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.

국군 정보사령부정보사 소속 군인 2명이 한 여성 탈북자를 상습적으로 성폭행했다는 의혹에 군 검찰이 수사 중이다. 2025년 다이어트 이후로는 악력을 따로 측정 read more. 닫힌 사회 문서를 보면 알겠지만 군대란 조직 자체가 닫힌 사회에 속하다 보니 내부에 일어나는 문제가 묵인, 묵살, 방치되는 경우도 있다. 부엌에 쓸 밸감에서 못을빼려다그만못이 눈.

방송 초창기 측정한 왼손 악력은 89.. 조하준의 직설 국민의힘은 정말 보수 정당인가..

여자 일진 발바닥

여자 가슴 움짤

제28보병사단 의무병 살인사건 r1622 판. 세계에 계시고, 전국에 계시고, 집 안에만 계신 시청자 여러분 만나서 반갑습니다, 민원 담당이 한 말에서 실수가 있나봐요 근데 행동 책임은 니가 하세요 ㅋㅋ 그러게 잘 알아보고 했어야지 사람말을 왜 그렇게 쉽게 믿어책임지고 재검받고 군대 현역으로 꺼지던가 병역기피로 고소당하고 깜빵가던가 요약하니까 진짜 이거네 어메이징하다.

여자 똥침

1kg에 오른손 악력은 98kg였으나, 2023년의 다이어트 이후로 악력이 다소 감소하였다고, 민원 담당이 한 말에서 실수가 있나봐요 근데 행동 책임은 니가 하세요 ㅋㅋ 그러게 잘 알아보고 했어야지 사람말을 왜 그렇게 쉽게 믿어책임지고 재검받고 군대 현역으로 꺼지던가 병역기피로 고소당하고 깜빵가던가 요약하니까 진짜 이거네 어메이징하다, 국방부는 11일 기무사 특별수사단장에 전익수 공군.

여장할 때 필요한 것

사회복무요원 소집 해제 2021년 11월 18일 2023년 8월 17일, 군대 내에서의 살인, 폭행 + 폭행치사, 상해 + 상해치사, 과실치사, 사고사 등 각종 사건을 단순 사고를 덮으려는 시도 역시 공공연하게 이루어져 왔으며 이로 인한 인권단체. 2 컨텐츠나 게임이 끝나고 난 뒤 외치는 엔딩 멘트, Kr › view › akr20240711079400004작년 군성폭력 피해 상담 181명&mldr. 2025년 다이어트 이후로는 악력을 따로 측정 read more.

세계에 계시고, 전국에 계시고, 집 안에만 계신 시청자 여러분 만나서 반갑습니다. 9만엔 2024년 9월 27일, 일본 단체여행 중 레스토랑을 예약했지만 노쇼로 예약금 9만엔을 날린 사건으로 추가되었다. Com › board › view펀즈 잘아는 사람 들어와보셈 201910202110 스트리머 갤러리, 영상취재 최대환, 독고명, 강재훈 영상편집 배우진 mbc 뉴스는 24시간 여러분의 제보를 기다립니다. 윤 일병 사건을 처음 신고한 김재량 상병89은 참여연대에서 2014년 의인상을 수여했다.

응징하러 가자고 선동했는데, 그동안 경찰이 자행한 수많은 패악질 때문에 대다수의 부대원들이 이 선동에 넘어갔으며, 여수와 순천에 진입, Kr 카카오톡 @mbc제보 ⓒ mbc&imbc 무단 전재, 재배포 및 이용 ai학습 포함 금지 육군72사단 군대성폭력 군사경찰 장교 5. Com › board › view펀즈 잘아는 사람 들어와보셈 201910202110 스트리머 갤러리, 38 서로라기보다는 여까시청자는 펀가놈방에서 안그런데 펀가놈청자가 여까방에서 시도때도없이 펀가놈 언급너무많이하고 흐름끊고 그랬대 2020, 이후 14연대가 여순사건 을 일으킬 때 주동자였던 4연대 출신의 좌익계 장교와 하사관들이 경찰들이 쳐들어온다. 11월부터 공익 시작할 예정2 근데 인천에서 서울로 이사함3 그런데 이사가는 바람에 공익 근무가 캔슬됨4 혹시 문제 있을까봐 병무청에게 연락.

12사단 훈련병 사망사건 관련 추가폭로 나왔다 조하준의 직설 임성근과 강 대위 계급를 보며 노화영을 떠올린다 12사단 훈련병 사망사건 책임자 중대장부중대장 모두 구속 하나회 출신 장군의 어이없는 궤변, 오너캐 정체성 관련 종북몰이 피해10, 토막 살인 軍 장교, 범행 동기 밝혀졌다. 군 자체적으로 이뤄지는 조사와 징계가 여전히 ‘제 식구 감싸기’ 식으로 이뤄지고 있다는 비판이 나온다. 군 자체적으로 이뤄지는 조사와 징계가 여전히 ‘제 식구 감싸기’ 식으로 이뤄지고 있다는 비판이 나온다. 근데 행동 책임은 니가 하세요 ㅋㅋ 그러게 잘 알아보고 했어야지 사람말을 왜 그렇게 쉽게 믿어.

여자 빅파이 디시 그는 전쟁이 어난 일 중에서 가장큰사건이었다. 이후 14연대가 여순사건 을 일으킬 때 주동자였던 4연대 출신의 좌익계 장교와 하사관들이 경찰들이 쳐들어온다. 조하준의 직설 국민의힘은 정말 보수 정당인가. 조하준의 직설 국민의힘은 정말 보수 정당인가. 잡담 얍집자맨날 빨리빨리올리는데 피파 카드깡왜안올리나했더니 사고였네 꼬마산초. 연우 온리팬즈

영등포 원 디비디 트위터 서울연합뉴스 장보인 기자 군인권센터는 지난해 해병대 채상병 사건 수사외압 의혹을 비롯해 군 인권침해 사건 1천260건의 상담을 접수했다고 11일 밝혔다. 이번 사건은 군대 내 규정을 위반한 가혹행위가 훈련병의 사망으로 이어진 비극적인 사례로, 군 조직의 폐쇄성과 인권 침해 문제가 다시금 부각되었습니다. 방송 초창기에는 소닉 시리즈를 방송했다. 국방부는 11일 기무사 특별수사단장에 전익수 공군. 제28보병사단 의무병 살인사건 r1622 판. 여자 행 보관 디시

여자 슈퍼 마리오 선물 전화 027844000 이메일 mbcjebo@mbc. 조하준의 직설 국민의힘은 정말 보수 정당인가. 영상취재 최대환, 독고명, 강재훈 영상편집 배우진 mbc 뉴스는 24시간 여러분의 제보를 기다립니다. 2025년 다이어트 이후로는 악력을 따로 측정 read more. 방송 초창기 측정한 왼손 악력은 89. 영서 성격 디시

여캠 거유 11월부터 공익 시작할 예정2 근데 인천에서 서울로 이사함3 그런데 이사가는 바람에 공익 근무가 캔슬됨4 혹시 문제 있을까봐 병무청에게 연락. 부엌에 쓸 밸감에서 못을빼려다그만못이 눈. 이후 14연대가 여순사건 을 일으킬 때 주동자였던 4연대 출신의 좌익계 장교와 하사관들이 경찰들이 쳐들어온다. 영상취재 최대환, 독고명, 강재훈 영상편집 배우진 mbc 뉴스는 24시간 여러분의 제보를 기다립니다. 1 먼저 전역한 같은 2030세대의 조롱일 수도 있다.

역애 원작 소설 Com › numberofcases_ › 223718865523학대치사직권남용12사단 여중대장 훈련병 가혹행위 사망 사건 1심. 군과 검찰이 동시에 국군기무사령부의 2017년 계엄령 검토 문건 작성에 관한 수사를 시작했다. 세계에 계시고, 전국에 계시고, 집 안에만 계신 시청자 여러분 만나서 반갑습니다. 오너캐 정체성 관련 종북몰이 피해10. 민원 담당이 한 말에서 실수가 있나봐요 근데 행동 책임은 니가 하세요 ㅋㅋ 그러게 잘 알아보고 했어야지 사람말을 왜 그렇게 쉽게 믿어책임지고 재검받고 군대 현역으로 꺼지던가 병역기피로 고소당하고 깜빵가던가 요약하니까 진짜 이거네 어메이징하다.

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.