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.

엔티티 배고파 + 로지텍 키보드 리뷰까지. Incorrect korean translation 엔티티 배고파 sounds like kid crying with hunger and it sounds really ridiculous to koreans. 뭐야 거기서 왜 나와 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ나 생각보다 잘하는데. 겜망하면 뜨는글자 원래 엔티티 배고파 아니였나.

Dead by daylight살인마 r2447 판, 원래는 entity displeased 인가였는데 이번에 바꼈나. 엔티티 밥주는 재미로 살인마했는데 여러모로 살유저 엿멕이네 ㅋㅋ, So many korean users laughed because of this stupid translation, Escape the backrooms 의 엔티티를 설명하는 문서이다, 겜망하면 뜨는글자 원래 엔티티 배고파 아니였나.

엘리스얌 빨간약

10 영문은 entity hungers 게임 내에선 엔티티 배고파 로 직역했다가 엔티티가 배고파합니다로, 엔티티를 만족시키지 못했습니다에서 현재로 이른다. 컨디션도 안좋고, 너무 배고파뚬 처음으로 볼치면서 과자, 10 영문은 entity hungers 게임 내에선 엔티티 배고파 로 직역했다가 엔티티가 배고파합니다로, 엔티티를 만족시키지 못했습니다에서 현재로 이른다. Wordhippowhat does 배고파.

게임 데바데 나 사실 아직도 엔티티지운 팜 ㅎ 엔티티 배고파 이지랄 했을때도 지운이는 귀엽다고 헛소리했을거같은. 케챠피 흡혈 기능이 있는 우산형의 중근거리 공격. 🔺 본 영상은 로지텍에서 제품을 지원받아 제작되었습니다 🔺 제품명 로지텍 g515 tkl lightspeed 택타일 갈축000 로지텍 키보드 리뷰012. 라고 해도 될지는 모르겠는데 3 glaiden2000 대회 대회 하이라이트 부문 2. 🔺 본 영상은 로지텍에서 제품을 지원받아 제작되었습니다 🔺 제품명 로지텍 g515 tkl lightspeed 택타일 갈축000 로지텍 키보드 리뷰012, 5 deyanew200 오늘도 나는 식구를 한다 1 ㅇㅇ200 데바데 할때마다 서는데 어떡하냐 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 11 ㅇㅇ1.

엔티티는 현실과 상상의 중간계에 서식하는 이름없는 악마. Incorrect korean translation 엔티티 배고파 sounds like kid crying with hunger and it sounds really ridiculous to koreans. In korean version, the entity hungers are translated 엔티티 배고파 but it is not correct translation. Incorrect korean translation 엔티티 배고파 sounds like kid crying with hunger and it sounds really ridiculous to koreans.

조각가 뭉스와 함께하는 배고픈사슴 만들기. Dead by daylight살인마 r2447 판. 내가 게임 망해서 엔티티 만족 못시켰다고 나와야 되는데 게임 끝날때 엔티티 배고파라는게 나왔슴 이거 머임. Com › deadbydaylight › discussionplease fix this ridiculus translation.

엉덩이 스팽

비꼬는 거 빼고, 백룸 커뮤니티가 썩었어, 엔티티가 굶주린다 ㅇㅈㄹ하네배고파는 너무 귀여워서 바꿨나 아니면 굶주린다 배고파 둘다 있는거임. 한편으로는 살인마라고는 하지만 사실 이들의 진짜 목적은 살인 그 자체가 아니라 엔티티의 양분이 되어줄 강한 감정을 유발하는 역할이다. So many korean community users are laughing at this stupid incorrect translation.

엔티티 배고파 sounds like when baby cry because of hunger.. 데바데 나 사실 아직도 엔티티지운 팜 ㅎ 게임.. 13 views 2 years ago more..

양아지 야짤

에비스 소프랜드

케챠피 흡혈 기능이 있는 우산형의 중근거리 공격. 일명 파로마, 캐비넷에 숨은 생존자가 3초동안 있으면 퍽이 활성화가 되는데 살인마가 생존자가 숨어있는 캐비넷에 근접한 상태에서 생존자가 캐비넷에서 빠르게 뛰쳐나오면 3초동안 기절 시키는게 가능합니다. 일명 파로마, 캐비넷에 숨은 생존자가 3초동안 있으면 퍽이 활성화가 되는데 살인마가 생존자가 숨어있는 캐비넷에 근접한 상태에서 생존자가 캐비넷에서 빠르게 뛰쳐나오면 3초동안 기절 시키는게 가능합니다. 13 views 2 years ago more. 엔만못사라지고 엔티티 배고파 ㅇㅈㄹ하는거 개패고싶어 진짜 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 학지운쉒 베갯머리 송사해서 버프나받지 그런건안하고 뭘가르친거니 그런 생각만, 한편으로는 살인마라고는 하지만 사실 이들의 진짜 목적은 살인 그 자체가 아니라 엔티티의 양분이 되어줄 강한 감정을 유발하는 역할이다.

So many korean community users are laughing, 엔티티 배고파 sounds like kid crying with hunger and it sounds really ridiculous to koreans. Com › deadbydaylight › discussionplease fix this ridiculus translation, 컨디션도 안좋고, 너무 배고파뚬 처음으로 볼치면서 과자 먹었는데 두번은 못먹을듯ㅎㅎ 볼링은 오른손으로 치는데, 왼손으로 과자먹었다고 왜 어색해.

야시장 주기 배가 고프면 비팔로만 잡아도 마리당 고기가 4개이고, 거미를 잡게 되면 확률적으로 괴물 고기가 나오게 된다. 이제 드디어 살인마가 우위에 있다는 걸 학습한건가 엔만못에 비하면 기분 덜 read more. Com › watch배고파 배고파 youtube. 라고 해도 될지는 모르겠는데 3 glaiden2000 대회 대회 하이라이트 부문 2. 비꼬는 거 빼고, 백룸 커뮤니티가 썩었어. 야썰

에로배우 유진 So many korean community users are laughing. 창의적인 작업에 참여 99 나이트 인더 포레스트 엔티티 99 나이트 인더 포레스트 근접무기 순위. 엔티티 배고파 데드바이데이라이트 마이너 갤러리. 엗스햄스터 히토미 human cattle. Com › watch올킬데이 21블라 2트 엔티티배고파 youtube. 야외 포르노

엘프 히토미 So many korean community users are laughing at this stupid incorrect translation. 엔티티 배고파 번역 달라짐 데드바이데이라이트 갤러리. 10 영문은 entity hungers 게임 내에선 엔티티 배고파 로 직역했다가 엔티티가 배고파합니다로, 엔티티를 만족시키지 못했습니다에서 현재로 이른다. 10 영문은 entity hungers 게임 내에선 엔티티 배고파 로 직역했다가 엔티티가 배고파합니다로, 엔티티를 만족시키지 못했습니다에서 현재로 이른다. In korean version, the entity hungers are translated 엔티티 배고파 but it is not correct translation. 야애니365

엘리 속토 스팀게임 dontstarvetogether 협동@치지직nossi. Escape the backrooms 의 엔티티를 설명하는 문서이다. So many korean community users are laughing at this stupid incorrect translation. Com › watch올킬데이 21블라 2트 엔티티배고파 youtube. 케챠피 흡혈 기능이 있는 우산형의 중근거리 공격.

얼항자 데바데 나 사실 아직도 엔티티지운 팜 ㅎ 게임. 한편으로는 살인마라고는 하지만 사실 이들의 진짜 목적은 살인 그 자체가 아니라 엔티티의 양분이 되어줄 강한 감정을 유발하는 역할이다. 엔만못사라지고 엔티티 배고파 ㅇㅈㄹ하는거 개패고싶어 진짜 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 학지운쉒 베갯머리 송사해서 버프나받지 그런건안하고 뭘가르친거니 그런 생각만. 일명 파로마, 캐비넷에 숨은 생존자가 3초동안 있으면 퍽이 활성화가 되는데 살인마가 생존자가 숨어있는 캐비넷에 근접한 상태에서 생존자가 캐비넷에서 빠르게 뛰쳐나오면 3초동안 기절 시키는게 가능합니다. 엔티티는 현실과 상상의 중간계에 서식하는 이름없는 악마.

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.