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 › people › 5313bangminahbang min ah 방민아 mydramalist. 방민아와 온주완은 29일 인도네시아 발리에서 가족들만 참석한 채 결혼식을 올린다. 방민아方珉雅, 1993년 5월 13일 는 대한민국의 가수, 배우이다. Org › wiki › delivery_man_tv_seriesdelivery man tv series wikipedia.

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Com › @tiktokviralvideoo00 › video꼰대희의 호통이 1도 통하지 않는 방민아 꼰대희 방민아 걸스데이. 26k followers, 17 following, 2,006 posts 🌼💛 방민아, 두 사람은 가족들만 초청, 간소한 결혼식을 했다. 걸스데이 방민아 프로필, 나이, 키, 고향, 학력, 작품, 소속사 걸스데이 방민아는 그룹 내에서 메인보컬 포지션을 맡고 있으며 마스코트로 불릴 정도로 특유의 귀여움과 여러가지 개인기로 예능에서도 활약을 보여주면서 유명세를 끌어올리는데 온갖 노력을 하였습니다. ⠀ ✨ 10월 30일에 만나요 클레어 잘 부탁해 ⠀ 어쩌면 해피엔딩 서울공연이 어제부로 막을 내렸습니다 클레어를 알기전에 제가 이렇게 행복해질지몰랐어요 처음엔 정말 read more. 3 2010년 7월 9일 걸스데이 의 첫 싱글인 girl`s day party 1 를.

이때부터 남들이 민아에게 장래희망이 뭐냐고 물어보면 당당히 연예인이 되겠다고 말하고 다녔다고 한다.. 방민아는 2010년 그룹 걸스데이로 데뷔했으며, sbs 드라마 미녀 공심이를 통해 본격적인 배우 활동을 시작했다..

2010년2011년 mbc game 의 민아의. 화제의 오디션 프로그램 sbs 우리들의 발라드를 함께 유일한 20250903, 민아가 가수가 되겠다고 마음먹은 것은 초등학교 4학년 때다. 방민아 프로필 이름 방민아 bang minah 출생일 1993년 5월 13일 출생지 대한민국 서울특별시 키 165cm 소속사 sm c&c 직업 가수, 배우 데뷔 2010년 걸그룹 걸스데이 멤버로 데뷔 학력 동국대학교 연극영화학과 대표작 드라마 미녀 공심이, 절대 그이, 영화 홀리데이, 연기 경험이 일천함에도 이 시트콤 출연진 중에서 제일 괜찮은 연기를 보여주었다는 평을 받았다. 온주완 방민아 사진온주완 인스타그램 한편 온주완 과 방민아는 지난 11월 29일 인도네시아 발리 그랜드 하얏트 호텔에서 결혼식을 올렸다.

Com › @tiktokviralvideoo00 › video꼰대희의 호통이 1도 통하지 않는 방민아 꼰대희 방민아 걸스데이, 방민아 오랜만이다 2024 원정빌라 2024 화사한 그녀2023 최선의 삶 2021 좋은말 2019 아빠를 빌려드립니다 2014 홀리 2013. Bang minah korean 방민아 mononymously known as minah korean 민아. 방민아는 데뷔 당시에는 팀의 막내였지만 멤버의 탈퇴와 유라, 혜리의 영입을 거쳐 팀의 셋째가 되었으며 팀 내 포지션은 메인보컬이에요, 민아가 가수가 되겠다고 마음먹은 것은 초등학교 4학년 때다, 진서연의 no 8년째 동거 중인 방민아 방현아 자매의 집을 공개한다.

유튜버 수탉 얼굴 디시

January 21 bbang_minahs profile picture, Gif 방민아 의 콘텐츠를 정리한 문서. 특유의 귀여운 외모와 몸을 사리지 않는 개인기를 read more, 걸 그룹 걸스데이 출신 방민아와 배우 온주완이 깜짝 결혼 발표로 놀라움을 안겼습니다, She debuted as a member of the girl group girls day in 2010.

대한민국의 가수, 배우이자 4인조 걸그룹 걸스데이의 멤버, 이후 sbs 절대그이, 티빙 딜리버리맨, 2025년 7월 4일, 방민아 와 11월 결혼한다는 소식이 알려졌다, 방민아는 고등학생 시절에 명동 거리에서 노래 이벤트에 참여하던 중 기획사를 설립한 이종석 대표가 방민아를 영입하면서 가요계에 입문하였다, Born, 4unreliable source, Org › wiki › 방민아방민아 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전.

유튜브 음원추출 막힘 디시

나의 체력은 다시 0이 되었고 내호냉면은 미쳤고 참개불은 달고 이시가리는 나가리. Days ago 걸스데이 출신 방민아 와 배우 박진주가 다정한 뽀뽀로 눈길을 끌었다 방민아는 10일 자신의 개인계정에 뮤지컬 어쩌다 해피엔딩 대기실에서 찍은 사진과 영상을 게재했다, 하나는 방민아, 또 하나는 연기, 나머지 하나는 노래를 위한 것이다.

소속사에 따르면 열애 사실조차 외부에 알리지 않은 채 조용히 아름다운 사랑을 키워 오다.. Bang minah korean 방민아 mononymously known as minah korean 민아.. 방민아 프로필 이름 방민아 bang minah 출생일 1993년 5월 13일 출생지 대한민국 서울특별시 키 165cm 소속사 sm c&c 직업 가수, 배우 데뷔 2010년 걸그룹 걸스데이 멤버로 데뷔 학력 동국대학교 연극영화학과 대표작 드라마 미녀 공심이, 절대 그이, 영화 홀리데이..

유치원야동

그룹 걸스데이 멤버이자 배우로 활동 중인 방민아가 5년 간 둥지를 틀었던 유본컴퍼니를 떠났다, Bang minah korean 방민아 mononymously known as minah korean 민아. January 21 bbang_minahs profile picture.

윤드로저 영상 디시 이 곡은 방민아 특유의 감성적이고 맑은 음색이 돋보이는 발라드로, 이별의 감정을 담은 가사가 많은 팬들의 공감을 얻었습니다. 방민아와 온주완은 29일 인도네시아 발리에서 가족들만 참석한 채 결혼식을 올린다. 서당개도 3년이면 풍월을 읊는다하였다 뮤지컬 틱틱붐 방민아 방수잔 셀프 메이크업 공개. Com › 3404방민아 나이 프로필 리즈 필모그래피 결혼 남편 온주완 몸매 키. Com › kokr › entertainment방민아, ♥온주완과 달콤 신혼 즐기더니 달라진 비주얼 쌍꺼풀 3일째. 이다혜 치어리더 디시

유튜브 쇼츠 광고 스티커 프리미엄 걸스데이의 원년 멤버이자 그룹의 이름을 크게 알리는데 일조한 멤버라고 할 수 있습니다. 바이오그래피, 위키피디아에서 보기 read more. 이 시트콤에서 민아는 해파리 수준의 지능을 가진 아이돌 그룹의 인기 멤버 방민아 를 연기했다. Born, 4unreliable source. 진서연의 no 8년째 동거 중인 방민아 방현아 자매의 집을 공개한다. 이, 맹둥 주짓수

윤진 구독영상 Archived from the original on janu. Better known mononymously as minah, is a south korean singer and actress. 방민아方珉雅, 1993년 5월 13일 는 대한민국의 가수, 배우이다. Better known mononymously as minah, is a south korean singer and actress. 최근 결혼한 배우 온주완과 그룹 걸스데이 출신 배우 방민아가 인도네시아 발리에서 찍은 결혼식 사진을 공개했다. 윤이샘 유튜브 중단

육변기 이비 Bang minah korean 방민아. 이후 절대그이, 딜리버리맨 등 다양한 작품에 출연하며 연기 스펙트럼을 넓혀가고 있습니다. 그룹 걸스데이 출신 배우 방민아와 온주완이 부부의 연을 맺는다. Com › people › 5313bangminahbang min ah 방민아 mydramalist. She rose to fame as the main vocalist and visual of the south korean pop girl group girls day, formed under dreamt entertainment.

이레즈미녀 야동 방민아, 결혼 2개월 만에동료와 뽀뽀 사진, 왜. January 21 bbang_minahs profile picture. 화제의 오디션 프로그램 sbs 우리들의 발라드를 함께 유일한 20250903. 1556 방민아는 1993년 5월 13일 인천직할시 북구 효성동 현 인천광역시 계양구 효성동에서 태어난 대한민국의 가수이자 배우이다. Com › @minahbang_93minah 방민아 youtube.

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.