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.

당나라를 지우고 자신의 나라인 무주武周의 천책금륜성신황제. 예쁘다, 아름답다, 순수하다, 귀엽다, 도도하다, 수더분하다 똑부러진다, 상냥하다, 백치미, read more. 무측천중국어 武則天, 병음 wǔ zétiān 우쩌톈이라 부르기도 한다. 측천무후도 남편 고종을 좌지우지하며 정권을 휘둘렀고, 아들 중종과 예종을 마음대로 갈아치우고.

三浦 Gofile

唐沢千賀子

중국 역사상 유일한 여황제인 측천무후則天武后, 624705, 지금까지도 평가가 엇갈리는 논란의 인물이기도 하다.. 그 이유를 알아보기 위해서는 그녀의 출생 배경부터 알아보아야 합니다.. Kr › @0306a641d711434 › 501 중국을 덮은 치마폭 – 측천무후.. 그는 할머니였던 則天武后측천무후가 망쳐놓은 大唐帝國대당제국을 英明영명한 통치로 다시 일으켜 장장 30년에 이르는 유명한 開元之治개원지치..

猫猫碎冰冰pikpak

당 고종의 계후이자 무주를 건국한 초대 황제이며 마지막 황제로 중국 역사상 최초이자 유일한 여황제. 중종 측천무후의 아들이자 유약했던 꼭두각시 황제. 그러나 후세의 사가 들은 황제로 인정하지 않아 의도적으로 무측천 武則天, 측천무후 등의 명칭을 사용하면서 이러한 명칭이 대중적으로 널리 알려졌다.

오른쪽에는 황금 후광이 있는 테오도라 황후가 시녀들을 거느린. 처모 야코, 마코모, 초모 야코, 네모 야코. 처모 야코, 마코모, 초모 야코, 네모 야코.

당나라 무주의 유일한 여황제이자 중국 역사상 유일의 여황제인 측천무후 에서 이름을 따온 이어폰. 중국 역사상 유일한 여황제인 측천무후則天武后, 624705, 지금까지도 평가가 엇갈리는 논란의 인물이기도 하다. Com › mgallery › board썬킴 ☑+중국 3대 악녀 여태후, 측천무후, 서태후 최욱 마이너 갤. 그래서 오늘은 측천무후의 일생, 정치적 업적, 그리고 왜 그녀가 악녀로 평가받았는지 알아볼게요. 측천무후는 일찍 스파이 주는건 좋은데 작전 1레벨 올라간건 딱히 엄청 체감도 안되고 그나마 장점인건 중국 수저라 좃사기 만리장성 쓰는게 다인듯. 공포 정치를 했다는 비난과, 민생을 보살펴 나라를 훌륭히 다스린.

가티비

Com › 593빈센트백작 당나라의 유일한 여황제 측천무후의 미모, 업적과 최후.. 당나라의 여황제 측천무후의 업적과 죽음, 3000명의 남총을 거느린 측천무후의 남성편력 중국역사에서 유일한 여황제가 한 명 있었는데, 바로 측천무후가 그 주인공입니다.. 그녀는 수많은 남성 황제들 사이에서 홀로 황제의 칭호를 사용하고 국호를 주 周로 바꾸며 새로운 왕조를 세웠습니다..

Org › wiki › 측천무후측천무후 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전, 그는 할머니였던 則天武后측천무후가 망쳐놓은 大唐帝國대당제국을 英明영명한 통치로 다시 일으켜 장장 30년에 이르는 유명한 開元之治개원지치, 측천무후는 삼천명의 남첩을 거느렸다고 하네요 고시, 시험. 이현은 과단성 있는 어머니보다도 오히려 마음이 약한 아버지 고종을 많이 닮았다. 중국사 3대 악녀가 바로 서태후, 한나라 황제 유방의 부인 여태후 그리고 측천무후입니다.

남자들에게 가장 잘 먹히는 여자의 매력은. 이현의 아우인 이현 李顯이 황태자가 되었는데, 그는 같은 어머니 무후의 소생이면서도 두 형들에 비해 자질이 떨어졌다, 그렇다면 중국에서 측천무후는 어떤 평가를 받을까요. 측천무후 얘 진지하게 손권선에서 컷아니냐 위진 남북조.

Com › entry › 측천무후중국의측천무후중국의 유일한 여성 황제, 측천무후의 일생과 업적들, 싱글벙글 최근 출시된 중국 게임 여배우의 미모jpg. 무측천 중국어 武則天, 병음 wǔ zétiān 우쩌톈이라 부르기도 한다, 측천무후도 남편 고종을 좌지우지하며 정권을 휘둘렀고, 아들 중종과 예종을 마음대로 갈아치우고 끝내는 자신이 직접 황제가 되지 않았습니까. 꽃미모와 미니스커트를 완벽하게 소화한 후코의 모습이 궁금하다면 클릭하세요.

实时汇率美元人民币 후코의 최신 소식과 매력을 만나보세요. 측천무후는 삼천명의 남첩을 거느렸다고 하네요 고시, 시험. 당태종 의 후궁 이었다가 그 아들 당고종 의 부인이 된 것이다. 파란만장하고 논란으로 가득한 삶을 살았던 측천무후, 과연 그녀는 어떤 인물이었을까요. 여성의 몸으로 밑바닥에서 시작해 최고의 권력자가 되고, 권력욕과 성욕에 취해 보여준 광기어린 모습들은 측천무후가 지금까지도 계속해서 회자되는 이유지 않을까 싶습니다. 尹敏儿

莉 pikpak 여성의 몸으로 밑바닥에서 시작해 최고의 권력자가 되고, 권력욕과 성욕에 취해 보여준 광기어린 모습들은 측천무후가 지금까지도 계속해서 회자되는 이유지 않을까 싶습니다. 본인이 제 발로 물러났는데 이후에 누가 무주 재건을 외치겠는가. 당고종의 계후이자 무주 왕조의 유일한 황제로 중국 역사상 최초이자 유일한 여황제이다. 금삿갓의 은밀한 여성사 220314 자기들이 천하에서 최고이고, 온 세상의 중심이라고 생각했던 중국에서 역사상 전무후무前無後無한 여자가 있었으니, 그녀가 바로 중국의 유일무이한 여황제 측천무후624705다. 측천무후 얘 진지하게 손권선에서 컷아니냐 위진 남북조. 乃木坂 deepfake twitter

간바레마쇼 그렇다면 중국에서 측천무후는 어떤 평가를 받을까요. 당나라 무주의 유일한 여황제이자 중국 역사상 유일의 여황제인 측천무후 에서 이름을 따온 이어폰. 당나라 무주의 유일한 여황제이자 중국 역사상 유일의 여황제인 측천무후 에서 이름을 따온 이어폰. 5mm 구경의 평판형 드라이버를 탑재 하였다. 즉 위의 조건에 측천무후가 순순히 퇴위하여 뒤에 벌어질 불씨가 없어지니 이들도 부담없이 측천무후를 살려주었다고 볼 수 있다. 가치아쿠타 아모

간현배 온리팬스 측천무후가 젊을 땐 무서워서 꼼짝 못하다 할카스 되니 권력만 돌려준다면 안건들겠음 ㅇㅋ. 측천무후則天武后, 624년 2월 17일 705년 12월 16일 는 중국 당나라 제3대 황제 고종의 황후이자 무주武周의 여제이다. 예쁘다, 아름답다, 순수하다, 귀엽다, 도도하다, 수더분하다 똑부러진다, 상냥하다, 백치미, read more. 5mm 구경의 평판형 드라이버를 탑재 하였다. 예쁘다, 아름답다, 순수하다, 귀엽다, 도도하다, 수더분하다 똑부러진다, 상냥하다, 백치미, read more.

가요이 가슴골 측천무후는 진짜 구린거 같은데 문명 마이너 갤러리. 당나라의 여황제 측천무후의 업적과 죽음, 3000명의 남총을 거느린 측천무후의 남성편력 중국역사에서 유일한 여황제가 한 명 있었는데, 바로 측천무. Com › woneae › 223955942040중국 역사상 유일한 여황제 측천무후, 그녀는 누구인가. 삼국지 인물들이랑 측천무후 비교하니까 측천무후가 좆으로 보이냐 ㅇㅈㄹ 떨던데 얘 솔직히 한거라곤 60대 넘을동안 이세민 후궁당고종 부인으로 있다가. 중국의 3대 악녀, 첫번째 측천무후편 네이버 블로그.

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.