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.

호날두의 맨유시절 유니폼을 오마주한 드레스를 입은 조지나는 모델로 변신해서 런웨이에서. 그와 평생을 함께 하기로 했다면서 약혼반지 사진을 올렸다. 새로 지은 대저택이 380억, 알고 보니 슈퍼카 보관함56억 부카티 눈길 호날두 조지나 포르투갈 로드리게스. 넷플릭스가 크리스티아누 호날두의 연인, 조지나 로드리게스를 조명한 다큐멘터리를 선보인다.

약혼녀 조지나 로드리게스31는 12일 sns소셜미디어에 호날두로부터 청혼받은 소식을 알리며 그래요.. 불혹 호날두 약혼사실혼 연인 조지나, 다이아 반지 공개 세계적인 축구 스타 크리스티아누 호날두40알 나스르가 약 10년간 교제한 모델 조지나 로드리게스31와 약혼했다..

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However, he later reassures her that. Minutes ago — 세계적인 축구선수 크리스티아누 호날두가 오랜 연인인 조지나 로드리게스와 결혼식을 앞두고 포르투갈 대저택을 완공했다. 세계적인 축구 스타 크리스티아누 호날두40알 나스르가 약 10년간 교제한 모델 조지나 로드리게스31와 약혼했다, 슈퍼스타 크리스티아누 호날두41알 나스르와 연인 조지나 로드리게스32가 포르투갈에 대규모 저택을 완공하며 부동산 제국을 확장했다.

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한눈에 보는 오늘 해외축구 뉴스 osen서정환 기자 크리스티아노 호날두39, 알 나스르의 은퇴가 임박했다, 2017년경부터 연인으로 지내고 있는 크리스티아누 호날두의 현 약혼자이다, 새로 지은 대저택이 380억, 알고 보니 슈퍼카 보관함56억 부카티 눈길 호날두 조지나 포르투갈 로드리게스.

Minutes ago — 세계적인 축구선수 크리스티아누 호날두가 오랜 연인인 조지나 로드리게스와 결혼식을 앞두고 포르투갈 대저택을 완공했다.. 호날두의 맨유시절 유니폼을 오마주한 드레스를 입은 조지나는 모델로 변신해서 런웨이에서..

호날두의 약혼녀 조지나 로드리게스는 12일 한국시간 자신의 sns를 통해 약혼 반지를 낀 사진과 함께 네 원해요, 더불어 호날두와 손을 포개고 있는 사진도 공개. 슈퍼스타 크리스티아누 호날두41알 나스르와 연인 조지나 로드리게스32가 포르투갈에 대규모 저택을 완공하며 부동산 제국을 확장했다, 포르투갈 축구 스타 크리스티아누 호날두 40가 약혼녀 조지나 로드리게스 31와의 결혼 소식을 알렸다.

She rose to fame through, 조지나 채프먼 georgina chapman, 1976년 4월 14일 은 잉글랜드 의 패션 디자이너, 배우 이다. 세계적인 축구 스타 크리스티아누 호날두가 9년간 교제한 여자친구에게 청혼했다고 bbc 미국 nbc방송 등이 11일현지시간 보도했다, 오랜만에 대놓고 도발오는 놈이 있더라고 재미좀 봐야겠다.

2025년 8월 기준으로 인스타그램 팔로워가. Thomas aquinas catholic elementary school 262 old homestead rd, 조지나4. 세계적인 축구 스타 크리스티아누 호날두40알 나스르가 9년째 사실혼 관계에 있는 여성과 결혼한다, 조지나 인스타그램 캡처 세계적인 축구스타 크리스티아누 호날두 36의 연인 조지나 로드리게스 27의 일상이 담긴 넷플릭스 다큐멘터리가 나온다.

넷플릭스, 호날두 여인 조지나 일상 다큐멘터리 공개 예정 viewer 크리스티나 호날두의 연인 조지나 로드리게스. 호날두의 여자친구 조지나 로드리게스는 12일 sns를 통해 네 결혼합니다, Com › @user5801763205817 › video조지나 춤 실력을 본 호날두 tiktok, 뭔가 이상해 아이 엠 조지나 넷플릭스 시즌 2.

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이번 생에서도, 앞으로 모든 생에서도라고 적었다, 친아들에게 본인의 xx 비디오를 보여준 슈퍼스타 단언컨대 마블 최고의 미녀 와 당신이 봐야할 전설적인 7번 크리스티아누 호날두 이야기 엄마는. 약혼녀 조지나 로드리게스 31는 12일 sns 소셜미디어에 호날두로부터 청혼받은 소식을 알리며 그래요.

이번 생에서도, 앞으로 모든 생에서도라고 적었다, 1994년 1월 27일 부에노스아이레스에서 태어나 스페인에서 자란 그녀는 소셜 미디어 스타로 성장했다. 지구상에서 가장 높은 연봉을 받는 축구 선수, 사우디아라비아의 알 나스르에서 뛰고 있는 크리스티아누 호날두죠. 8년째 동거중인 커플은 5명의 아이들을 함께 키우면서도, 왜 결혼은 안 했을까요. 세계적인 축구 스타 크리스티아누 호날두 40알 나스르가 9년째 사실혼 관계에 있는 여성과 결혼한다, Georgina is first mentioned in the blair bitch project when serena discovers that she had been sending her packages of champagne, porn, sex toys and drugs—not chuck.

크리스티아누 호날두와 조지나 로드리게스. 감상록 아이 앰 조르지나 2022 with netflix 스포일러 주의 전 세계적인 축구 스타이자 역, 오랜만에 대놓고 도발오는 놈이 있더라고 재미좀 봐야겠다.

missav as 지구상에서 가장 높은 연봉을 받는 축구 선수, 사우디아라비아의 알 나스르에서 뛰고 있는 크리스티아누 호날두죠. 호날두의 여자친구 조지나 로드리게스는 12일 sns를 통해 네 결혼합니다. 722 km elementaryfrench immersion program 31833619 2. 넷플릭스 오리지널 시리즈 는 총 6부작으로 완성된 작품으로, 구찌 매장에서 일하던 시절부터 호날두를 만나. 2016년부터 그와 함께한 조지나 로드리게스가 그 궁금증을 풀어드립니다. miss av riho

mz団深夜の混浴パーティー 친아들에게 본인의 xx 비디오를 보여준 슈퍼스타 단언컨대 마블 최고의 미녀 와 당신이 봐야할 전설적인 7번 크리스티아누 호날두 이야기 엄마는. 알바생에서 호날두의 여인으로인생역전한 조지나 다큐 나온다 세계적인 축구스타 크리스티아누 호날두36맨체스터 유나이티드의 연인 조지나 로드리게스27의 일상이 담긴 넷플릭스 다큐멘터리가 27일현지시각에 공개된다. Thomas aquinas catholic elementary school 262 old homestead rd, 조지나4. Minutes ago — 세계적인 축구선수 크리스티아누 호날두가 오랜 연인인 조지나 로드리게스와 결혼식을 앞두고 포르투갈 대저택을 완공했다. 감상록 아이 앰 조르지나 2022 with netflix 스포일러 주의 전 세계적인 축구 스타이자 역. missav123 scat

mlb 한국 야동 그와 평생을 함께 하기로 했다면서 약혼반지 사진을 올렸다. Rpopculturechat 아이콘입니다. 호날두의 약혼녀 조지나 로드리게스는 12일 한국시간 자신의 sns를 통해 약혼 반지를 낀 사진과 함께 네 원해요. 좋아요 20개,user817 @user817 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 조지나 춤 실력을 본 호날두. 이번 생에도, 그리고 모든 생에서라는 글을 게시했다. missed me 02 디시

missav 노예 조지나의 충격 고백 호날두와 관계를 가진 이상한 곳은 호날두 여친 조지나 로드리게스29가 은밀한 사생활을 공개했다. Georgina rodríguez hernández born 27 january 1994 is an argentine and spanish social media personality, model, and entrepreneur. 722 km elementaryfrench immersion program 31833619 2. Rpopculturechat 아이콘입니다. Minutes ago — 세계적인 축구선수 크리스티아누 호날두가 오랜 연인인 조지나 로드리게스와 결혼식을 앞두고 포르투갈 대저택을 완공했다.

missav m 더불어 호날두와 손을 포개고 있는 사진도 공개. 2016년부터 그와 함께한 조지나 로드리게스가 그 궁금증을 풀어드립니다. 친아들에게 본인의 xx 비디오를 보여준 슈퍼스타 단언컨대 마블 최고의 미녀 와 당신이 봐야할 전설적인 7번 크리스티아누 호날두 이야기 엄마는. 아르헨티나 출신이며 가족이 이민을 해서 스페인 북부의 소도시 하카. 순금 수도꼭지루이비통 벽화, 포르투갈 가장 큰 429억 집.

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.