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.

웬만한 bj들과는 반말을 까며, 수틀리면 쌍욕도 거리낌없이 한다. 첫번째는 플레르, 두번째는 알짜, 세번째는 엔단 10. 11 200849 삭제 찬 힘내175. 인천 남동경찰서에 따르면 상해 혐의로 b.

소람잉 짤

bj이시우 vs bj찬 누가 더 윗급일거같냐. 위는 bj찬 bj찬 , 여자 패고 감빵갔다가 나옴 버츄얼 비제이 n 설정 new 연관 글쓰기 차단 설정 머리말∙꼬리말 설정 ai 이미지 간편 등록new 일반 bj찬 복귀했네 ㅇㅇ2 106.

이종환 인천지법 영장전담 부장판사는 4일 오후 bj찬에 대해 도주할 우려가 있다며 구속영장을 발부했다, 그는 2019년 6월 인천 남동구에 위치한 오피스텔에서 당시 여자친구이자 bj인 20대 여성 a씨를 수차례 폭행했다, 과거에 폭행과 마약 각종 사건사고에 휘말린 bj찬과 호형호제 mc무현 영상에 ㅇㅂ라고 댓글을 달았다가3 디시에 박제되었다, 연인을 폭행해 경찰 수사를 받게 되자 잠적한 아프리카tv bj찬 이 결국 구속됐다.

섹트 보지 트위터

웬만한 bj들과는 반말을 까며, 수틀리면 쌍욕도 거리낌없이 한다.. 14 자기보다 8살이나 많은 감스트 한테도 쌍욕을 대놓고 하는 걸로 악명이 높다.. 위는 bj찬 bj찬 .

Bj찬 방송 20172019년도에 본사람 있냐, 데이트폭력 후 잠적했다 경찰에 체포된 bj찬. 마약여자친구 폭행 bj찬, 영화관서 체포 궁금한 이야기y. New연관 갤러리 열기 갤러리별 설정 211 인터넷방송 본문 머리말∙꼬리말 사용 스포일러 경고 설정. 과거폭로열혈팬1명3명만 있어도 한달 월급은 나오죠 예를들어 bj찬님cb_table2041_1844&wr_no283 링크를 클릭 하면은 열혈팬의 회장님이 bj찬님에게 어마어마하게 후원을 해줬어요 나쁜말로 표현하면은 열혈팬 물주 1명만 잡아도 직장 다니는 사람들의 한달, 이 이후에 저라뎃이 소속한 mcn에도 들어가게 되며 이 멸망전이 bj수찬이 하꼬에서 중견 bj로 가는 길목에 서게 되는 전환점이라고 볼 수 있다.

소윤이 노예 자위

Com › discover › 아프리카bj찬tiktok. 2020년 10월 29일, 디시인사이드 여자 연예인 갤러리에, 자신이 찬열과 3년간 사귄 전 여자친구라고 주장하는 사람이 나타났다. 얼짱모델 하늘 + bj쪼꼬북 201009201711 인터넷.

나도 팬클럽가입하긴했는데 진짜 bj찬 별창ㄱ같음.. 얼짱모델 하늘 + bj쪼꼬북 ㅇㅇ162.. Com › mini › afvbjbj찬 복귀했네 버츄얼 비제이 미니 갤러리.. 문대강 35 사건, 저와수로 유명한 팀으로 수찬이가 하꼬 탈출을 하게 된 계기가 된 팀이다..

방송하다가 시청자랑 싸우고 책상 read more. A씨는 당시 갈비뼈가 부러지는 등 전치 8주의 치료를 요하는 진단을 받은 것으로 전해졌다. 저도 이 사건을 통해 이 사람을 알게 되었는데요, Com › mini › afvbjbj찬 복귀했네 버츄얼 비제이 미니 갤러리. 2017년도부터 감옥가기 직전까진 개꿀잼이였음. 이 이후에 저라뎃이 소속한 mcn에도 들어가게 되며 이 멸망전이 bj수찬이 하꼬에서 중견 bj로 가는 길목에 서게 되는 전환점이라고 볼 수 있다.

Jpg 201009201711 인터넷방송 갤러리. 이 사건으로 고소를 당한 bj 백승찬은 영장실질심사 바로 전날에도 방송을 켰다, 2017년도부터 감옥가기 직전까진 개꿀잼이였음.

저도 이 사건을 통해 이 사람을 알게 되었는데요. 며칠 전에 여자친구를 수차례 때려서 다치게 한 후에 잠적했던 것으로 알려졌던 bj찬이 영화관에서 한 시민의 신고를 통해 경찰에 체포되었다고 하죠, 11 200849 삭제 찬 힘내175, 엄태웅이 bj찬 집에 찾아갔으면 발생하는일.

개난쟁이네윤마가 야골리는거봐ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 187이라고 어그로 존나 끌더니 170. Com › talk › 317673515bj찬의 진실 네이트 판, 궁금한 이야기y 제작진은 bj 백승찬을 최근 봤다는 a씨를 만났다, 방송하다가 시청자랑 싸우고 책상 read more. 23 2103 애들아 오늘 bj찬 출소일이다 기대해라복귀할지도. 2015년 10월 13일 화요일부터 매주 7시에 진행되는 헝그리앱tv 마음대로 마인크래프트에 mc로 참여했다.

소이밀크 팬딩 얼짱모델 하늘 + bj쪼꼬북 201009201711 인터넷. 며칠 전에 여자친구를 수차례 때려서 다치게 한 후에 잠적했던 것으로 알려졌던 bj찬이 영화관에서 한 시민의 신고를 통해 경찰에 체포되었다고 하죠. bj찬이 얽힌 사건의 개요는 지난 6월 인천시 남동구의 한 오피스텔에서 벌어졌는데요. 30일 bj 찬은 자신의 아프리카tv 채널 찬이네를 통해 공지를 게재, 너무 큰 잘못을 해서 죄송합니다. 엄태웅이 bj찬 집에 찾아갔으면 발생하는일. 수탉

소희짱 근황 이 이후에 저라뎃이 소속한 mcn에도 들어가게 되며 이 멸망전이 bj수찬이 하꼬에서 중견 bj로 가는 길목에 서게 되는 전환점이라고 볼 수 있다. 방송하다가 시청자랑 싸우고 책상 read more. 2015년 10월 13일 화요일부터 매주 7시에 진행되는 헝그리앱tv 마음대로 마인크래프트에 mc로 참여했다. 11 200849 삭제 찬 힘내175. 방송하다가 시청자랑 싸우고 책상 read more. 속벅

섹스타 추천 궁금한 이야기y 제작진은 bj 백승찬을 최근 봤다는 a씨를 만났다. 경찰은 bj찬에 출석을 요구했으나 5개월 넘게 응하지 않고 잠적하자 체포영장을 발부받아 검거에 나섰다. 엄태웅을 겁먹게 만든 백승찬의 복싱실력. Com › board › view찬이 전여친목록. 마약여자친구 폭행 bj찬, 영화관서 체포 궁금한 이야기y. 송극장 작가

소은이 ㅈㅇ 첫번째는 플레르, 두번째는 알짜, 세번째는 엔단 10. 112 키보드워리어 새1끼님드라 아까운 시간 악플달지마시구 이뿐여비제이나 빨러 가세요 2013. New연관 갤러리 열기 갤러리별 설정 211 인터넷방송 본문 머리말∙꼬리말 사용 스포일러 경고 설정. 나도 팬클럽가입하긴했는데 진짜 bj찬 별창ㄱ같음. 며칠 전에 여자친구를 수차례 때려서 다치게 한 후에 잠적했던 것으로 알려졌던 bj찬이 영화관에서 한 시민의 신고를 통해 경찰에 체포되었다고 하죠.

손흥민 임신 노브라 이 사건으로 고소를 당한 bj 백승찬은 영장실질심사 바로 전날에도 방송을 켰다. 11월 26일에 출소 했습니다라고 밝혔다. 해당 방송에서 영장실질심사를 받아야 하는데 너무 무섭다는 말을 하고, bj 백승찬은 잠적했다. 해당 방송에서 영장실질심사를 받아야 하는데 너무 무섭다는 말을 하고, bj 백승찬은 잠적했다. Com › mini › afvbjbj찬 복귀했네 버츄얼 비제이 미니 갤러리.

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.