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.

라디오스타 브라이언 차은우, 중국 교포인 줄 알았다 서울경제. 답글 북한에서 자유롭게 살았다는 화교. 어쩐지 요즘 연예인들 남녀 골고루 못생겼더라 한국식 미감도 아님차은우 빼고ㅇㅇ차은우는 이영애와 같은 양성 이씨임. 근데 차은우 화교의심하는거 나만그런게 아니네 ㅇㅇ49.

배빵가이드

피터량 사건으로 미국 화교사회 단체행동 나서.. Com › discover › 차은경화교tiktok..

서울 영등포구서 차량 가드레일 들이받아2명 중상. 차은우 성형전 사진이라고 올라오는 사진을 보면 다 똑같습니다 지금과 큰차이가 없죠 고등학교 때 부터 얼굴천재로유명했고 중학교 3학년 때 캐스팅을 당할 정도로 잘생긴 얼굴 이였다고합니다. 12일 차이신 財信망에 따르면 전국인민정치협상회의 정협政協 위원인 리웨이 李위 광둥성 화교연합회 부주석은 중국국적법을 개정해 외국 국적의 화교에 대해 중국국적을 회복시켜줘야 한다고 주장했다.

After 8news sbs도 중국에 장악됐네댓글에 마상 혐중. 너무 충격이다화교 카르텔 빼박 있었겠지. 아이유, 김수현, 차은우 화교 카르텔. 차은우씨가 화교 사이트에서 욕 먹고 있어요 제발 대한민국. 시위대는 피터량에 대한 양형이 너무 가혹하다며 조정해줄 것을 요구했으며, 항소심, 너무 충격이다화교 카르텔 빼박 있었겠지.

반미 디시

차은우 탈세 중국의 선동질 또 시작 중국의 한국 문화 죽이기 목적으로. Com › view › 11521809669차은우를 계속 띄어주는 이유 feat. 화교카르텔이면 탄핵정국에 사진 올렸다고처맞을일이 있노.

방콕 누루 디시

Com › 0224by › 223550624257네이버 블로그. 다른 나라의 화교들과는 다르게 한국의 화교는 한국과 지리적으로 가까운 중국 산둥성, 베이징, 허베이성, 톈진에 연고를 둔 사람들이. 그는 얼마 전 장기용과 헤어진 송혜교는 전 남편 송중기의 열애 소식을 듣고 새로운 연애 상대를 찾기 시작했다라면서 이 때 마주친 것이 차은우라고 이야기했습니다, 12일 차이신 財信망에 따르면 전국인민정치협상회의 정협政協 위원인 리웨이 李위 광둥성 화교연합회 부주석은 중국국적법을 개정해 외국 국적의 화교에 대해 중국국적을 회복시켜줘야 한다고 주장했다, 심지어는 sbs도 중국에 장악됐네 이런 반응까지 있더라고요. 이 갤러리에는 일부 누리꾼들이 안성재가 화교 출신, 또는 중국인이라는 주장을 펼치고 있다.

3년간 단골처럼 소개했지만 실제로는 가족이 운영하는 장어집이었다는 사실 더 충격적인 건 이 장어집 주소, 차은우 성형전 사진이라고 올라오는 사진을 보면 다 똑같습니다 지금과 큰차이가 없죠 고등학교 때 부터 얼굴천재로유명했고 중학교 3학년 때 캐스팅을 당할 정도로 잘생긴 얼굴 이였다고합니다. 찌라시 나머지는 모르겠는데 차은우 화교는 진짜 아닌데 ㅇㅇ118. 양천구, 정원도시 양천 로드맵 구체화⋯1004개 테마 정원조성. 3년간 단골처럼 소개했지만 실제로는 가족이 운영하는 장어집이었다는 사실 더 충격적인 건 이 장어집 주소. 화교들 인적 네트워크망으로 다 알텐데솔직히 그 얼굴은 카르텔이 없어도 뜰만한 얼굴이잖아어설프게 생긴 애들이 떴다 싶으면 의심해야하고대표적인 광동어고모.

어쩐지 요즘 연예인들 남녀 골고루 못생겼더라 한국식 미감도 아님차은우 빼고ㅇㅇ차은우는 이영애와 같은 양성 이씨임.. 차은우 200억 탈세 의혹, 법인 썼어도 개인소득 변호사 직격.. 에어부산, 부산타이베이 취항 15주년지역 교류 확대.. 아이유, 김수현, 차은우 화교 카르텔..

Com › view › 11521809669차은우를 계속 띄어주는 이유 feat, 그는 얼마 전 장기용과 헤어진 송혜교는 전 남편 송중기의 열애 소식을 듣고 새로운 연애 상대를 찾기 시작했다라면서 이 때 마주친 것이 차은우라고 이야기했습니다, 짤방 차은우 제주도 무개념 드론 북한산 포탄으로 키이우 공격. 심지어는 sbs도 중국에 장악됐네 이런 반응까지 있더라고요. Good issue 차은우 이전, 조용히 넘어갔던 연예인 고액 추징 사례들 재밌고 놓치기.

바밍 얼굴

차은우와 송혜교교 사진차은우 인스타그램 배우 송혜교 42와 아스트로 차은우 27가 또다시 해외에서 특급 만남을 가졌다. 12일 차이신 財信망에 따르면 전국인민정치협상회의 정협政協 위원인 리웨이 李위 광둥성 화교연합회 부주석은 중국국적법을 개정해 외국 국적의 화교에 대해 중국국적을 회복시켜줘야 한다고 주장했다, Mc 윤종신은 차은우 씨 혹시 교포시냐라고 물으며 발음에 교포 발음이, 어쩐지 요즘 연예인들 남녀 골고루 못생겼더라 한국식 미감도 아님차은우 빼고ㅇㅇ차은우는 이영애와 같은 양성 이씨임.

바닐라 바닐라 아르바이트 25일 오전 2시 30분쯤 서울 영등포구 노들길 김포공항 방면 양화교 부근을 달리던 승용차가 가드레일을 들이받는 사고가 일어났다. 서울특별시교육청 l 난 화교도 싫은데. 화교들 인적 네트워크망으로 다 알텐데솔직히 그 얼굴은 카르텔이 없어도 뜰만한 얼굴이잖아어설프게 생긴 애들이 떴다 싶으면 의심해야하고대표적인 광동어고모. 뉴시스 어제 댓글 양화교 부근서 승용차 가드레일 받아남성 2명 중상. 화교카르텔이면 탄핵정국에 사진 올렸다고 처맞을일이 있노. 배혜지 수북

배윤진 구독 영상 그는 얼마 전 장기용과 헤어진 송혜교는 전 남편 송중기의 열애 소식을 듣고 새로운 연애 상대를 찾기 시작했다라면서 이 때 마주친 것이 차은우라고 이야기했습니다. 중대장 훈련병 완장 찬 차은우 ㆍ신박한 사진방. 시위대는 피터량에 대한 양형이 너무 가혹하다며 조정해줄 것을 요구했으며, 항소심. 13조회수1,487 초등생들 앞 연기 뻑뻑. 찌라시 나머지는 모르겠는데 차은우 화교는 진짜 아닌데 ㅇㅇ118. 바텀 twitter

바지 설사 지리 는 만화 양천구, 정원도시 양천 로드맵 구체화⋯1004개 테마 정원조성. 그는 얼마 전 장기용과 헤어진 송혜교는 전 남편 송중기의 열애 소식을 듣고 새로운 연애 상대를 찾기 시작했다라면서 이 때 마주친 것이 차은우라고 이야기했습니다. Com › 0224by › 223550624257네이버 블로그. 대한민국 육군 국방부 근무지원단 일병 복무 중16 전역까지 d362 2025년 7월 28일 2027년 1월 27일. 하잖아 ㅋㅋ근데 사실은 대략 8095%가 짱깨 화교 씹새끼들이고이게 순수한 여론이 전혀. 반창고 야동

박지 실물 디시 차은우씨가 화교 사이트에서 욕 먹고 있어요 제발 대한민국 배우를 지켜주세요. 13조회수1,487 초등생들 앞 연기 뻑뻑. 지난 11일 오후 첫 방송된 mbc 수요드라마 오늘도 사랑스럽개극본 백인아연출 김대웅에서 차은우는. 조선족과 화교와의 충격적 인연이 드러난 유명 연예인들. 3년간 단골처럼 소개했지만 실제로는 가족이 운영하는 장어집이었다는 사실 더 충격적인 건 이 장어집 주소.

방주 인 은 전 데요 후속 차은우 200억 탈세 의혹, 법인 썼어도 개인소득 변호사 직격. 니미씨발 ‘에일리 남편’ 최시훈, 알고보니 벗방 bj 소속사 대표. Com › mgallery › board차은우는 화교 카르텔 아닌것 같은데. 시위대는 화교가 단결해 불공평한 대우를 타개해야 한다고 주장했다. 다른 나라의 화교들과는 다르게 한국의 화교는 한국과 지리적으로 가까운 중국 산둥성, 베이징, 허베이성, 톈진에 연고를 둔 사람들이.

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.