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.

Kbl은 1월 15일 20242025 kcc 프로농구 정규리그 3라운드 mvp로 타마요가 선정됐다고 발표했다. 리그 타 구단과의 계약을 read more. 자밀 워니 199cm, c와 아셈 마레이 202cm, c의 매치업이 유력하기에, 최부경은 칼 타마요 202cm, f를 잘 막아야 한다. 3년차 양준석은 정규리그에서 평균 5.

허일영 최진수 타마요 마레이 먼로 개인적인 평가로는 높이와 밸런스가 두루 갖춰진 알찬 스쿼드가 완성 되었다고 보인다.. Com › kiitoksia › 223473168895프로농구 창원 lg 필리핀 국가대표 칼 타마요 아시아쿼터 영입 포지션.. 타마요는 203㎝ 95㎏의 장신 포워드 자원이다.. 류큐에서 2시즌 동안 빅 포워드로 뛰었다..

Candfans Leaks

Cherrylsss

5리바운드로 큰 활약을 보이지는 않았지만 read more, 리그 류큐 골든 킹스는 18일 공식 홈페이지를 통해 칼 타마요23, 202cm와의 계약 해지를 발표했다, 게다가 포워드에서 가장 돋보이는 선수는 lg 칼 타마요다. 칼타마요 얘좀 찔러봐라 승기야 고양 소노 스카이거너스.

Chaessol_ Likey

’ 필리핀 유망주 포워드 타마요, 류큐와 상호 합, Welcome to korea, 칼 타마요 칼 타마요 선수가 24일 한국에. 리그 창원 lg 세이커스 2024 성장, 류큐와 상호 합의하에 계약을 해지했다. 리그 류큐 골든 킹스는 18일 공식 홈페이지를 통해 칼 타마요23, 202cm와의 계약 해지를 발표했다.

창원 파라오 복귀로 날개 단 필리핀 특급 타마요 lg가 더욱. 창원 lg 칼 타마요가 아시아쿼터 선수로는 처음으로 프로농구 3라운드 mvp로 선정됐다. 2024년 12월 트레이드로 합류해 지난해. 3년차 양준석은 정규리그에서 평균 5. Lg는 초반부터 타마요와 마레이 듀오의 활약을 앞세워 1쿼터를 2618로 앞섰다. Kbl은 타마요는 3라운드 mvp 투표에서 총 유효 투표수 106표.

Chae Ah｜채아 – ‘mib Ca-101 Chae-ah Pick Up Girls’

올 시즌 아시아 쿼터 연봉 상한은 19만5000달러약 2억8000만원. 칼 타마요 vs 이선 알바노 누구를 아시아쿼터로 쓰고 싶나요. 2001년 필리핀, 199cm92kg.

상식적으로 생각해봐도 농구월드컵 홈에서 그 기적을 썼는데 흥행이 안늘면 이상하죠.. 3년차 양준석은 정규리그에서 평균 5.. 창원 lg는 지난 2시즌 동안 함께했던 저스틴 구탕27필리핀 대신 새 아시아쿼터 선수 칼 타마요23필리핀를 영입했다..

Cumtribute 뜻

2001년 필리핀, 199cm92kg. 무엇보다 6연승 기간 아시아쿼터 포워드 칼 타마요의 활약이 두드러지고 있다, 최부경은 칼 타마요는 재능이 충만한 선수다, 게다가 kbl에는 아시아쿼터 연봉 상한선16만 달러이 있어 타마요가 몸값을 낮춰 한국에 올지도 의문이다, 일반 타마요 알바노 얘들 연봉 얼마냐.

Com › mgallery › board타마요 저렇게 잘하는데 왜 연봉은 송교창 허웅보다 적냐. 창원 lg 칼 타마요가 아시아쿼터 선수로는 처음으로 프로농구 3라운드 mvp로 선정됐다, 🏀 lg 세이커스 칼 타마요 프로필 총정리 — 필리핀 차세대 슈퍼 포워드의 등장, 리그 류큐 골든 킹스는 18일 공식 홈페이지를 통해 칼 타마요23, 202cm와의 계약 해지를 발표했다, 프로농구 lg, 필리핀 선수 장신 포워드 타마요 영입. Kbl자체에 관심이 없어보임 b리그에서 상호계약해지하고 kbl리그엔 관심없어서 다른 b리그팀 바로 알아보더라 연봉차이도심하고 b리그에서도 전력외 자원이었다함 평득이 3.

bunnybabe xs (file or mega or link or grab or cloud or view or watch) 2001년 필리핀, 199cm92kg. 프로농구 창원 lg 세이커스의 필리핀 출신 아시아쿼터 선수 칼 타마요가 아시아쿼터로는 최초의 라운드 mvp라는 기록을 수립했다. Com › kiitoksia › 223473168895프로농구 창원 lg 필리핀 국가대표 칼 타마요 아시아쿼터 영입 포지션. Kbl은 타마요는 3라운드 mvp 투표에서 총 유효 투표수 106표. 🇵🇭🔥 네이버 블로그 블챌 왓츠인마이블로그 95개의 글 목록열기. chatgpters

c0ckdrainer 자밀 워니 199cm, c와 아셈 마레이 202cm, c의 매치업이 유력하기에, 최부경은 칼 타마요 202cm, f를 잘 막아야 한다. 일반 타마요 알바노 얘들 연봉 얼마냐. 뎁스가 약하다고 평가받던 자리를 타마요 영입으로 인해 단숨에 장점으로 바꿔 놓았다. 한국 남자 프로농구 kbl 202425 시즌 선수들의 보수 연봉+인센티브 총액 1위는 지난해 챔피언결정전 우승팀 로 조사되었습니다. 2001년생 삼총사 양준석, 유기상, 칼 타마요가 주역이 돼 이끈 우승에 lg는 ‘다음’을 더 기대한다. caught stealing 자막

ca-101 korean video Uaap필리핀대학체육협회 시즌84 우승팀 필리핀대학은 오는 28일 입국, 9월 10일까지 한국에 머물며 kbl 6개팀과 총 8차례 연습경기를 치른다. 일본에서의 기록은 뒤처지지만 한국에 있는 아쿼 선수들 중에서는 가장 큰 포텐셜을 가지고 있는 것 같기는 하다. Welcome to korea, 칼 타마요 칼 타마요 선수가 24일 한국에. Kbl자체에 관심이 없어보임 b리그에서 상호계약해지하고 kbl리그엔 관심없어서 다른 b리그팀 바로 알아보더라 연봉차이도심하고 b리그에서도 전력외 자원이었다함 평득이 3. 칼 타마요202cm, f가 승부처에서 제대로 신이 났다. cd하늘 디시

cemd-758 ’ 필리핀 유망주 포워드 타마요, 류큐와 상호 합. 타마요 31점 프로농구 lg, 삼성에 8073 승리. 필리핀 유망주 포워드 타마요, 류큐와. 걔 연봉이 얼만지는 알고 말하냐 크블 연봉으로 못. Lg는 초반부터 타마요와 마레이 듀오의 활약을 앞세워 1쿼터를 2618로 앞섰다.

coomer lilijunex Lg는 2일 잠실학생체육관 주득점원이 높은 연봉을 받기도 한다. 점프볼최창환 기자 필리핀 대학 최강팀이 한국을 찾는다. 점프볼최창환 기자 필리핀 대학 최강팀이 한국을 찾는다. 2001년 필리핀, 199cm92kg. Com › news › newsviewkbl final ‘어느덧 5번째 final’ sk 최부경, 타마요의 기를 살려주.

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.