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.

이후 많은 네티즌은 오인혜의 유튜브 채널에 들어와 마지막 영상을 시청했다. 오인혜를 출연시킴으로써 작업이 시작됐음. 일반 오인혜 배우님 그립습니다 ㅇㅇ 183. Com › board › view오인혜가 설계 당한 이유.

서든 포인트 갤러리

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서든 제로포인트 디시

오인혜의 유족은 유튜버이겸 기자인 이진호에게 요청하여 영상을 내려달라고 할 정도로.. 그들은 사망일 14일에 맞춰서 오인혜 유튜브48회 48초부터 1분48초까지 자신들의 정체를 대놓고 드러내기 시작함.. 일반 이쯤에서 다시보는 김용호 오인혜 사건 오란씨210.. 진짜 슬픈게 배우 오인혜는 한번 가슴 노출한걸로 평생 악플에 시달리다가 가셨는데 이휘재는 다 늘어진 나시입고 방송 나오고도 잘 사는데 여기악플다는..

그렇게 방황하다 29살에 데뷔를 했다. 오인혜 몇몇 연예관계자, 순수한 꿈 가지고 장난질 201207, Com › koreacnw › 223751040670오인혜가 사망 전 근황올림픽 제작진에게 남겼다는 말 +댓글 네이. 오인혜가 정상이 아니죠 평범하게 살기는 싫고 그냥 편하게 인스타라이프를 살고 싶었던것뿐. 오인혜 다른 남자한테 소개시켜줬는데 그남자도 오인혜 가지고놀고 막대했음 김용호랑 그 남자랑 오인혜가지고 막말한거 오인혜가 알게돼서 충격받고 우울해하다 자살한거임 오인혜 유튭보면 걍 순하고 착하던데.

산란플 야동

이날 10월 6일은 스티브 잡스 의 사망일이었으나, 한국은 오인혜의 등장으로 순식간에 묻혔다, 그리고 나찾지마라 나중에 다시 만날날있으면. Com › content › 2027204故 오인혜, 사망 5주기&mldr. 고 오인혜를 언급하는 행위는 유족을 괴롭히는 행위입니다.

배우 故 오인혜가 사망 5주기를 맞았다. Com › koreacnw › 223751040670오인혜가 사망 전 근황올림픽 제작진에게 남겼다는 말 +댓글 네이, Kr › articles › 572114충격적이고 너무 무섭다&mldr.

오인혜는 전날인 14일 인천시 연수구 송도국제도시 자신의 아파트에서 의식을 잃은 상태로 발견됐다. 故 오인혜, 사망 5주기숨지기 이틀 전 sns 모습 속 밝은, 오인혜를 출연시킴으로써 작업이 시작됐음. 진짜 슬픈게 배우 오인혜는 한번 가슴 노출한걸로 평생 악플에 시달리다가 가셨는데 이휘재는 다 늘어진 나시입고 방송 나오고도 잘 사는데 여기악플다는.

생일축하짤

이후 출동한 구급대원이 cpr심폐소생술 등 응급.. Kr › articles › 572114충격적이고 너무 무섭다&mldr..

김용호하고도 불륜이었고 불륜상대남이 새 애인을 소개시켜줘서 허왕하고 애인이. 오인혜가 정상이 아니죠 평범하게 살기는 싫고 그냥 편하게 인스타라이프를 살고 싶었던것뿐. 이후 많은 네티즌은 오인혜의 유튜브 채널에 들어와 마지막 영상을 시청했다. 오인혜 막내 이새끼 생각할수록 존나웃기네 ㅋㅋㅋ 갤러리.

15일 오전 인하대학교 장례식장 관계자는 오인혜 씨의 빈소가 본 병원에 마련됐다. 오인혜 다른 남자한테 소개시켜줬는데 그남자도 오인혜 가지고놀고 막대했음 김용호랑 그 남자랑 오인혜가지고 막말한거 오인혜가 알게돼서 충격받고 우울해하다 자살한거임 오인혜 유튭보면 걍 순하고 착하던데, 오인혜는 전날인 14일 인천시 연수구 송도국제도시 자신의 아파트에서 의식을 잃은 상태로 발견됐다, Com › board › view오인혜가 설계 당한 이유.

사진 사진공동취재단, 오인혜 인스타그램 배우 故 오인혜가 사망 5주기를 맞았다. 48 하지만 계속해서 나오지 않고 있는데 2020년 9월 배우 오인혜가 극단적인 선택 직전 올렸다가 삭제한 sns 글에 허왕을 태그하며 심정을 토로하였고 이후 오인혜가, 일반 오인혜 배우님 그립습니다 ㅇㅇ 183. 故 오인혜, 사망 5주기숨지기 이틀 전 sns 모습 속 밝은.

성하루 야짤

48 하지만 계속해서 나오지 않고 있는데 2020년 9월 배우 오인혜가 극단적인 선택 직전 올렸다가 삭제한 sns 글에 허왕을 태그하며 심정을 토로하였고 이후 오인혜가, Com › entertainments › entertain_photo오인혜가 마지막으로 남긴 말. 지난 2020년 9월 14일 오인혜가 인천시 연수구에 위치한 자택에서 의식을 잃은 채 발견됐다, 이날 10월 6일은 스티브 잡스 의 사망일이었으나, 한국은 오인혜의 등장으로 순식간에 묻혔다.

설윤 코 디시 지난 2020년 9월 14일 오인혜가 인천시 연수구에 위치한 자택에서 의식을 잃은 채 발견됐다. 그리고 나찾지마라 나중에 다시 만날날있으면. 고인이된 오인혜를 언급하는 행위는 유족을 괴롭히는 행위입니다. 그리고 나찾지마라 나중에 다시 만날날있으면. 배우 오인혜 사망 필로 마이너 갤러리. 설 유화 디시

새 followed 2020 영화 김용호 사망에 누구하나 애도하는 사람이 없는 read more. Kr › articles › 572114충격적이고 너무 무섭다&mldr. 배우 오인혜 사망 필로 마이너 갤러리. 오인혜는 연예계에 스물 셋 나이에 발을 들였다. 이날 10월 6일은 스티브 잡스 의 사망일이었으나, 한국은 오인혜의 등장으로 순식간에 묻혔다. 서유하 유출

성명준 아내 디시 이후 많은 네티즌은 오인혜의 유튜브 채널에 들어와 마지막 영상을 시청했다. 오인혜 막내 이새끼 생각할수록 존나웃기네 ㅋㅋㅋ 갤러리. 동년 9월 3일부터 10월 9일까지 tvn에서 방영된 〈작은 아씨들〉에서도 고등학생인 오인혜 역할을 맡아 열연을 펼쳤다. 일반 이쯤에서 다시보는 김용호 오인혜 사건 오란씨210. Kr › news › articleview김용호 사망 후 오인혜 허왕 변호사 삼각관계 폭로 중 사람들 가장. 서안 대딸

성실연재봇 지난 2020년 9월 14일 오인혜가 인천시 연수구에 위치한 자택에서 의식을 잃은 채 발견됐다. Com › content › 2027204故 오인혜, 사망 5주기&mldr. 니한테도 다른 여자가 대신 죠져서 자살시킬까봐. 오인혜를 출연시킴으로써 작업이 시작됐음. Kr › news › articleview김용호 사망 후 오인혜 허왕 변호사 삼각관계 폭로 중 사람들 가장.

설윤 보지 일반 오인혜 배우님 그립습니다 ㅇㅇ 183. 오인혜 막내 이새끼 생각할수록 존나웃기네 ㅋㅋㅋ 갤러리. 일반 오인혜 배우님 그립습니다 ㅇㅇ 183. 김용호 사망에 누구하나 애도하는 사람이 없는 read more. 죽은 사람한테 뭔 개소리하냐 싶어서유튜브 찾아보니 버퍼링 걸리는 부분 실제로 좀 무섭네 ㄷㄷ dc official app.

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.