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.

A slender tube used for sucking up water or drink. If the letter is the ending consonant it usually adds ng at the end of the syllable, it has a global stop. 자음송 8 ㅇ이응송 자음친구 이응송 korean alphabet song. How to pronounce ㅇ이응 in korean 아이.

Junnadayoo

The consonant ㅇ, when used as the initial consonant in a korean syllable, is entirely silent, 좋아요 44개,bomul korean @bomulkorean 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 @𓆩yuma𓆪 님에게 회신 harusnya divideo sebelumnya aku jelasin secara rinci yg case ㄴ ketemu ㄱ, cuma ga keburu waktu ya maafkan jadi lebih ke 비표준 발음 kemarin aku kasih taunya note ㄴ+ㄱ ga berubah ㅇ ya yang berubah ㅇ itu ketika ㄱ+ㄴ beda ya bahasakorea koreanlanguage🇰🇷, If just the vowel sound is needed, ㅇ is used as a filler, ㅇ받침은 훈민정음에는 종성이 없는 한자음에 채워넣기 위한 글자였고, 지금의 ㅇ받침에 해당하는 발음은 ㆁ 옛이응받침으로 표기했다. 3 이 두 감독이 kt wiz 를 상대로 각각 타이브레이커와 와일드카드를 나란히 패배하면서 2024시즌 kt의 감독인 이강철 은 ㅇㅅㅇ 킬러라는 별명을 얻었다. If the letter is the ending consonant it usually adds ng at the end of the syllable, it has a global stop, however, it is often a silent sound.

피부관리숨앤결 숨앤결 더조각 더조각테라피. Cuidensen fnaf ㅇyㅇ memes eljugueterodelaesme. Learn the rules and examples of ㅇ ieung, a consonant that changes its sound depending on its position in a syllable, 대표 상호오빠ㅇ 01052982639 총괄매니져 우식오빠ㅇ 01082003753. 한글 자음의 여덟 번째 글자인 이응ㅇ에 대해 알아볼게요. For example, in case of 우유 milk, two ㅇ’s are just there filling the space without making any sound in 우’ and ‘유’.

The consonant ㅇ, when used as the initial consonant in a korean syllable, is entirely silent.. 자음쓰기 ㅇ 이응 learn korean vowels & consonants.. 흔히 알레프 적인 ㅇ의 용법으로 부르는 사용으로 오늘날까지 이어졌으나 동국정운 등에서는 종성의 빈 자리에까지 ㅇ을 적었다는 것이 오늘날과 다르다..

Keikun_u

한국 트위치 에서 ok라는 뜻으로 쓰이는 말이다. Learn the rules and examples of ㅇ ieung, a consonant that changes its sound depending on its position in a syllable, How to pronounce ㅇ이응 in korean 아이.

Ko.stripchat

If placed at the end it will have the ng sound, 현대 한국어에서 초성으로 쓰이는 ㅇ은 초성 자리를 채우기만 해 주고 소릿값은 없으며, 종성으로 쓰이는 ㅇ의 소릿값은 연구, 한국 트위치 에서 ok라는 뜻으로 쓰이는 말이다.

Use pictures, memory tricks, and fun stories to learn hangeul in just 30 minutes. 일부의 단어에서는 성문 파열음 ʔ을 내기도 하는데, 1, e 등이. Then click on the audio to hear a native korean speaker p.

At the beginning of a syllable, ㅇ ieung is not pronounced. 한국어 기초 basic korean alphabet 자음 consonant 8편 ㅇ 이응ng silent at the beginning of a syllable. 일부의 단어에서는 성문 파열음 ʔ을 내기도 하는데, 1, e 등이, 일부의 단어에서는 성문 파열음 ʔ을 내기도 하는데, 1, e 등이. Com › shorts › udt0c46w1w0demonslayer drawingandassemblingdemonslayer anime. Consonant ㅇ ieung, 이응 korean alphabet hangeul.

Com › shorts › tpa9sx3a_jifnaf ㅇyㅇ memes eljugueterodelaesme youtube. Lua error in မဝ်ဂျူheadwordpage at line 75 attempt to call upvalue physical_to_logical_pagename_if_mammoth a nil value. Com › shorts › 1talknb7dc0fadas funny faxa caminhoparaumavidamelhor memes ㅇyㅇ. The ㅇ character takes a place for vowel sounds at the beginning of words, 한글의 원리와 구조를 이해하고 배우는 데 도움을 주는 사이트입니다.

kanocoxx Consonant ㅇ ieung, 이응 korean alphabet hangeul. 12 한글이란 이름은 주시경 등 국어연구학회 회원들이 지은 것으로 알려져 있다. 메이플스토리 에서는 빅뱅 패치 이전에 지형이 온통 ㄴ자 모양인 니은숲이 존재했었다. 자음쓰기 8 ㅇ이응쓰기 자음쓰기 + 자음송이응송 korean. Because all syllables must start with a consonant, when writing words that start with a vowel sound, we must start the syllable with the silent consonant ㅇ. kenono

karina fake photo 뚝딱 한글 조각8 이응ㅇ 국제한국어교육자연구회. Org › wiki › ㅇㅇ wiktionary, the free dictionary. Consonant ㅇ ieung, 이응 korean alphabet hangeul. 한글 자음 이응을 순서대로 써보고, 이응으로 시작하는 단어를 말해 보세요. 일겅으로 표기하기도 하고 반대말로 ㅇㄱㅈㄹ 이거지랄을 사용하기도 한다. jioknet

kim yuna erome 세종께서는 분명히 목구멍에서 나는 소리로 인식하고 동그란 목구멍을 본떠 `ㅇ`자를 만들었는데, `ㅇ`은 음가가 없고 심지어 자음이 아니라니 이 어찌된. Com › clubloca › photosclub club loca 주말 예약도면 입니다 참고하시고 예약해주세요. Org › wiki › ㅇㅇ ဝိက်ရှေန်နရဳ. 초성 ㅇ 이응의 음가와 실체는 무엇일까. 흔히 알레프 적인 ㅇ의 용법으로 부르는 사용으로 오늘날까지 이어졌으나 동국정운 등에서는 종성의 빈 자리에까지 ㅇ을 적었다는 것이 오늘날과 다르다. jusoga 변환 주소 영문 제주시

kissjav insta 자음쓰기가 끝나면 자음친구 이응송을 큰 소리로 따라 불러 보세요. Club loca 주말 예약도면 입니다 참고하시고 예약해주세요 room & booth & table 예약문의 예약시 대폭할인 및 트리플체이샤 제공. Cuidensen fnaf ㅇyㅇ memes eljugueterodelaesme. Com › shorts › udt0c46w1w0demonslayer drawingandassemblingdemonslayer anime. 한글 이응ㅇ이 한국어 방언에서 인두음 ʕ rlinguistics.

juneliu pikpak Korean has an unusual consonant ㅇ, which is silent, depending on its position within a syllable. ㆁ 후두를 나타내는 원, 비음화를 나타내는 세로선 ㄴ+ㅇ의 합자와 같음, ㆆ. 12 한글이란 이름은 주시경 등 국어연구학회 회원들이 지은 것으로 알려져 있다. 초성 ㅇ 이응의 음가와 실체는 무엇일까. 세종께서는 분명히 목구멍에서 나는 소리로 인식하고 동그란 목구멍을 본떠 `ㅇ`자를 만들었는데, `ㅇ`은 음가가 없고 심지어 자음이 아니라니 이 어찌된.

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.