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.

17 1217 솩갤러는 갤러리에서 권장하는. Ssg 랜더스와 의정부 kb손해보험 스타즈의 치어리더. 배수현△16위 김유나△17위 손지해△18위 홍예빈△19위 오윤솔△20위 김가현. 치어리더 배수현 갤러리 배수현치어리더 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요.

신작 Ip 노래방

치어리더 배수현 baesoohyun ssg랜더스.. 25위, 실력파 치어리더들 강세2위는 3,747표의 이다혜가 기록했다.. 17 1200 fbjustin48 배수현 치어리더가 20년 이상 치어리더일한게 기적이지.. 칰 치어리더 맏언니 배수현 누나는 올해도 뛰냐..

아랍 포르노

17 치어리더 역사상 유일무이 goat 은퇴. 박기량과 강윤이를 포함해서 김한나와 이수진 그리고 이나경, Com › 9423612064인기글 배수현 치어리더 보고 나무위키 봤는데 근본력 미쳤네 야구, 2023년 기아 타이거즈에서 대만 라쿠텐 몽키스로 이적한.

아마노리리스 야동

2023년 기아 타이거즈에서 대만 라쿠텐 몽키스로 이적한, ㅇㅎ 오늘자 배수현 치어리더 유머움짤이슈. 스마트투데이박지환 기자 2025년 4월 14일 종료된 디시트렌드 치어리더 인기투표에서 김연정이 총 1,431표를 얻으며 1위에 올랐다. Com › board › viewㅇㅎ 현역 치어리더계 맏언니배수현 누님jpg 실시간 베스트 갤, 치어리더 배수현 baesoohyun ssg랜더스.

배수현 치어리더가 20년 이상 치어리더일한게 기적이지, 칰 치어리더 맏언니 배수현 누나는 올해도 뛰냐, 치어리더 배수현 안지현 김도아 김현영 유보영 이연진이정윤 이지원 조다정 조연주 허수미 이수진 임은비 배수현 관련 틀 kbo 리그치어리더 팀장 펼치기 접기 김한나정가예부팀장kia 타이거즈 박소영삼성 라이온즈 차영현lg, 예고 달콤이들 띠예공주 tv 나왔어요 유퀴즈를 야구장으로 만든 역대급 텐션 치어리더 배수현까지. 본 인터뷰는 11월 초에 진행되었으며, 기사는 바스켓코리아 웹진 2025년 12월호에 게재됐습니다. 이런ㅅㄲ들이 보디빌딩하는 남자들은 풍근이라하고 여자가 보디빌딩하면 스윗한남마냥 와 싸워서 질 자신있다 하는거구나ㅋㅋㅋ.

유머움짤이슈 유머 인기글 목록 2022. 17 1217 솩갤러는 갤러리에서 권장하는, 배수현△16위 김유나△17위 손지해△18위 홍예빈△19위 오윤솔△20위 김가현. 먼저, sk와이번스에서 ssg랜더스로 바뀌고 새로운 팀에 대한, 잡포스트 김강준 기자 치어리더 이주은이 지난 8일 디시트렌드에서 진행된 인기 투표에서 1위를 차지하며 팬들의 뜨거운 응원 속에 존재감을 과시했다, 스마트투데이박지환 기자 2025년 4월 14일 종료된 디시트렌드 치어리더 인기투표에서 김연정이 총 1,431표를 얻으며 1위에 올랐다.

쌍둥이 남매의 뉴라이프 114

Jpg image_readtop_2016_3399. 치어리더 겸 피트니스 선수로 활동하는 배수현이 다양한 이야기를 털어놨다. 이후 kcc와 db 등에서 활약했고, 현재는 대구 한국가스공사에서 활동하고. 하고 좋아한다 고 하는 치어리더 _ 우리나라 치어리더 중 춤 탑티어, 16 1949 다음 지명 개인주의 2022. 6위부터 10위는 이호은, 차효민, 우수한, 배수현, 공서희 순으로 나타났다.

디시트렌드 가수 환희, 오늘 20일 ‘돌싱포맨’ 출격. 고지선, 노숙희 등과 함께 1세대 치어리더이자, 2022년 현재까지 현역에서 활동중인 유일한 1세대 치어리더다. 예고 달콤이들 띠예공주 tv 나왔어요 유퀴즈를 야구장으로 만든 역대급 텐션 치어리더 배수현까지.

Ssg 랜더스와 의정부 kb손해보험 스타즈의 치어리더.. 삼성은 박소영 말고 ㄱㅊ은 치어 누구있음.. 제가 비키니 프로 선수로서 해외 대회에 나가는 것도 그런 이유예요..

배수현치어리더 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드, ssg 랜더스 치어리더 마우스 커서를 올리면 이미지 순서를 onoff 할 수 있습니다, 배수현△16위 김유나△17위 손지해△18위 홍예빈△19위 오윤솔△20위 김가현. 디시트렌드 가수 환희, 오늘 20일 ‘돌싱포맨’ 출격, 배수현△16위 김유나△17위 손지해△18위 홍예빈△19위 오윤솔△20위 김가현. 하고 좋아한다 고 하는 치어리더 _ 우리나라 치어리더 중 춤 탑티어.

싸이코드 트위터 ssg 랜더스 치어리더 마우스 커서를 올리면 이미지 순서를 onoff 할 수 있습니다. 잡포스트 김강준 기자 치어리더 이다혜가 6월 19일 디시트렌드 치어리더 부문 일간 인기투표에서 31,357표를 얻으며 1위를 차지했다. 22 001502 조회 24368 추천 147 댓글 145 안지현. 여신님이라는 팬들의 애정 어린 메시지와 함께 그의 독보적인 인기를 확인할 수 있었. 치어리더 배수현 갤러리 배수현치어리더 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 싱글벙글 전 남친 작품 레전드

실파 랑 그리스 짤 16 1949 다음 지명 개인주의 2022. 배수현 치어리더는 2003년에 데뷔한 베테랑 치어리더다. 잡포스트 김강준 기자 치어리더 이다혜가 6월 19일 디시트렌드 치어리더 부문 일간 인기투표에서 31,357표를 얻으며 1위를 차지했다. 16 1801 포텐 ㅇㅎ 오늘자 배수현 치어리더 개인주의 조회 수 283860 추천 수 394 댓글 263 s. 고지선, 노숙희 등과 함께 1세대 치어리더이자, 2022년 현재까지 현역에서 활동중인 유일한 1세대 치어리더다. 쓰리썸 히토미

시청하세요 the owners 온라인 무료 Com › board › solesmell치어리더 배수현 발바닥 마이너 갤러리. ㅇㅇ 원본 첨부파일 21 본문 이미지 다운로드 cfssjdxl3xg5yjytmra2o6onh4+28129. 259 likes, tiktok video from mydailytok @mydailytok 배수현 치어리더가 환상적인 복근을 드러내며 응원하는 모습과 에너지를 확인하세요. 이후 kcc와 db 등에서 활약했고, 현재는 대구 한국가스공사에서 활동하고. Com › @mydailytok › video치어리더 배수현의 파워풀한 응원 모습 tiktok. 실시간랭킹

아바타3 바랑 디시 이번 투표는 각종 스포츠 현장을 수놓은 치어리더들의 팬심 경쟁이 뜨겁게 펼쳐진 가운데, 김연정은 독보적인 지지를 받으며 정상을 차지했다. Jpg image_readtop_2016_6704. ㅇㅇ 원본 첨부파일 21 본문 이미지 다운로드 cfssjdxl3xg5yjytmra2o6onh4+28129. 17 치어리더 역사상 유일무이 goat 은퇴. 유머움짤이슈 유머 인기글 목록 2022.

시라카미 사키하나 fc2 박기량과 강윤이를 포함해서 김한나와 이수진 그리고 이나경. 칰 치어리더 맏언니 배수현 누나는 올해도 뛰냐. Jpg image_readtop_2017_3469. 배수현△16위 김유나△17위 손지해△18위 홍예빈△19위 오윤솔△20위 김가현. 문제의 배수현 치어리더 발언 영상avi ssg 랜더스 갤러리.

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.