태국 당시 시암과 캄보디아의 국경을 확정 짓는 지도였다.

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 › @gwak_yunhee › video태국 방송 중 캄보디아 국경의 대학살 폭로 tiktok. 2025년 태국캄보디아 국경 분쟁 r455 판. 27일 외교부에 따르면 태국과 캄보디아 접경지역. Input1195m 캄보디아, 태국과 4개 지역 국경분쟁 icj에 단독 제소 연합뉴스 하노이연합.

캄보디아군의 진지 이동 장면이 sns를 통해 그대로 공개되면서, 태국군 포병이 위치를 빠르게 특정할 수 있는 단서를 제공했다.. 알다시피 캄보디아는 과거 프랑스의 식민지였음..

26 233915 삭제 주한독일문화원 그건 태국이 아니라 베트남이지만 캄보디아 난민들이 폴 포트 정권을 피해서 캄보디아랑 맞닿아있는 태국 국경지대에 쳐들어와서 난민촌을 무허가로 엄청 지어댄거때문에 태국도 캄보디아한테 엄청 항의했었음 07.

Com › Shinswoong75 › 2239455702072025년 7월 24일, 태국, 지금 즉시 캄보디아 탈출하라 발언에 대한 X.

Com › shinswoong75 › 2239455702072025년 7월 24일, 태국, 지금 즉시 캄보디아 탈출하라 발언에 대한 x. Kr › society › 20250727태국캄보디아 국경 충돌 확대&mldr, 주술사가 적 전투기 모형 들고 저주거는거밖에.

태국 방송에서 캄보디아 한국인 납치고문살인 사건에 대해 다룸태국인들은 캄보디아에 대해 빠삭하게 알고 있구나.. 태국 유튜브 근황 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 더불어민주당 마이너 갤러리..

세계 많은 분쟁지역이 그렇듯 프랑스가 떠난후 태국 캄보디아 국경선 확정이 애매해짐, 해외 정보 기관들은 이를 ‘전장 정보 노출에 의한 자가 약화’로 규정했다. 어찌보면 마음 놓고 캄보디아 두들겨 팰 명분작 해준 한국이니까 ㅋㅋ. 태국 입장에서 캄보디아 흡수해서 좋을게 있나.

핵무장과 확장억지에 대한 한국인의 마음 북한발 핵위협, 미국의 관여 축소 움직임, 다자협력의 약화 등 한반도 주변 안보환경에서 부정적 현상이 나타나면서 한국의 자체 핵무장론이 부상하고 있다. 한국이 특별군사작전 한다면서 캄보디아 끝났다, 현재 베트남에 외노자로 있고작년엔 1년간 캄보디아에서 외노자로 지냈던 꿈을 꿨었지베트남이야 정보가 많으니 안적어도 될거 같고캄보디아에서 1년간 지냈던 꿈꾼 기억을 적어보도록 할께1.

태국과 캄보디아 사이의 무력 충돌이 캄보디아 남서부 지역으로 확대되자 외교부가 여행경보 단계를 상향 조정한 가운데 현지 교민들 사이에서 불안함이 감지된다.

2008년에는 판결에 불만을 가진 태국의 시위대 3명이 캄보디아로 침입하였고, 캄보디아군이 이들을 억류하자 태국군이 캄보디아 영역에 진입하여 대치가 벌어졌다. 니들 존나 약하잖아 하면서 비웃음당함아 역시 우린 캄보디아에게 비웃음 당할정도로 화력이 부족했구나 ㅠㅠ탱크 더 많은 탱크가 필요하다. 태국과 캄보디아 사이의 무력 충돌이 캄보디아 남서부 지역으로 확대되자 외교부가 여행경보 단계를 상향 조정한 가운데 현지 교민들 사이에서 불안함이 감지된다.

한국 정부의 강력한 대응에 캄보디아 정부는. ｜역사적 분쟁 배경 요약오랜 갈등은 1904년 시암 태국–프랑스 조약에서 비롯된 국경선 모호성에 뿌리를 두고 있습니다, 이때부터 양국은 군대를 동원해 서로 영유권을, 태국‑캄보디아 국경 충돌 원인과 현황, 이틀째 이어지는 교전포병전투기까지 동원된 대규모 교전으로 양국 사망자가 총 16명으로 늘었으며, 대피 인원도 급증하고 있습니다. ｜역사적 분쟁 배경 요약오랜 갈등은 1904년 시암 태국–프랑스 조약에서 비롯된 국경선 모호성에 뿌리를 두고 있습니다.

프레아 비헤아르 사원이라는곳이 있음대충 유명한 관광지임근데 이 사원의 위치가 애매함보는것처럼 태국과 캄보디아의 국경에. 그게 바로 태국 시민들이 한국을 존경스럽다고 느낀 이유일 거예요. 대한민국 전면전 이전 외교부는 대변인 성명을 통해. 한국과 태국의 통화 이후 캄보디아에서 벌어진 일들에 대한 외신의 반응을 알아보세요. 니들 존나 약하잖아 하면서 비웃음당함아 역시 우린 캄보디아에게 비웃음 당할정도로 화력이 부족했구나 ㅠㅠ탱크 더 많은 탱크가 필요하다.

카난 꼭지 한국 정부의 강력한 대응에 캄보디아 정부는. 캄보디아 한국인 납치고문살인에 대한 태국인들 반응jpg. 태국 입장에서 캄보디아 흡수해서 좋을게 있나. 좋아요 244개,gwak_yunhee @gwak_yunhee 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 태국 방송이 전한 캄보디아 국경의 대학살과 전투기 조종사의 돌발행동을 확인해 보세요. Input1195m 캄보디아, 태국과 4개 지역 국경분쟁 icj에 단독 제소 연합뉴스 하노이연합. 캣 데닝스

카리나 ㅗㅜㅑ 디시 주술사가 적 전투기 모형 들고 저주거는거밖에. 캄보디아가 크메르 제국시절에 태국계 애들이 제국 약해진 틈에 벌떼같이 일어나서 떨어져나옴. 수 sns를 통해, 제3국의 무기 판매와 관련한 보도가 캄보디아–태국 간 갈등을 자극하거나 분쟁을 유도하는 데 이용되어서는 안 된다고 경고함. 태국 방송에서 캄보디아 한국인 납치고문살인 사건에 대해 다룸태국인들은 캄보디아에 대해 빠삭하게 알고 있구나. 하지만 프랑스가 그은 선은 멋대로였다. 카리나 입싸

카리나 꼴 디시 보통은 1만4000원, 특은 2만2000원이다. 경제적으로 어려움이 커질 수 있다는 우려를 하는 교민들도 있었다. 태국 응원하는 한국을 본 캄보디아 반응. 문제는 이 지도가 엉터리였다는 점이다. 승리황하나 이번엔 캄보디아 논란인터폴 적색수배→태자단지 루머 재점화 디시전 데이→메시와 정규리그 간판 우뚝 사업가 된 이효리, 요가원 열고. 케인 마이너

케덕 검열 디시 특히 캄보디아 내에서 친중 성향의 정부와 친미 성향의 민심 사이의 간극이 점점 벌어지고 있는 현실은 훈 마넷 캄보디아 총리의 정치적 입지에도. 태국 응원하는 한국을 본 캄보디아 반응. 중립무반응만 되어도 사실상 지지임 적극 반대 규탄해야 반대고. 국경은 보통 산맥의 능선이나 강을 따라 정해진다. 캄보디아군의 진지 이동 장면이 sns를 통해 그대로 공개되면서, 태국군 포병이 위치를 빠르게 특정할 수 있는 단서를 제공했다.

캣 데닝스 리즈 니들 존나 약하잖아 하면서 비웃음당함아 역시 우린 캄보디아에게 비웃음 당할정도로 화력이 부족했구나 ㅠㅠ탱크 더 많은 탱크가 필요하다. 수 sns를 통해, 제3국의 무기 판매와 관련한 보도가 캄보디아–태국 간 갈등을 자극하거나 분쟁을 유도하는 데 이용되어서는 안 된다고 경고함. 보통은 1만4000원, 특은 2만2000원이다. Com › shinswoong75 › 2239455702072025년 7월 24일, 태국, 지금 즉시 캄보디아 탈출하라 발언에 대한 x. 한국이 특별군사작전 한다면서 캄보디아 끝났다.

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.