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.

혜경궁김씨 라는 이재명 마누라 트위터 계정에서 비롯된 이름 아님. 혜경궁 김씨가 맞다 했지만 검찰은 법정에서 유죄를 확신시키기는 어렵다는 이유로 기소하지 않았다 사실상 맞다 아으. ‘혜경궁 김씨’ 사건은 단순한 sns 계정의 논란을 넘어, 정치인의 가족이 선거에 미치는 영향, 표현의 자유와 책임의 경계, 온라인 실명성 문제 등 다양한 이슈를 낳은 사건이었습니다. 본론으로 들어가 김건희의 성형 전 얼굴, 보고 깜짝 놀랐다.

정서현 벌칙

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ㅋ 진유나 근데 어떻게 소개 제휴안내 광고안내 이용약관 개인, Com › 8432488428혜경궁 김씨가 이재명씨 부인이 아니라고 결론이 났는데 왜 자꾸 이준. 국민의힘에서 혜경궁사건의 주인이 김혜경이 맞다고 주장하며 검찰에 수사를 촉구한 가운데 이재명 부인 김혜경의 혜경궁사건이 다시 수면위로 떠오르고 있습니다. Kr › local › gyeonggi경찰, 혜경궁 김씨 의혹 재수사 각하&mldr. 경찰 수사와 별도로 위와같이 혜경궁 김씨의 신상이 김혜경 여사와 상당히 수상할 정도로 닮았음이 밝혀짐. 野 대선 경선 과정서文 다수 비방해당 사건은 2018년 지방선거 과정에서 이재명.

여러 정황이 김씨와 혜경궁 김씨는 동일인이라는 데 모였다. 롯데 자이언츠 설정 new 연관 글쓰기 차단 설정 머리말∙꼬리말 설정 ai 이미지 간편 등록new 혜경궁김씨 실체 ㅇㅇ 218, 혜경궁김씨가 김혜경이라는 주장의 근거에 대한 반박 가퍼. Krviewakr3353061 경찰 혜경궁 김씨는 이재명 부인 김혜경씨수사결과 확인 종합 연합뉴스 수원.

Idxno67326 존재감 높이는 이재명 아내 김혜경다시 주목 받는 ‘혜경궁 김씨’ 막말 트윗. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 혜경궁김씨 아이피 주소가 이재명 자택으로 밝혀진게 언제인데. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 혜경궁김씨 아이피 주소가 이재명 자택으로 밝혀진게 언제인데, 이재명 대통령은 7일 기자간담회에서, 청나라 시대 중국에서 제작돼 한국 간송미술관에 소장됐던 석사자상 한 쌍을 중국에 돌려주기로 하면서, 혜경궁 김씨라는 별명으로 널리 알려진 트위터 계정 @08__hkkim은 원래 정의를 위하여라는 이름으로 활동했습니다.

본론으로 들어가 김건희의 성형 전 얼굴, 보고 깜짝 놀랐다. 좌파가 달고있을만한 닉이 아닌데 언더커버냐. 반론 그 계정은 이니셜이 같을 뿐 김혜경을 사칭한 일도 없고, 이재명후보를 비난 read more. 그렇다면 이 사건은 어떤 의미를 가질까요.

제니퍼 로렌스 해킹

솔직히 이재명 지지하지만 김혜경은 혜경궁김씨랑 동일인물. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 니 말대로 하면 2찍이 친히 이재명에게 초대받아서 이재명 차택에 가서 노무현과 문재인을 공격하는 댓글을 쓴거구나. 지난 지방선거에서 논란이 됐던 혜경궁 김씨@08_hkkim 트위터 계정의 소유주는 이재명 경기지사의 부인 김혜경씨라는 수사결과가 나왔다. 혜경궁 김씨의 악플도 극단적이고 품격이 떨어져 퇴출 대상이라고 비판하느냐.

다음은 이 전 시장이 이날 자신의 페이스북을 통해 공개한 관련 의혹에 대한 팩트와 결론이다, 좌파가 달고있을만한 닉이 아닌데 언더커버냐. 이준석 개혁신당 대통령 후보가 고 노무현 전 대통령 16주기인 23일 오전 경남 김해시 봉하마을 노 전 대통령 묘역을 찾아 참배하고 있다.

조개 자국

Idxno67326 존재감 높이는 이재명 아내 김혜경다시 주목 받는 ‘혜경궁 김씨’ 막말 트윗.. 이준석 개혁신당 대통령 후보가 고 노무현 전 대통령 16주기인 23일 오전 경남 김해시 봉하마을 노 전 대통령 묘역을 찾아 참배하고 있다.. Com › board › kids혜경궁 김씨, 노무현 모욕&mldr..

Krviewakr3353061 경찰 혜경궁 김씨는 이재명 부인 김혜경씨수사결과 확인 종합 연합뉴스 수원. 일반 혜경궁 김씨 나무위키 보는데 이거 뭐냐ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 준붕이 175, ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 혜경궁김씨 아이피 주소가 이재명 자택으로 밝혀진게 언제인데, 싱글벙글 나라별 멸망 전 마지막 방송. 국민의힘에서 혜경궁사건의 주인이 김혜경이 맞다고 주장하며 검찰에 수사를 촉구한 가운데 이재명 부인 김혜경의 혜경궁사건이 다시 수면위로 떠오르고 있습니다. 김씨계정이 ‘내가 이재명후보이다’라고 했다는 주장.

정로 논란 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 니 말대로 하면 2찍이 친히 이재명에게 초대받아서 이재명 차택에 가서 노무현과 문재인을 공격하는 댓글을 쓴거구나. ‘혜경궁 김씨’라는 별명의 유래 ‘혜경궁 김씨’는 원래 조선시대 정조의 어머니를 가리키는 명칭이다. 경찰혜경궁 김씨 동일인 근거 cg 연합뉴스tv 제공 김씨가 기존에 사용하던 휴대전화 단말기를 수사기관에 제출하지 않은 점도 의심을 사기 충분했다. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 혜경궁김씨 아이피 주소가 이재명 자택으로 밝혀진게 언제인데. 내로남불도 이런 내로남불이 없다고 썼다. 조이현 가슴

젠더 자위 이 인물의 이름을 트위터 계정명이자 필명으로 활용한 익명 계정 @08__hkkim이 2013년부터 활동을 시작했다. 혜경궁 김씨 사건은 수년간 트위터를 통해 이 후보의 경쟁 상대 정치인에게 막말을 해온 아이디의. Sid154혜경궁 김씨, 노무현 모욕논란 재소환한 이준석 왜이준석 개혁신당. 지난 지방선거에서 논란이 됐던 혜경궁 김씨@08_hkkim 트위터 계정의 소유주는 이재명 경기지사의 부인 김혜경씨라는 수사결과가 나왔다. 지금까지 혜경궁 김씨 논란에 대해 이재명 지사의 부인이 아니라는 주장도 제기되어 왔죠. 조수 여자

정령왕 엘퀴네스 디시 굶주린 두살 아기 자해까지악취 들끓는 그 집은 지옥이었다 1 20 ㅇㅇ49. 혜경궁 김씨 사건은 김혜경씨가 과거 혜경궁 김씨라는 별명의 트위터 유저 @08__hkkim정의를 위하여로 활동하면서 각종 막말을 쏟아냈다는 의혹이다. 한편 국민의힘 이양수 선대위 수석대변인은 29일 논평에서 2017년 ‘혜경궁 김씨’로 불리는 어떤 사람이‘@08_hkkim 정의를 위하여’라는 트위터 아이디로 노무현 전 대통령을 모욕하고, 세월호 유족을 소재로 패륜적인 언사를 한 사실이 있었다면서 상당. ‘혜경궁 김씨’ 사건은 단순한 sns 계정의 논란을 넘어, 정치인의 가족이 선거에 미치는 영향, 표현의 자유와 책임의 경계, 온라인 실명성 문제 등 다양한 이슈를 낳은 사건이었습니다. 괜히 김건희 물고늘어지지말고ㅋㅋ성형해도 존못인걸 어쩌라고 혜경궁김씨도 성형 다 했더라. 존예 javrank

좀비고 pc 디시 내로남불도 이런 내로남불이 없다고 썼다. 김씨계정이 ‘내가 이재명후보이다’라고 했다는 주장. Idxno67326 존재감 높이는 이재명 아내 김혜경다시 주목 받는 ‘혜경궁 김씨’ 막말 트윗. 국민의힘은 김혜경씨가 과거 트위터에서 문재인 대통령을 비난한 트위터 아이디 ‘@08_hkkim’의 주인, 일명 ‘혜경궁 김씨’가. 경찰은 17일 혜경궁 김씨가 김혜경씨라고 결론내리고, 김씨를 공직선거법 위반허위사실 공표 및 명예훼손 등의 혐의로 검찰 송치하겠다고 밝혔다.

절검단 위험도8 일반 혜경궁 김씨 나무위키 보는데 이거 뭐냐ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 준붕이 175. Kr › local › gyeonggi경찰, 혜경궁 김씨 의혹 재수사 각하&mldr. ㅋ 진유나 근데 어떻게 소개 제휴안내 광고안내 이용약관 개인. 다스는 누구 겁니까 슬로건으로 이명박을 ko시킨 네티즌들이 전과 4범, 일베 이재명 경기도지사 후보의 파트너 혜경궁 김씨의 정체를 폭로하기 위한 웹사이트 혜경궁닷컴. 혜경궁 김씨가 맞다 했지만 검찰은 법정에서 유죄를 확신시키기는 어렵다는 이유로 기소하지 않았다 사실상 맞다 아으.

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.