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.

如果你发现自己在巴塞罗那充满活力的街道上漫步，那么在中国美食方面你将会有一番美好的体验。这座城市拥有一系列令人愉悦的餐厅，展示了中国烹饪丰富的 read more. Vam 嗜血印女祭司belly dance. ✓社团名：おきざりす▫️名称：粪便学索菲亚▫️原名：ソフィアオブスカトロジー▫️贩卖日：2024年12月22日▫️标签：rpg ai汉化pc mtool 动态灌肠排泄物巨乳丰满 链接：入正地址 read more. 女祭司不慎被恶魔抓住下面为2k完整原视频，视频重口猎奇，不喜勿入！ 这期猎奇小动画实际上是我计划中女祭司的个人视频中的一个动画片段。致命失误2依然 read more.

✓社团名：おきざりす▫️名称：粪便学索菲亚▫️原名：ソフィアオブスカトロジー▫️贩卖日：2024年12月22日▫️标签：rpg ai汉化pc mtool 动态灌肠排泄物巨乳丰满 链接：入正地址 read more.. Included anything that tagged doa included doaxvv and doa5lr models.. 自行车公司啥时候才能再造出像样的车啊？ rvelo.. 人物 página de la tienda left 4 dead 2 tododiscusionescapturasartworkretransmisionesvideosworkshopnoticiasguíasreseñas página de..

Kuzu Spank

Korean Bj 설희

Korbolt Video

Leak Pikpak

李慕婉仙逆ai绘画一眼沦陷这谁顶得住啊 ，如果这么美的背，这么好看的美女是一种罪，让我减少20年的寿命换取，我也愿意啊。read more.. This inventory is not available at this time..

Visual chatgpt主要是用于ai机器视觉模型的构建，目标是构建能够处理各种任务的ai。 概括, 主动采纳最佳答案可以提高你的主动采纳率。 主动采纳率越高，悬赏板块发帖的间隔限制时间越短，反之则越长。 如果对回答者的回答不满意，可以及时回复答主是哪里不符合标准，以防版主介入强制采纳最佳答案。 从而影响你的主动采纳率. Lantavan is a doortodoor, shared ride or paratransit service, available to riders in lehigh and northampton counties who are registered and certified as eligible for sponsorship under various transportation funding programs, 此影片介紹如何快速製作高品質角色動畫去背影片，並講解virt a mate的基本概念和相關插件的使用。. Subscribe to download vam 嗜血印女祭司belly dance.

korea milf Used mercedesbenz sprinter cargo vans, passenger vans, and panel vans for sale near you. Rencontre de gutenberg et du numérique. 《請成為最能幹的vtuber吧！》 黑沼唯：自卑孤僻的社恐宅女直播時卻大膽爆言有著瑟瑟時會變成強勢又奔放的個性－反差萌眼鏡娘！ 日向純子：外表看似陽光外向但私底下卻意外 read more. Rencontre de gutenberg et du numérique. 启动器是免安装的，下载其中的压缩包到本地计算机中，解压并双击 hellovam. korea poop thisvid

kuzu v0 76 幽坠 2024 年11 月21 日上午320. Anime characters, nudity, weapons, items, skins and much more etc. 最近好像有大佬做了重最近经常在p站上刷到别人放的重口场景，是不是有大佬做了，能不能告诉我大佬名字，或者其他重口场景大佬的名字，jyy的太小儿科的，要更猛的依旧烈焰刀. Visual chatgpt主要是用于ai机器视觉模型的构建，目标是构建能够处理各种任务的ai。 概括. Cn › pixiv › user不太正经 pixibloom pixiv p站. kuzu pikpa

kuzu_v0 insta 关于vam的ai和vr玩法分享（有兴趣的进来看完，不收钱！ ），近期由于入了quest3，所以重新回归vam这个伪装成游戏的工具。 其中由于今年下半年以来，hub兴起了ai互动这个玩法，加入了ai互动后，vr玩法就更加自然和沉浸了。. 幽坠 2024 年11 月21 日上午320. follow 船长大叔 @eexxb4 不太正经 joined november 2021 159following 6followers tweets & replies media likes. All issues in stock 75 cgc 5 cbcs 6 auctions display grouped by title issue list cover gallery sort by az best selling previous next 1 2 3. Anime characters, nudity, weapons, items, skins and much more etc. kuzu_v0 125

laliberte 히토미 follow 船长大叔 @eexxb4 不太正经 joined november 2021 159following 6followers tweets & replies media likes. Atelier steam left 4 dead 2. 李慕婉仙逆ai绘画一眼沦陷这谁顶得住啊 ，如果这么美的背，这么好看的美女是一种罪，让我减少20年的寿命换取，我也愿意啊。read more. 动图 猎奇小动画4_女祭司 不太正经のうごイラ. All issues in stock 75 cgc 5 cbcs 6 auctions display grouped by title issue list cover gallery sort by az best selling previous next 1 2 3.

korean dick sotwe ✓社团名：おきざりす▫️名称：粪便学索菲亚▫️原名：ソフィアオブスカトロジー▫️贩卖日：2024年12月22日▫️标签：rpg ai汉化pc mtool 动态灌肠排泄物巨乳丰满 链接：入正地址 read more. 4k剧荒侠啊 初级粉丝 1 先介绍下什么是vam virt a mate（简称vam）是一款不怎么出名但是游戏内容质量爆炸好的3d游戏 该款游戏不出名的原因是因为它是由p站的某个制作组研制开发的。 但是它可是号称史上最强最硬核的绅士设计游戏，懂的都懂。. Now in 2020, they havent aged that well at all, an improved blood textures создатели. follow 船长大叔 @eexxb4 不太正经 joined november 2021 159following 6followers tweets & replies media likes. 而且本站提供的是vam整合版，基本上下载之后解压就能直接开冲 游戏注意事项： ①电脑硬件要求，独立显卡6gb及以上，运行内存ram得16gb,否则’难’ 1050和1060.

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.