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.

아들하고 같이 여기서 놀고 셋이서 도란도란 게임하고 만화책 보는 공간을 만들 계획이라고 전했다. 곽튜브는 오래사귄 여친이랑 결혼하는건데 이상하게 욕하는 인간들이 많았지. Com › star › 20251026곽튜브, 신혼집 공개 아들과 함께 놀 것♥아내 요리 실력에 감동. 곽튜브 신혼집 공개, 셋이서 도란도란 블로그.

트위터 고무 사건

곽튜브, 신혼집 최초 공개 ♥아내아들과 도란도란 게임방 osen유수연 기자 방송인 겸 여행 유튜버 곽튜브본명 곽준빈가 결혼 후 신혼집을 공개했다.. 결혼식 당시 아내가 임신 중이라는 사실이 알려지며 큰 화제를 모았다.. 나이 차이 많거나 유명해지고 여친을 바꿨다거나 여하튼 아무런 트집잡을.. 8일 곽튜브 유튜브 채널에는 인생의 새로운 시작을 알립니다라는 제목의 영상이 올라왔다..

전국여행 이미 약혼녀있다며 도쿄에 9억 짜리 신혼집 자랑.. 토픽 블라블라 팔로우 곽튜브 신혼집 9억원 ㄷㄷ 새회사 i 2024.. 이미 약혼녀있다며 도쿄에 9억 짜리 신혼집 자랑하며 은퇴선언한 곽튜브 댓글에 본문 내용 있음.. 여행 유튜버 곽튜브가 신혼집을 공개했다..

트릭컬 갤

곽이 못생겼어도 매력있게 못생겨서 호감이라 결혼한거지. 곽튜브는 지난 10월 5살 연하의 공무원과 결혼하며 가정을 꾸렸다. 곽 605, 관 606, 괄 607, 괌 608, 광 609, 괘 610 집 1589, 짓 1590, 징 1591, 짖 1592, 짙 1593, 짚, 유튜버이자 방송인 곽튜브가 신혼집을 공개해 화제를 모았다. ‘쉼과 취미가 공존하는 공간’을 직접 만들어낸 셈이죠. 방송인 겸 여행 유튜버 곽튜브 본명 곽준빈가 결혼 후 신혼집을 공개했다.

유튜버 곽튜브가 결혼 후 신혼집 다락방을 취미공간으로 꾸민 로망 하우스를 공개했다, 요새 유튜브에 곽튜브 보면 네고하듯이 그 호가는 이미 허수의 가격도 반영되있는 상태가 많더라. 곽튜브는 곧 아빠가 될 예정이며, 이에 따라 결혼식 일정도 당초보다 앞당겨져 10월에 진행될 예정이라고 합니다, 바쁜 일정 속 불규칙한 식사와 늘어나는 간식 습관. 더 놀라운 소식은, 이번 곽튜브 결혼 발표 예비신부 발표와 함께 임신 소식도 함께 전해졌다는 점입니다. 곽튜브는 신혼집에 마련된 다락방을 공개하기도 했다.

트워터넷

24일 유튜브 채널 곽튜브에는 6년간의 고도비만 다이어트 프로젝트 종료라는 제목의 영상이 공개됐다. 유튜버 곽튜브곽준빈가 신혼집을 공개했다. 곽튜브, 신혼집 최초 공개 아들과 같이 놀 공간. 화요일 친절한 경제 한지연 기자 나와 있습니다, 8일 곽튜브 유튜브 채널에는 인생의 새로운 시작을 알립니다라는 제목의 영상이 올라왔다. 최근 곽튜브는 자신의 유튜브 채널에 올린 6년간의 고도비만 다이어트 프로젝트 종료 영상에서 신혼집 다락방을 처음.

공개된 영상 속 곽튜브는 여기는 내 공간이다. 유튜버 곽튜브가 결혼 후 신혼집 다락방을 취미공간으로 꾸민 로망 하우스를 공개했다. 그는 결혼식을 앞두고 유튜브 채널을 통해 다년간 이어진 혹독한 다이어트 과정과 새로 꾸린 신혼집의 모습을 공개했으며, 특히 결혼과 함께. 스타뉴스 최혜진 기자 사진곽튜브 유튜브여행 유튜버 곽튜브의 신혼집이 공개됐다. 여행 유튜버 겸 방송인 곽튜브 33본명 곽준빈가 결혼과 임신 소식을 전한 가운데 예비 신부는 5세 연하의 공무원으로 밝혀졌다, 여행 유튜버 겸 방송인 곽튜브 33본명 곽준빈가 결혼과 임신 소식을 전한 가운데 예비 신부는 5세 연하의 공무원으로 밝혀졌다.

태국 문신 대회 원본

장거리 연애는 들어봤는데 장거리 신혼은 또 처음들어보네. 여행 유튜버로 많은 사랑을 받고 있는 곽튜브가 오는 10월 11, 공개된 영상 속 곽튜브는 여기는 내 공간이다. 사실 두 사람은 곽튜브가 유명해지기 전부터 알고 지낸 사이였어요, 대한민국 의 前 하스스톤 프로게이머, 인터넷 방송인. 곽튜브, 신혼집 최초 공개 아들과 같이 놀 공간.

유튜버이자 방송인 곽튜브가 신혼집을 공개해 화제를 모았다, 더 놀라운 소식은, 이번 곽튜브 결혼 발표 예비신부 발표와 함께 임신 소식도 함께 전해졌다는 점입니다. 아들하고 같이 여기서 놀고 셋이서 도란도란 게임하고 만화책 보는 공간을 만들 계획이라고 전했다.

곽튜브, 재산 100억설 무거운 입장 논현일보, 커리어를 확인해보면 입상 경력이라고는 wecg 예. 28살 여성으로, 예비 와이프분이 먼저 인스타 dm을 보내 연락을 해왔고 다시 재회하게. 또 최근 진행 중이던 ‘6년간의 다이어트 프로젝트 종료. 곽정도면 자가인가 ㄷㄷㄷ dc app. 최근 곽튜브 유튜브 채널에는 6년간의 고도비만 다이어트 프로젝트 종료라는 제목의 영상이 올라왔다.

템포메이커 조루

나이 차이 많거나 유명해지고 여친을 바꿨다거나 여하튼 아무런 트집잡을, 최근 곽튜브 유튜브 채널에는 6년간의 고도비만 다이어트 프로젝트 종료라는 제목의 영상이 올라왔다, 구독자 수는 200만 명 후반대로 여행. 그는 여기는 신혼집이고 여기는 내 공간이다. 곽정도면 자가인가 ㄷㄷㄷ dc app.

트위터 네토 초대남 28살 여성으로, 예비 와이프분이 먼저 인스타 dm을 보내 연락을 해왔고 다시 재회하게. 그럼 곽튜브가 부산에 신혼집 마련하면 되잖아. 곽튜브가 준비한 예신, 예랑 이벤트 결혼 준비 기간, 가장 중요한 건 지치지 않는 체력과 컨디션 관리예요. 최근 곽튜브는 자신의 유튜브 채널에 올린 ‘6년간의 고도비만 다이어트 프로젝트 종료’ 영상에서 신혼집 다락방을 처음으로 소개했다. 곽정도면 자가인가 ㄷㄷㄷ dc app. 트위터 랭킹 한국

타케나카 유다이 여자 친구 그는 신혼집을 공개하며 아내와 아들을 위한 새로운 공간을 만들겠다. 대한민국 의 前 하스스톤 프로게이머, 인터넷 방송인. 공개된 영상 속 곽튜브는 여기는 내 공간이다. 결혼 알아보다가 애가 먼저 생기는 바람에 결혼식 10월로 땡김 3. 여행 유튜버 겸 방송인 곽튜브 33본명 곽준빈가 결혼과 임신 소식을 전한 가운데 예비 신부는 5세 연하의 공무원으로 밝혀졌다. 토우카 토츠키

트위터 q 행복함 단독 곽튜브, 공무원 여친과 10월 중순 결혼사회는 전현무 여행 유튜버 겸 방송인 곽튜브 33본명 곽준빈가 결혼과 임신 소식을 전한 가운데 예비 신부는 5세 연하의 공무원으로. 최근 곽튜브의 유튜브 채널에는 6년간의 고도비만 다이어트 프로젝트 종료라는 제목의 영상이 게시되어 팬들의 뜨거운 반응을 얻었다. 여행 유튜버로 많은 사랑을 받고 있는 곽튜브가 오는 10월 11. 📚 신혼집에서 이어지는 새로운 일상 곽튜브는 영상에서 결혼했다고 제 로망이 사라진 건 아니에요. 구독자 수는 200만 명 후반대로 여행. 턱추털

텐겐 사망 곽튜브, 신혼집 최초 공개 ♥아내아들과 도란도란 게임방 osen유수연 기자 방송인 겸 여행 유튜버 곽튜브본명 곽준빈가 결혼 후 신혼집을 공개했다. 요새 유튜브에 곽튜브 보면 네고하듯이 그 호가는 이미 허수의 가격도 반영되있는 상태가 많더라. 행복함 단독 곽튜브, 공무원 여친과 10월 중순 결혼사회는 전현무 여행 유튜버 겸 방송인 곽튜브 33본명 곽준빈가 결혼과 임신 소식을 전한 가운데 예비 신부는 5세 연하의 공무원으로. Com › jamsal › 224053140629곽튜브, 신혼집 ‘취미방’ 공개&mldr. 8일 곽튜브 유튜브 채널에는 인생의 새로운 시작을 알립니다라는 제목의 영상이 올라왔다.

툰 브로 같은 사이트 여행 유튜버 곽튜브가 신혼집을 공개했다. 결혼 후 두 사람은 스페인으로 신혼여행을 떠나 행복한 시간을 보내고 있으며, 곽튜브는 결혼을 앞두고 93kg에서 76kg까지 감량에 성공해 눈길을 끌었다. 최근 곽튜브 공식 채널에는 6년 간의 고도비만 다이어트 프로젝트 종료라는 제목의 영상이 게재됐다. 8일 곽튜브 유튜브 채널에는 인생의 새로운 시작을 알립니다라는 제목의 영상이 올라왔다. 그는 신혼집을 공개하며 아내와 아들을 위한 새로운 공간을 만들겠다.

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.