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.

엑소 월드투어 일정과 2026년 새롭게 공개된 투어 소식을 정리하며, 엑소 서울 공연부터 글로벌 투어 흐름, 콘서트 관람 팁까지 팬이라면 꼭 알아야 할 정보를 담았습니다. 비투비 창섭, 콘서트에서 왜 손가락 7개를 펼쳤는지 설명. Exoplanet 1 the lost planet in tokyo’ 엑소 프롬 엑소플래닛 1 더 로스트 플래닛 인 도쿄 공연을 찾았다. 팬들의 콘서트 요청을 모아 공연 추진.

누나 Fc2

엑소 콘서트 갔다온 후기 길다 엑소콘은 항상 중콘으로 갔다오는 듯.. 재현이 때문에 넘나 행복한 3일이었다고 한다 이별콘서트는 개뿔 삿포로여행 tripstagram yummystagram duckstargram.. 28일 sm엔터테인먼트에 따르면 투어 타이틀은 ‘exo planet 6 exhorizon’ 엑소 플래닛 6 엑소라이즌으로 확정됐다..

다카사키 소프랜드

Com › guide › events2026 엑소 월드투어 일정과 서울 콘서트 완벽 가이드 트립닷컴, Exoplanet 1 the lost planet in tokyo’ 엑소 프롬 엑소플래닛 1 더 로스트 플래닛 인 도쿄 공연을 찾았다, 엑소는 12월 1314일 이틀간 인천 중구 인스파이어 아레나에서 팬미팅 엑소버스 exoverse를 개최한다.

다이나마이트 유키오

오늘도즐거운하루 170915 롯데 패밀리 콘서트 엑소 exo tender love 세훈se hun. 엑소 월드투어 일정과 2026년 새롭게 공개된 투어 소식을 정리하며, 엑소 서울 공연부터 글로벌 투어 흐름, 콘서트 관람 팁까지 팬이라면 꼭 알아야 할 정보를 담았습니다, 샤이니 멤버 민호가 드라마 촬영으로 인해 불참하여 대신 무대에 섰다.

오늘도즐거운하루48k views 708, Twt 2,185 20 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 유우시는 스타더스트에서 결성한 연습생 그룹 소속이었으나 오랜 엑소 팬엑소엘으로 도쿄돔에서 엑소콘서트를 보고 언젠가 거기 서길 바라는 마음으로. 더쿠 의외로 꽤 친해보이는 샤이니 민호와 엑소 백현.

6개의 댓글 19 유우시 논란 ㅈㄴ많은데 21 20 6개월 된 조카를.. Kr › 엑소글로벌투어엑소13개 도시 순회&mldr.. 2012년 엑소 데뷔전 100일 티저 19xx 년 xx월 xx일.. Days ago 잡담 엑소 콘서트 갈 사람들의 모임 126 14 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo..

Com › guide › events2026 엑소 월드투어 일정과 서울 콘서트 완벽 가이드 트립닷컴, 오프닝곡이 전야인데 전광판에 8명 멤버들. 더쿠 의외로 꽤 친해보이는 샤이니 민호와 엑소 백현. 그동안 다방면에서 각자의 커리어를 성공적으로 펼쳐. 무명의 더쿠 20260128 203420 비회원은 작성한 지 1시간 이내의 댓글은 읽을 수 없습니다.

누키타시 갤

6개의 댓글 19 유우시 논란 ㅈㄴ많은데 21 20 6개월 된 조카를. 이후 2026년 1분기 정규 8집을 발매하고 다양한 활동을 이어갈 계획이다. 엑소 월드투어 일정과 2026년 새롭게 공개된 투어 소식을 정리하며, 엑소 서울 공연부터 글로벌 투어 흐름, 콘서트 관람 팁까지 팬이라면 꼭 알아야 할 정보를 담았습니다, 특정 가수의 콘서트를 보고 싶은 팬들의 수요를 파악하는 플랫폼을 설계, 팬들이 요청에 따라 수요가 충분하다고 판단되면 공연이 성사되게끔 만든 것.

이번 공연은 인터넷 예매 사이트 멜론티켓을 통해 3월 17일 팬클럽 선예매와 19일 일반 예매로 오픈됐다. 일단, 실제 콘서트에서 일훈이 이름상황을 전혀 언급하지 않았어. 28일 sm엔터테인먼트에 따르면 투어 타이틀은 ‘exo planet 6 exhorizon’ 엑소 플래닛 6 엑소라이즌으로 확정됐다, Days ago 서울연합뉴스 최주성 기자 최근 정규앨범 리버스reverxe를 발매하고 컴백한 엑소가 단독 콘서트 투어로 팬들과 만난다.

댄월

3일짼데 1차 2차때 십분 넘게 딜레이되던걸 수만등장때문인지 딜레이없이 시작함 +유승호도 온걸로 추정, Days ago 잡담 엑소 콘서트 마지막으로 갔던날 군인 디오가 좌석에 있는거 엉엉 울었는데 그게 6년 4개월 전이래. 무명의 더쿠 20260128 203318 비회원은 작성한 지 1시간 이내의 댓글은 읽을 수 없습니다.

다주 슴 4년 전의 추억을 다시 떠올려 보세요. 티켓 예매는 21일부터 23일까지 yes24 를 통해 진행되었으며, 예매 사이트가 열리자마자 서버가 다운되었다. Kr › view › akr20260128113900005엑소, 신보 이어 콘서트 투어로 팬 만난다4월 kspo돔서 시작. 4월 1012일 서울 kspo돔 시작, 전 세계 13개 지역 찾는다 2019년 이후 6년 4개월 만에 다시 움직이는 ‘엑소 플래닛’. 공연 정보 공연일시 1회차 2024년 5월 25일 토 600pm kst 2회차 2024년 5월 26일 일 400pm kst 공연장소 올림픽공원 올림픽홀 티켓가격 vip석 스탠딩 198,000원 일반석 스탠딩 154,000원 일반석 지정석 154,000원 부가세 포함 관람연령 7세 이상 2017년생 포함 이전. 뉴토끼479

누키타시 원작 엑소, 글로벌 투어 ‘엑소 플래닛 6 – 엑소라이즌’. Kr › view › akr20260128113900005엑소, 신보 이어 콘서트 투어로 팬 만난다4월 kspo돔서 시작. Days ago 잡담 엑소 콘서트 마지막으로 갔던날 군인 디오가 좌석에 있는거 엉엉 울었는데 그게 6년 4개월 전이래. Days ago 잡담 앙콘은 뚜껑 없는 곳에서 했으면 좋겠다 121 3. 이후 2026년 1분기 정규 8집을 발매하고 다양한 활동을 이어갈 계획이다. 뉴토끼 시즌2 newtoki app

다이아린 엔진 효율 딸 같은 며느리 더쿠 싶었던 게 참 많았다고 합니다 함께. Twt 2,185 20 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 더쿠 텔𝐔𝐁𝐓𝐂𝟗𝟗네이버주소록. 마지막 더쿠투어 재혀니가 맛있다고했던 스프카레. 그동안 다방면에서 각자의 커리어를 성공적으로 펼쳐. 뉴 진스 해린 허벅지 디시

더코프갤 오프닝곡이 전야인데 전광판에 8명 멤버들. ユウシ 卒アル 유우시 졸업사진 nctwish 엔시티위시 yushi 유우. 무명의 더쿠 20260128 203420 비회원은 작성한 지 1시간 이내의 댓글은 읽을 수 없습니다. 3일짼데 1차 2차때 십분 넘게 딜레이되던걸 수만등장때문인지 딜레이없이 시작함 +유승호도 온걸로 추정. Net › square › 295957716더쿠 오늘자 엑소콘서트 간 이수만,민호,서현진,구혜선.

눈물도 빛을 만나면 반짝인다 더쿠 공연 정보 공연일시 1회차 2024년 5월 25일 토 600pm kst 2회차 2024년 5월 26일 일 400pm kst 공연장소 올림픽공원 올림픽홀 티켓가격 vip석 스탠딩 198,000원 일반석 스탠딩 154,000원 일반석 지정석 154,000원 부가세 포함 관람연령 7세 이상 2017년생 포함 이전. Net › square › 295957716더쿠 오늘자 엑소콘서트 간 이수만,민호,서현진,구혜선. 엑소, 글로벌 투어 ‘엑소 플래닛 6 – 엑소라이즌’. 유우시는 스타더스트에서 결성한 연습생 그룹 소속이었으나 오랜 엑소 팬엑소엘으로 도쿄돔에서 엑소콘서트를 보고 언젠가 거기 서길 바라는 마음으로. 김남희와 다양한 이야기들이 기다립니다.

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.