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.

요즘 68세면 할아버지는 아닌거같기도, 스타인뉴스 이상백 기자 故 최진실의 유족이 재산 분쟁에. 조진세 辛나는 집 공개 아침부터 매운 떡볶이+불라면 미우. Com › lilycole2006 › 224108822980미우새 371만 유튜버 개그맨 조진세 집 아파트 공개. Com › entry › 김원훈조진세김원훈 조진세 프로필 수입 결혼.

딜도 흡연 호텔

레타트루타이드 직구

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마이데일리 박로사 기자 숏박스 조진세가 유튜브 최고 수익을 밝혔다, 조진세가 만난 지 100일 된 여자친구의 존재를 언급했다, 숏박스의 헌정 무대, 진세와 함께하는 멋진 순간. 개그맨 엄지윤, 조진세, 김원훈 인스타 사진. 조진세는 앞서 유튜브 채널 조동아리에 출연해 교제 중인 연인이 있으며 약 100일째라고 밝힌 바 있고, 이에 곽범은 모델급 미인이라는 소문을 언급, 가족 관계는 아버지 조용철, 어머니 박금선, 누나 조수연이 있습니다.

조진세 어머니가 여친 찾아가 헤어지라고 아침드라마급. 집안 곳곳에는 매운 라면소스가 가득했고 조진세는 아침부터 매운 떡볶이라면으로. 스크랩 목록에 기록해둘 제목을 변경해주세요.

가족관계는 아버지 김병석님, 어머니 임연숙님 누나 김아름님, 그리고 배우자가 있으며 아내와는 2022년 8월 27일 결혼하셨고 8년간 연애하였으며 비연예인이라고 하는데 어린이 뮤지컬 강사로 캠퍼스 커플로 만났다고 합니다. 재현중학교 졸업 재현고등학교 졸업 가천. 스케치코미디 숏박스 찐남매믿기어렵고 믿고싶지도 않겠지만진세가 동생입니다음원출처 브금대통령 s.

똥침 Sotwe

이 자리에서 김수용은 지금 사귀는 여자가 있잖아.. 가족 관계는 아버지 조용철, 어머니 박금선, 누나 조수연이 있습니다.. 6세 연하 아내와이프신혼집아파트집안수익가족누나 김아름자녀⭐️김원훈 조진세 엄지윤 숏박스 lilycole ・ 2025..

Com › soul_friend012 › 224109973933미우새 조진세 집 아파트 어디, Facebook은 활발한 정보 공유를 통해 보다 친밀하고 열린 세상을 만듭니다. 서울뉴시스강주희 기자 개그맨 조진세가 연애 중이라고 밝혔다. Facebook은 활발한 정보 공유를 통해 보다 친밀하고 열린 세상을 만듭니다, 또한 2024년 11월에는 유튜브채널에 출연해 교제한 지 100일정도 된 여자친구가 있다고 이야기하였어요.

레제편 19

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Com › 3520조진세 프로필 리즈 과거사진 턱 부정교합 결혼 여자친구 작품활동. Com › 174조진세숏박스개콘턱압프레스엄지윤불닭인스타프로필 정보, 박정숙 김미숙 역 박민석의 어머니 김미숙 이국주 박춘규 사단장의 장녀 박민주 역 박민석의 큰 누나 박민주 김주철 박춘규 사단장의 맏사위 한성근 역 박민석의 맏자형, Facebook은 활발한 정보 공유를 통해 보다 친밀하고 열린 세상을 만듭니다, 13 일명 밧데리 누나, 갓데리 누나로 불린다, Com › 543조진세 프로필 나이 숏박스 개그맨.

레제 Av

개그맨 엄지윤, 조진세, 김원훈 인스타 사진. 조진세 결혼 여자친구 조진세는 아직 결혼은 하지 않은 미혼인데, 과거 7년의 장기연애를 해본 경험이 있다고 밝혔습니다, 350만 유튜버 조진세, 최고 수입 밝혔다홍현희 깜짝, 본명 조진세, 국적 한국, 1990년 12월 10일생으로 만으로 나이 31살이며 고향 지역은 서울특별시라고 합니다.

Com › jinsecho조진세 @jinsecho instagram photos and videos, 2025년 10월 23일 방송된 mbc 예능 프로그램. 조진세 결혼 여자친구 조진세는 아직 결혼은 하지 않은 미혼인데, 과거 7년의 장기연애를 해본 경험이 있다고 밝혔습니다. 엄청난 미인, 모델 키유튜브로 빵 뜬 개그맨 여친 공개 서울en.

디시 환연4 최명경 육군 제95사단장 장성 박춘규 소장 역 박민석의 아버지. Com 개그맨 조진세 @jinsecho instagram 사진 및 동영상 팔로워 6,223명, 팔로잉 200명, 게시물 59개 개그맨 조진세 @jinsecho님의 instagram 사진 및 동영상 보기. 제3탄, 웃음과 노래까지 접수한 ‘희극인의 명곡. 스크랩 목록에 기록해둘 제목을 변경해주세요. 조진세 여자친구 모델급 미모의 여자친구. 레버쿠젠 팔라시오스 등번호

똥칰 패악질 56k followers, 339 following, 84 posts 조진세 @jinsecho on instagram. 이름 조진세 趙瑱世 본명 출생 1990년 12월 10일 만 34세 2025년 기준 신체 175cm, 78kg 추정 공식 프로필 키 직업 코미디언, 유튜버. 조진세는 지금 그 경계를 자연스럽게 넘나들며, 조용히 자신의 영역을 넓혀가고 있는 중입니다. 조진세 인스타 바로가기 개그맨 조진세 프로필 정보도 알아봤는데요. 본명 조진세, 국적 한국, 1990년 12월 10일생으로 만으로 나이 31살이며 고향 지역은 서울특별시라고 합니다. 레전드 ㅇㄷ

딸캠 twitter Facebook은 활발한 정보 공유를 통해 보다 친밀하고 열린 세상을 만듭니다. 조진세1990년 12월 10일 는 대한민국의 희극 배우이다. 조진세 어머니가 여친 찾아가 헤어지라고 아침드라마급. Com › 3520조진세 프로필 리즈 과거사진 턱 부정교합 결혼 여자친구 작품활동. 곽범은 조진세의 여자 친구에 대해 소문에는 엄청난 미인에 키도 모델급이라고 하더라며 흥미로운 사실을 전했다. 레이 섹스

레즈 일스 뜻 2009년 코어콘텐츠미디어 에서 솔로 가수로 데뷔했으며, 데뷔곡 사랑의 배터리 가 대히트를 치며 트로트 가수 중에서 이례적으로 다양한 연령층에서 인지도가 높다. 조진세 프로필 나이 숏박스 개그맨 알면 나쁘지 않은 티스토리. 조진세 결혼 여자친구 조진세는 아직 결혼은 하지 않은 미혼인데, 과거 7년의 장기연애를 해본 경험이 있다고 밝혔습니다. 2009년 코어콘텐츠미디어 에서 솔로 가수로 데뷔했으며, 데뷔곡 사랑의 배터리 가 대히트를 치며 트로트 가수 중에서 이례적으로 다양한 연령층에서 인지도가 높다. 오늘은 개그맨 조진세 프로필 정보입니다.

똥침 트위터 요즘 68세면 할아버지는 아닌거같기도, 스타인뉴스 이상백 기자 故 최진실의 유족이 재산 분쟁에. Com › lilycole2006 › 224108822980미우새 371만 유튜버 개그맨 조진세 집 아파트 공개. 조진세는 앞서 유튜브 채널 조동아리에 출연해 교제 중인 연인이 있으며 약 100일째라고 밝힌 바 있고, 이에 곽범은 모델급 미인이라는 소문을 언급. Pages 󱙿 public figure 󱙿 digital creator 󱙿 shorttimes2 󱙿 videos 󱙿 애매한 귀여운 모지리들ㅋㅋㅋ 학우들 급식 껴들기. Com › 3520조진세 프로필 리즈 과거사진 턱 부정교합 결혼 여자친구 작품활동.

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.