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.

您即将访问包含露骨内容（色情）的网站。如果你年满18岁或达到当地规定能看这种信息的法定年龄（以较大年龄为准），您才能访问 read more. 梅洛彼得堡 5434 人聚集在这个小组 加入小组 推特上的kuzu博主竟然长这样 花草种植交流基地小组 鬼子做饭｜shiku 网黄博主论坛体 妈妈们请吃 西海岸鬼子花园小组. 色情 传媒作品 探花直播 网黄女神 绿帽淫妻 成人大众之家 草莓成人网 大众成人 kuzu no honkai 07ma10p_1080px265_flac_aac. 您即将访问包含露骨内容（色情）的网站。如果你年满18岁或达到当地规定能看这种信息的法定年龄（以较大年龄为准），您才能访问 read more.

벤자민 풀포드

17作品酒店连续约操两位极品嫩妹内射中出！ 赛赛 2025 年11 月20 日 每日大赛, 必撸大赛 myfans日本人气网黄kuzu 11.. 17作品酒店连续约操两位极品嫩妹内射中出！ 赛赛 fansone台湾极品身材网黄小秘书twin 身穿吊带黑丝在迈巴赫上面与粉丝做爱！ 赛赛..

부를레타

Cn › pixiv › tags日本王黄kuzu的热门插图和漫画 pixibloom pixiv p站 pixiv国, 最近好多人问的えむkuzu（日本人手臂有沙漏纹身那哥的新号@53_v0 11. 色情 传媒作品 探花直播 网黄女神 绿帽淫妻 成人大众之家 草莓成人网 大众成人 kuzu no honkai 07ma10p_1080px265_flac_aac, 17作品酒店连续约操两位极品嫩妹内射中出！ 赛赛 2025 年11 月20 日 每日大赛, 必撸大赛 myfans日本人气网黄kuzu 11, Kuzu no honkai 07ma10p_1080px265_flac_aac.

베일리 석

Find high quality 日本网黄kuzu, all png clipart images with transparent backgroud can be download for free.. Com。探索海量高质最相关x级电影及视频。pornhub是当下最受欢迎拥有最多热门kudzu 场景的色情片网站！在任何设备上都可以播放及浏览.. Com › group › topic大家知道一个叫kuzu的网黄吗 豆瓣..

북 토끼 텍본 디시

Com › item › 网黄网黄_百度百科. Kuzu的推特是 53_v0 这期好甜好嗑！ 女性向 1️⃣各种亲吻、摸摸身体、打屁股 rt @yaoi_thebest 爱听对话的都看过来好吗宇宙无敌之色情对话 攻：操开了. Com › rain › a网黄致人社死，维权困境何解？_腾讯新闻.

高颜值极品白虎妹kuzu 经典之作两个极品美少女的内衣诱惑. 有喜欢kuzu的狼友吗，才发现他不在myfan更新了 闲聊. 214436 explore trending storiesgo to homesearch xnews. 日本大神kuzu最新消息 日本网红kuzuv0穿搭 日本男博主kuzu现状 日本博主kuzu结婚了吗 日本网红帅哥kuzu现状 日本推特网红kuzu资料 日本kuzu2.

Find high quality 日本网黄kuzu, all png clipart images with transparent backgroud can be download for free, 相关内容推荐 大家知道一个叫kuzu的网黄吗 梅洛彼得堡小组 推特上的kuzu博主竟然长这样 花草种植交流基地小组 鬼子做饭｜shiku 网黄博主论坛体 妈妈们请吃 西海岸鬼子花园小组. Kuzu 油管视频和 跨性别色情影片 tg tube 视频, Kuzu_v0的视频在他的myfans个人主页上发布的，他的作品都在myfans更新，myfans是一个类似于onlyfans的平台，但是要看这些作品是有门槛的，用户需要付费订阅喜欢的博主，才能看到对方发布的内容。 kuzu_v0给出的月付订阅价格是3000日元，折合成人民币差不多是147. 214436 explore trending storiesgo to homesearch xnews. 5公分粗極巨根男子kuzu 39分11 豪爽.

日本王黄kuzu的热门插图和漫画。与日本王黄kuzu相关的标签还有等。 pixibloom pixiv p站 pixiv国内镜像站. 中華人民共和國政府禁止在境內開設成人網站。對於在境外的大型免費成人網站，一般利用 防火長城 進行封鎖。而在三間 isp 中，以 中國移動 的封鎖最為嚴厲，其在防火長城的基礎上，額外封鎖「不良」網站累計超60萬個，這表示，在使用移動無線網路及 鐵通 寬頻時將會有更多的港澳台及海外. 中華人民共和國政府禁止在境內開設成人網站。對於在境外的大型免費成人網站，一般利用 防火長城 進行封鎖。而在三間 isp 中，以 中國移動 的封鎖最為嚴厲，其在防火长城的基础上，额外封锁不良网站累计超60万个，这表示，在使用移动无线网络及 铁通 宽带时将会有更多的港澳台及海外.

베일리 성형 Com。探索海量高质最相关x级电影及视频。pornhub是当下最受欢迎拥有最多热门kudzu 场景的色情片网站！在任何设备上都可以播放及浏览. Com › celebrity › 0347194754250kuzu_v0的视频在哪里看，作品都发布在哪个平台更新_即时尚. 5公分粗極巨根男子kuzu 39分11 豪爽. 日本王黄kuzu的热门插图和漫画。与日本王黄kuzu相关的标签还有等。 pixibloom pixiv p站 pixiv国内镜像站. Kuzu 油管视频和 跨性别色情影片 tg tube 视频. 부산 천지창조 라인

변녀 뜻 Please use and share these clipart pictures with your friends. Com › group › topic大家知道一个叫kuzu的网黄吗 豆瓣. 最近好多人问的えむkuzu（日本人手臂有沙漏纹身那哥的新号@53_v0 11. Find high quality 日本网黄kuzu, all png clipart images with transparent backgroud can be download for free. 日本王黄kuzu的热门插图和漫画。与日本王黄kuzu相关的标签还有等。 pixibloom pixiv p站 pixiv国内镜像站. 버 튜버 생방 야스

불암산적 디시 Kuzu 油管视频和 跨性别色情影片 tg tube 视频. Kuzu 油管视频和 跨性别色情影片 tg tube 视频. 高颜值极品白虎妹kuzu 经典之作两个极品美少女的内衣诱惑. 214436 explore trending storiesgo to homesearch xnews. 最近好多人问的えむkuzu（日本人手臂有沙漏纹身那哥的新号@53_v0 11. 보추 은꼴

불지르는 짤 3153 日本素人纖細美人被帶回旅館調教內射。男kuzu 女r_uvul. 17作品酒店连续约操两位极品嫩妹内射中出！ 赛赛 2025 年11 月20 日 每日大赛, 必撸大赛 myfans日本人气网黄kuzu 11. 您即将访问包含露骨内容（色情）的网站。如果你年满18岁或达到当地规定能看这种信息的法定年龄（以较大年龄为准），您才能访问 read more. 日本大神kuzu最新消息 日本网红kuzuv0穿搭 日本男博主kuzu现状 日本博主kuzu结婚了吗 日本网红帅哥kuzu现状 日本推特网红kuzu资料 日本kuzu2. Kuzu 油管视频和 跨性别色情影片 tg tube 视频.

베 돈크 키 디시 Kuzu_v0的视频在他的myfans个人主页上发布的，他的作品都在myfans更新，myfans是一个类似于onlyfans的平台，但是要看这些作品是有门槛的，用户需要付费订阅喜欢的博主，才能看到对方发布的内容。 kuzu_v0给出的月付订阅价格是3000日元，折合成人民币差不多是147. 中華人民共和國政府禁止在境內開設成人網站。對於在境外的大型免費成人網站，一般利用 防火長城 進行封鎖。而在三間 isp 中，以 中國移動 的封鎖最為嚴厲，其在防火長城的基礎上，額外封鎖「不良」網站累計超60萬個，這表示，在使用移動無線網路及 鐵通 寬頻時將會有更多的港澳台及海外. Com。探索海量高质最相关x级电影及视频。pornhub是当下最受欢迎拥有最多热门kudzu 场景的色情片网站！在任何设备上都可以播放及浏览. Com › group › topic大家知道一个叫kuzu的网黄吗 豆瓣. Kuzu no honkai 07ma10p_1080px265_flac_aac.

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.