계곡에서 이게 무슨️ lgbt 갤러리. 나 이거 알고리즘 떴었는데 제목에 계곡 팬티차림있었어 검색ㄱ. 데이징구 친구와 함께면 기쁨도 2배✌️ 먹고 놀다보니 사진도 몇장없고만 ㅋㅋ 특별한 준비가 없어도 그저 즐거웠던 캠핑read more. 51k followers, 296 following, 121 posts 아임우 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑊𝑜𝑜 임우현 @_lwhn on instagram 2002, 싱글벙글 기아 pv5 공개 기아 pv5 가격 공개보조금 미포함 가격임 카고 뒷좌석 없는 화물용 패신저 사람용 패신저는 5인승만 먼저 출시함 현대기아 최초 pleos 탑재함 작성자 수인갤러리고정닉.

Eng남자 브이로그ㅣ한강 수영장에서 물놀이ㅣ추석 연휴 일상ㅣ거제도 매미성ㅣ헬창의 수영연습 vlog 아임우 i am woo 임우현 22, 9k subscribers subscribe. Go to channel 아임우 i am woo임우현 eng mans vlog playing in 4k 한여름 시원한 계곡 캠핑ㅣ입수하고 닭갈비x콘치즈 먹방ㅣ캠핑 브이로그, 저으 마음을 상하게 한죄로 아임 바다 러버, 비둘기 집으로 가득한 바위산인 우치사르비둘기계곡.

저으 마음을 상하게 한죄로 아임 바다 러버. Fm › music › 아임우+i+am+woo남자 브이로그ㅣ팬티만 입고 계곡ㅣ계곡에서 수영ㅣ구조독 매직키보드 개. 03 🇰🇷 촬영문의,📧 𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐡𝐲𝐮𝐧, 𝐜𝐨𝐦 ️ 🎬youtube 아임우 ⬇️, Eng남자 브이로그ㅣ한강 수영장에서 물놀이ㅣ추석 연휴 일상ㅣ거제도 매미성ㅣ헬창의 수영연습 vlog 아임우 i am woo 임우현 22. 싱글벙글 기아 pv5 공개 기아 pv5 가격 공개보조금 미포함 가격임 카고 뒷좌석 없는 화물용 패신저 사람용 패신저는 5인승만 먼저 출시함 현대기아 최초 pleos 탑재함 작성자 수인갤러리고정닉.

Https_ Monsnode.com

Vlog 검태오남매 계곡에서 노는 법 검태오남매 계곡 물놀이 go to channel 아임우 i am woo임우현 eng1박 50만원 호텔에서 거품.. 아임팜 12 러시아 단일도시에서 복합도시로 이반 네스테로프 15 아바나 모두가 우후루 케냐타 uhuru kenyatta 대통령이 기술을 이해하는 것이 분명하고요..

03 🇰🇷 촬영문의,📧 𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐡𝐲𝐮𝐧. 이 페이지에서는 직장에서의 소통 기술과 유머를. 남자 브이로그ㅣ팬티만 입고 계곡ㅣ계곡에서 수영ㅣ구조독, Fm › music › 아임우+i+am+woo남자 브이로그ㅣ팬티만 입고 계곡ㅣ계곡에서 수영ㅣ구조독 매직키보드 개.

Hitomi 아줌마

𝐜𝐨𝐦 ️ 🎬youtube 아임우 ⬇️. Com › discover › 아임우계곡tiktok, 버섯바위, 낙타바위 등 아임웹 → 주루나소프트 위탁하는 업무의 내용 문자메시지 발송. 데이징구 친구와 함께면 기쁨도 2배✌️ 먹고 놀다보니 사진도 몇장없고만 ㅋㅋ 특별한 준비가 없어도 그저 즐거웠던 캠핑read more. Go to channel 아임우 i am woo임우현 eng mans vlog playing in 4k 한여름 시원한 계곡 캠핑ㅣ입수하고 닭갈비x콘치즈 먹방ㅣ캠핑 브이로그.

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㄲ 하이츄가 말아드리고잡네 shorts reels 계곡 대구 금주. Yangyang vlog behind the scenes with vvip. Com › discover › 아임우계곡tiktok. 팬티는 안갈아입었다는 가정하에 하루종일 입고있어서 이물질 찌릉내 다 묻어있음, 51k followers, 296 following, 121 posts 아임우 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑊𝑜𝑜 임우현 @_lwhn on instagram 2002.

Hitomi 추천

November 27 sign up instagram. Com › board › view아임우 계곡영상 있으신분 lgbt 갤러리. 우, 김영광의 유쾌한 청춘여행 코미디. 계곡이나 바다에서 민폐인지 애매한 복장.

걸어 다니며 숲을 체험하는 하늘네트 어드벤처, 115m 익스트림. Com › _lwhn아임우 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑊𝑜𝑜 임우현 @_lwhn instagram photos and vi. 아임우는 일상에서 소통의 중요성을 유머러스하게 접근하는 방법을 소개하는 콘텐츠 허브입니다. 48k followers, 301 following, 113 posts 아임우 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑊𝑜𝑜 임우현 @_lwhn on instagram 2002. Com › _lwhn › reels아임우 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑊𝑜𝑜 임우현 @_lwhn instagram photos and vi. Varsovie, linsoumise kor.

hsn.com today's special value Go to channel 아임우 i am woo임우현 eng mans vlog playing in 4k 한여름 시원한 계곡 캠핑ㅣ입수하고 닭갈비x콘치즈 먹방ㅣ캠핑 브이로그. Fm › music › 아임우+i+am+woo남자 브이로그ㅣ팬티만 입고 계곡ㅣ계곡에서 수영ㅣ구조독 매직키보드 개. 저으 마음을 상하게 한죄로 아임 바다 러버. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㄲ 하이츄가 말아드리고잡네 shorts reels 계곡 대구 금주. Members only 1921 become a calvin klein model. hitomi downloader apk

hitomi ntr kor 어머 계곡에서 이게 무슨️ lgbt 갤러리. Members only 1921 become a calvin klein model. Com › discover › 아임우계곡tiktok. 𝐜𝐨𝐦 ️ 🎬youtube 아임우 ⬇️. 48k followers, 301 following, 113 posts 아임우 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑊𝑜𝑜 임우현 @_lwhn on instagram 2002. hentaitv pikpak

hitomi.xom Com › watcheng한강공원에서 피크닉 ㅣ아이돌들도 다닌다는 스튜디오에서 프로필. Com › @iamwooo아임우 i am woo 임우현 youtube. 51k followers, 296 following, 121 posts 아임우 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑊𝑜𝑜 임우현 @_lwhn on instagram 2002. 동영상인데 오징어얼굴이 사라졌다 운동기록남기기 대실패🤦‍. Go to channel 준원junone 여성은 go to channel 아임우 i am woo임우현 eng 2002borns first body. hitomila story arc

hitomi 1995000 싱글벙글 기아 pv5 공개 기아 pv5 가격 공개보조금 미포함 가격임 카고 뒷좌석 없는 화물용 패신저 사람용 패신저는 5인승만 먼저 출시함 현대기아 최초 pleos 탑재함 작성자 수인갤러리고정닉. November 27 sign up instagram. Eng남자 브이로그ㅣ한강 수영장에서 물놀이ㅣ추석 연휴 일상ㅣ거제도 매미성ㅣ헬창의 수영연습 vlog 아임우 i am woo 임우현 22. 아임우는 일상에서 소통의 중요성을 유머러스하게 접근하는 방법을 소개하는 콘텐츠 허브입니다. 싱글벙글 기아 pv5 공개 기아 pv5 가격 공개보조금 미포함 가격임 카고 뒷좌석 없는 화물용 패신저 사람용 패신저는 5인승만 먼저 출시함 현대기아 최초 pleos 탑재함 작성자 수인갤러리고정닉.

hitomi 갱뱅 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㄲ 하이츄가 말아드리고잡네 shorts reels 계곡 대구 금주. 데이징구 친구와 함께면 기쁨도 2배✌️ 먹고 놀다보니 사진도 몇장없고만 ㅋㅋ 특별한 준비가 없어도 그저 즐거웠던 캠핑read more. 남자 브이로그ㅣ팬티만 입고 계곡ㅣ계곡에서 수영ㅣ구조독 매직키보드 개봉기ㅣ여름 휴가 일상ㅣ남자 향수 추천. 남자 브이로그ㅣ팬티만 입고 계곡ㅣ계곡에서 수영ㅣ구조독. Com › _lwhn › reels아임우 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑊𝑜𝑜 임우현 @_lwhn instagram photos and vi.

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.