599 likes, 62 comments.

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.

Pinterest에서 iinen님의 보드 프사하기 좋은 사진을를 팔로우하세요. 4인 우정 프사로 사용하기 좋은 사진을 몇 가지 추천해 드릴게요. 이번에는 핸드폰 배경화면 or, 프사 프로필사진 으로 쓸만한 자연 배경화면을 모아봤는데요. 나를 표현하는 프사 선택 팁개성 있는 나를 보여주세요계절감을 담아보세요깔끔하고 심플하게간단하게 프사 바꾸는 방법마치며1.

콩콩님이 등록한 아이브 갤러리 ㅍㅍㅍ 22.

오늘은 카톡 프로필 사진으로 사용하기 좋은 감성적인 사진들을 몇 가지 모아봤어요. Clima lindo slowed gxmz & repsaj. Hello, my name is gwyneth, Com › tag › 프사하기좋은사진프사하기좋은사진 tiktok. 물론 귀여운 동물들이 대표적으로 나옵니다 그러면 바로 시작해볼까요.

카톡 프사하기 좋은 사진 따뜻한 이미지 20 Pic 오전엔 오랜만에 밀린 집안일 좀 하고선 오후에 집근처에 일이 있어서 잠시 나갔다 왔는데 어제보단 날씨가 많이 풀렸는지 얇은옷을 입고 잠바를 입어도 따뜻하니 괜챦더라구요.

귀여운 그림, 배경화면, 웃긴 바탕화면에 관한 아이디어를 더 확인해 보세요. 뚝딱이도 인생샷 건지는 포즈 5가지 카페가서 사진만 찍으려고하면 돌처럼 굳는 사람들 주목 포즈의 핵심 포인트는 카메라를 보지않기‼️ 자연스러운 표정이 제일 중요. wiaicos short video with ♬ sonido original. 하트하트 ㅎㅎ 귀여운 이미지도 카톡 프사하기 좋은 감성사진 중 하나인 것 같아요. Com › @rowsveee_ › videorowsveee_ @rowsveee_’s videos with original sound.

오늘 소개해드린 이미지들 유용하게 잘 사용하셨으면 좋겠어요.. 웃고 있는 모습의 사진 밝고 화사한 색상의 배경 사진 3..

오늘 카톡 프사하기 좋은 사진은 혼자만의 시간갖기를 컨셉으로 잡아봤어요, Pinterest에서 hi님의 보드 프사하기 좋은 사진을를 팔로우하세요, Tiktok fyp shimmy gym gymgirlies vibes laurenjoseph monday @char carrie @leigh.

Simply Simone @ugoolugukalu On Tiktok 74 Followers.

친구들과 공유하고 싶은 매력적인 아이디어들을 확인하세요, 프사는 나의 취향과 개성을 반영하는 중요한 요소입니다. Simply simone @ugoolugukalu on tiktok 74 followers. 프로필 사진 아이디어에 있는 혜진 전님의 핀 귀여운 프로필 사진, 재미있는 프로필 프로필 사진 아이디어. Simply simone @ugoolugukalu on tiktok 74 followers.

프맞 웃긴사진 추천, 프맞 사진 추천.

이런 사진을 잠시 가만히 들여다보면 마음이 절로 편안해져요. 귀여운 캐릭터 100장 인스타 카톡 캐릭터 프사 추천 2. 아이돌 사진 태교, 아이돌 증명사진 사진관 뽑아주는곳, 아이돌 과거, Clima lindo slowed gxmz & repsaj. Tg sẽ dừng lại ở tuổi 15.

문제가 되는 이미지가 있다면 댓글로 말씀해줏세요, Watch the latest video from mama netnot @mama. 특히 요즘에는 손그림 스타일의 일러스트가 많은 사랑을 받고 있습니다. Tiktok video from 01m25 @01m2535 day one belajar parasut😭.

Mcembajadores Parati Brbrpatapimnoviaphoto682307383splitsvillaep1allpart1친구와프맞하기좋은사진เริ่มต้นเขียนงานวิจัยบทที่ 2 วิจัย Ai บทที่22roomhdbrentalflatpunggolfullsizebumblebeegrouperin Honor Of 50 Years Of Saturday.

이런 사진을 잠시 가만히 들여다보면 마음이 절로 편안해져요, 24개의 카톡프사하기 좋은 귀여운 사진 아이디어. Hephaestus hera motherson. Zain foryou foryoupageofficiall, Watch short videos about 프사하기 좋은 사진 from people around the world, 소셜 미디어 플랫폼에서도 사용될 수 있습니다.

explore moreeasy ways to defeat the long guard 🤯🥊 fyp boxing boxersoftiktok drawpicturegamewithfamilyالفرقبينالبرسيمالحجازيوالاميركيphoto721597703어깨넓은지확인법키보드프맞하기 좋은 보컬 아이돌 사진you dont know me. 사진, 그림, 캐릭터 일러스트에 관한 아이디어를 더 확인해 보세요, 창의적인 직업이나 취미를 갖고 있다면 멋진 선택이 될 거예요. 하트하트 ㅎㅎ 귀여운 이미지도 카톡 프사하기 좋은 감성사진 중 하나인 것 같아요.

ak탑걸 Pinterest에서 won님의 보드 프사하기 좋은 사진을를 팔로우하세요. 이번에는 핸드폰 배경화면 or, 프사 프로필사진 으로 쓸만한 자연 배경화면을 모아봤는데요. Rowsveee_s short video with ♬ original sound. Tumblr가 출처인 카톡 프사하기 좋은 감성사진 공유합니다. 49 likes, tiktok video from lover girl🩷 @sl4nty new nails who dis. av배우 레나

av 하드 Barnaclefoods @barnaclefoods. 그중에서도 요즘 인스타나 블로그에서 많이들 찾으시는 카톡프사지브리 스타일의 일러스트를 사용했더니, 주변에서도 예쁘다는 이야기를 많이 들었어요💛. 소셜 미디어에서의 활용 프사는 카카오톡에만 국한되지 않습니다. Simply simone @ugoolugukalu on tiktok 74 followers. 다양한 프사 종류별 추천일상 속 자연스러운 모습개성 넘치는 셀카취미나 관심사를 담은 사진감성적인 분위기의. ai야동 디시

av19 소람잉 Pinterest에서 프사로 하기 좋은 사진에 관한 아이디어를 찾고 저장하세요. Mcembajadores parati brbrpatapimnoviaphoto682307383splitsvillaep1allpart1친구와프맞하기좋은사진เริ่มต้นเขียนงานวิจัยบทที่ 2 วิจัย ai บทที่22roomhdbrentalflatpunggolfullsizebumblebeegrouperin honor of 50 years of saturday. Pinterest에서 프사 맞추기 좋은 사진에 관한 아이디어를 찾고 저장하세요. Pinterest에서 hi님의 보드 프사하기 좋은 사진을를 팔로우하세요. Com › @rowsveee_ › videorowsveee_ @rowsveee_’s videos with original sound. alicehplic

av 감옥 콩콩님이 등록한 아이브 갤러리 ㅍㅍㅍ 22. 웃고 있는 모습의 사진 밝고 화사한 색상의 배경 사진 3. 프사 우정프사 커플프사 짱구프사 짱구 산리오프사 산리오 지브리 톰과제리 지브리프사 톰과제리프사 고양이 고양이프사 read more. 개성 있는 나를 보여주세요 단순히 예쁜 사진보다는 자신의 취향이나 개성이 드러나는 사진을 선택하는 것이 좋습니다. Pinterest에서 hi님의 보드 프사하기 좋은 사진을를 팔로우하세요.

avmov 회원가입 디시 Watch the latest video from itsjustroyal @itsjustroyal5. 카톡 프사하기 좋은 사진 따뜻한 이미지 20 pic 오전엔 오랜만에 밀린 집안일 좀 하고선 오후에 집근처에 일이 있어서 잠시 나갔다 왔는데 어제보단 날씨가 많이 풀렸는지 얇은옷을 입고 잠바를 입어도 따뜻하니 괜챦더라구요. 프로필 사진 아이디어에 있는 혜진 전님의 핀 귀여운 프로필 사진, 재미있는 프로필 프로필 사진 아이디어. 특히 요즘에는 손그림 스타일의 일러스트가 많은 사랑을 받고 있습니다. Dann schau jetzt in die mcdonald´s app und sichere dir bis 9.

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.