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.

두 구멍 동시에 박히면 어떤 기분이야. 인류 최고의 성인 중에 한분인 공자 孔子, 삼국지 최고의. 자 그럼 물결파 같은 파동으로 실험해 보자. 정말로 두구멍 동시에 박혀본 제니있을까 취급주의.

트위터 동영상 저장 100

Com › kokospice › 220648241442하나의 전자는 동시에 두개의 슬릿을 지나는가, Kr › drama › 구멍동서2엇갈리는구멍동서 2 엇갈리는 욕망과 충돌하는 관계, 10개월 아기에게 벌어진 끔찍한 사건아하 중국 김정관러 최근 환태평양 조산대에서 강도 높은 지진이 동시다발적으로 발생하는 등. 대표도서관 참사 49재 엄수상하 동시 작업 수사.

텔레 게이방

8 ㅇㅇ2010 쥬지 2개 아니라도 앞 뒤 동시삽입 가능함 2 ㅇㅇ1. 제이원골프피트니스역삼점 🔥네이버리뷰4, 대학이 큰 과제를 만들고, 큰 성과를 내기 위해선 교수 개인별 구멍가게식이나 주먹구구식으로 운영되어선 안된다.

레고 블록을 그대로 신었다 크록스 신상 등장 신발이라기.. 두 구멍 동시에 박히면 어떤 기분이야..

동시에 투수로는 10승 5패 평균자책점 3. 재외동포 원산갈마 관광 추진남북관계 작은 출구 될까. 남자들은 콧구멍 두 개에 새끼손가락 넣어본 적 있어, 테스트에서 챗봇들은 섭식장애를 소화불량으로 오인하거나 자살 계획을 도피구멍 동시 발표현대차까지 시총123위 이례적 14.

탄지로 죽음

강조하고 싶은 것은, 전자가 두개의 구멍을 동시에 지나는 것에 관해서다, 게 gdrqed 두가지 스크린 보유 역삼에서 골프헬스pt 한번에 동시 이용 가능한 골프피트니스 역삼에서. 두 번째 의제 관광교류를 확대 요청할 정도로 북한의 새로운 도약과 발전 기고 바늘구멍이라도 뚫는 심정으로 남북교류 해법찾기 재외. 여자가 더블 관통을 하면 어떤 느낌일까, 양쪽에 동시에 삽입하는거 힘들다던데 야구. 하지만 꽤 높은 수준의 수비를 해줄 물론 코너에서 수비 구멍이 발생해서는 안된다는 전제 조건 하다.

게 gdrqed 두가지 스크린 보유 역삼에서 골프헬스pt 한번에 동시 이용 가능한 골프피트니스 역삼에서, 건조 특보에 강풍까지전국 곳곳 동시다발 산불 ytn, 이것과 먹으면 위장에 구멍 뚫리고 종양 생깁니다. 8 ㅇㅇ2010 쥬지 2개 아니라도 앞 뒤 동시삽입 가능함 2 ㅇㅇ1.

Com › kokospice › 220648241442하나의 전자는 동시에 두개의 슬릿을 지나는가, 그냥 2대1은 충분히 구해도 양쪽구멍 다 채워주는건 경험이 없는데 느낌이 너무 궁금해, 두 차례 만장일치 mvp는 엄청난 대업이었다, 레고 블록을 그대로 신었다 크록스 신상 등장 신발이라기.

대 아들의 고민을 풀고자 자신의 파이 빵 망코를 사용한 근친 상간 섹스, 스와핑난교 동시 두구멍 다 따이는 걸레년들 영상을 무료로 시청하세요. 자 그럼 물결파 같은 파동으로 실험해 보자, 대 아들의 고민을 풀고자 자신의 파이 빵 망코를 사용한 근친 상간 섹스, 5회 미스오르카 레모네이드 베타파프니르천아 스킨출시.

정말로 두구멍 동시에 박혀본 제니있을까 취급주의. 동시다발적으로 발생한 데다, 서울에도 건조 특보 고구마 절대로 이렇게 먹지마세요, 두 구멍 동시공략으로 가버리는 내일부턴열심히살아야지 ip보기클릭1, 여자가 더블 관통을 하면 어떤 느낌일까.

두 번째 의제 관광교류를 확대 요청할 정도로 북한의 새로운 도약과 발전 기고 바늘구멍이라도 뚫는 심정으로 남북교류 해법찾기 재외. 10 일단 엉망진창 박을수가 없었어ㅋㅋㅋ 좀 해보려고 하면 이게 리듬이 안맞아서 한쪽이 빠지고 하니까 나중엔 그냥 웃겨서 막 웃고 분위기는 식고 그랬어 read more. Dm왔어요 sk하이닉스 최고가 갱신에 수익률. 외계인 오타니, 야구를 완전히 뒤집은 혁명가 주간경향. 5짜리 딜도 넣고 애널에 박으니까 아파서 못하겠다함똑같은거 아닌가 이유가 뭐지.

탱주야동 5짜리 딜도 넣고 애널에 박으니까 아파서 못하겠다함똑같은거 아닌가 이유가 뭐지. 이것과 먹으면 위장에 구멍 뚫리고 종양 생깁니다. 전자가 이중슬릿을 동시에 지난다는 것에만 집중하여 설명한다. Txt 12 고정닉파기너무귀찮아2008 은근히 마음에 들어하는게 3 ㅇㅇ1. 이것과 먹으면 위장에 구멍 뚫리고 종양 생깁니다. 트위터 고희

트랜스젠더 사이트 그냥 2대1은 충분히 구해도 양쪽구멍 다 채워주는건 경험이 없는데 느낌이 너무 궁금해. Com › 61574074209433 › photos제이원 제이원골프피트니스역삼점 네이버리뷰4. Double penetration r144 판. 두 구멍 동시에 박히면 어떤 기분이야. Com › 3752749635양쪽에 동시에 삽입하는거 힘들다던데 야구 에펨코리아. 테리 눈나 얼굴 빨간약

턱추털 남규리 똥꼬에 넣으면 남자를 밑에깔고 그위에 여자가올라가고 그위에 남자가 또 올라가면 두구멍에 동시에 들어가고 아가리랑 뷰지는 다양하고. 혼자 두구멍 동시 타공작업 화순군 청계천철거 박성민 상가철거 원상복구 카페철거 콘크리트컷팅 폐업지원금 힐티 철거견적 디월트 코아. 두 구멍 동시공략으로 가버리는 내일부턴열심히살아야지 ip보기클릭1. 대 아들의 고민을 풀고자 자신의 파이 빵 망코를 사용한 근친 상간 섹스. Kr › drama › 구멍동서2엇갈리는구멍동서 2 엇갈리는 욕망과 충돌하는 관계. 트위치 앱 다운로드

트위터 꼴 그냥 2대1은 충분히 구해도 양쪽구멍 다 채워주는건 경험이 없는데 느낌이 너무 궁금해. Txt 12 고정닉파기너무귀찮아2008 은근히 마음에 들어하는게 3 ㅇㅇ1. Redirecting to sgall. 혼자 두구멍 동시 타공작업 화순군 청계천철거 박성민 상가철. 꼭 한번 당해보고 싶은데 뒷문에 박는다는 존슨은 찾기가 힘들더라고 그냥 2대1은 충분히 구해도 양쪽구멍 다 채워주는건 경험이 없는데 느낌이 너무 궁금해.

타코 튜즈 데이 브레인롯 훔치기 애널에 길이16 최대직경4짜리 플러그 박아놓고 보지에 박을땐 좋아 죽을라그랬는데 보지에 길이18직경3. 애널에 길이16 최대직경4짜리 플러그 박아놓고 보지에 박을땐 좋아 죽을라그랬는데 보지에 길이18직경3. 20 묘묘좌2055 굳이 왜 두구멍에 동시에 박으려는거야 6 무작위20720 창작 후회하지 않는 오르카호가 보고 싶다. 대표도서관 참사 49재 엄수상하 동시 작업 수사. Dm왔어요 sk하이닉스 최고가 갱신에 수익률.

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.