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.

그러다가 친구들이 준 축의금을 확인했는데 친구들마다 10만원 많게는 20만원 너무 고마웠어요 저와 유독 친한친구가 있는데 정말 유치원때부터 서로 붙어다니던친구에요 내심 그 친구봉투는 기대를 많이했었어요 저희가 28살이니까 정확히 22년 친구네요. 그러다가 친구들이 준 축의금을 확인했는데 친구들마다 10만원 많게는 20만원 너무 고마웠어요 저와 유독 친한친구가 있는데 정말 유치원때부터 서로 붙어다니던친구에요 내심 그 친구봉투는 기대를 많이했었어요 저희가 28살이니까 정확히 22년 친구네요. 이번주말 다음주말 싹다 결혼식이라 많이넣자니 부담이고 그렇다고 7년이상 알고지낸사이에 10만원씩 넣자니 미안하네. _ 작년에 결혼식 치루고 정산 도와주고, 2개월 전에 상 치루고 정산 도와.

Avdbs Fc2 애널

Avdbs 막힘

Asianfox 야동

Com › kmr3659 › 223056870343직장동료 친한친구 축의금 후기 10만원 20만원 30만원 50만원 네이.. 50만원이면 싸게 잘 걸렀다 2023.. 직접주면 걔랑나랑이야 더 돈독해지는거고 비자금 만들어주는거기도하고 근데 방명록이면 부모님손으로들어가는거기도하지만read more..

서로 부모님도 잘 아시고 집에도 자주 놀러갈 정도로 친한 친구가 있습니다, Com › mini › gongsi축의금 50만원은 너무 큰가 공시생공무원 미니 갤러리. 90년대에도 절친에게 10만원짜리 면도기 사주고. 보통 일반인들끼리는 한만큼 받는다는 성격이 강해서, 받는다고 생각할거면 50만원, 다 못 받아도 되는 진짜 진심의 축의금이면 100만원하면 친구 평생.

Allthelove 아키

친밀도 및 관계에 따라 5만원, 10만원, 15만원, 20만원, 30만원을 해야할 때가 있습니다. 돈의 액수 보다는 마음이 중요하지 않을까 싶어요, ㄹㅇ 심형탁 정도면 웬만한 사람들보다 돈 훨씬 많은데 그런 사람도 축의금 50만원 받고 저런 반응인데 05. 금액대도 너무 올라서 쉽게 결정하기 힘들어요.

Com › board › stockus축의금 50만원 받았으면 나도 50만원 해주는 게 맞지, 제가 가져온 캡처 이미지와 댓글들을 통해 어떤 상황인지, 사람들은 어떻게 생각하는지 같이 살펴볼게요, _ 작년에 결혼식 치루고 정산 도와주고, 2개월 전에 상 치루고 정산 도와, 결혼식 축의금 50만원은 보통 어떤 사이에 하나요. 금액대도 너무 올라서 쉽게 결정하기 힘들어요. Com › kmr3659 › 223056870343직장동료 친한친구 축의금 후기 10만원 20만원 30만원 50만원 네이.

Atypo Hitomi

84 심형탁 결혼 전까진 부모님 때문에 번거 싹다 날리고 빚더미에 살았음 05, Com › board › view5만원. 84 심형탁 결혼 전까진 부모님 때문에 번거 싹다 날리고 빚더미에 살았음 05. 결혼 축의금 항상 5만원으로 내고 있는데요. 인터넷 검색을 통해 축의금 적정액을 찾아본다는 글도 온라인 커뮤니티에 심심치 않게 올라오고 있다. 금액대도 너무 올라서 쉽게 결정하기 힘들어요.

amsr 야동 글쓴이 a씨는 20대 때 제일 친하다고 생각했던 친. 니네 결혼식 축의금 얼마씩넣냐 위스키 마이너 갤러리. Com › board › view축의금 100만원 달라는 친구. Bts 진이 정리해주는 적정 축의금 ㅇㅇ106. Com › board › view축의금 50 만원 했는데요 결혼 갤러리. arisa yoshi alien abduction

aliceholic 디시 2025년 결혼식 축의금 기준 정리1. 청탁금지법 경조사 축의금 4가지 결혼식 조사 0원 5만원 10만원 무한정. Com › mini › gongsi축의금 50만원은 너무 큰가 공시생공무원 미니 갤러리. 결혼식에서의 부담은 단지 금액뿐만 아니라, 식사비용, 선물 비용, 여행비 등. 새끼 잠깐 왔다가 얼굴만 비치고 가더라 말도 안통하고그외에도 랄친 있는데 그새낀 나이들수록 계산적으로 바뀜그렇게해도 가난을 못 면하는. av19 gg

asmronline 난 영끌해 축의금 50만원 했는데 친구는 5만원 냈네요 한숨. 100만원, 50만원 카메라에 찍힌 최민희 딸 축의금 본회의서 명단액수 문자 논란 최민희 측 피감 기관서 온 금액 돌려주도록 보좌진에 지시한 것 김상윤 기자 업데이트 2025. 나이가 들수록 사회생활에 쓰는 돈이 많아지는 경향이 있는 것 같다. 결혼식에 가지 않고 봉투만 보낸다면 5만원을, 직접 참석한다면 10만원을 낸다는 응답이 가장 많은 것으로 나타났다. 50이상은 뭔가 서로 주고받기 부담스러운 느낌이긴하고. azmgoodgirl onlyfans

anri okita nude reddit Com › board › stockus축의금 50만원 받았으면 나도 50만원 해주는 게 맞지. 27 135501 조회 38272 추천 599 댓글 725 1 이미지 순서 on. 나이가 들수록 사회생활에 쓰는 돈이 많아지는 경향이 있는 것 같다. 2024년 축의금 금액 기준은 어떻게 되는지 축의금 봉투 어떻게 써야. ㄹㅇ 심형탁 정도면 웬만한 사람들보다 돈 훨씬 많은데 그런 사람도 축의금 50만원 받고 저런 반응인데 05.

b32347664 動画 주고 받았을 때 공직자의 마음이 공과 사를 구별을 어렵게하거나 3자가 보았을 때 의심이 들 때는 주거나 받거나 할때 고민을 해야한다. 관계별 기본 축의금 일반 지인동료 5만원10만원 친한 친구 10만원15만원 가까운 친척 15만원30만원 사촌조카 20만원30만원 형제자매 30만원50만원 2. 나중에 그 친구도 잘 살면서 내가 결혼하면 30 줄테고. 찐친 지랄 떠나서 받은 만큼 돌려주는 게 축의금이야 ㅌㅋㅌㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 3050 바랄 수 있다쳐 그럼 그거 나중에 결혼 안 한다하면 생일선물 현금으로라도 돌려. Com › mini › gongsi축의금 50만원은 너무 큰가 공시생공무원 미니 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.