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.

어플 이름은만남어때이구요, 답장 안하면 100%환불이라는 문구를 내세워서 믿었는데현금 결제 후 대화를 걸면 35마디 하고나서. 앱에 들어가셔서 프로필 탭을 눌러주신 후, 오른쪽 상단에 있는 톱니바퀴 버튼을 눌러 설정 화면으로 이동해 주시면 됩니다. Insights into download, usage, revenue, rank & sdk data. 제가 아는 동생도 얼마전에 사기당해서 문자 싹돌리고 sns 다 탈퇴했더라구요.

Big Boob Hitomi

Bj 엘리 다시보기

전자상거래법 상 다크패턴 유형 중 취소탈퇴 등의 방해란.. 작중 최초로 등장한 해군본부의 최고전력인 대장이다.. 어플 이름은만남어때이구요, 답장 안하면 100%환불이라는 문구를 내세워서 믿었는데현금 결제 후 대화를 걸면 35마디 하고나서..

Bfx 갤러리

숙박 운영의 모든 고민을 한 번에 해결하세요, 백수&백조 이야기 38백조 안녕하세요 연애 칼럼리스트 리돈부입니다. ▽ 강남풀싸롱, 원지동쩜오후기, 강남달토가라오케셔츠룸사진, 강남셔츠룸, 압구정동텐카페 까지 정리된 업소는은 이미 재방문 많은 곳뿐이에요. 저는 미성년자고 호기심에 소개팅 사이트가 있길래 들어가고 회원가입하고 다 했는데 미성년자는 안된다길래 아버지 전화번호로 인증하고 했는데 이건 아닌거 같아 회원 탈퇴할려합니다 하지만. 소개팅어플 만남어때 lovechoicepartner bit.

만남어때 리뷰 탈퇴 마음대로 할수있습니다제가 만남어때 사이트 말고 다른곳 디시 에서 알려줄게요만남어때 같은 어플 빈책쿨타임장갑공속투사체반지, 본 약관은 회원이 주세븐틱이하 회사라 합니다. 를 이용함에 있어 회원과 회사간의 권리, 의무 및책임사항, 하나의 id 및 password로 통합하여 이용하는데 따른 이용조건 및 절차 등. ♥ female members who sign up now are free.

만남어때 리뷰 탈퇴 마음대로 할수있습니다.. 내용 1단계 sns메신저소개팅 앱에서 ‘만남어때’ 프로필로 접근 2단계 지속적인 대화와 애정 표현으로 친밀감 형성 3단계 만나기 전에 데이트 비용보증금 필요 명목으로 선입금 요구 4단계 또는 만남 등급회원권 업그레이드 등을 핑계로 금전 요구.. 앱에 들어가셔서 프로필 탭을 눌러주신 후, 오른쪽 상단에 있는 톱니바퀴 버튼을 눌러 설정 화면으로 이동해 주시면 됩니다..

일단 쿠폰 환불은 이성한테 답장이 없으면 할수 있습니다. 만남어때 라는 소개팅 사이트 괜찮나요, 만남어때 파트너 login 회원 가입 lovechoicepartner 회원 가입 파트너 아이디 이메일 비밀번호, 앱에 들어가셔서 프로필 탭을 눌러주신 후, 오른쪽 상단에 있는 톱니바퀴 버튼을 눌러 설정 화면으로 이동해 주시면 됩니다.

Biyagura Leaked

만남어때 라는 소개팅 사이트 괜찮나요. 제가 아는 동생도 얼마전에 사기당해서 문자 싹돌리고 sns 다 탈퇴했더라구요. 본 약관은 회원이 주세븐틱이하 회사라 합니다, 뭐 놀아도 일이 당장은 없더라도 연애는 본능이라.

Kr 에 가입 하시려면 다음 약관을 읽고 동의하셔야 합니다. 만남어때 리뷰 사이트 어플 포인트 해본사람 후기 있으면 드릴게요, 채팅 신청 후 답변이 없는 경우 포인트는 환불됩니다. 대표적인 숙박 플랫폼이죠, 야놀자와 여기어때가 입점 업체들에 갑질을 해 오다 공정거래위원회 제재를 받게 됐습니다. 두번째 만남 이후로 남편은 나를 피하는 듯 했다.

Bj Minseoha

스포티비뉴스정혜원 기자 그룹 더보이즈 주학년이 사생활 이슈로 팀을 탈퇴한다. Com › profits6705 › 223975843271만남어때 사기 로맨스스캠 만남 사기, 실제 피해 사례와 환불 대응. 해본사람 없는지 그런거 평가에 대해서 궁금해 하시는분 많은거 같아서요.

만남어때 리뷰 탈퇴 마음대로 할수있습니다제가 만남어때 사이트 말고 다른곳 디시 에서 알려줄게요만남어때 같은 어플 빈책쿨타임장갑공속투사체반지. 스포티비뉴스정혜원 기자 그룹 더보이즈 주학년이 사생활 이슈로 팀을 탈퇴한다. 대표적인 숙박 플랫폼이죠, 야놀자와 여기어때가 입점 업체들에 갑질을 해 오다 공정거래위원회 제재를 받게 됐습니다. 전자상거래법 상 다크패턴 유형 중 취소탈퇴 등의 방해란.

bj율희 야동 스포티비뉴스정혜원 기자 그룹 더보이즈 주학년이 사생활 이슈로 팀을 탈퇴한다. 를 이용함에 있어 회원과 회사간의 권리, 의무 및책임. Com › qna › dirs소개팅 어플 개발자를 고소하러 가려 합니다만남어때. 취소탈퇴 등의 방해란, 재화등의 구매계약체결회원가입 등의 절차보다 그 취소해지 탈퇴 등의 절차를 복잡하게 하거나 그 방법을 제한하여 소비자. 오늘은 연애를 시작하는법과 관련하여 만남 어플에 대하여 써보려고합니다. bao 시리즈 디시

bj 푸딩 보지노출 일단 쿠폰 환불은 이성한테 답장이 없으면 할수 있습니다. 이 어플은 특히 사용자의 위치 정보를 기반으로 가까운 사람들과의 만남을 제안하는 기능이 특징입니다. 김준환 변호사의 유사한 상담사례 ∙ 성인만남사이트에 돈이 묶였어요 ∙ 만남 사이트에서 1000만 원 이상의 사기를 당했습니다. 만남어때 환불하던지 자유입니다 제가 알려준곳 강추합니다 이걸로 여자친구 사귀기 쉽습니다. 작중 최초로 등장한 해군본부의 최고전력인 대장이다. big penis korean hitomi

bj서나앙 앞서 소속사 원헌드레드는 지난 16일 더보이즈 멤버 주학년이 개인적인 사정으로 인해 활동을 일시. 김준환 변호사의 유사한 상담사례 ∙ 성인만남사이트에 돈이 묶였어요 ∙ 만남 사이트에서 1000만 원 이상의 사기를 당했습니다. 만남사이트 에서 계정탈퇴를 위한 돈을 요구하고 돈을 돌려주지 않습니다. 앱에 들어가셔서 프로필 탭을 눌러주신 후, 오른쪽 상단에 있는 톱니바퀴 버튼을 눌러 설정 화면으로 이동해 주시면 됩니다. 만남어때 환불하던지 자유입니다 제가 알려준곳 강추합니다 이걸로 여자친구 사귀기 쉽습니다. bj yudiiimaru

bbyanni before surgery Insights into download, usage, revenue, rank & sdk data. Com › mgallery › board만남어때 리뷰 사이트 어플 포인트 해본사람 후기 뱀파이어 서바이. 전자상거래법 상 다크패턴 유형 중 취소탈퇴 등의 방해란. 출연진이 35세 미만이랑 키난으로 구성되는 데는 다 이유가 있어. 만남사이트 에서 계정탈퇴를 위한 돈을 요구하고 돈을 돌려주지 않습니다.

bc근 드라이 해본사람 없는지 그런거 평가에 대해서 궁금해 하시는분 많은거 같아서요. Insights into download, usage, revenue, rank & sdk data. 취소탈퇴 등의 방해란, 재화등의 구매계약체결회원가입 등의 절차보다 그 취소해지 탈퇴 등의 절차를 복잡하게 하거나 그 방법을 제한하여 소비자. 소개팅 어플 개발자를 고소하러 가려 합니다. 취소탈퇴 등의 방해란, 재화등의 구매계약체결회원가입 등의 절차보다 그 취소해지 탈퇴 등의 절차를 복잡하게 하거나 그 방법을 제한하여 소비자.

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.