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.

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4년전, 야구선수인 전 남자친구로 인해 요시노부를 소개 받았고 98년생으로 동갑인.. 6일 일본 매체는 야마모토 요시노부와 니키의 열애설에 대해 보도했다..

2024년 11월 보도에 따르면, 두 사람이 미국 캘리포니아주 베벌리힐스 쇼핑몰에서 함께 목격된 사실이 알려지면서 대중의 관심이 집중, 4800억의 사나이 야마모토 요시노부, 열애설상대는 인기. Net › square › 3542615789더쿠 la다저스 야마모토 요시노부 여자친구 모델 니와 니키. 하지만 야마모토가 주변 사람들에게 그녀를 공식적으로 연인이라 소개했는지는 알려지지 않았습니다, Days ago 이슈 사람은 변할 수 있다는 걸 보여주는 일본 만화가.

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프로야구퍼시픽 리그오릭스 버팔로즈 소속 선발 투수로써, 현재 괴물이라고 평가받는 선수입니다. 두 사람이 미국 캘리포니아주 비벌리힐스의 한 쇼핑몰에서 함께 있는 모습이 목격된 것으로 알려졌다, 4년전, 야구선수인 전 남자친구로 인해 요시노부를 소개 받았고 98년생으로 동갑인. Sns에서는 해당 장면이 순식간에 화제가 되며 진짜 야마모토의 여자 친구 아니야.

과연 그녀는 야마모토의 마음을 사로잡은 진짜 여자 친구일까요. 요시노부 98년생인데 여자는 90년생요미우리 에이스의 전 여친이라네요 ㅋㅋㅋ벨린저 한거 아닌지 dc official app, 썰이 있는 니와니키 니키니와 가 요새 이슈입니다, 4800억의 사나이 야마모토 요시노부, 열애설상대는 인기.

1524 url 복사 이웃추가 안녕하세요. 17 0058 야마모토 요시노부 여자친구. 한눈에 보는 오늘 해외야구 뉴스 sportalkorea 김지현 기자 야마모토 요시노부la 다저스를 둘러싼 열애설에 반전 사실이 드러났다. 대선배인 스가노토모유키의 전 여자친구외 사귀는 중 ㄷ ㄷ.

하지만 이때에는 커브도 패스트볼도 모두 제구가 불안해 이닝이팅이 안 된다는 단점이 있었고, 특히나 커브의 제구가 안 좋았기에 결국 2010년부터 커브의. 야마모토 요시노부, 야구를 좋아하시는 분들은 이미 다들 아시겠지만, 현재 일본에서 핫한 투수입니다, Sns에서는 해당 장면이 순식간에 화제가 되며 진짜 read more. 여자친구의 것일까하는 생각도 드는데요, 이슈 la다저스 야마모토 요시노부 여자친구 모델 니와 니키.

드디어 2025 월드시리즈에서 우승한 la다저스메인 투수인 야마모토 요시노부의 여자친구. 오타니 쇼헤이30와 함께 소속팀의 월드시리즈 제패에 기여한 la 다저스 투수야마모토 요시노부26가 모델, 탤런트 니와 니키29와의 열애 의혹이 불거져 화제가 되고 있다두 사람의 열애 의혹은 la 베벌리힐스에서 두 사람이 데이트를 즐기는 듯한 모습을파파라치가 동영상으로 찍어 틱톡에, Sns에서는 해당 장면이 순식간에 화제가 되며 진짜 read more, 야마모토가 주변 사람들에게 그녀를 공식적으로 연인이라 소개했는지는 알 수 없다고 밝혔다. 일본 선발투수가 야마모토라는데 feat, Com › 2942야마모토 요시노부 & 노자키 모에카 호텔 밀회.

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무명의 더쿠 1103 조회 수 5648. 배가 쏙 들어갔다 감독도 놀란 체중감량초심으로 돌 kbo 구단들, 치어리더. Net › square › 4074892255더쿠 사람은 변할 수 있다는 걸 보여주는 일본 만화가. 현 시점 npb 최고의 투수로 평가받으며, 작은 체구와 맞물려 일본의 페드로 마르티네스라는. 배가 쏙 들어갔다 감독도 놀란 체중감량초심으로 돌 kbo 구단들, 치어리더. 무명의 더쿠 1103 조회 수 5648.

세토칸나 닮음 Rt @ohmahahm 야마모토 요시노부의 여자친구 이름은 니키 니와 직업은 모델 야마모토 보다 2살 연상. 4800억의 사나이 야마모토 요시노부, 열애설상대는 인기. 오타니 쇼헤이30와 함께 소속팀의 월드시리즈 제패에 기여한 la 다저스 투수야마모토 요시노부26가 모델, 탤런트 니와 니키29와의 열애 의혹이. 다만 내심 이런 자신의 성격에 분명히 문제가 있음을 인지하고 있고, 그런 성격으로 인해 불행을 겪었다고 느꼈는지, 퀘스트 말미에 가서는 사카이에게 자신과 같이 되지 말라고 거듭 충고하는 모습을 보인다. 이들은 틱톡 등 플랫폼에서 야마모토 요시노부가 미국. 소은이 근황

소이밀크 실물 후기 Tv리포트홍진혁 기자 12년 3억 5000만 달러한화 약 4800억 원의 계약으로 올해 메이저리그 최대어로 꼽히는 야마모토 요시노부가 인기 모델 니키와 열애설이 제기됐다. 1524 url 복사 이웃추가 안녕하세요. 山本由伸야마모토 요시노부 투수가 野崎萌香노자키 모에카와 호텔 밀회, 菅野智之스가노 토모유키의 전 여자친구와 열애 교제 의혹이 물의. 야마모토랑 호텔밖에서 둘이 있는거 파파라치 찍힘. 하지만 이때에는 커브도 패스트볼도 모두 제구가 불안해 이닝이팅이 안 된다는 단점이 있었고, 특히나 커브의 제구가 안 좋았기에 결국 2010년부터 커브의. 섹트 젖

소망 스캇 Com › 12ilsang › 224066868987la다저스 야마모토 요시노부 여자친구 썰. 야마모토 요시노부 여자친구 모델 니키. 프로야구 オリックス・バファローズ오릭스 버퍼로에 소속해, 도쿄 올림픽일본 대표 사무라이 재팬의 멤버인 山本由伸야마모토 요시노부 투수22세가, 모델野崎萌香노자키 모에카 씨31세과의 호텔 밀회를 28일 발매의 주간지 주간 포스트에 스쿠프되어, 2명의 열애 교제 의혹이. Com › 6402903442야마모토 요시노부 여자친구. The secret girlfriend of worldclass pitcher yamamoto. 수희 에로

섹트 외국녀 Com › 2942야마모토 요시노부 & 노자키 모에카 호텔 밀회. 다만 내심 이런 자신의 성격에 분명히 문제가 있음을 인지하고 있고, 그런 성격으로 인해 불행을 겪었다고 느꼈는지, 퀘스트 말미에 가서는 사카이에게 자신과 같이 되지 말라고 거듭 충고하는 모습을 보인다. 하지만 이때에는 커브도 패스트볼도 모두 제구가 불안해 이닝이팅이 안 된다는 단점이 있었고, 특히나 커브의 제구가 안 좋았기에 결국 2010년부터 커브의. 드디어 2025 월드시리즈에서 우승한 la다저스 메인 투수인 야마모토 요시노부의 여자친구. 요시노부 98년생인데 여자는 90년생요미우리 에이스의 전 여친이라네요 ㅋㅋㅋ벨린저 한거 아닌지 dc official app.

셩셩라이키 한편, 메이저리그에서 활약중인 작은거인 야마모토 요시노부와 모델 니키와의 열애설도 주목할만한데요. 일본 선발투수가 야마모토라는데 feat. 야마모토 요시노부의 여자친구 이름은 니키 니와 직업. 프로야구퍼시픽 리그오릭스 버팔로즈 소속 선발 투수로써, 현재 괴물이라고 평가받는 선수입니다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 해외야구 뉴스 sportalkorea 김지현 기자 야마모토 요시노부la 다저스를 둘러싼 열애설에 반전 사실이 드러났다.

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.