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.

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트위터 쿠치 근황

Com › 화개살화개살이란, 화개살 뜻, 특징, 성격, 외모, 작용력, 보는 법, 응용. 도화살 화개살 홍염살 실제느낌 차이 200606202109 역학. 화개살은 어떻게 쓰니 200606202109 역학 갤러리. 살 화개살 vs 도화관상 사주와 관상의 공통점, 화개살이 12개 있을 경우, 화개살이라 하며, 3개 이상일 경우, 화개격 또는 명예격으로 화개의 긍정적인 역할이 잘 발휘된다고 한다.

싱글벙글 언론에 보도된 최초의 대량 살인마 수건가지고 하숙집 주인과 싸우다가 열불 터져서 마구 죽이고 다님17명 살해사망자 중에는 조선인도 있었음 정신병자라는 이유로 7년 6개월 선고1955년 61세 나이로 사망. 여담 편집 화개살 도 도화살 못지않게 연예인들이 많다고 한다. 미인사주2 200606202109 역학 갤러리.

첫 향은 약한데 자꾸 맡으면 존나 강한거임. 근데 울언니가 계유일주 계계병존 도화인데 울 언니는 나랑 다르게 read more.  화개살 위치별 해석 지지의 위치 년지월지일지시지에 따라 화개살이 발현되는 시기가 달라지는데요, 여담 편집 화개살 도 도화살 못지않게 연예인들이 많다고 한다, 화개살에 미인이 많음 200606202109 역학 갤러리. 홍염살도화살은 예술적인 성향이 강한 성분이어서 연예인예술가&midd.

화개살은 화려함을 덮는데 미인이면 사람들 시선이 부담스러울거고 뭣보다 가장 진국 미인일 가능성이 높다 sns에 관심도없고 은둔생활할가능성이높다, 화개는 진짜 그냥 일반사람들이랑 차원이다름 화개앞에서 홍염이고 도화고 나발이고. 자녀 화개살이면 그 가정은 고생길이라고 도화,홍염이랑 엮여서 유혹살이라고까지 불리는 이유도 터무니없고.

첫 향은 약한데 자꾸 맡으면 존나 강한거임.. 애정과 관련이 있는 신살 神殺에는 도화살함지살홍염살목욕살년살망신살 등이 있다.. 근데 화개로 살면 고독즐기는 살이라 반대해야해..

홍염살도화살은 예술적인 성향이 강한 성분이어서 연예인예술가&midd. 화개는 진짜 그냥 일반사람들이랑 차원이다름 화개앞에서 홍염이고 도화고 나발이고. 근데 화개로 살면 고독즐기는 살이라 반대해야해. 애정과 관련이 있는 신살 神殺에는 도화살함지살홍염살목욕살년살망신살 등이 있다. 모든 부귀영화富貴榮華를 덮는 액운厄運이라는 것을 의미한다.

Com › board › view도화살 화개살 홍염살 실제느낌 차이 200606202109 역학 갤러리. Com › oh724066 › 221796794327사주팔자의 화개살 이모저모 네이버 블로그. 예술이나 글을 다루는 직업인 화가나 작가 같은 직업도 괜찮습니다. 기생인데 학문철학에능하고 고독한느낌의기생, 대놓고유혹하지않고 지적이고 신비로운이미지로 묘하게 상대를 끌어들임 조이 홍염살 애교가많고 상대방에게 다가가는 느낌, 화개華蓋란 말은 빛날 화華, 덮을 개蓋로, 밖으로 향해 빛나야 할.

판자 일본

 화개살 영상 유튜브_도화도르 통해 확인하기.. Com › saju_column화개살 보는법ㅣ화개살 위치 해석법 및 화개살 종류별 추천 직업 사.. 화개가 인기살이다 하면서 자기위로하는데 사주원국에 도화나 홍염 운에 도화.. 물론 화개가 미남미녀라는건 아닌데 그부분은 나한테 홍염+일귀격인걸로 용모ㅅㅌㅊ설명됨 그걸 중화시켜주려고 일브러 옷을 거지노숙자처럼 입는걸..

사주에 화개살이 2개, 3개 이상인 경우, 종교와 철학에 관심이 많으며, 예술적 감각이 뛰어난 사람이 많습니다. 도화 엄청쎈애들 화개살 느낌날수도있는게 역갤러185, 도화 엄청쎈애들 화개살 느낌날수도있는게 역갤러185.

트위터 토냥이

화개살 보는 법 년지기준 일지기준 3. 화개華蓋란 말은 빛날 화華, 덮을 개蓋로, 밖으로 향해 빛나야 할, 디시인사이드 역학 갤러리에서 사주와 운세에 관한 다양한 정보를 공유하세요. 미인사주2 200606202109 역학 갤러리. 도화살 개성있음 사람들의 이목을 집중시킴 끼가있음 남자꼬임 홍염살 색기있음 뭘해도 매력적임 애교있음 자기가꼬심 화개살 매력있음 똑똑해보임. 화개살 얘기 많은데 화개살 있는 애들은 역학 갤러리.

틱톡커 유주 화개살이 12개 있을 경우, 화개살이라 하며, 3개 이상일 경우, 화개격 또는 명예격으로 화개의 긍정적인 역할이 잘 발휘된다고 한다. Com › 화개살화개살이란, 화개살 뜻, 특징, 성격, 외모, 작용력, 보는 법, 응용. 첫 향은 약한데 자꾸 맡으면 존나 강한거임. 여담 편집 화개살 도 도화살 못지않게 연예인들이 많다고 한다. ※ 어디까지나 흥미 위주일 뿐, 큰 의미는 없습니다. 트위터 말왕

트위터 비계 처벌 화개살은 화개없는애들은 뭔지모름ㅋ 200606202109. 근데 화개로 살면 고독즐기는 살이라 반대해야해. 모든 부귀영화富貴榮華를 덮는 액운厄運이라는 것을 의미한다. 근데 울언니가 계유일주 계계병존 도화인데 울 언니는 나랑 다르게 read more. 싱글벙글 언론에 보도된 최초의 대량 살인마 수건가지고 하숙집 주인과 싸우다가 열불 터져서 마구 죽이고 다님17명 살해사망자 중에는 조선인도 있었음 정신병자라는 이유로 7년 6개월 선고1955년 61세 나이로 사망. 트위터 섹트 곤듀

트위터 야동한국 본인 일지 화개인데 ㄹㅇ 화개 이거임 역학 갤러리. 화개살 華蓋煞 뜻, 의미, 특징에 대해 알아보겠습니다. 화개살 華蓋煞 뜻, 의미, 특징에 대해 알아보겠습니다. ※ 어디까지나 흥미 위주일 뿐, 큰 의미는 없습니다. 화개살 인생에 대해 말해줌 반박가능 200606202109. 트위터 스페이스 익명 청취 디시

트위터 부산 펨돔 이거 냄새맡은 이성들은 화개살 가진 사람한테 미침. 본인 일지 화개인데 ㄹㅇ 화개 이거임 역학 갤러리. 이거 냄새맡은 이성들은 화개살 가진 사람한테 미침. 디시인사이드 역학 갤러리에서 사주와 운세에 관한 다양한 정보를 공유하세요. 자녀 화개살이면 그 가정은 고생길이라고 도화,홍염이랑 엮여서 유혹살이라고까지 불리는 이유도 터무니없고.

트위터 일시정지 해제 이거 냄새맡은 이성들은 화개살 가진 사람한테 미침. 화개살 강한 여자 200606202109 역학 갤러리. 기생인데 학문철학에능하고 고독한느낌의기생, 대놓고유혹하지않고 지적이고 신비로운이미지로 묘하게 상대를 끌어들임 조이 홍염살 애교가많고 상대방에게 다가가는 느낌. 홍염살도화살은 예술적인 성향이 강한 성분이어서 연예인예술가&midd. 화개살은 어떻게 쓰니 200606202109 역학 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.