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.

연예가화제전체 뉴스 스포츠경향 조셉앤스테이시 제공 ‘대세배우’로 떠오른 이세영이 패션브랜드 ‘조셉앤스테이시josephandstacey’ 모델로 발탁됐다. 이번 25ss 컬렉션을 통해 ‘럭키 플리츠 니트 포켓 크로스’와 ‘럭키 플리츠 니트 스트링 백팩’ 두 가. 남편이 사주신 화이트데이 선물 ㅎㅎㅎ. Joseph & stacey is a fashion forward accessories brand that places emphasis on bringing joy through expressions of color.

노스텔지아 그린

노가원 야동

Joseph and stacey us, 조셉앤스테이시 니트백은 2021년 세계적인 디자인어워드인 if 디자인어워드와 레드닷 디자인. 우아한 배우 이세영과 함께한 조셉앤스테이시의 뉴 컬렉션.

노조미 사이트

메트로시티, 루이까또즈 등 백화점 핸드백 브랜드들이 한동안 경쟁적으로 해외 진출을 모색했지만, 가격 저항에 부딪히고 팬데믹이 겹치며 불발됐다. 전도연, 조셉앤스테이시 앰버서더 선정 여신의 자태, 라이프스타일 백 브랜드 조셉앤스테이시joseph and stacey가 헬로키티와 함께한 새로운 콜라보레이션 컬렉션 ‘hello kitty, carry the carnival’을 공개했다고 밝혔다. 조셉앤스테이시는 페트병을 재활용한 리사이클 섬유로 니트백을 생산하는 등 친환경에 앞장섰다. 이뉴스투데이 김국진 기자 라이프스타일 브랜드 조셉앤스테이시joseph and stacey가 시그니처 라인인 ‘럭키 플리츠 니트백’의 새로운 라인업을 공개한다고 13일 밝혔다.

이번 25ss 시즌 컬렉션은 레트로한 감성의 카니발에서 영감을 받아 경쾌하고 다채로운 컬러 팔레트와 유니크한 디테일을 통해 일상 속에. 디자인, 실용성, 지속가능한 패션을 지향하며 브랜드를 키워나갔습니다, 오는 20일까지 jr 나고야 타카시마야 백화점에서 제품을 판매한다. 당시 대부분 직접 투자로 진출, 자금 부담까지 더해진 상태였다, Joseph & stacey is a fashion forward accessories brand that places emphasis on bringing joy through expressions of color. Kr › news › news_view어패럴뉴스 중가 핸드백, 해외 시장 노크.

Experience realtime purchase of rare kpop merch and korean preloved items on bunjang global site.. Kr › article › 202303160815013조셉앤스테이시, new 니트백 ‘씨티 트래블로그’ 컬렉션 출시.. ‘stylish adventure’ 컨셉으로 선보이는 이번 프로젝트는 50주년을 맞이한 헬로키티 리미티드 에디션부터..

논케

노스탤지어 그린

라이프스타일 백 브랜드 조셉앤스테이시joseph and stacey가 헬로키티와 함께한 새로운 콜라보레이션 컬렉션 ‘hello kitty, carry the carnival’을 공개했다고 밝혔다. Kr › @sjm0105 › 25남자의 입장에서 바라본 조셉앤스테이시 니트백, 이런 플리츠백 원조에 대한 논란이 많은데, 여성시대＊ 차분한 20대들의 알흠다운 공간. 조셉앤스테이시가 골프 브랜드 앤드 골프and golf를 런칭했다.

디자인, 실용성, 지속가능한 패션을 지향하며 브랜드를 키워나갔습니다, 조셉앤스테이시, 골프 브랜드 앤드 골프 런칭. 조셉앤스테이시의 씨티 트래블로그 컬렉션 조셉앤스테이시의 씨티 트래블로그 컬렉션 ‘장애 4급’ 김희철 교통사고로 키 185cm→176cm로 작아졌다 래퍼 정상수, 충암고 축제서 윤 어게인 발언 논란학교 측 개인적 발언. 그 때 원하는 색이 품절이라 평소 좋아하던 겨자색 샀는데 다른 색들도 예뻐요, Com › sundahlia › 224105933986조셉앤스테이시 럭키플리츠 니트백롯데on 에서 최저가로 23만원대에. 이번 25ss 시즌 컬렉션은 레트로한 감성의 카니발에서 영감을 받아 경쾌하고 다채로운 컬러 팔레트와 유니크한 디테일을 통해 일상 속에.

이거 조셉앤스테이시인데, 한혜연 스타일리스트가 슈스스에서 이걸소개하면서엄청 유명해졌거든, 이뉴스투데이 김국진 기자 라이프스타일 브랜드 조셉앤스테이시joseph and stacey가 시그니처 라인인 ‘럭키 플리츠 니트백’의 새로운 라인업을 공개한다고 13일 밝혔다. 연예가화제전체 뉴스 스포츠경향 조셉앤스테이시 제공 ‘대세배우’로 떠오른 이세영이 패션브랜드 ‘조셉앤스테이시josephandstacey’ 모델로 발탁됐다. 여성시대＊ 차분한 20대들의 알흠다운 공간.

내마위 동인지 오는 20일까지 jr 나고야 타카시마야 백화점에서 제품을 판매한다. 패션 브랜드 조셉앤스테이시josephandstacey가 국내 최초로 친환경 섬유인 생분해사biodegradable, 썩는 섬유를 소재로 한 에코백을 출시했다. 연예가화제전체 뉴스 스포츠경향 조셉앤스테이시 제공 ‘대세배우’로 떠오른 이세영이 패션브랜드 ‘조셉앤스테이시josephandstacey’ 모델로 발탁됐다. 대법원은 조셉앤스테이시의 가방이 p사의 등록 디자인 권리에 포함되지 않는다는 특허법원 판결2021허2281을 p사가 불복한 사안에 대해서, p사의 상고 read more. Blog tag guest 전체보기 1,211개의 글 목록열기. 노무현 귀칼

노도강 정상혁 조셉앤스테이시 일상에서 영감을 얻어 실용성과 아름다이 공존하도록 디자인합니다. 럭키 플리츠 니트 스몰 스테리 헬로키티 image_not_found 조셉앤스테이시와 산리오캐릭터즈의 콜라보 그 4번째로 have a good hello kitty 컬렉션이 1월 13일에 발매되었어요. 나에겐 조셉앤스테이시 니트백은 초등학교 때 들고 다녔던 운동화 가방에 불과했다. 자세한 내용은 조셉앤스테이시 공식 인스타그램 에서 확인할 수 있다. 24 likes, 2 comments josephandstacey on 팝업 어떻게 가요. 네세스 1단계 정수

놀쟈 05 지난해 도쿄오사카 등 주요 도시에 팝업스토어를 열어 브랜드 이미지를 알리는 데 집중해 왔다. 팝업스토어는 17일부터 23일까지 롯데백화점 잠실점 1층에서 진행되며, 팝업스토어 오픈 기념으로 sns이벤트 및 스토어 방문 고객에게 깜짝 선물을 증정할. 연예가화제전체 뉴스 스포츠경향 조셉앤스테이시 제공 ‘대세배우’로 떠오른 이세영이 패션브랜드 ‘조셉앤스테이시josephandstacey’ 모델로 발탁됐다. 특허법인 오킴스, 디자인 대법원 소송 최종 승소. We are best represented by. 노은솔 걸레

노랑풍선 패키지 후기 디시 이번 25ss 시즌 컬렉션은 레트로한 감성의 카니발에서 영감을 받아 경쾌하고 다채로운 컬러 팔레트와 유니크한 디테일을 통해 일상 속에. 유니크한 컬러와 독특한 디자인으로 럭키플리츠백 캔버스백 등 다수의 히트 상품을 탄생시킨 조셉앤스테이시가 그 감성 그대로 앤드 골프에 담았다. Joseph & stacey is a fashion forward accessories brand that places emphasis on bringing joy through expressions of color. 색깔별로 다 사고 싶었는데, 빨간색을 샀어. 서울연합뉴스 삼성전자가 조셉앤스테이시와 함께 갤럭시 노트20, 갤럭시 노트20 울트라를 활용한 컬러 콜라보레이션을 선보인다고 27일 밝혔다.

노바라 키 서울연합뉴스 삼성전자가 조셉앤스테이시와 함께 갤럭시 노트20, 갤럭시 노트20 울트라를 활용한 컬러 콜라보레이션을 선보인다고 27일 밝혔다. Blog tag guest 전체보기 1,211개의 글 목록열기. 조셉앤스테이시, 헬로키티와 함께 콜라보레이션 제품 선봬. 이거 아코디언 모양인데, 이쁘지 않아. 전도연, 조셉앤스테이시 앰버서더 선정 여신의 자태.

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.