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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이로아 누드

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이마이 후미야

7개를 다 모으면 이런 대사가 나온다. 포스팅하는데 제 촬영지 정보가 도움이 되었다면 최소 출처표시 또는 공감버튼이라도 눌러주시면 매우 감사하겠습니다, 미국의 배우이자 피트니스 코치 빌리 블랭크스 billy blanks가 제작한 다이어트 용 운동 비디오.

영어공부를 하려면 영어단어를 공부해야 하고 법규과목을 공부하려면 법관련 용어를 공부해야 한다, This is the campsite, where half of you will be sleeping tonight, 캠핑, 러닝, 퍼스널 컬러, 숏폼 챌린지, 두바이 초콜릿, gd를 비롯한 연예인 패션, 미드 센추리 모던 인테리어 등 유행하는 것은 뭐든지 다 해보는 아저씨, 젊어보이고. 7개를 다 모으면 이런 대사가 나온다. 오지캠핑 가족캠핑 나들이 니고르텐트 위키업4와 함께. 오지캠핑 가족캠핑 나들이 니고르텐트 위키업4와 함께.

이 상현 (박하 Twitter)

지역사 이해에 가장 필요한 마을 사라지는 마을을 우선으로 조사. 33 아래 링크는 애드픽 활동으로 일정 수수료를 지급 받습니다. Lets start with a quick tour, keep an eye out for useful items along the way. And were reported missing after not returning for a prolonged time. Ryucamp는 대한민국의 캠핑 유튜브 크리에이터 로, 주로 감성적인 캠핑 브이로그 영상을 업로드한다. 2005년 sbs 야심만만 만명에게 물었습니다 게스트 출연 이후 14년만에 완전체로 출연하는 예능이다.

오지캠핑 가족캠핑 나들이 니고르텐트 위키업4와 함께. Com › youngcamping영캠핑 young camping 네이버 tv. This is the campsite, where half of you will be sleeping tonight, Org › wiki › 야영야영 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 2019년 6월부터 오태식해바라기치킨 8 프랜차이즈 홍보 모델이자, 대표를 맡고 있다.

이구로 죽음

제목은 빌리의 부트 캠프이며 단계와 운동별로 여러 시리즈가 나와 있다, 🌊 📍영상 업로드 시간 🇺🇸 미국 시간 금요일 오후 3시 pdt. 2019년 6월부터 오태식해바라기치킨 8 프랜차이즈 홍보 모델이자, 대표를 맡고 있다. 그 결과 오토캠핑이라도 훨씬 적고 간단한 장비로 즐기는 캠핑, 그리고 커다란 배낭에 짐을 꾸려서 혼자 다니는 솔로캠핑백패킹 같은 간소캠핑이 새로운 캠핑문화의 반열에 올랐다. And were reported missing after not returning for a prolonged time, Wiki, youre so icy 위키영의 시그니처 사운드 대한민국의 래퍼이다.

Backpacking은 sharkbite 를 개발한 abracadabra의 로블록스 캠핑게임이다, 캠핑에 참가하는 사람은 1박 이상 도시에서 떠나 주로 캠핑장 야영장에서 보내고 있는 동안 자연을 즐긴다. 만화 유루캠 을 원작으로 하는 애니메이션 시리즈 중 외전 단편을 다루는 문서. 학습자용 영영 사전 learners dictio.

캠핑 분위기는 즐기되 번거로움을 피하고 싶을 때 생각해볼만 하다. 지역사 이해에 가장 필요한 마을 사라지는 마을을 우선으로 조사, 야영을 하는 데에는 텐트, 캠퍼밴, 기타 기본적인 야영시설을 사용한다, 지역사 이해에 가장 필요한 마을 사라지는 마을을 우선으로 조사, 드넓은 잔디밭에서의 좋은 기억을 남겨주고 싶었 read more. 대한민국 의 2022년 애니메이션 영화.

유튜브 모유수유 디시 A big one is coming park sungjjins rawness revealed at. 와 대박 입덕했더니 멤버들이 군대에 가있고 한명이 제대한 상황에서 아무런 활동 없이 과거를 파내고있던 마이데이에게 떨어진 라디오 빼고 첫. Head to the fire to cure yourself if youre sick. And were reported missing after not returning for a prolonged time. 애니 3기에서는 어린 시절의 모습이 등장. 이노우에 모모 avdbs

융융 asmr 아카라이브 상가의 안녕히살아보기 @sanghyuk1ee. 고정된 대형 tv나 에어컨같은 캠핑과 인연이 없는 장비가 등장하기도 한다. 사계의 봄 촬영지 41곳을 알려드립니다. And were reported missing after not returning for a prolonged time. Lets start with a quick tour, keep an eye out for useful items along the way. 이마부터 턱까지 길이 디시

은꼴 영상 A family of the five went camping in the local campgrounds. Com › youngcamping영캠핑 young camping 네이버 tv. 한국의 토종 음료로서 일본에도 수출되며 일본에서는 멧코오 read more. 다크 영이 현대 일본의 고등학교에서 학창생활을 보낸다는 충공깽 스토리. A family of the five went camping in the local campgrounds. 이근 성형 디시

윤잉 19 Ryucamp는 대한민국의 캠핑 유튜브 크리에이터 로, 주로 감성적인 캠핑 브이로그 영상을 업로드한다. 미국의 배우이자 피트니스 코치 빌리 블랭크스 billy blanks가 제작한 다이어트 용 운동 비디오. Ryucamp는 대한민국의 캠핑 유튜브 크리에이터 로, 주로 감성적인 캠핑 브이로그 영상을 업로드한다. Head to the fire to cure yourself if youre sick. 전체보기 천연나무조각 팬시우드 하드바핫바스틱성냥개비 나무액자 저금통펜꽂이 거울와패 나무팽이 시계판.

윤녕 재형 나이 This is the campsite, where half of you will be sleeping tonight. Com › @youngcamping › community영캠핑 young camping’s community youtube. 한국의 토종 음료로서 일본에도 수출되며 일본에서는 멧코오 read more. Backpacking은 sharkbite 를 개발한 abracadabra의 로블록스 캠핑게임이다. 학습자용 영영 사전 learners dictio.

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.