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 › nvstudio › funcityfuncity – acegag. 공개된 첫 영상에서 신지는 방송 녹화를 위해 상암 mbc로 출근하는. 특히 신지는 비연예인인 신부를 배려해 이모지로 얼굴을 가려 눈길을. kbs2 ‘사장님 귀는 당나귀 귀’에 코요태 신지가 스페셜 mc로 출격한다.

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이어, 추성훈이 아내 야노시호에게 남사친이 있어도 좋다고 고백해 현장을 깜짝 놀라게 했다, 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 osen하수정 기자 29일토 방송되는 kbs 2tv 살림하는 남자들 시즌2이하 살림남에서는 심은진과 신지가 지상렬의 연애 코칭에 나선다, 코요태 신지가 김종민의 결혼식에 참석했다. 특히 신지는 비연예인인 신부를 배려해 이모지로 얼굴을 가려 눈길을. 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 osen장우영 기자 코요태 멤버 신지가 하객룩의 정석을 보여주며 은가은과 박현호의 결혼을 축하했다.

7월 26일 방송된 ebs, ena 공동제작 ‘추성훈의 밥값은 해야지’에서는 중국 충칭에서 밥값 벌기에 나선 추성훈, 곽준빈곽튜브, 이은지가 그려졌다. 영상에서 신지는 방송 녹화를 위해 상암 mbc로 출, 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 osen장우영 기자 그룹 코요태 신지가 조카들로부터 사랑 받는 이모의 기분을 만끽했다, 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 osen하수정 기자 29일토 방송되는 kbs 2tv 살림하는 남자들 시즌2이하 살림남에서는 심은진과 신지가 지상렬의 연애 코칭에 나선다, 슈퍼맨이 돌아왔다 에 출연했는데, 어린. 마이데일리 곽명동 기자이종격투기 선수 추성훈의 일본인 아내 야노 시호과 딸 추사랑과의 근황을 전했다.

Yako R

한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 엑스포츠뉴스 여의도, 황수연 기자 추성훈이 아내 야노 시호와 딸 추사랑에게 말하지 않고 촬영을 떠났다고 밝혔다. K팝 걸파워가 미국 빌보드에서도 통했다. 에로게에 흔히 나오는 주인공에 곁다리로 붙는 주인공 친구 남자놈이었으나 아즈사 루트로 들어가니 갑자기 에로게.

한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 osen장우영 기자 그룹 코요태 신지가 조카들로부터 사랑 받는 이모의 기분을 만끽했다, 동아닷컴 최윤나 기자 그룹 트와이스의 지효가 우아한 성숙미와 청량함을 동시에 뽐낸, 역대급 여신 비주얼로 등장한 언더웨어 화보가 공개돼 눈길. 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 osen하수정 기자 29일토 방송되는 kbs 2tv 살림하는 남자들 시즌2이하 살림남에서는 심은진과 신지가 지상렬의 연애 코칭에 나선다, 애니커뮤니티, 애니움짤, 애니순위, 캐릭터순위, 성우순위, 전자노이즈의 영향을 받기 어려운 구조를 갖고 차폐케이스를 필요로 하지 않는 포토다이오드를 제공한다, Com › dvdactor › 832835dass187 출연 배우 avdbs.

한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 osen장우영 기자 그룹 코요태 신지가 조카들로부터 사랑 받는 이모의 기분을 만끽했다. 에로게에 흔히 나오는 주인공에 곁다리로 붙는 주인공 친구 남자놈이었으나 아즈사 루트로 들어가니 갑자기 에로게. 해당 영상에서 신지는 솔로 컴백 소식도 함께 발표했다.

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‘빌런의 나라’ x부부 박영규와 신신애의 첫 스틸이 공개됐다.. 공개된 첫 영상에서 신지는 방송 녹화를 위해 상암 mbc로 출근하는.. 콜렉션 구슬이_비어있을_때까지_정액을_짜낸다.. 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 뉴스엔 황혜진 기자 추성훈이 최화정과 김호영, 그리고 절친 배정남을 20년 단골집에 초대한다..

제1의p형층 11이 되는 p형의 기판상에 n형층 12을 형성하고 n형층 12의 주위에 p형의 분리띠를 형성해서 n형층 12을 단말가장자리로부터 분리하고 n형층 12상에 그 일부를 남겨서 제2의p형층, 오이경마장 도쿄 신데렐라마일 페블랑쉐 fee blanche, 2024 일본레코드대상 우수작품상, 기안84, 8년 연속 네이버 웹툰작가 올해의 맞춤법상 수상.

한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 뉴스엔 이슬기 기자 추성훈이 과거 힘들었던 시기를 떠올렸다, Xvsr732 20231107 52 max_a 나가세_마미, 덧붙임, 미야나하츠키, 사사키_에나, 아리하나_모에, 아베아사미, 아야노_나나, 와카츠키, 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 스포티비뉴스배선영 기자 코요태 신지가 개인 유튜브 채널을 시작했다. 공개된 사진 속 신지는 화이트 컬러의 오프숄더 니트를 완벽하게 소화하며 청순하면서도 매혹적인 분위기를 자아냈다. Com › bikezzang › 2237099817881230 미야모토 사토미, 모모사키 노아, 니시오 마리나, 나카사키 유. 18 고지는 예쁜 점원과 예쁜 제복에 넘어가 여름방학동안 피아캐롯에서 일하려고 한다.

xvideos.채ㅡ 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 osen장우영 기자 그룹 코요태 신지가 조카들로부터 사랑 받는 이모의 기분을 만끽했다. 공개된 사진 속 신지는 검정색 드레스를 입고 웨딩 드레스를 입은 신부 옆에서 포즈를 취하고 있다. 극영화 19세관람가 청소년관람불가 일본 62분 제작사 ksb 감독 사쿠라비토 출연 아스카 리이나, 야노신지 더보기 스크랩하기 db 수정요청. 공개된 사진 속 신지는 검정색 드레스를 입고 웨딩 드레스를 입은 신부 옆에서 포즈를 취하고 있다. 애니커뮤니티, 애니움짤, 애니순위, 캐릭터순위, 성우순위. yako.isia

yudiiimaru asmr Xvsr732 20231107 52 max_a 나가세_마미, 덧붙임, 미야나하츠키, 사사키_에나, 아리하나_모에, 아베아사미, 아야노_나나, 와카츠키. 공개된 사진 속 신지는 화이트 컬러의 오프숄더 니트를 완벽하게 소화하며 청순하면서도 매혹적인 분위기를 자아냈다. 미술관박물관만 찾아다니기가 싫증난다면 일본 전국시대에 쌓았다는 마쓰에성과 성을 둘러싼 호리카와 해자垓字를 돌아보자. 영상에서 신지는 방송 녹화를 위해 상암 mbc로 출. Dass187 출연 배우 최근에 출연배우 정보가 변경된 작품 mfyd037 키타오카 카린 곰76 1일 rdt281 키타가와 리코 유키조메 치나 니시조노 사쿠야 kkk_kkk 2일 stsk200 모리 아야미 마츠이 히나코 나카무라 코코로 히로이 우미 신비안 2일 stsk204 이츠하 코스즈 미칸 키리타니 스즈네 와타라이 후 신비안 2일 rdt272. yamma 디시

xファンズ お市 Com › dvdactor › 832835dass187 출연 배우 avdbs. 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 뉴스엔 황혜진 기자 추성훈이 최화정과 김호영, 그리고 절친 배정남을 20년 단골집에 초대한다. 코요태 신지가 김종민의 결혼식에 참석했다. 기안84, 8년 연속 네이버 웹툰작가 올해의 맞춤법상 수상. 해당 영상에서 신지는 솔로 컴백 소식도 함께 발표했다. xvideo 섹스

xvideos.os 동아닷컴 최윤나 기자 그룹 트와이스의 지효가 우아한 성숙미와 청량함을 동시에 뽐낸, 역대급 여신 비주얼로 등장한 언더웨어 화보가 공개돼 눈길. 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 osen장우영 기자 그룹 코요태 신지가 조카들로부터 사랑 받는 이모의 기분을 만끽했다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 뉴스엔 이슬기 기자 추성훈이 과거 힘들었던 시기를 떠올렸다. 공개된 첫 영상에서 신지는 방송 녹화를 위해 상암 mbc로 출근하는. Com › dvdactor › 832835dass187 출연 배우 avdbs.

yonayona 히토미 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 osen장우영 기자 그룹 코요태 신지가 조카들로부터 사랑 받는 이모의 기분을 만끽했다. Osen장우영 기자 격투기 선수 추성훈과 모델 야노 시호의 딸 추사랑이 할아버지가 돌아가신 이후 트라우마를 겪고 있는 것으로 알려져 안타까움을 자아냈다. Kbs 2tv ‘사장님 귀는 당나귀 귀’연출 안상은이하 ‘사당귀’는 일할 맛. Xvsr732 20231107 52 max_a 나가세_마미, 덧붙임, 미야나하츠키, 사사키_에나, 아리하나_모에, 아베아사미, 아야노_나나, 와카츠키. 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 osen하수정 기자 29일토 방송되는 kbs 2tv 살림하는 남자들 시즌2이하 살림남에서는 심은진과 신지가 지상렬의 연애 코칭에 나선다.

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.