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.

이날 500m 우승으로 2차 선발전 출전은 확정됐다. 사람들은 1이 메인이라고 생각하는데, 탈락 이유는 2임. 방문 정보가 가장 구체적으로 잡히는 곳은 ‘멘야미코 청담역점’이며, 디저트 매장으로는 ‘당옥 신사본점’이 함께 언급됩니다. 쇼트트랙 국대 선발전 이변 속출에이스 박지원 탈락 위기 스타뉴스 원문 기사전송 20250408 1915 최종수정 20250408 1918 0 0 ai챗으로 요약 스타뉴스 박재호 기자 신동민 가장 왼쪽이 7일 서울 양천구 목동아이스링크에서 열린 2025.

일반 흑백요리사 요리과학자 신동민 탈락ㄷㄷㄷ, 나 뿐 아니라 모두가 같은 생각이었을 듯 한 요리과학자 신동민의 탈락. 자기가 가장 잘하는거 하래서 제일 잘하는거 했다가 탈락한건대 뭐가 문제, 그런식이면 대패삼겹살 구우면 백종원이 멱살 잡나. Com › oh_jigoo › 224113127671생사과가 제일 맛있었다 안성재 혹평 받은 요리과학자 신동민 셰프, 방문 정보가 가장 구체적으로 잡히는 곳은 ‘멘야미코 청담역점’이며, 디저트 매장으로는 ‘당옥 신사본점’이 함께 언급됩니다.

코앤쿨 부작용 디시

사과폭탄 분자요리는 솔직히 뭐 왈가왈부할게없음 흑백, 난 분자요리한다는거 보고 걍 탈락이겠구나 싶겠던데, 신동민 셰프의 진짜 실력과 식당 정보 블로거의 사심 가득한 시선, 그래서 파인다이닝 하는 안성재가 탈락시켰잖아 좀 맥락을 봐라.

안녕하세요 동동이의 세상 동동이입니다. 흑갤러 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보. 쇼미더머니에서 원썬 디기리 이런 개틀딱래퍼들 나와서개씹틀딱 타령랩하고 떨어지는거 ㅇㅇ dc official app. 유튜브 시청자 a씨는 신동민 셰프가 도쿄 미슐랭 스타 레스토랑 류긴에서 연수 후 그곳의 시그니처 디저트를 15년간 그대로. 첫날 1500m에서 고교생 임종언 노원고이 1위를 차지한 데 이어, 이날 500m에선 신동민 고려대이 40초677로 1위를 기록했다.

신동민 셰프의 진짜 실력과 식당 정보 블로거의 사심 가득한 시선. 흑갤러 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보. 흑백 ㅅㅍ 디씨인이 평가하는 신동민 셰프 분자요리 ㄷㄷjpg.

큐피드에게 낙뢰 1화

Com › board › view신동민 억까라고, 사람들은 1이 메인이라고 생각하는데, 탈락 이유는 2임. 난 분자요리한다는거 보고 걍 탈락이겠구나 싶겠던데, 근데 안성재가 신동민 떨어뜨린건 진짜 존나 이해되던데.

넷플릭스 오리지널 시리즈 흑백요리사2에 요리과학자 신동민 셰프가 출연했으며, 그의 분자요리가 표절이라는 주장이 제기되어 누리꾼들의 반응이 공개됐다.. 흑백요리사 시즌 2를 기다려서 봤는데 최근에 자주 검색되는 이름.. 흑백 ㅅㅍ 디씨인이 평가하는 신동민 셰프 분자요리 ㄷㄷjpg.. 이날 500m 우승으로 2차 선발전 출전은 확정됐다..

신동민 보니까 기본기 없는사람도 아닌가보던데 흑백. 그리고 그를 모르는 사람들을 위해 이력과 식당을 정리해봤다. Com › overthesense › 224115339404신동민 셰프 탈락, 사과 디저트 혹평과 분자요리 평가 정리.

쿠키런코믹크리에이터

아무리그래도 신동민이 한참 선배인데 흑백요리사 시즌2. 일반 흑백요리사 요리과학자 신동민 탈락ㄷㄷㄷ. Com › mydream1218 › 224121561105요리과학자 신동민 탈락 배경, 사과디저트 정보 네이버 블로그, 흑백요리사 시즌 2를 기다려서 봤는데 최근에 자주 검색되는 이름. 쇼미더머니에서 원썬 디기리 이런 개틀딱래퍼들 나와서개씹틀딱 타령랩하고 떨어지는거 ㅇㅇ dc official app, 올드하고 탈락할만한 음식 초이스는 맞다고 생각하는데 그걸로 분자요리에 분자도 모를것 같은 인간들이 우르르 요알못 퇴물 취급하면서 조롱하는건.

쇼트트랙 국대 선발전 이변 속출에이스 박지원 탈락 위기 스타뉴스 원문 기사전송 20250408 1915 최종수정 20250408 1918 0 0 ai챗으로 요약 스타뉴스 박재호 기자 신동민 가장 왼쪽이 7일 서울 양천구 목동아이스링크에서 열린 2025. 올드하고 탈락할만한 음식 초이스는 맞다고 생각하는데 그걸로 분자요리에 분자도 모를것 같은 인간들이 우르르 요알못 퇴물 취급하면서 조롱하는건, 이미지 사과 장난질은 탈락이고 당근 장난질은 통과인 이유, 이때 출현한 백수저들에 의해 흑수저 자격으로 참가한것이 의문이라 할 정도로 치켜세운것과는 반대로 첫 미션에서 사과를 분자요리로 가공해낸 196도 사과로 받은 심사에서 안성재 심사위원에게 ‘20.

코베니 만화

신동민21고려대이 쟁쟁한 선배들을 제치고. Kr › 흑백요리사2요리과학자흑백요리사2 요리과학자 탈락 본명 사과디저트 정보 식당. 그리고 그를 모르는 사람들을 위해 이력과 식당을 정리해봤다. 그래서 파인다이닝 하는 안성재가 탈락시켰잖아 좀 맥락을 봐라.

키키모어 나 뿐 아니라 모두가 같은 생각이었을 듯 한 요리과학자 신동민의 탈락. 갤러리 본문 영역 신동민 셰프 이거였으면 안성재도 기립박수쳤다모바일에서 작성 패닉mvp2025. 신동민 셰프의 진짜 실력과 식당 정보 블로거의 사심 가득한 시선. 안성재 신동민은 극딜하고 흑백요리사 시즌2 갤러리. 2026 밀라노코르티나담페초 동계올림픽 출전권이 걸린 국가대표 선발전에서 이변이 속출하고 있다. 쿠라하시 노조미

코누 근황 디시 Com › mydream1218 › 224121561105요리과학자 신동민 탈락 배경, 사과디저트 정보 네이버 블로그. 그 사과디저트는 트렌드에 어긋난데다가 다른 사람 아이디어를 자기거인 거 마냥 행세해서 탈락한거임분자요리가 크게 알려지지 않았던 때에 경연. 흑갤러 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보. 신동민 셰프 식당은 어디로 가면 되나요. 일반 흑백요리사 요리과학자 신동민 탈락ㄷㄷㄷ. 쿠로미 일본어

클리 트위터 2026 밀라노코르티나담페초 동계올림픽 출전권이 걸린 국가대표 선발전에서 이변이 속출하고 있다. 이날 500m 우승으로 2차 선발전 출전은 확정됐다. 안성재 신동민은 극딜하고 흑백요리사 시즌2 갤러리. 존나맛없는 개짓거리하네 이때 출현한 백수저들에 의해 흑수저 자격으로 참가한것이 의문이라 할 정도로 치켜세운것과는 반대로 첫 미션에서 사과를 분자요리로 가공해낸 196도 사과로 받은 심사에서 안성재 심사위원에게 ‘20. 키 160 남자 현실 디시

퀸 애플 2026 밀라노코르티나담페초 동계올림픽 출전권이 걸린 국가대표 선발전에서 이변이 속출하고 있다. 쇼트트랙 국대 선발전 이변 속출에이스 박지원 탈락 위기 스타뉴스 원문 기사전송 20250408 1915 최종수정 20250408 1918 0 0 ai챗으로 요약 스타뉴스 박재호 기자 신동민 가장 왼쪽이 7일 서울 양천구 목동아이스링크에서 열린 2025. 그리고 그를 모르는 사람들을 위해 이력과 식당을 정리해봤다. 나 뿐 아니라 모두가 같은 생각이었을 듯 한 요리과학자 신동민의 탈락. 그런식이면 대패삼겹살 구우면 백종원이 멱살 잡나.

타르코프 사격연습 퀘스트 Com › mydream1218 › 224121561105요리과학자 신동민 탈락 배경, 사과디저트 정보 네이버 블로그. 이미지 사과 장난질은 탈락이고 당근 장난질은 통과인 이유. ‘미코팩토리’는 스토어브랜드 안내 성격으로 표기됩니다. 그리고 그를 모르는 사람들을 위해 이력과 식당을 정리해봤다. 안녕하세요 동동이의 세상 동동이입니다.

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.