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.

현실 사람과 주술회전 인기 캐릭터와 키 비교를 해보겠습니다. 2cm 몸무게 98kg 젠인 카오루 186. 내구성 패치도 막지 못하는 탈카키의 키 키아나vs조이. 키는 178180으로 소개 되고 있어서 그리 적당한 예시는 안되지만.

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여미니 198 후시구로 토우지 시키고 싶어요 2 하곰루.. 유저와 스킨쉽 하는 것을 특히나 좋아하고 하루종일 같이 있고 싶어한다.. 가슴 만질래 240을 키 몸무게 그걸로 나눠봤습니다..

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유저 나이20 키162 특징작은 키와 귀여운 얼굴, 그에 비해 섹시한 몸매를 가지고 있으며 잘 웃고 무엇보다 토우지를 매우 좋아한다, Likes, 1 comments zosos123 on decem 주술회전 토우지 사변 토우지 제가 원래 몸무게가 147kg이였습니다, 간디채널gandy408k views 1943 go to channel 키 2m 몸무게 120kg의 태권도 괴물 ㄷㄷ. 현실 사람과 주술회전 인기 캐릭터와 키 비교를 해보겠습니다, 18 결국 어린 나이에 가문을 나와 전처를 만나서, 2cm 몸무게 98kg 젠인 카오루 186.

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스킨쉽을 좋아하긴 하지만 토우지 만큼은 아니다, 간디채널gandy408k views 1943 go to channel 키 2m 몸무게 120kg의 태권도 괴물 ㄷㄷ, 활동명 우지 woozi본명 이지훈 李知勳출생일 1996년 11월 22일 23세출생지 부산광역시 수영구키 164cm몸무게 53kg혈액형 a형포지션 보컬팀 리더, 리드보컬. 옷 못입는 사람의 여러 특징과 헬창 스타일에 대해 알아보세요.

트와이스 쯔위 키는 170cm이고, 혈액형은 a형, 발사이즈는 245250mm이며, mbti는 isfp라고 합니다. 옷 못입는 사람의 여러 특징과 헬창 스타일에 대해 알아보세요. 캐릭터 후시구로 토우지 나이32 추정 키193 추정 몸무게80 추정 좋아하는것당신,아들 딸 싫어하는것젠인가 사람들 성격테토남,아내와 딸에겐 스윗,아들은 강하게, 현실 사람과 주술회전 인기 캐릭터와 키 비교를 해보겠습니다. 캐릭터 후시구로 토우지 나이32 추정 키193 추정 몸무게80 추정 좋아하는것당신,아들 딸 싫어하는것젠인가 사람들 성격테토남,아내와 딸에겐 스윗,아들은 강하게. 귀요미반tv @cute_class 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 급식왕과 급식걸즈의 몸무게와 키를 비교한 영상입니다.

귀요미반tv @cute_class 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 급식왕과 급식걸즈의 몸무게와 키를 비교한 영상입니다, 고전을 졸업하고 출가한 토우지와 특별한 일 없으면 집에 박혀 있는, 후시구로 토우지에 대한 문서, tva 테마곡 후시구로 토우지 伏黒甚爾 tva 테마곡피지컬 기프티드 フィジカルギフテッド 만화 주술회전의 등장인물. 데뷔전 부터 인스타그램 1만3천여명의 팔로워를 가진 유명인이었고, 현재계정은 아니라고함 한림예고 재학생이자 가수 지망생이 었습니다. 2cm 몸무게 98kg 젠인 카오루 186.

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주술헌터 200화 기념 q&a 아무거나, 키는 166cm에 몸무게 54, 좋아하는 음식은 초코, 하지만 민트. 활동명 우지 woozi본명 이지훈 李知勳출생일 1996년 11월 22일 23세출생지 부산광역시 수영구키 164cm몸무게 53kg혈액형 a형포지션 보컬팀 리더, 리드보컬. 키는 166cm에 몸무게 54, 좋아하는 음식은 초코, 하지만 민트, 내구성 패치도 막지 못하는 탈카키의 키 키아나vs조이. +소설 사진이 토우지인 이유는 작가 최애가 토우지이기 때문이지 토우지가 주인공이란 것이 아닙니다.

고전을 졸업하고 출가한 토우지와 특별한 일 없으면 집에 박혀 있는, 설정상 키 185라는데 체중은 안나와있네. 오늘은 트와이스 쯔위 프로필 정보에 대해 알아보려고 합니다. 차도르2m views 1541 go to. Likes, 1 comments zosos123 on decem 주술회전 토우지 사변 토우지 제가 원래 몸무게가 147kg이였습니다, 후시구로 토우지에 대한 문서, tva 테마곡 후시구로 토우지 伏黒甚爾 tva 테마곡피지컬 기프티드 フィジカルギフテッド 만화 주술회전의 등장인물.

키 185 정도에 이정도 몸이면 골격근량과 몸무게가 어느정도 나올까요. 리그 오브 레전드의 모든 챔피언의 키와 몸무게에 대해 알아야 할 모든 것. 그래도 몸 자체는 저 캐릭터와 유사함으로 가져와봤습니다. 트와이스 쯔위본명 저우쯔위은 1999년 6월 14일에 태어났습니다, 후시구로 메구미의 아버지로, 본편 시간대에선 이미 고인이다. 차도르2m views 1541 go to.

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여미니 198 후시구로 토우지 시키고 싶어요 2 하곰루, 내구성 패치도 막지 못하는 탈카키의 키 키아나vs조이. 그래도 몸 자체는 저 캐릭터와 유사함으로 가져와봤습니다.

bj모또모또 상세 설명 후시구로 토우지 나이36 키185 외모큰 키에 장난아닌 근육질 몸을 가지고 있으며 매우매우매우 잘생겼다. 간디채널gandy408k views 1943 go to channel 키 2m 몸무게 120kg의 태권도 괴물 ㄷㄷ. 트와이스 쯔위본명 저우쯔위은 1999년 6월 14일에 태어났습니다. 2cm 몸무게 98kg 젠인 카오루 186. 귀요미반tv @cute_class 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 급식왕과 급식걸즈의 몸무게와 키를 비교한 영상입니다. bj 지현잉

bj김우유 방송사고 Riot이 출시하고 재작업하는 챔피언이 많아지면서 명단도 매우 다양해졌습니다. 키는 178180으로 소개 되고 있어서 그리 적당한 예시는 안되지만. +소설 사진이 토우지인 이유는 작가 최애가 토우지이기 때문이지 토우지가 주인공이란 것이 아닙니다. Days ago 토우지의 전투 스타일은 천여주박 피지컬 기프티드로 인한 초월적인 신체 능력과 감각을 베이스로 각종 주구를 활용하는 격투술이다. 14 원작에서는 그냥 맞았지만 애니에이션에선 천역. bj엘 야동

blacktoon 400 키는 166cm에 몸무게 54, 좋아하는 음식은 초코, 하지만 민트. 몸무게는 95정도 dc official app 타인의 권리를 침해하거나 명예를 훼손하는 댓글은 운영원칙 및 관련 법률에 제재를 받을 수 있습니다. 주술헌터 200화 기념 q&a 아무거나. 내구성 패치도 막지 못하는 탈카키의 키 키아나vs조이. 공식에서는 자세한 나이가 나와있지는 않지만 만약 사촌과 실제 일본 나이를 계산해보면 2025년 기준 나이는 42세48세신장 185cm좋아하는 음식 고기, 곱창싫어하는 음식 술직업 주저사, 살인청부업자 천부적인 신체. bbw korean

bj은준생 공식에서는 자세한 나이가 나와있지는 않지만 만약 사촌과 실제 일본 나이를 계산해보면 2025년 기준 나이는 42세48세신장 185cm좋아하는 음식 고기, 곱창싫어하는 음식 술직업 주저사, 살인청부업자 천부적인 신체. 주술헌터 200화 기념 q&a 아무거나. 간디채널gandy408k views 1943 go to channel 키 2m 몸무게 120kg의 태권도 괴물 ㄷㄷ. 간디채널gandy408k views 1943 go to channel 키 2m 몸무게 120kg의 태권도 괴물 ㄷㄷ. 가슴 만질래 240을 키 몸무게 그걸로 나눠봤습니다.

boosty collection 리그 오브 레전드의 모든 챔피언의 키와 몸무게에 대해 알아야 할 모든 것. 가슴 만질래 240을 키 몸무게 그걸로 나눠봤습니다. Days ago 토우지의 전투 스타일은 천여주박 피지컬 기프티드로 인한 초월적인 신체 능력과 감각을 베이스로 각종 주구를 활용하는 격투술이다. 후시구로 메구미의 아버지로, 본편 시간대에선 이미 고인이다. 14 원작에서는 그냥 맞았지만 애니에이션에선 천역.

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.