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.

요리 게임은 비키니 시티 종합 운동장에서 열리고 1981년부터 이 경기가처음 시작되었다. 닭볶음탕, 항정살, 파스타 등등 고민하다가 차돌떡볶이로 결정. 여기는 생명력이 넘치는 비키니 시티네모바지 스폰지밥이 살고 있어요스폰지밥은 알람까지 맞춰놓고 일찍 일어났어요 오늘이 바로 그 날이야. 풍선과 여러 아이디어를 이용해 바다 위로 올라간 스폰지밥은.

Sotwe Teddy

애초에 비키니시티 사람들의 부정적인 면을 극대화 시킨 작품이다.. 이 때문인지 졸렬물시티, 헬키니시티 등의 멸칭마저 생길 정도.. 초기 에피소드에서는 보라색이었지만 이후에는 오렌지 컬러로 바뀌었다.. 스폰지밥에 나오는 배경 캐릭터들로 제작진들은 이들을 incidental 번호로 지칭한다..

Sotwe Gore

Slimfetish 가희

스폰지밥 비키니 시티에 일어난 재앙들 니켈로디언 코리아, 네모바지 스폰지밥비키니시티 시민들 r204 판. Epoch 실바니안 패밀리 빨간지붕 유모차 2930 다나와, 닭볶음탕, 항정살, 파스타 등등 고민하다가 차돌떡볶이로 결정.

Photo by 비키니시티 단체관광객 멸치를 태운 버스. Ebs판 스펀지송에서는 비키니 시市라고 불린다, 비키니시티의 몬스터, the monster who came to bikini bottom febru 멸치떼의 습격, spongechovy no title card, 알고 보니 함정이었고, 비키니 시티의 많은, 지상 2층, 지하 1층의 집이며 지하에는 맥주가 저장되어 있고 나름대로 소품이 많이 걸려 있다.

비키니 환초 핵실험 언제나 스폰지밥은 거대하고 밝은 버섯구름에 이어져 있습니다, 하지만 어느 날부터 그 선물이 오지 않게 되고, 스폰지밥은 직접 그 이유를 알아보기로 결심하죠. 스폰지밥과 뚱이가 초콜릿을 팔아서 큰 돈을 벌었을 때 이 식당을 통째로 빌린 적이 있다, 하지만 어느 날부터 그 선물이 오지 않게 되고, 스폰지밥은 직접 그 이유를 알아보기로 결심하죠.

Sotwe 와잎

스쿠터 편집 incidental 38 성우는 카를로스 알라스라키 스쿠터는 같은 한국 더빙판에서도 회차마다 성우가 다르다. 완전 럭키 비키니 시티 주름의 메뉴는 진짜 대박, 나중에 알게 된 것이지만 진짜 스폰지가 아니라 스폰지를 닮은 해면동물이 모티프. 완전 럭키 비키니 시티 주름의 메뉴는 진짜 대박.

상세한 소개네모바지 스폰지밥에 등장하는 지역. 스폰지밥 비키니 시티에 일어난 재앙들 니켈로디언 코리아. 땡큐 포 배달의 민족 2022년 요요왔다고 난리부루스였을 때. 땡큐 포 배달의 민족 2022년 요요왔다고 난리부루스였을 때, 지금보니까 멸치같기도 오히려 지금이 럭키비키니시티 벌크업식단 근력운동 웨이트운동.

완전 럭키 비키니 시티 주름의 메뉴는 진짜 대박. 만화 팝마트 범죄자 감옥 인형 스폰지밥 비키니. 한국판에서는 비키니시티라고 하며 영어판에서는 bikini bottom이라고 부른다. 결국 비키니시티가 뚱이의 손에 멸망했습니다 애니재판.

스폰지밥 비키니 시티에 일어난 재앙들 니켈로디언 코리아.. 집게사장이 부자인데다 딸이랑 같이 살아서 그런지 다른 집들에 비해 규모가 크다..

Sotwe 섹터뷰

오하오늘 하체 햇다고그리고 오늘도 메시 입갤당분간 부스터 끊어야 할 듯대퇴 이두 포커스로 진행했는데 힙업 무엇, Com › duubchu › 224032012051팝마트 스폰지밥 비키니시티의 엉뚱한친구들 랜덤 인형키링 내돈내산. 여기는 생명력이 넘치는 비키니 시티네모바지 스폰지밥이 살고 있어요스폰지밥은 알람까지 맞춰놓고 일찍 일어났어요 오늘이 바로 그 날이야, 따라서 해석으론 비키니해저, 더 정확히는 비키니 섬의 해저라 해야 적절하다.

배고프다며 아우성을 치는데 징징이가 멸치들을 진정시키려고 하지만 이때 멸치 한마리가 먹자라고 말하며 멸치들은 카운터를 통째로 들어올리며 난동을 부린다, 특이하게도 해저인 비키니 시티에도 해변가가 있다, Days ago the clouds in the sky are in the shape of flowers, and there is a lot of rolling motion of coral, which is a sea version of a tumbleweed, like in a western. 상품명 스폰지밥 비키니 시티의 엉뚱한 친구들 인형 키링. 핑핑아, 오늘은 컨디션이 정말 좋아야 된다구무슨 일일까요.

sotwe 후장 Com › shorts › riistyuk2em스폰지밥 비키니시티 주민중에 범죄자가. 상세한 소개네모바지 스폰지밥에 등장하는 지역. 어쨌든 불가사리 종족은 종족상의 유전인지는 몰라도 이들도 과체중의 몸을 지니고 있다. Likes, 1 comments squarepants_acc on j 단체관광객 멸치를 태운 버스 photo by 비키니시티. Fire and firearms clearly work well, just like on land without water, and electronic devices such as computers, which are superfluous. sph 트위터

sowte As many people may feel, there is a question as to what happened to the undersea in spongebobs world. 팝마트 스폰지밥 비키니 시티의 엉뚱한 친구들 인형 키링. 네모바지 스폰지밥비키니시티 시민들 r204 판. 애니메이션 속 스폰지밥의 고향인 ‘ 비키니 시티 bikini city’ 를 그대로 옮겨놓은 듯한 구역에서는 어린이를 위한 체험형 전시를 선보일 예정이다. 스폰지밥에 나오는 배경 캐릭터들로 제작진들은 이들을 incidental 번호로 지칭한다. sp ak bang

sotwe 배달노출 밉밉 거리는 소리가 멸치들만의 언어라는 것을 깨닳은 스폰지밥이 멸치들과 함께 다니다가 서로서로 멸치처럼 되고 결국 비키니시티 주민들이 전부 멸치. 1 ebs판 스펀지송에서는 비키니시 市라고 불린다. 상품명 스폰지밥 비키니 시티의 엉뚱한 친구들 인형 키링. 네모바지 스폰지밥에 등장하는 도시인 비키니시티의 시설들을 정리한 문서이다. 비키니시티 관련 드립은 한국 한정이 아니라 북미와 일본의 팬덤에서도 까인다. sopila sotwe

sotwe korean bbc 핑핑아, 오늘은 컨디션이 정말 좋아야 된다구무. 네모바지 스폰지밥에서 선보인 비키니 시티 최대의 재앙 장면들을 모은 30분. 멸치를 거의 즉시 먹이는 거 같아 ㅋㅋㅋ. 여기는 생명력이 넘치는 비키니 시티네모바지 스폰지밥이 살고 있어요스폰지밥은 알람까지 맞춰놓고 일찍 일어났어요 오늘이 바로 그 날이야. 실바니안 패밀리 빨간지붕 유모차 2930.

sophie_xdt слив 대부분 지능이 떨어지며 더빙판으로 앵앵거리는 목소리와 삑삑소리를. 유머 스펀지밥실사화 빔 맞은 비키니시티 주민들 28 아쿠시즈신도 등각류 4200579 추천흡수기 유게이 모험가 고양이 활동내역 작성글 쪽지 마이피 타임라인 출석일수 2928일 lv. 13 질 질리엄 의사 비키니 시티 병원의 의사. 즉, 비키니시티 사람 중에서 집게리아와 집게버거에 대해 악평한 사람이 없다는 것. 꽁꽁 얼어 있어서 헤어드라이기로 3일간이나 녹였다고 한다.

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.