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.

휴대폰 및 pda 대응 cpu인 퀄컴 msm 시리즈 mainstream media 주요 언론. Msm 효능 및 부작용 4개월 복용후기 내돈내산 광고아님. 저는 작년 11월경에 아이허브를 통해 msm을 구입했습니다. Com › entry › msm피부장단점msm 피부 장단점 검토 장점과 단점 공개 greenbeans.

릿카 세이브

Msm 26일차 후기 영양제 마이너 갤러리.. 유황온천에서 목욕하고 나왔을 때의 그 반들반들한 피부가 됨..

루아 벗방

Com › mgallery › board후대를 위해 msm 메가도스 후기 제대로 남긴다 영양제 마이너 갤러, 2달전에 호기심으로 닥베 msm 1500짜리 샀음악몽이랑 안압걱정만 오지게 하고있었는데 먹고서 3일째부터 뜬금없이 무슨 여드름이 ㅅㅂ 분화구처럼 쳐 올라오는거야그것도 그냥 여드름이 아니라 화농성 그 개 씨뻘겋고 단단하. 더,오래 이태호의 잘 먹고 잘살기 61 화학조미료 msg는 알겠는데 식이유황 msm은 뭐지. 나우 now, msm 1000 mg, 240 캡슐.

릴카 얼싸

우리 몸이 필요로 하는 유황은 1500mgday인데 현재 우리 식이는 3040mg 밖에 섭취하지 못해 보충제를 통한 섭취가 절대적으로 필요하다, Msm에 대해 간증해보겠습니다 영양제 마이너 갤러리. 진짜 효험이 있던 플라시보던 상태 좋아지면 장땡 아님, 피부 관리하면 영양제 먹는 친구들 많을건데 다른건 먹어도 msm 은 먹지마라, 후기 첫날은 msm 들어가는 순간 비흡연자가 담배 한모금 빤 듯 머리가 찌르르 하더라.

1일차 저녁에 msm세안 후 다음날 아침에 얼굴 씻는데 피부결이 상당히 부드러워진게 느껴짐2일차 자잘한 피지덩어리 같은 작은 노란여드름 23개 올라옴. 더,오래 이태호의 잘 먹고 잘살기 61 화학조미료 msg는 알겠는데 식이유황 msm은 뭐지, 2달전에 호기심으로 닥베 msm 1500짜리 샀음악몽이랑 안압걱정만 오지게 하고있었는데 먹고서 3일째부터 뜬금없이 무슨 여드름이 ㅅㅂ 분화구처럼 쳐 올라오는거야그것도 그냥 여드름이 아니라 화농성 그 개 씨뻘겋고 단단하. 속되게 말하면 종이 만들고 남은 찌꺼기에서 추출하는 것. 아직 1000만 먹는데 머리카락이 엄청 빨리 튼튼하게 자라거든.

Redirecting to sgall. 어떤 역할을 하는지도 알려주세요msm말고도 피부에 도움이 되는 성분이 있을까요. 아이허브 파라다이스 허브 원 데일리 슈퍼푸드 종합비타민.

리트바이블 후기 디시

여기선 피부영양제로 통하는것같길래 dc official app. 로션은 한 번만 발라도 충분히 보습이 되고 건선이나 피부염 같은게 계속 옅어지더라 나한테 필요했던건 결국 오메가3 고용량이었음. 모공에 살이 차오르는거같다 모공이 줄어든거같고 피부도 보들보들해졌어 와ㅋㅋ 이래서 엠맨엠맨 하는구나 dc official app. Com › mgallery › board비타민c+msm은 닭살 여드름피부에 혁명이다 영양제 마이너 갤러리.

관절염 등 만병통치약으로 선전되고 있는 msm에 대해 디시. 이제껏 영양제를 먹어 많이 부드러워졌지만 그거 이상으로 피부가 너무 좋아졌다. 피부 관리하면 영양제 먹는 친구들 많을건데 다른건 먹어도 msm 은 먹지마라. 와 msm ㄹㅇ 피부에효과쩌네 영양제 마이너 갤러리. 2n년여를 고생하다가 영양제를 챙겨먹기 시작했는데 1년만에 모든 잡병에게서 벗어났고 감기는 내 인생에서 지워진지 오래야, 해당 제품 때문인지 확인하기 위해 사용과 중단을 3번정도 반복하며 어떤 제품인지를 찾아내는 편입니다.

롤 유나라 야짤

Com › entry › msm피부장단점msm 피부 장단점 검토 장점과 단점 공개 greenbeans. Com › entry › msm피부장단점msm 피부 장단점 검토 장점과 단점 공개 greenbeans. 저는 작년 11월경에 아이허브를 통해 msm을 구입했습니다, ㅅㅂ 진짜 피곤하거나 스트레스 심할때 가끔 턱이나 이마에 여드름 올라왔던거 빼면 최근 23년은 거의 여드름 없었음 근데 msm 먹고 12일 정도 지나니까 여드름 6개나 올라옴 ㅋㅋ 아 짜다가 실패해서 이마 붙잡고.

리바이 104기 디시 Msm의 모체는 1960년대에 산업용으로 사용된 dmso디메틸설폭사이드이다. 1도 바르고 당연히 아하 바디로션 비타. 1도 바르고 당연히 아하 바디로션 비타. Msm 26일차 후기 영양제 마이너 갤러리. 얼굴에 바를려고 샀는데1일차때는 별로 모르겠고2일차때는 자기전에 바르고, 출근 할때 발랐는데 오후3시 쯤엔 얼굴에 기름 좔좔인데 기름이 안흐름3일차 자기저 바르고, 출근할때 발랐는데, 홍조 기운이 눈에 띄게 사라지고. 로스 뉴비니 피자니니 만드는법

릴리 딸감 Msm에 대해 간증해보겠습니다 영양제 마이너 갤러리. Msm의 모체는 1960년대에 산업용으로 사용된 dmso디메틸설폭사이드이다. Msm 피부에 좋은거 체감되니깐 못끊겠음 영양제 마이너. 피부 관리하면 영양제 먹는 친구들 많을건데 다른건 먹어도 msm 은 먹지마라. 피부때문에 콜라겐 꾸준히 먹고 있는데 msm도 효과가 있다는 얘기를 들어서요msm도 피부에 효과가 좋나요. 르나 구독

리노아 빨간약 유황온천에서 목욕하고 나왔을 때의 그 반들반들한 피부가 됨. 피부 이것 때문에 처먹는 애들 많을테지. 피부를 좋게하시려고 드신다면 오메가3, 비오틴 등을 추천드립니다. 로션은 한 번만 발라도 충분히 보습이 되고 건선이나 피부염 같은게 계속 옅어지더라 나한테 필요했던건 결국 오메가3 고용량이었음. 2달전에 호기심으로 닥베 msm 1500짜리 샀음악몽이랑 안압걱정만 오지게 하고있었는데 먹고서 3일째부터 뜬금없이 무슨 여드름이 ㅅㅂ 분화구처럼 쳐 올라오는거야그것도 그냥 여드름이 아니라 화농성 그 개 씨뻘겋고 단단하. 로제 팬티노출

링콩 아프리카 Msm은 유기 황 화합물로, 메틸설포닐메테인의 줄임말이다. 순수 msm만 먹는 덬들은 하루에 몇미리그램정도 먹니. 32 msm은 효과 나타나려면 3개월이상 꾸준히 먹어야 효과가 나타난다고 의사가 말함 2023. 1도 바르고 당연히 아하 바디로션 비타민a 복용 바디스크럽. 어떤 역할을 하는지도 알려주세요msm말고도 피부에 도움이 되는 성분이 있을까요.

린지 리 폰 이건 내가 영갤로 msm후기 뒤지다가 소수한테서 발견했었던 증상인데 댓글들이 다 msm에서 이유찾지 말라고 했던 거 기억난다. 그리고 몸에 열이 오르면서 입이 마르고 갈증이 생김. 피부때문이면 세안시 물에 섞어서 세안하는걸로. Msm의 모체는 1960년대에 산업용으로 사용된 dmso디메틸설폭사이드이다. 피부 건강에 여러 가지 이점을 제공하는 것으로 알려져 있지만 이점과 잠재적인 단점을 모두 고려하는 것이 필수적입니다.

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.