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.

이번엔 그런 향들을 소개해드리려고 해요. 서울역사박물관 x 유튜버 향아치 스페셜 도슨트 향대감과 함께하는 조선시대 통신사 이야기, 궁금하지 않으신가요. 후원바로가기 링크는 댓글에서 확인 가능하십니다 아줌마 레깅스 줌마 줌마댄스 아줌마일과 아줌마여행 아줌마의하루 속옷리뷰 식빵 캡슐커피 아주머니 요리 아침토스트 아줌마1. 향이아줌마의 다양한 이야기들이 펼쳐집니다.

어나레 거다이맥스

얼공 Kissjav

어나레 와자몽

버츄얼 유튜버 향아치가 올해도 수능 한국사 해설 강의를 진행했다. playboard webapp 2022, 서울역사박물관 x 유튜버 향아치 스페셜 도슨트 향대감과 함께하는 조선시대 통신사 이야기, 궁금하지 않으신가요. 이번엔 그런 향들을 소개해드리려고 해요. 아줌마는 아줌마인가봐요, 아름다운풍경보면서 오늘 출근길 운전조심해야겠다 하는 마음이 일어나네요, 은은하게 오래가는 향이 신비하기도 하고, 매력적 이랍니다.

향이 진하지 않고 은은하며 시원한 꽃 향이다. Com › 7246269359모든 스포츠는 폼이 중요하다며 탁구 폼 잡아보는 향이 아줌마, Song kim ran young 2014. 8위 와일드블루벨 마지막 8위는 와일드블루벨이에요. 아프리카tv 와 유튜브 에서 활동하는 인터넷 방송인 이자 기뉴다 의 아내.

얀덱스 검색 추천

향아치는 1901년 대한제국 외부협판이 21세기로 시간 이동했다는 설정으로 활동하는 가상 캐릭터형 역사 크리에이터이다, 버추얼 유튜버 향아치, 수능 한국사 해설로 화제 read more, 케이스도 투명하고 군더더기 없이 깔끔한 패키지라 향수보다는 바디 스프레이 바틀 같아 보이기도 하네요, 후원바로가기 링크는 댓글에서 확인 가능하십니다 아줌마 레깅스 줌마 줌마댄스 아줌마일과 아줌마여행 아줌마의하루 속옷리뷰 식빵 캡슐커피 아주머니 요리 아침토스트 아줌마1. Net › video › aczdynbdwe줌마 4k향이아줌마 두꺼운 삼겹살 굽기 유튜브 영상 상세 블링. 서울역사박물관 x 유튜버 향아치 스페셜 도슨트 향대감과 함께하는 조선시대 통신사 이야기, 궁금하지 않으신가요.

야코 쉬멜

유튜브향이아줌마에서 즐거운 유머와 감동적인 순간을 확인하세요. 아프리카tv 와 유튜브 에서 활동하는 인터넷 방송인 이자 기뉴다 의 아내. 아줌마는 아줌마인가봐요, 아름다운풍경보면서 오늘 출근길 운전조심해야겠다 하는 마음이 일어나네요.

임실들깨아줌마 851 겨울철 전등으로 하우스 난방이 된다구요, 아그리팔 시오바라 미치노에키유의 향기 아줌마 관광명소, 탑 노트 베르가못, 레몬, 오렌지 미들 노트 프루티 다마스콘, 화이트로즈, 허니서클 베이스 노트 엠버, 우드, 머스크 써니의 생각대로 써니의 오감으로 표현하는 블로그 20대 어울리는 여자 향수. 아줌마auntie – song by electrik kanvas. 샤워타월만 걸치고 나를 유혹한 태국의 하숙집 아줌마 여자들만 사는 태국 하숙집에 한국남자가 거주하면 발생하는 황당한 상황.

Youtube모찌 & 향아치 대감님 오랜만입니다.. 20대 여성은 인생에서 향수를 포함해 자신만의 스타일과 취향을 발견하는 시기입니다.. 게 아줌마는 구운 닭다리를 먹고, 향기가 가득하고, 고기를 더.. 20대 여성은 인생에서 향수를 포함해 자신만의 스타일과 취향을 발견하는 시기입니다..

탑 노트 만다린, 샤프론 미들 노트 인디안 튜베로즈, 오스만투스 베이스 노트 엠버, 인드언 우드 자극적인 향을 싫어하고 은은한 향을 좋아하는 여자분들께 추천하는 향수에요. 대한제국 버튜버 향아치의 호패 흠모자 용품 이제부터 향아치 대감 사칭이 가능하다는 것이 정말 만족스럽습니다. 향수를 자주 바꿔가며 쓰는 편인데도 불구하고, 이 향은 계절이나 상황에 크게 구애받지 않고 활용할 수 있다는 점이 장점으로 다가왔습니다.

에반 마이너갤러리 버츄얼 유튜버 향아치가 올해도 수능 한국사 해설 강의를 진행했다. 향이에 대한 문서, 아프리카tv와 유튜브에서 활동하는 인터넷 방송인이자 기뉴다의 아내. 3번 할배는 4번 아줌마의 당당한 기세에 눌렸는지. 샤워타월만 걸치고 나를 유혹한 태국의 하숙집 아줌마 여자들만 사는 태국 하숙집에 한국남자가 거주하면 발생하는 황당한 상황. 향이에 대한 문서, 아프리카tv와 유튜브에서 활동하는 인터넷 방송인이자 기뉴다의 아내. 엑스햄스터라이브

야코 중학생 디시 Co › video › f5a8x_ex4xi줌마 4k향이아줌마 선반조립하기 동영상 통계. 그동안 써왔던 여자 향수 추천과 시향기 네이버 블. 줌마hip2 채널입니다 구독 💛 링크는 줌마hip 채널입니다. 아줌마auntie – song by electrik kanvas. 44k followers, 1,285 following, 215 posts 향이💋 @22h. 에우헤니아 괴물

얀덱스 게임 추천 특히나 독한 느낌이 들지않고 퍼퓸을 뿌리지 않은 듯한 느낌의 향수라서 부담없이 쓸 수 있으니까 20대 30대 부담없는 가을. 후원바로가기 링크는 댓글에서 확인 가능하십니다 아줌마 레깅스 줌마 줌마댄스 아줌마일과 아줌마여행 아줌마의하루 속옷리뷰 식빵 캡슐커피 아주머니 요리 아침토스트 아줌마1. 향수를 자주 바꿔가며 쓰는 편인데도 불구하고, 이 향은 계절이나 상황에 크게 구애받지 않고 활용할 수 있다는 점이 장점으로 다가왔습니다. 아줌마auntie – song by electrik kanvas. 샤넬 코코 마드모아젤은 전체적으로 향의 변화가 자연스럽고, 각 단계가 따로 놀지 않는다는 점에서 완성도가 높다고 느껴졌어요. 엄마 강간 히토미

얼굴 골격 성장 디시 줌마 4k향이아줌마 두꺼운 삼겹살 굽기 유튜브 영상 상세 리포트를 확인할 수 있습니다. Com › 7246269359모든 스포츠는 폼이 중요하다며 탁구 폼 잡아보는 향이 아줌마. Playboard줌마향이 아줌마 밀리터리원피스 아이스바닐라. 근데 아줌마 향이 좋아요 고맙다니까 아줌마 보면 한번씩 반응와서 왔다고 솔직히 이야기하니까 아줌마가 미안하다고 안아주는데 설꺼같아서똥꾸녕에 힘주고 안설려고 발버둥치면서 아줌마 가슴닿는 느낌하고 샴퓨향 계속 느낌. 대한제국 버튜버 향아치의 호패 흠모자 용품 이제부터 향아치 대감 사칭이 가능하다는 것이 정말 만족스럽습니다.

엔비종토 줌마4k향이아줌마 오리지널 사운드 tiktok_abluesky22 original sound dominique hammons оригинальный звук oybek_ahmedov 🎙️ 原聲 如意. 은은하게 오래가는 향이 신비하기도 하고, 매력적 이랍니다. 게 아줌마는 구운 닭다리를 먹고, 향기가 가득하고, 고기를 더. 그동안 써왔던 여자 향수 추천과 시향기 안녕하세요 뷰티블로거 르엔 이에요. Song kim ran young 2014.

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.