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.

내년에 명예로운 대령 계급장을 달 중령들의 명단입니다. Com › view › nisx20250608_0003204644구독형 건강 서비스상조 상품 결합으로 시너지 창출인터뷰. 2,037 followers, 631 following, 30 posts 장승훈 장유피티 장유pt 🔥 @stronghxxn on instagram 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝘁🏋🏻 𝗱𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘆🏃🏻𝗳𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗵 쓰러지고 말지 포기는 안할거야 philippians‬ ‭4‬‭13‬ ‭. 2025 예비고3 정시반 설명회_수능분석 장승훈 원장 서울.

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학력 서울대학교 의과대학 석사 서울대학교 의과대학 박사 서울대학교 의과대학 졸업.. Ytn 뉴스 보도에 폐센터장 장승훈 교수가 출연해 만성폐쇄성폐질환copd의 심각성과 조기 진단의 중요성을 전했습니다.. 2,757 followers, 361 following, 32 posts 장승훈 @hoon9up on instagram 𝐋𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺.. 한국 대학교 1학년20살 동아리에 새로 들어온 상큼한..

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129 followers, 63 following, 18 posts 장승훈 @jang_seung_hoon_official on instagram 사랑과 꿈과 나의 대한. Com › postview 의료진 소개 호흡기내과 장승훈 교수님 네이버 블로그. 이재현의 성장엔진 cj웰케어, 경쟁사 건기식 전문가 수장에 올렸다 박성선 종근당건강 전무 신임 대표이사에 기존 장승훈 대표이사는 coo에 재선임 6. 319, 3,085안타, 504홈런, 1,676타점, 319도루, 수위타자 7회, 최고출루율 9회, 베스트나인 16회의 활약을 하며 안타 제조기라는 별명을 가지고 있다, Ytn 뉴스 보도에 폐센터장 장승훈 교수가 출연해 만성폐쇄성폐질환copd의 심각성과 조기 진단의 중요성을 전했습니다. 보도자료krict channel대표 홈페이지 코딩 못해도 손쉽게 활용 가능한 화학 분야 인공지능 플랫폼 ‘chemai’ 서비스 출시 과학확산실 111,032 20210830.

129 followers, 63 following, 18 posts 장승훈 @jang_seung_hoon_official on instagram 사랑과 꿈과 나의 대한, 사진제공 cj제일제당 한국금융신문 나선혜 기자 cj웰케어 대표 장승훈가 5조 건강기능식품 시장에 도전장을 내밀었다. 진료과 사정에 따라 진료 일정이 변경될 수 있습니다. Cj웰케어올초 헬스케어 전문기업으로 출범한 cj 웰케어.

트 실시간

장승훈 coo 이하 장 2002년 ‘cj뉴트라’ 브랜드로 건기식 시장에 첫발을 들인 cj제일제당은, 2013년 국내 최초로 식품의약품안전처 개별인정을 획득한 김치 유래 유산균 cjlp133 균주의 상품화를 시작으로, 유산균 전 생산 과정의 전문성을 높여 왔습니다. 한림의대 내과 장승훈 교수는 지난 11월 9일 롯데호텔월드에서 개최된 대한결핵 및 호흡기학회 제124차 추계학술대회 기자간담회에서 ‘폐암 조기검진과 비흡연자 폐암’이라는 주제 발표를 통해 폐암 사망률을 낮추기 위한 가장 효과적인 방법 중 하나로 빠른 검진과 치료 방법을 모색하는 것이라고. 장승훈 보람바이오 대표 인터뷰 해태음료 브랜드 매니저를 거쳐 cj제일제당 브랜드 매니저, 마케팅담당 등을 역임한 장승훈 대표를 보람바이오. 대한민국 한의사로 한의원에서 진료를 하고 있습니다. 장승훈 @kikkune instagram photos and videos. Kr › news › article인터뷰 장승훈 보람바이오 대표 먹는 즐거움, 건강한 삶&mldr.

887 followers, 192 following, 12 posts 장승훈 작가 secret @jshunnn_wr on instagram 4권의 책을 펴내었습니다. 2024년 9월 대령 진급자가 발표됐습니다. 대한폐암학회 김영태 이사장, 장승훈 홍보이사 한림대성심병원 호흡기내과 교수, 국립암센터 국제암대학원대학교 암관리학과 김열교수는 이달 11월 6일 기자간담회를 통해 폐암검진 주요결과와 비용대 효과를 분석한 결과를 이같이 밝혔다.

탁란 히토미

장승훈seunghoon jang은 고려대학교 메카트로닉스 협동과정 소속 연구자로, 학제간연구, 전기전자공학 제어계측공학 분야를 중심으로 연구를 수행하고 있습니다. 어린이와 청소년의 건강을 위한 프로그램 개발과 강의도 하고 있습니다. Client executive vp 수석매니저 @ marsh korea, inc, 장승훈 보람바이오 대표 인터뷰 해태음료 브랜드 매니저를 거쳐 cj제일제당 브랜드 매니저, 마케팅담당 등을 역임한 장승훈 대표를 보람바이오. 319, 3,085안타, 504홈런, 1,676타점, 319도루, 수위타자 7회, 최고출루율 9회, 베스트나인 16회의 활약을 하며 안타 제조기라는 별명을 가지고 있다.

트렌스젠더 트위터 Kr › m_home › view_dnews인터뷰 장승훈 보람바이오 대표, 보람그룹의 신성장동력&mldr. 그는 보람그룹이 신성장동력으로 바이오 사업을 키우고자 하는 비전에 동참하고 싶었다며 합류 배경을 설명했다. 사진보람그룹 청년일보 맛있게 먹는 즐거움과 건강한 삶을 위한 즐거움, 그 두 가지를 모두 만족시키는 제품을 만들겠습니다. 장승훈 대표는 지난해 cj웰케어 출범을 알리며 20년 동안 시장에 새로운 가능성을 제시해왔다면 앞으로의 20년은 시장의 혁신과 성장을 주도해 나갈 것이다며 cj의 건강사업 노하우와 연구개발 r&d 기술력을 바탕으로 미래형 제품을 지속적으로 선보이고 소비. 장승훈 coo 이하 장 2002년 ‘cj뉴트라’ 브랜드로 건기식 시장에 첫발을 들인 cj제일제당은, 2013년 국내 최초로 식품의약품안전처 개별인정을 획득한 김치 유래 유산균 cjlp133 균주의 상품화를 시작으로, 유산균 전 생산 과정의 전문성을 높여 왔습니다. 트위터 국적표시 디시

트레버 헨더슨 전라12404 followers 419 following. 129 followers, 63 following, 18 posts 장승훈 @jang_seung_hoon_official on instagram 사랑과 꿈과 나의 대한. 장승훈seunghoon jang은 고려대학교 메카트로닉스 협동과정 소속 연구자로, 학제간연구, 전기전자공학 제어계측공학 분야를 중심으로 연구를 수행하고 있습니다. 더 좋은 기회가 주어지길, 그리고 그걸 차지하시길 기원합니다. Popular releases by 장승훈. 타코 럭키블럭 확률

트위터 기구플 Join facebook to connect with 장승훈 and others you may know. 3 154 158 5page 저자정보 장승훈 한림대학교 의과대학 한림대학교성심병원 호흡기알레르기내과 이용수 16. 현재 cj웰케어를 이끌고 있는 장승훈 상무를 대표이사급으로 높일 것이라는 시선도 있다. 장승훈 보람바이오 대표 인터뷰 해태음료 브랜드 매니저를 거쳐 cj제일제당 브랜드 매니저, 마케팅담당 등을 역임한 장승훈 대표를 보람바이오. 장승훈 client executive vp 수석매니저 @ marsh korea, inc. 트위터 국산 리트윗

토정비결 디시 군의 중추적인 역할을 담당하는 장교들의 진급은 항상 큰 관심을 받는 사안입니다. 장승훈 @stronghxxn instagram photos and videos. 이재현의 성장엔진 cj웰케어, 경쟁사 건기식 전문가 수장에 올렸다 박성선 종근당건강 전무 신임 대표이사에 기존 장승훈 대표이사는 coo에 재선임 6. 프롤로그 블로그 서재 안부 강사소개 6개의 글 목록열기. 지난해 cj그룹은 연말인사에서 cj제일제당과 cj대한통운, cjenm 등 주요 계열사 임원을 대폭 물갈이했지만 대부분 cj그룹 안에서 다른 계열사로 자리를 옮기는 식의 인사였다.

트위터 19금 장승훈seunghoon jang은 고려대학교 메카트로닉스 협동과정 소속 연구자로, 학제간연구, 전기전자공학 제어계측공학 분야를 중심으로 연구를 수행하고 있습니다. Com › s2_hue장승훈 @s2_hue instagram photos and videos. 어린이와 청소년의 건강을 위한 프로그램 개발과 강의도 하고 있습니다. 보람바이오의 장승훈 대표 사업운영부문는 cj제일제당에서 브랜드매니저, 마케팅담당, cic 사내독립기업 coo 최고운영책임자 등을 역임했으며, 이후 cj제일제당에서 분사한 건강기능식품 전문기업cj웰케어에서 coo로 재직했다. 우리들의 기억 song and lyrics by 장승훈.

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.