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.

하지만 빛나는 건 꼴리는 read more. ㅎㅎ haha ㅋㅋ lol ㅋㄷ giggle ᄋᄃ where ㅊㅋ congrats ㅅㅂ ssibal fuck, shit ᄆᄎ crazy ᄌᄉ sorry ᄀᄉ thanks ㅇㅋ okay ㄹㅇ agreeing ㅂㅂ bye bye ㅠㅠ sob ㅡㅡ squintglare ᅩ middle finger ㅎㅇㅌ fighting. Risa 2d는 구매 없이도 돌릴 수 있어요. 이건 애바죠 ㄹㅇ 이건 애바죠 ㄹㅇ ㅌㄹs image 1 on x.

핫썰닷컴 여성인증

홀로라이브 키 키라라 비비 빨간약

It is written by korean alphabet as the pronunciation of english is.. ㄹㅇ 남자 센스 오졌다 내 남친이 보고 배웠음 좋겠는 핵.. ㄹㅇ can be translated as real like the adjective 레알 or really like the adverb 리얼리.. Thanks 저런 미완성의 글자들은 일반적으로 쓰지 않으며,다만 고등학생 이하의 한국인 들이 자기들 끼리 쓰는 유행어 입니다ㆍ 우리가 굳이 욕의 종류를 배울 필요가 없는 것과 같습니다..

This is the korean text slang equivalent of the english lol, 참을 뜻할 때 사용하며 주로 의문형으로 쓰인다. ㄹㅇ can be translated as real like the adjective 레알 or really like the adverb 리얼리. ㄹㅇ can be translated as real like the adjective 레알 or really like the adverb 리얼리, 앞에 ㄹㅇ을 붙인 ㄹㅇㅍㅌ 리얼팩트로 많이 사용된다.

허벌 손가락 디시

Com › koreanling › 182800328425korean internettexting slang – @koreanling on tumblr, Com › questions › 25267482what is the meaning of ㄹㅇ. ㅃㅂㅋㅌ ㄹㅇ ㅌㄹㅌㄹ 안녕 홍대에서 카레집 하는데 우리 집은 향신카레라 매일 새벽마다 양파 60kg 볶아야 해서 팔 부러지기 직전이었는데 요즘 손님이 뜸해서.

호야 4차원녀

Com › ss1549ss › 40210844594애니 초성 퀴즈. 이는 상대방의 말에 동의하거나, 어떤 사실이나 상황이 매우 현실적이거나 놀랍다고 느낄 때 사용하는 감탄사입니다, ㅍㅍㅍㅍㅍㅍ식으로 연타해서 많이 사용한다, 주로 드라이 오르가슴을 잘 느끼는 바텀을 의미한다. ㅍㅍㅍㅍㅍㅍ식으로 연타해서 많이 사용한다.

ㄹㅈ님의 검색결과 163개 우타우 음합엔 아다치 레이 ㄹㅈ님 비공식 아크릴키링 판매합니다 상품 이미지 프세카 프로세카 아키야마 미즈키 ㄹㅈ님 비공굿 키링 양도합니다 read more. ㅎㅎ haha ㅋㅋ lol ㅋㄷ giggle ᄋᄃ where ㅊㅋ congrats ㅅㅂ ssibal fuck, shit ᄆᄎ crazy ᄌᄉ sorry ᄀᄉ thanks ㅇㅋ okay ㄹㅇ agreeing ㅂㅂ bye bye ㅠㅠ sob ㅡㅡ squintglare ᅩ middle finger ㅎㅇㅌ fighting. ㅍㅍㅍㅍㅍㅍ식으로 연타해서 많이 사용한다. ㄹㅇ 남자 센스 오졌다 내 남친이 보고 배웠음 좋겠는 핵.

풀내 타사이트에서 유래되었으며 갤과 어울리지 않는 오글거리는 말투에서 나는 냄새. Com › questions › 23851647what is the meaning of ㄹㅇ ㅇㄸㄱ ㅇㅂ, 인터넷 보급과 더불어 인터넷 은어가 만연한 지 꽤 오래됐다.

일단 ㄹㅇㅋㅋ에서 ㄹㅇ은 리얼 real을 뜻한다. ㄹㅇ 남자 센스 오졌다 내 남친이 보고 배웠음 좋겠는 핵, Com › blog › korean50 korean text slang terms for the modern learner fluentu. 주로 드라이 오르가슴을 잘 느끼는 바텀을 의미한다.

현 프로디 테 성형 전

ㄹㅇ 남자 센스 오졌다 이런 건 계약조건에 없었는데 내 부인이 돈도, 집도 없는 빈털털이라니 면접장에선 쫓아내더니, 이제는 제발 회사에 입사.. 초성 줄임말 편 인터넷을 갓 시작한 시니어들을 위한 백과사전.. Com › news › articleviewㅂㅂㅂㄱ, ㄴㅈ, ㅇㅂ이 뭔지 아시나요.. 식으로 파티가입 유무를 물어볼 때 사용된다..

Risa 2d는 구매 없이도 돌릴 수 있어요, 앞에 ㄹㅇ을 붙인 ㄹㅇㅍㅌ 리얼팩트로 많이 사용된다. 지속적인 은어 사용의 문제점 표준어처럼 사용되어지고 있는 유행어, 잘 맞아서 좋았는데 다시 보려니 안 보이시네, Com › news › articleviewㅂㅂㅂㄱ, ㄴㅈ, ㅇㅂ이 뭔지 아시나요. 이는 상대방의 말에 동의하거나, 어떤 사실이나 상황이 매우 현실적이거나 놀랍다고 느낄 때 사용하는 감탄사입니다.

헤비 고소 ㄹㅇ ㄹㅇ definition of ㄹㅇ for real. ㄹㅇ 남자 센스 오졌다 이런 건 계약조건에 없었는데 내 부인이 돈도, 집도 없는 빈털털이라니 면접장에선 쫓아내더니, 이제는 제발 회사에 입사. 유치 뽕짝 구역안 풀어도 됩니다 ㅍㅋㅁㅅㅌ ㅍㅇㄹㅇㅈ ㅍㅊㅍㅊㅍㅊ ㅋㄹㅋㄹㅊㅇㅈ ㅈㅇㅍ ㅍㄹㅋㅇ 평범 애니 구역어렸을 때 누구나 봤을 만한 애니들. 유치원 교사 빼앗아버리기 도태소추 는 상납하면 상대해줄게 젖소되고 싶은 우월한 여왕들은 어서와 ㄹㅇ ㅌㄹ. 그러나 비단 잘 느끼는 것 뿐만 read more. 형석른

혜음잉 ㅎㅎ haha ㅋㅋ lol ㅋㄷ giggle ᄋᄃ where ㅊㅋ congrats ㅅㅂ ssibal fuck, shit ᄆᄎ crazy ᄌᄉ sorry ᄀᄉ thanks ㅇㅋ okay ㄹㅇ agreeing ㅂㅂ bye bye ㅠㅠ sob ㅡㅡ squintglare ᅩ middle finger ㅎㅇㅌ fighting. The owner of it will not be notified. ㄹㅇ can be translated as real like the adjective 레알 or really like the adverb 리얼리. However, you should avoid such a slang if you are studying korean language. The emergence of the initialism ㄹㅇ followed quite immediately, and just like many other internet slangs, it established its usage in everyday casual written and spoken language of the younger generation. 해연갤 검사

해연 갤 오메가 박물관 국어, 한문 1위, 국어 맞춤법, 문법 30위, 국어 어원, 어휘 99위 분야에서 활동. 가 모음어미 앞에서 ㄹㅇ으로 바뀝니다. 잘 맞아서 좋았는데 다시 보려니 안 보이시네. ㅌㄹ ㅕㅑㅕ포 ㅣㅑㅕㄹㅇ쿄 ㅑ 령쿄리ㅑㅕㅋㅎㄴ로,ㅇㅀ 쿄ㅏ 냫 랴,ㅌㅎ 리ㅑㅋ ㅎ키ㅑ최종 수정일 2025. 최근 인터넷 은어는 진화를 계속해서 새로운 형태의 은어가 거의 날마다 출현하고 있다. 헤일리 비버 스토킹 디시

해즈빈호텔 1화 ㅎㅎ haha ㅋㅋ lol ㅋㄷ giggle ᄋᄃ where ㅊㅋ congrats ㅅㅂ ssibal fuck, shit ᄆᄎ crazy ᄌᄉ sorry ᄀᄉ thanks ㅇㅋ okay ㄹㅇ agreeing ㅂㅂ bye bye ㅠㅠ sob ㅡㅡ squintglare ᅩ middle finger ㅎㅇㅌ fighting. Com › questions › 23851647what is the meaning of ㄹㅇ ㅇㄸㄱ ㅇㅂ. Com › blog › korean50 korean text slang terms for the modern learner fluentu. 창의적이고 자로 잰듯한 패스는 외질의 시그니쳐 플레이였습니다. The emergence of the initialism ㄹㅇ followed quite immediately, and just like many other internet slangs, it established its usage in everyday casual written and spoken language of the younger generation.

해찌 야동 풀내 타사이트에서 유래되었으며 갤과 어울리지 않는 오글거리는 말투에서 나는 냄새. 韓國網路用語初聲縮寫｜7、ㄹㅇ ㄹㅇ＝리얼（空耳發音：離偶） 意思：「真的、真實」的意思 例句：你有看到今天珉奎的造型嗎？ 那個帥度是真的嗎？ ㄹㅇ？ （圖片來源：ig @min9yu_k） 韓國網路用語初聲縮寫｜8、ㄱㅅ ㄱㅅ＝감사（空耳發音：扛撒）. 매일같이 생겨나는 신조어의 뜻을 같이 만들어 나가는 곳. 초성해석기 사이트 요즘은 신조어도 많이 사용하고 대화중에는 단어를 많이 줄여서 초성으로만 사용하는 단어들도 있습니다. 이는 어떤 사실이나 의견에 대해 강한 동의를 표현할 때 사용됩니다.

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.