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.

쿠팡이 추천하는 데카트론운동복 특가를 만나보세요. 쿠팡이 추천하는 데카트론런100 특가를 만나보세요. 이 남성용 러닝 반팔 티셔츠의 원단은 폴리에스터 소재로 축축함을 최소화하기 위해 땀을 효과적으로 흡수하고 배출합니다. 쿠팡이 추천하는 런드라이 특가를 만나보세요.

미츠 리 짤

데카트론 러닝복 킵런 하프집업 타이즈 양말 런드라이 500 알차죠 추석 연휴를 앞두고 정신없이 바쁜 일.. 단순하게 만들어졌는데 기본에 충실하면서 기능이 확실합니다.. Com에서 데카트론런드라이 최저가 상품부터 데카트론런드라이 추천인기 상품까지, 할인 가격으로 만나보세요..

데카트론 kiprun 하의 런 드라이 500 타이즈 리뷰, 데카트론 런드라이 남성용 러닝 반팔티, 할인모음가 6900원, 평점 4. Com › watch데카트론런드라이100 돈 아깝지 않은 가성비 추천 상품 top5, 이 남성용 러닝 반팔 티셔츠의 원단은 폴리에스터 소재로 축축함을 최소화하기 위해 땀을 효과적으로 흡수하고 배출합니다. 쿠팡이 추천하는 런드라이100 특가를 만나보세요.

영상 속 데카트론런드라이100 구매링크slink, Com › search데카트론런드라이 추천인기 상품, ssg. 겨울러닝을 위해 데카트론 코엑스점에 직접 방문해서 품절대란 아이템들 포함해서 직접 피팅.

Com에서 데카트론런드라이 최저가 상품부터 데카트론런드라이 추천인기 상품까지, 할인 가격으로 만나보세요. 영상 속 데카트론런드라이100 구매링크slink. Com에서 데카트론런드라이 최저가 상품부터 데카트론런드라이 추천인기 상품까지, 할인 가격으로 만나보세요. Com › watch데카트론런드라이100 돈 아깝지 않은 가성비 추천 상품 top5, Dont run in just anything.

미혼 더쿠

쿠팡이 추천하는 데카트론러닝긴바지 특가를 만나보세요. 이 남성용 러닝 반팔 티셔츠의 원단은 폴리에스터 소재로 축축함을 최소화하기 위해 땀을 효과적으로 흡수하고 배출합니다, Com › door1990 › 223834897351데카트론 런닝 가성비 필수아이템 네이버 블로그.

미카 히토미

Krcwwl7 무신사 스탠다드 스포츠 s. 데카트론여성런드라이 추천인기 상품, ssg. 데카트론코리아 칼렌지 런드라이 남성 러닝 조거팬츠 긴바지. 데카트론decathlon 반바지 후기 안녕하세요. 단순하게 만들어졌는데 기본에 충실하면서 기능이 확실합니다. 6월1일에 런데이로 달리기를 시작했다최종적으로 30분을 쉬지않고 달리는게 목표인 플랜1분쉬고 3분 걷고, 이 쉬워보이는 도전도.

운동하고 24개의 글 목록닫기 30줄 보기. 프랑스 멀티 용품 스포츠 브랜드인 데카트론 가격뿐만아니라 제품 품질도 좋아서 데카트론 런닝 꿀템을 소개해드리고자 합니다. Com › dongmin8601 › 224035717121데카트론 런 드라이 100 싱글렛 전설의 가성비 싱글렛 단돈 만원 내돈. 쿠팡이 추천하는 데카트론운동복 특가를 만나보세요.

쿠팡이 추천하는 런드라이100 특가를 만나보세요, 데카트론칼렌지 런드라이플러스 남성 러닝 반팔티. 35도 폭염, 러닝을 멈출 수 없다면 ‘데카트론 칼렌지 런 드라이 100’이 정답입니다. 쿠팡이 추천하는 데카트론런드라이100반팔 특가를 만나보세요.

스타필드 스타필드하남 하남스타필드 하남 러닝 데카트론 데카트론하남 데카트론매장 하남데카트론 하남데카트론러닝 룰루레몬 룰루레몬오프라인 하남룰루레몬 레깅스 룰루레몬레깅스 여성러닝런드라이 런드라이500 데카트론런드라이500 룰루.. 쿠팡이 추천하는 데카트론런드라이100 특가를 만나보세요..

Decathlon korea 데카트론 코리아 033, 데카트론decathlon 반바지 후기 안녕하세요. 데카트론여성데카트론경량데카트론런드라이 3인치경량쇼츠경량팬츠경량쇼츠달리기러닝팬츠 여자러닝복여자러닝쇼츠 태그 공감0 공감0 칭찬0 감사0 웃김0 놀람0 슬픔0 공감0 공감0 칭찬0 감사0 웃김0 놀람0 슬픔0 이 글에 공감한 블로거 열고 닫기.

겨울러닝을 위해 데카트론 코엑스점에 직접 방문해서 품절대란 아이템들 포함해서 직접 피팅. 쿠팡이 추천하는 데카트론러닝바지 특가를 만나보세요. 추운 겨울, 어떻게 입고 뛰어야 할지 고민하셨나요, 광고 @decathlon_korea 프랑스를 대표하는 멀티스포츠. Com에서 데카트론여성런드라이 최저가 상품부터 데카트론여성런드라이 추천인기 상품까지, 할인 가격으로 만나보세요.

밍디 노출 8 running tshirts that will make. 데카트론 kiprun 하의 런 드라이 500 타이즈 리뷰. 데카트론여성3인치러닝경량쇼츠 런드라이500 kiprun 데카트론 러닝쇼츠 러닝복 데카트론쇼츠 데카트론여성 데카트론경량 데카트론런드라이 3인치경량쇼츠 경량팬츠 경량쇼츠 달리기 러닝팬츠. 오늘 날씨는 아침에 폭우가 쏟아지는 바람에 습한데다가 온도도 29도 정도 되는 더운날씨였습니다. 단순하게 만들어졌는데 기본에 충실하면서 기능이 확실합니다. 뮤지컬 댈 미니

문신녀 자위 데카트론런드라이 에 대한 검색결과 연관검색어 데카트론러닝 러닝티 데카트론반팔 데카트론 러닝바지 러닝팬츠 데카트론운동복 러닝긴바지 데카트론바지 남성러닝바지 배송비 포함 쿠팡 랭킹순. 남성 4인치 러닝 투인원 반바지 런 드라이 550. Com › boksil_life › 223306092788데카트론 런드라이 가성비 좋은 러닝반팔티 착용 후기 네이버 블로. 데카트론decathlon 반바지 후기 안녕하세요. 데카트론 남성 러닝 타이츠 런 웜 100. 무이치로여자

미츠하 가슴 Com › boksil_life › 223306092788데카트론 런드라이 가성비 좋은 러닝반팔티 착용 후기 네이버 블로. 러닝계의 다이소데카트론에서 나온 초가성비 싱글렛을 구매하였다. 단순하게 만들어졌는데 기본에 충실하면서 기능이 확실합니다. 데카트론 남성 러닝 타이츠 런 웜 100. 데카트론여성런드라이 추천인기 상품, ssg. 미선짱 스파이더맨

미사브 막힘 쿠팡이 추천하는 런드라이550 특가를 만나보세요. Com에서 데카트론여성런드라이 최저가 상품부터 데카트론여성런드라이 추천인기 상품까지, 할인 가격으로 만나보세요. 데카트론 칼렌지 런드라이 러닝 반팔티 다나와 가격비교. 상품하자, 오배송의 경우 택배비 무료로 교환반품이 가능하지만 모니터의 색상차이, 착용감, 사이즈의 개인의 선호도는 상품의 하자 사유가 아닙니다. 확실히 런드라이 500 제품이 좋다고 느낀게 원래 면티를 입고 3040분 달리고 나면 옷 전부가 젖을 정도가 됩니다.

무한성편 torrent 남성 4인치 러닝 투인원 반바지 런 드라이 550. 이런 날씨에 40분정도 달려보았으니 땀은 충분히 흘렸을테죠. 35도 폭염, 러닝을 멈출 수 없다면 ‘데카트론 칼렌지 런 드라이 100’이 정답입니다. Com › rkddnr777 › 223925376021남자 러닝 반바지 데카트론 러닝 칼렌지 런 드라이 100 7인치 사이즈. 겨울러닝을 위해 데카트론 코엑스점에 직접 방문해서 품절대란 아이템들 포함해서 직접 피팅.

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.