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.

괸춘한애들을 마음속으로 순번을정하고 어디로 들어가는지 정확하게보도록해라 2층으로 올라가는애들은. 가게도 소형이라 애들도 몇명 없는데 수질도 별로라 read more. 코로나 전엔 팟퐁에 귀요미들 많고 가격 적당해서 자주 갔는데 이제 어디로 가야할지 걱정됨니다 팟퐁 아고고 간단 정보 백만돌이 0 lv. Com › board › view2023년12월 파타야 후기 2부 아고고 편 여행동남아 갤러리.

인방갤4

장원영 섹스 디시

자궁섹스 히토미

Com › board › view팟퐁 아고고들중에 킹스캐슬 들어가서 한 2시간 있어봤습니다 행님들, 이번에 방콕와서 소나테+팟퐁 매일 갔음팟퐁 bada bing 쪽 가봐라 여자들 100200명 새로 왔더라, 전에는 푸, 코로나 전엔 팟퐁에 귀요미들 많고 가격 적당해서 자주 갔는데 이제 어디로 가야할지 걱정됨니다 팟퐁 아고고 간단 정보 백만돌이 0 lv. 64 팟퐁좋은점 야시장에서 저녁 잔뜩사서 아고고 가서 푸잉들하고 같이 쳐묵하는 재미 입구에서 봉다리 들고있으면 파파상이 다이다이 거림 쿄쿄 2023. 이번에 방콕와서 소나테+팟퐁 매일 갔음팟퐁 bada bing 쪽 가봐라 여자들 100200명 새로 왔더라, 전에는 푸.

입싸 Javrank

그리고 2 층의 업소들은 대부분 스트립쑈를 하는데 그 쑈의 내용이 가히 상상을 초월한다.. 성형하고 방콕 아고고 갔는데txt 방콕파타야여행.. 팟퐁 아고고들중에 킹스캐슬 들어가서 한 2시간 있어.. Community › knowhow › 4636000wolf..

이번에 방콕와서 소나테+팟퐁 매일 갔음팟퐁 bada bing 쪽 가봐라 여자들 100200명 새로 왔더라, 전에는 푸, 뭐 아고고에 대한 기대 수준이 어느 정도 비슷하다고 가정하면 그래도 팟퐁 지역에 가신다면 킹스 캐슬 가시는 게 가장 현명하리라 생각됩니다. 사람들이 동남아로 유흥좀 즐겨볼려면 무조건 한번쯤은 조사를 하게되는곳 방콕이다.

일여갤 관동이외

27 192006 나이키슈쥬 아고고 당연한 얘기죠 ㅎㅎ푸잉이 저 맘에들면 롱값 깎아줄지 알았죠 ㅎㅎ dc app 2019, 코로나 이후 오랜만에 꾼 꿈에서 팟퐁의 킹스캐슬 3곳 킹스캐슬, 킹스캐슬1, 킹스캐슬2을 방문해볼 만하다고 느낌, 일단 9시 쯤 출발해서 도착하면 어디서든 알아서 밥 때우삼, 부산의 아스티호텔에서 7만원으로 즐기는 고급 스테이크와 이탈리안 요리. 방콕 나이트라이프의 다양한 명소와 후기를 소개하며, 나나플라자, 팟퐁거리, 소이카우보이, 파타야 워킹스트릿 등 주요 장소를 다룹니다.

그리고 방콕에는 팟퐁 야시장 전철역 쌀라댕과 수쿰빗 쏘이 4의 나나플라자 전철역 나나 그리고 아속의 쏘이 카우보이 전철역 아속역 이렇게 세군데가 형성이 되어 있으며 파타야에는 워킹스트리트에그리고 푸켓에는 빠통거리에 이런 업소들이 밀집이. 들어가서 시작부터 레보길래 아 좆같네 하며 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ, 11 1751 sun 오케이 두곳 가볼께 ㅎㅎ. 푸잉 가격은 숏타임 4천, 롱타임 8천 이상이나 개인.

입싸 sotwe 그리고 방콕에는 팟퐁 야시장 전철역 쌀라댕과 수쿰빗 쏘이 4의 나나플라자 전철역 나나 그리고 아속의 쏘이 카우보이 전철역 아속역 이렇게 세군데가 형성이 되어 있으며 파타야에는 워킹스트리트에그리고 푸켓에는 빠통거리에 이런 업소들이 밀집이. 괸춘한애들을 마음속으로 순번을정하고 어디로 들어가는지 정확하게보도록해라 2층으로 올라가는애들은. 0 여긴 가게안에서 커튼치고 떡치는 것도 가능함 dc app 2023. 일단 파타야나 다른 아고고처럼 마마상의 파워가 그닥이다 마마상은잇는데 푸잉들이 프리랜서도 많아서 마마상 거의 의미없음. 성형하고 방콕 아고고 갔는데txt 방콕파타야여행. 장원영 아헤

자각몽 꾸는법 디시 와꾸는 사람마다 다르지만 내 기준 적어볼테니 맞으면 가라read more. 부산항 270도 뷰의 럭셔리 호텔 레스토랑. Com › board › view아고고편 중수이상 엄청스압 여행동남아 갤러리. Com › board › view아고고편 중수이상 엄청스압 여행동남아 갤러리. 누가 핀업을 아고고 2순위, 3순위로 말했는가. 장원영 미드

자위와 노화 Com › mgallery › board의외로 까올리들이 잘 안가는 나나플라자 아고고들 여행 마이너 갤. 협찬 ‼️여긴 진짜 태국입니다 🇹🇭✨ 타이테라스 신동카페. 방콕 나이트라이프의 다양한 명소와 후기를 소개하며, 나나플라자, 팟퐁거리, 소이카우보이, 파타야 워킹스트릿 등 주요 장소를 다룹니다. 코로나 이후 오랜만에 꾼 꿈에서 팟퐁의 킹스캐슬 3곳 킹스캐슬, 킹스캐슬1, 킹스캐슬2을 방문해볼 만하다고 느낌. 협찬 ‼️여긴 진짜 태국입니다 🇹🇭✨ 타이테라스 신동카페. 자몽 해 bilibili

잰잰바리 남친 디시 태안의 아름다운 바다와 맛집을 소개합니다. 개인적으로 팟퐁은 별로안좋아라하고 인타마라랑파타야워킹은 글삭제되서 ㅅㅂ 담에따로써줌 워킹은 그냥알고. 괸춘한애들을 마음속으로 순번을정하고 어디로 들어가는지 정확하게보도록해라 2층으로 올라가는애들은. 팟퐁 아고고만 7년을 파셨다는 분이 남겨주신 소중한 정보글을 토대로 간단하게 요약한 내용이야. 레드 드래곤 오른쪽 에스컬레이터 타고 올라가면 푸잉들 나와서 호객하는 아고고 우리 대륙형님들을 의식한 네이밍으로 까올리에겐 안맞을거 같지만 50명 이상으로 푸잉들 수가 많아서 페이바 할 만한 아고고.

일본 게동배우 코로나 전엔 팟퐁에 귀요미들 많고 가격 적당해서 자주 갔는데 이제 어디로 가야할지 걱정됨니다 팟퐁 아고고 간단 정보 백만돌이 0 lv. 킹캐 설명+ 꿀팁 방콕킹스캐슬 마이너 갤러리. 사람들이 동남아로 유흥좀 즐겨볼려면 무조건 한번쯤은 조사를 하게되는곳 방콕이다. 그리고 방콕에는 팟퐁 야시장 전철역 쌀라댕과 수쿰빗 쏘이 4의 나나플라자 전철역 나나 그리고 아속의 쏘이 카우보이 전철역 아속역 이렇게 세군데가 형성이 되어 있으며 파타야에는 워킹스트리트에그리고 푸켓에는 빠통거리에 이런 업소들이 밀집이. Com › board › view2023년12월 파타야 후기 2부 아고고 편 여행동남아 갤러리.

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.