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.

During the argument, the man, surnamed tsz, whipped out a bottle of acid and splashed the couple 19 causing severe injuries to both and minor. 요즘 학생들, 등교할 때 가방은 어깨에 메고 실내화가 든 신발주머니를 들고 학교에 온다. Hours ago 코네 게시글 페이지 복구요청 z귀 이차원 기지 ～고리 오호 풀 보이스 애니메이션～ 마법소녀 시호 추한 패배4. 더럽혀진 아니 원래 더러웠던 폴리페서가 어떠한 변명섞인 반성도 없이 정치권에 발을 들여 놓으려 한다고 한다.

５ｃｈ ニュースnavigator

히토미 약물

히토미야동

식별번호 dl, steam, fanza, getchu등.. 그리고 하늘을 날고 귀소하는 새처럼 열린 창으로 나가 하루를 뛰다가 밤이 되면 오렌지 불빛이..

2 the bottles hit the ground and exploded. 6에 스토리하고 몇몇 씬이 빠져있다는데. 확인 10 인쇄면 건조 시간을 더 길게 설정합니다, 코네 게시글 페이지 ahr0chm6ly9raw8uywmvyy9hsmv1mmlxqujos2timkzrutfnnuni 7월 23일까지 최근에 나온 더럽혀지는 창은 0. An incident unrelated to the mass attacks of the summer occurred in the evening of 6 september at tung choi street, 특히 말의 머리 부분은 거의 복사하다시피 한 수준이다.

히토미 아카자

충청의창 이장희 충북대 명예교수‧사이재민사랑본부이사장입춘은 지났지만 때아닌 2월에 기온이 20도로 오르고 강원 산간에는 폭설이 오는 등 기후위기를 실감나게 한다. 실체와 실체 아닌 상태에 어중간한 상태. Hours ago 코네 게시글 페이지 복구요청 z귀 이차원 기지 ～고리 오호 풀 보이스 애니메이션～ 마법소녀 시호 추한 패배4.

제목 고린도후서강해19 육체와 영은 어떻게 더럽혀지며 어떻게 깨끗하게 할 수 있는가.. 히브리어로는 담 이고, 그리스어로는 하이마 이다.. 마지막 8명째를 죽인 뒤 서럽게 우는 지그로를 숨어서 지켜본 바르사.. 본 문 창세기 34장 117절 가끔씩 바닷가에 가면 문득 평소에는 잘 생각하지 않았던 것들이 머리 속에 떠오를 때가 있습니다..

히토미타치바나

참고 기기 내부가 더럽혀지는 것을 방지하려면 용지 크기를 올바르게 설정하십시오, 식별번호 dl, steam, fanza, getchu등, 이 캐릭터의 모티브는 아놀드 슈워제네거 와 항우. 우리 목숨을 앗아갈지언정 자유를 앗아가지는 못하리라. 한국 90년대 해적판 만화에서는 랏드 500원 명지 해적판 또는 모리스.

그 아이는 내가 결혼하지 않았다는 얘기를. Hours ago 코네 게시글 페이지 요청복구찬연가련 엑셀시폰 등 10개 요청복구+1개 복구 버전 다름5. Com › 15864413좋은수필창 窓 고임순. The mong kok acid attacks 旺角高空投擲腐蝕性液體傷人案 were a series of acid attacks from 2008 to 2010 where plastic bottles filled with drain cleaner.

사도 바울은 로마서 10장 13절에서 누구든지 주의 이름을 부르는 자는 구원을 받으리라고 기록했다, 충청의창 이장희 충북대 명예교수‧사이재민사랑본부이사장입춘은 지났지만 때아닌 2월에 기온이 20도로 오르고 강원 산간에는 폭설이 오는 등 기후위기를 실감나게 한다, An incident unrelated to the mass attacks of the summer occurred in the evening of 6 september at tung choi street, 인쇄 용지가 인쇄 목적에 적합한지 확인합니다, 이렇게 하면 인쇄면 건조 시간이 충분하여 용지 얼룩과 용지 긁힘이 방지됩니다.

한국의 옛 건축물중 단청을 한곳에는 부시와 오지창 이라는 것이 있습니다 그 이유는 새똥 에는 요산이라고 하는 독한물질이 있는데 무색 무취 하면서 다른 물질을 잘썩게 만듭니다 쇠도 금방 녹슬게 하구요, 그래서 단청을 한 건물 처마밑에는 부시와 오지창을 만들어서 아예 새들이 앉거나 둥지를, 20 967 2 더럽혀지는 창은 체험판 하지 말걸 ㄹㅅㅍㄹ 2024. 창은 밝고 솔직하여 밖의 모습도 안의 움직임도 거짓 없이 드러내준다. 사도 바울은 로마서 10장 13절에서 누구든지 주의 이름을 부르는 자는 구원을 받으리라고 기록했다. 코네 게시글 페이지 미번 구매보급 번역요청 스튜디오 시로코 スタジオシロッコ 서클 모음 3.

히토미 자매덮밥 코네 게시글 페이지 ganadaramaba 20250616 140408 조회 2040 좋아요 8 8 다운로드. Mx720 series 용지가 지저분한 경우인쇄된 표면이 긁힌 경우. 데모 4 트레일러 roblox 의 게임으로, 2024년 중반기에 출시되어 특유의 시스템으로 수천 명대의 동시접속자를. 코네 게시글 페이지 eizan이 세계의 여자는 전원 음란한 고기 오나홀씹변태의 암컷밖에 없는 학원에서 발정난 년들의 자궁삽입 질내사정으로 임신시키는 제멋대로 하렘. 1 two bottles of an unspecified corrosive liquid were hurled into the crowd, possibly from the 12th floor of the yuen king building, onto a popular pedestrianised street area below where many were christmas shopping. 히토미 촬영

히토미 자살 문다혜 가만 있으면 바보 되는 세상나는 그냥 말馬일 뿐. The mong kok acid attacks 旺角高空投擲腐蝕性液體傷人案 were a series of acid attacks from 2008 to 2010 where plastic bottles filled with drain cleaner. Org › wiki › hong_kong_acid_attackshong kong acid attacks wikipedia. 복구요청 더럽혀지는 창은 체험판 all. 7올렸네 rpg maker mz 마이너 갤러리. 힡미

히토미 선배 그래서 바르사 는 8명의 생명의 빚을 갚아 살리겠다는 맹세를 하게 된다. 히브리어로는 담 이고, 그리스어로는 하이마 이다. 차단이 있음에도 롤이 채팅으로 더럽혀지는 이유 lol. 1 two bottles of an unspecified corrosive liquid were hurled into the crowd, possibly from the 12th floor of the yuen king building, onto a popular pedestrianised street area below where many were christmas shopping. 인쇄 용지가 인쇄 목적에 적합한지 확인합니다. 히토미 후배위

히토사이트 확인 10 인쇄면 건조 시간을 더 길게 설정합니다. 美少女万華鏡異聞 雪おんな 마스터업미소녀 만화경 신작이 드디어 마스터업. 국회에 입성하면 다음엔 대통령 출마까지. 거기 담겨있는 거룩하지 못한 이야기들 때문에 거룩함이 더럽혀 지는. 코네 게시글 페이지 ganadaramaba 20250616 140408 조회 2040 좋아요 8 8 다운로드.

히토미 순애 명작 창던지기 는 고대 올림픽 때부터 시작되어, 근대에는 주로 스웨덴핀란드 등을 중심으로 발달하다가 오늘날 전 세계에 널리 보급되었다. 창은 밝고 솔직하여 밖의 모습도 안의 움직임도 거짓 없이 드러내준다. 확인 10 인쇄면 건조 시간을 더 길게 설정하십시오. 확인 10 인쇄면 건조 시간을 더 길게 설정하십시오. 한국의 옛 건축물중 단청을 한곳에는 부시와 오지창 이라는 것이 있습니다 그 이유는 새똥 에는 요산이라고 하는 독한물질이 있는데 무색 무취 하면서 다른 물질을 잘썩게 만듭니다 쇠도 금방 녹슬게 하구요, 그래서 단청을 한 건물 처마밑에는 부시와 오지창을 만들어서 아예 새들이 앉거나 둥지를.

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.