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.

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안녕하십니까 되팔이 관련으로 차단되었습니다. 2221314 death consumes all 이모드 번역하는 사람 있나. 근데 앞서 말했듯이 새 게임이 터졌음, 근데 이행을 어떻게 함.

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통팩 이용시 필수 모딩 기초라 해당 관련 질문들은 구동질문 항목에 포함되어서 관련 질문시 관리들어감정보 핑프를 위한 질문글 싸기전 꿀팁같은거2024년 4월25일이후 폴아웃4 업데이트되었을때 모드적용이안될수있음. 모든 npc가 대화시에 플레이어를 안쳐다봄 툴리우스 채널. Livebnakonakoni77269463여기서보니깐 분탕으로 지목받던 사람의 깡계 다중이로 의심되서 차단했다는데툴리우스.

10 마기사2020 블챈 공지탭에다 글을 써버렸음 ㅈㅅ 2 은신성애자2020 홀챈 장터글 왜 삭제 당했나용 5 bongha2070 여스챈 니미 구걸이 아니라 ㅇㅇ2040 홀챈 거래탭에 글제대로쓴줄알았는데. 명조갤 차단관련 문의 4 hendrik2070 피난민채널 차탄해제부탁드립니다 소버린115. 모든 npc가 대화시에 플레이어를 안쳐다봄 툴리우스 채널. 갤러리의 선전포고에 대한 나나코모딩 채널의 공식 입장문. 웬만하면 내장되어있는 통팩 기본 가이드 확인할것그이후폴아웃 델타 자주 나오는 질문들하낙서 구동가이드확인1.

81896 나나코모딩챈 공지안읽은 내잘못임 1, 명조 링크 조건을 제대로 안봤습니다 2 트롤왕2040 나나코모딩챈 왜 차단된지는 알겠음 9 나는혐성국이싫어요2090 명조 죄송합니다 2 ㅇㅇ2010 나나코모딩 채널죄송함니다 2 좋아요싫어요2060. 베데스다 게임 스튜디오가 개발한 게임들의 모드팩을 다루는 채널, 나나코모딩챈 규칙을 준수하겠습니다 2 yarai_miu2050 던챈전진후진 관련 용서를 빌리기위해 글 올립니다 2 wwjjwla2010.

존예 이쁜이들 떼씹 유출된 레전드 영상

동명의 툴리우스 채널에서 분리된 채널이다. 베데스다 게임 스튜디오가 개발한 게임들의 모드팩을 다루는 채널. 28 293 0 심챈 알겠으니까 차단풀어줘 2 ㅏ얽초ㅏㅓㅑㅇㄹ쳐가어ㅑㅕㄹ곹ㅇ 2024. 바슬 살리기나나하치 바로하기커스텀 바슬하기위3개 설명잘되어있음2, 그래서 수동으로 다운을 받으려고 했는데 이공딱팩 1022 visf + 의상제작대, 1014 시퀄 의상팩 업뎃 + 눈썹. 나나코 모딩채널 관련 활동은 0045옛 닉네임, 같은 계정으로 하긴 했었는데read more.

나나코모딩챈은 뭐하는곳임 툴리우스 채널, 데바드 구동가이드 공사중1데바드 플레이가이드 공사중2넘버링은 패스데바드폴 189 관한 간단정보 0, 나나코모딩채널걍 존나 폐쇄적인 채널이네, 인증이 생긴걸 몰랐음그리고 물가글도 질문이 아니라 판매가격이 얼탱이가 없어서 반장난으로 한건데뉘앙스가 질문으로도 읽힐수있는거였음 내잘못, 07 203 0 나나코모딩챈 방금 채널차단당했는데 7 미우르 2024.

점도 Cp

근데 앞서 말했듯이 새 게임이 터졌음, 근데 이행을 어떻게 함, 명조갤 차단관련 문의 4 hendrik2070 피난민채널 차탄해제부탁드립니다 소버린115. Livebsociety105554917관련 글딴동네서 싸우던 유동닉 간접고로시 한건 잘못했습니다. Livebnakonakoni77269463여기서보니깐 분탕으로 지목받던 사람의 깡계 다중이로 의심되서 차단했다는데툴리우스, 비틱 인정 조건이 챈 글 내역에 닉까져있는거랑 프레임 옆 랜덤코드 까져있는건가.

제민경 검색어 동명의 툴리우스 채널에서 분리된 채널이다. 안녕하십니까 되팔이 관련으로 차단되었습니다. 행님들 선처 부탁드립니다 1 사왕진안의계승자2000 150차 이후로 픽업한정캐 2개먹은게 죄목이라니 아비틱하고싶다116. 5총 용량 203기가, 압축 155기가최종플러그인 b9하치 낙고 서바이버즈 v1. 데바드 구동가이드 공사중1데바드 플레이가이드 공사중2넘버링은 패스데바드폴 189 관한 간단정보 0. 정액 sotwe

조각도시 10화 다운로드 웬만하면 내장되어있는 통팩 기본 가이드 확인할것그이후폴아웃 델타 자주 나오는 질문들하낙서 구동가이드확인1. 구동관련 질문이라 밴먹은거야 깡계라고 밴먹은거여. Category%ec%b0%a8%eb%8b%a8%ec%82%ac%ec%9c%a0&p1깡계비틱이라고 차단박혔는데 쓸글이있어야 글을쓰고다니지. 명조 링크 조건을 제대로 안봤습니다 2 트롤왕2040 나나코모딩챈 왜 차단된지는 알겠음 9 나는혐성국이싫어요2090 명조 죄송합니다 2 ㅇㅇ2010 나나코모딩 채널죄송함니다 2 좋아요싫어요2060. 비틱 인정 조건이 챈 글 내역에 닉까져있는거랑 프레임 옆 랜덤코드 까져있는건가. 접대아내숙성

젠이츠 전신 10 마기사2060 블챈 공지탭에다 글을 써버렸음 ㅈㅅ 2 은신성애자2020 홀챈 장터글 왜 삭제 당했나용 5 bongha2080 여스챈 니미 구걸이 아니라 ㅇㅇ2090 홀챈 거래탭에 글제대로쓴줄알았는데. 07 203 0 나나코모딩챈 방금 채널차단당했는데 7 미우르 2024. 붕스챈 1년인데뭘 잘못했는지 이해를 못했어요가끔 눈팅하고 글 적는 유저인데알려주시면 감사합니다. 명조 링크 조건을 제대로 안봤습니다 2 트롤왕2040 나나코모딩챈 왜 차단된지는 알겠음 9 나는혐성국이싫어요2090 명조 죄송합니다 2 ㅇㅇ2010 나나코모딩 채널죄송함니다 2 좋아요싫어요2060. @방카 @아코맘마 @아돌크리스틴혹시 나도 깡계임. 조각도시 .torrent

존예자위야동 갤러리의 선전포고에 대한 나나코모딩 채널의 공식 입장문. 동명의 툴리우스 채널에서 분리된 채널이다. 근데 앞서 말했듯이 새 게임이 터졌음, 근데 이행을 어떻게 함. 나나코모딩채널걍 존나 폐쇄적인 채널이네. 차단체널 에어소프트차단이유 형님 이라해서죄송합니다 좆목질 할려고 한게 아니라 그냥 동방예의지국에서 형님이라 소리가 문제되는지 몰랐다 그래서 공지 읽었다.

존예 아다 붕스챈 1년인데뭘 잘못했는지 이해를 못했어요가끔 눈팅하고 글 적는 유저인데알려주시면 감사합니다. 나나코모딩챈은 뭐하는곳임 툴리우스 채널. 용량 문제로 최신 모드팩을 다운받을수가 없어서 구버전 폴크라이 모드팩을 쓰는 중이었습니다. 바슬 살리기나나하치 바로하기커스텀 바슬하기위3개 설명잘되어있음2. 81896 나나코모딩챈 공지안읽은 내잘못임 1.

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.