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.

Com › shorts › vg78fyqri82025년 09월 05일 미모+실력 겸비. 샤오샤오 레이레이 중일 갈등에 판다외교 끝 연합뉴스 마지막 mbn mbnnews 프레스룸경제라이브 푸바오 광주우치동물원 풍산개. 1031 jaime,49 commentaires. 하지만 안타깝게도, 타라스 도베르그 의 등장으로 컨트롤하던 인형들이 모조리 대지에 늪 에 잠겨버려 방패 로 내세울 대상이 없어지자, 본인도 같은 기술에 당하며 전투불능이 된다.

후타나리 아이돌

히나타 네토리즘

스틱맨 캐릭터이자 동명의 유명 플래시 애니메이션인 샤오샤오 의 이름도 小小.. 김보미27nh농협카드도 일본 강호 히가시우치 나쓰미크라운해태를 31로 잡았다.. 그는 최근 한 매체와의 인터뷰에서 외모를 둘러싼 악성 댓글에 대한 심경 등을.. Kr › article › 2025090519155526164얼마나 예쁘길래&mldr..

Scmp 홈페이지 중국의 떠오르는 높이뛰기 스타 샤오우치 23가 뛰어난 실력과 미모로 화제를 모으는 가운데, 외모를 둘러싼 악성 댓글에 대해 당당한 목소리를 냈다. 칭화대 재학 중인 그녀는 악플에도 당당하게 맞서며 많은 응원을. 타마고 프로덕션 소속이며 유튜버 김계란이 기획한 최애의 아이들 프로젝트를 통해 멤버를 영입하여 결성되었다. 김보미27nh농협카드도 일본 강호 히가시우치 나쓰미크라운해태를 31로 잡았다.

샤오샤오레이레이 잘가 日 눈물바다막 내린 판다외교, 이미나 우치동물원에 이미 벽화, 中 높이뛰기 샤오 우치, 외모 비난에 당당, 9일 홍콩 사우스차이나모닝포스트scmp등 외신에 따르면 후베이성 육상팀 소속인 샤오우치는 지.

Through a car accident, zhang xiao traveled back in time into a body of one of her previous reincarnations, a 16 years old aristocratic manchu read more. 1 그는 2012년 하계 올림픽 에서 남자 사브르 개인전 과 단체전 에 출전하였다. Kr › news › international화장하면 운동선수답지 않다.

환승연애4 디ㅛㅣ

9일 홍콩 사우스차이나모닝포스트scmp등 외신에 따르면 후베이성 육상팀 소속인 샤오우치는 지. 중국의 떠오르는 높이뛰기 스타 샤오 우치가 뛰어난 운동 능력과 눈길 끄는 외모로 큰 인기를 얻고 있다고 홍콩 사우스차이나모닝포스트scmp가 5일 보도했다. 다른 광저우 호텔 특가도 가격을 비교해 보세요, 한눈에 보는 오늘 스포츠 일반 뉴스 중국의 떠오르는 높이뛰기 스타 샤오 우치가 뛰어난 운동 능력과 눈길 끄는 외모로 큰 인기를 얻고 있다고 홍콩 사우스차이나모닝포스트scmp가 5일 보도했다, Scmp 파이낸셜뉴스 중국의 높이뛰기 스타 샤오우치23가 뛰어난. 서울신문중국의 떠오르는 높이뛰기 스타 샤오우치 23가 뛰어난 실력과 미모로 화제를 모으는 가운데, 외모를 둘러싼 악성 댓글에 대해 당당한 목소리를 냈다.

중국 전국육상선수권에서 여성 높이뛰기 종목을 석권한 샤오유치shao yuqi, 23세가 단순한 금메달 이상의 화제성을 이어가고 있다, Vidéo tiktok de hawabelle28 @hawwabelle28. 1인 2개인게 아쉬웠어욥 ㅠㅠㅠ 일단 다들 우육면 먹을거면 무조건 세트시켜라 같이 나온 생강간장에 살짝찍어 먹으니 입 아뜨뜨뜨 하면서도 입안. Scmp 홈페이지 중국의 떠오르는 높이뛰기 스타 샤오우치 23가 뛰어난 실력과 미모로 화제를 모으는 가운데, 외모를 둘러싼 악성 댓글에 대해 당당한 목소리를 냈다. 스틱맨 캐릭터이자 동명의 유명 플래시 애니메이션인 샤오샤오 의 이름도 小小.

류샤오 중국어 간체자 刘晓, 정체자 劉曉, 병음 liú xiǎo, 한자음 유효, 1987년 11월 8일 는 중화인민공화국 의 펜싱 선수로 주 종목은 사브르 이다, 전체 맥락을 이해하기 위해서는 본문 보기를 권장합니다, Kr › article › 2025090519155526164얼마나 예쁘길래&mldr. 김보미27nh농협카드도 일본 강호 히가시우치 나쓰미크라운해태를 31로 잡았다.

후쿠오카 게이

판다 쌍둥이 中으로日, 중일 국교 정상화 54년 만에. 푸바오라도 줘라이 대통령의 판다 외교, 동물권에 질문을. 서울뉴스1 박동해 기자 고故 김대중 전 대통령의 부인인 이희호 여사가 미국의 유명 힙합가수 닥터드레와 결혼한다는 허위글을 온라인에 유포한 70대 남성에게 법원이 벌금형을 선고했다. Com › cavon153 › 224003267977네이버 블로그. Com › articles › 100706361얼마나 예쁘길래&mldr.

흑백 커플 디시 Scmp 파이낸셜뉴스 중국의 높이뛰기 스타 샤오우치23가 뛰어난 운동 능력과 미모 덕분에 현지에서 크게 관심을 끌고 있다. 그는 화장을 하고 긴 머리를 유지하며 손톱 관리를 하는 모습이 운동선수답지 않다는 지적을. 정치, 경제, 사회 분야 전반의 이슈와 뉴스 큐레이션. 서울뉴스1 박동해 기자 고故 김대중 전 대통령의 부인인 이희호 여사가 미국의 유명 힙합가수 닥터드레와 결혼한다는 허위글을 온라인에 유포한 70대 남성에게 법원이 벌금형을 선고했다. 운동도 잘하는데 예쁘기까지중국 명문대 출신 높이뛰기 선수. 히로토 게이

히토미 1년 여친 1 그는 2012년 하계 올림픽 에서 남자 사브르 개인전 과 단체전 에 출전하였다. 2023년 10월 18일에 데뷔한 대한민국의 4인조 걸밴드. 운동도 잘하는데 예쁘기까지중국 명문대 출신 높이뛰기. 서울신문중국의 떠오르는 높이뛰기 스타 샤오우치 23가 뛰어난 실력과 미모로 화제를 모으는 가운데, 외모를 둘러싼 악성 댓글에 대해 당당한 목소리를 냈다. 9일 홍콩 사우스차이나모닝포스트scmp등 외신에 따르면 후베이성 육상팀 소속인 샤오우치는 지난 1일. 후타나리 여고생

히토미 루키아 운동도 잘하는데 예쁘기까지중국 명문대 출신 높이뛰기 선수. 외모 악플 고충 토로한 中높이뛰기 선수 네이트. 한팅 호텔 광저우 시먼커우 광샤오 후기, 사진 및 가격을 확인하고 트립닷컴에서 최저가로 예약하세요. Kr › article › 2025090519155526164얼마나 예쁘길래&mldr. 외모 악플 고충 토로한 中높이뛰기 선수 아시아. 히어하트 보너스코인

후타나리 아파트 중국의 떠오르는 높이뛰기 스타 샤오우치 23가 뛰어난 실력과 미모로 화제를 모으는 가운데, 외모를 둘러싼 악성 댓글에 대해 당당한 목소리를 냈다. 정치, 경제, 사회 분야 전반의 이슈와 뉴스 큐레이션. Com › view › 20250905n31231얼마나 예쁘길래&mldr. 샤오샤오 레이레이 중일 갈등에 판다외교 끝 연합뉴스 마지막 mbn mbnnews 프레스룸경제라이브 푸바오 광주우치동물원 풍산개. 운동도 잘하는데 예쁘기까지중국 명문대 출신 높이뛰기 선수.

후쿠오카 게이마사지 샤오샤오와 레이레이가 우에노동물원을 떠나면서 일본에서는 더 이상 추가로 국내 들어오는 판다는 광주의 우치동물원에서 수용할 예정이다. 그는 최근 한 매체와의 인터뷰에서 외모. 운동도 잘하는데 예쁘기까지중국 명문대 출신 높이뛰기. Son original hawabelle28. 운동도 잘하는데 예쁘기까지중국 명문대 출신 높이뛰기 선수.

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.