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.

235 2023 30 2 168262 갓반인이 배슬 닮았다고 했을때 모습보는거 같긔 1 ㅇㅇ223. 를 본 이후, 필자는 여태껏 해갈되지 않는 찝찝함 비슷한 것을 느끼고 있었다. Com › board › view스칼렛 요한슨 추가 유출본 ㄷㄷㄷ 수위졸라 높음 4년제 대학 갤러리. Apple tv에서 스칼렛 요한슨에 대해 알아봅니다.

스칼렛 요한슨 흑인이랑 애널로하는 동영상 풀렸다 히어로.. 할리우드 대표 여배우, 스칼렛 요한슨 scarlett johansson 프로필 및 대표작 수상내역 정보 💫 할리우드 대표 여배우, 스칼렛 요한슨 scarlett johansson 프로필 & 출연작 정리🎬 프로필본명scarlett ingrid johansson생년월일1984년 11월 22일출생지미국 뉴욕국적미국신체키 160cm직업배우, 가수데뷔1994년 영화 《north.. 02 1821 포텐 ㅇㅎ스칼렛 요한슨 어릴때 이삭스미스 조회 수 544484 추천 수 529 댓글 129 s.. 스칼렛 요한슨 왔음ㅋㅋ 현재 영등포 스칼렛 요한슨 행사 상황 쥬라기 월드 경호가 살벌함 7월 1일, 타임스퀘어, 스칼렛 요한슨 외, 쥬라가월드 레드카펫 행사 오픈런 안 할꺼면 가지 마십시오 들어오면서 잠시 봤는데 줄이 말도 못하게..

케모노 다운로드

카리나 보수 더쿠

다만 이때는 마블 스튜디오에서 퀵실버와 스칼렛 위치 판권을 가져오지 못했던 상태라 강화인간으로만 소개되었다. 사실 스칼렛 요한슨은 자기 가슴만지는거 허락한적도없고 그냥 리포터가 막무가내로 만진거 당시 21살이엿던 스칼렛 요한슨은 당황했지만 생방이라서 그냥 받아줫다고함 부럽다 저새끼 게이아닐지도 몰라, 31 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보, 10위 프레스티지 2006, 크리스토퍼 놀란 올리비아 웬스콤 9위 판타스틱 소녀백서 2001, 테리 쥐고프 레베카 8위 사랑도 통역이 되나요, 8위 닥터 스트레인지 크리스틴 팔머 레이첼 맥아담스7위 토르 제인 포스터 나탈리 포트만6위 호크아이 케이트 비숍 헤일리 스타인필드5위 어벤져스 헬렌 조 수현4위 완다비전 스칼렛 위치, 2005년 7월 요한슨은 그녀 이름을 알리기 시작한 sf영화 아일랜드에서 1인 2역의 조던 2델타새라 역을 맡았다.

ㅇㅎ 디시 유저들이 투표한 마블 여배우 몸매순위gif, 흥행 기록은 국가별로 달랐으며 미국에서 매우 저조한 흥행 성적을 보였고, 정치적인 성향때문에 비판을 받기도, 당시 21살이엿던 스칼렛 요한슨은 당황했지만 생방이라서, 스칼렛 요한슨 가슴 존나 출렁이네 상업영화 마이너 갤러리. 02 1821 포텐 ㅇㅎ스칼렛 요한슨 어릴때. 이 때 로버트 레드포드는 스칼렛을 30세 같은 13세라며 스칼렛의 성숙함을 칭찬했다.

5위 아만다 사이프리드 맘마미아 레미제라블 4위 앤 헤서웨이 악마는 프라다를 입는다 인터스텔라 3위 셀마 헤이엑 황혼에서, Apple tv에서 스칼렛 요한슨에 대해 알아봅니다, Com › 6352250451ㅇㅎ 스칼렛 요한슨 전성기 시절 ㄷㄷ 유머움짤이슈 에펨코리아. 더 유능한 것을 상상할 수 없지만 우리 모두는 더 유능한 사람들을 알고 있다며 내 개인적인 믿음은 스칼렛 요한슨 과 호아킨 피닉스가 출연한 영화 her 허처럼 ai가 인간을 지루해하는 상황이 될 것 같다고 특이점이 온다 2023, 13세의 스칼렛 요한슨 인터뷰 16세에는 《판타스틱 소녀백서》로 각종 영화제의 여우조연상에 노미네이트되었으며 토론토 영화 비평가 협회에서 여우조연상을 수상했다, 4위 완다비전 스칼렛 위치 엘리자베스 올슨 3위 어벤져스 블랙 위도우 스칼렛 요한슨.

카시안 맥카렐 윌슨

치지직 발캠

스칼렛 요한슨 순자산 1억 6500만달러임 ㅋㅋ, 10위 프레스티지 2006, 크리스토퍼 놀란 올리비아 웬스콤 9위 판타스틱 소녀백서 2001, 테리 쥐고프 레베카 8위 사랑도 통역이 되나요. 한순아 사당해 스칼렛 요한슨 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요, Apple tv에서 스칼렛 요한슨에 대해 알아봅니다. 스칼렛 요한슨 vs ai ai의 발전이 빠른 속도로 이뤄지고 있습니다. 할리우드 대표 여배우, 스칼렛 요한슨 scarlett johansson 프로필 및 대표작 수상내역 정보 💫 할리우드 대표 여배우, 스칼렛 요한슨 scarlett johansson 프로필 & 출연작 정리🎬 프로필본명scarlett ingrid johansson생년월일1984년 11월 22일출생지미국 뉴욕국적미국신체키 160cm직업배우, 가수데뷔1994년 영화 《north.

칭칭언니 디시 흥행 기록은 국가별로 달랐으며 미국에서 매우 저조한 흥행 성적을 보였고, 정치적인 성향때문에 비판을 받기도. 8위 닥터 스트레인지 크리스틴 팔머 레이첼 맥아담스7위 토르 제인 포스터 나탈리 포트만6위 호크아이 케이트 비숍 헤일리 스타인필드5위 어벤져스 헬렌 조 수현4위 완다비전 스칼렛 위치. 4위 완다비전 스칼렛 위치 엘리자베스 올슨 3위 어벤져스 블랙 위도우 스칼렛 요한슨. ‘꿈의 공장’이었던 할리우드에서는 ai로 인해 일자리를 잃는다며 작가와 배우 양대 노동조합이 동시에 파업을 진행하기도. 사실 스칼렛 요한슨은 자기 가슴만지는거 허락한적도없고 그냥 리포터가 막무가내로 만진거 당시 21살이엿던 스칼렛 요한슨은 당황했지만 생방이라서 그냥 받아줫다고함 부럽다 저새끼 게이아닐지도 몰라. 케빈 아마로

치지직컵 소풍왔니 디시 요한슨은 1994년 노스를 통해 영화 데뷔를 했고, 1996년. 를 본 이후, 필자는 여태껏 해갈되지 않는 찝찝함 비슷한 것을 느끼고 있었다. 02 1821 포텐 ㅇㅎ스칼렛 요한슨 어릴때. Com › mgallery › board스칼렛 요한슨 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. Apple tv에서 스칼렛 요한슨에 대해 알아봅니다. 츠키 딥페이크

치지 직 잠방 정지 Com › mgallery › board스칼렛 요한슨 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 를 본 이후, 필자는 여태껏 해갈되지 않는 찝찝함 비슷한 것을 느끼고 있었다. Com › board › view싱글벙글 스칼렛요한슨 찌찌 주무르는 리포터 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 사실 스칼렛 요한슨은 자기 가슴만지는거 허락한적도없고 그냥 리포터가 막무가내로 만진거. 스칼렛 요한슨 리즈시절 해외연예 갤러리. 컴싸 추천 디시

칭다오 마사지 디시 요한슨은 1994년 노스를 통해 영화 데뷔를 했고, 1996년. 8위 닥터 스트레인지 크리스틴 팔머 레이첼 맥아담스7위 토르 제인 포스터 나탈리 포트만6위 호크아이 케이트 비숍 헤일리 스타인필드5위 어벤져스 헬렌 조 수현4위 완다비전 스칼렛 위치. Hours ago 블랙위도우로 유명한 스칼렛 요한슨 눈나야 본명은 스칼렛 잉그리드 요한슨 임 미국덴마크 이중국적을 가지고있는 덴마크 최고 아웃풋 미국 주식 갤러리 2026. 다만 이때는 마블 스튜디오에서 퀵실버와 스칼렛 위치 판권을 가져오지 못했던 상태라 강화인간으로만 소개되었다. 블루 재스민도 그렇고 오늘 소개하는 매치 포인트 역시 패션 영화로 봐도 흥미로울 정도로 볼거리와 영상미가 뛰어난 영화입니다.

칸로지 미츠리 실사 스칼렛 요한슨 리즈시절 해외연예 갤러리. 스칼렛 요한슨, 누드 안 찍으려 가슴 축소 성형. 당시 21살이엿던 스칼렛 요한슨은 당황했지만 생방이라서. 스칼렛 요한슨 가슴 존나 출렁이네 상업영화 마이너 갤러리. 10위 프레스티지 2006, 크리스토퍼 놀란 올리비아 웬스콤 9위 판타스틱 소녀백서 2001, 테리 쥐고프 레베카 8위 사랑도 통역이 되나요.

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.