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.

11 2354 최근에 독도 폼클렌징으로 바꿨는데 거품칠 할 때 폼클렌징에서 역한 냄새. 한사발포차 신도림맛집 read more. 독도토너 프레뽀폰즈 메이크업핏 토너패드 달바 화이트트러플 퍼스트 스프레이 세럼 밀크터치 송악크림 💚그동안 써본 기초템💚 코스알엑스 오리지널 패드 빨강 ️아무변화없음 코스알엑스 모이스쳐 패드 파랑 ️붉어지고 상태나빠짐. 30 1727 기존 선물받은 윤작꺼 쓰고 있다가 다 써가서 뭐 살지 고민하는중ㅠㅠ 건성이고 생리전후로만 여드름 가끔 나고 속당김이 심한 편인것 갘아 목록 스크랩 0.

트위터 동영

독도는 아무튼 일본 땅이라 우기지만 독도가 무슨 섬인지. 28 1229 대용량 펌핑형 로션 찾고있는데 독도로션 쓰고있었는데 좀 가벼워서 다른거 찾아보고있는데 일리윤 이거 어때, Days ago 157 5 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo.

사진경상북도 사이버 독도 홈페이지 캡처. 28 1229 대용량 펌핑형 로션 찾고있는데 독도로션 쓰고있었는데 좀 가벼워서 다른거 찾아보고있는데 일리윤 이거 어때. 대통령실 독도는 명백한 우리 영토영유권 분쟁 없다. 다카이치 총리 독도는 역사와 국제법상 일본영토.

트위터 가위치기

신도림역에서 핫한 한사발포차를 소개합니다. 첨 듣는 브랜드인데 독도토너는 유명해서 궁금ㅋㅋ 여기 브랜드꺼 화해에서 순위 높아서 궁금함. 라운드랩 1025 독도 크림단종 소비자평점 4. 라운드랩 1025 독도 크림단종 소비자평점 4, 29 27,991,287 모든 공지 확인하기 3946691 잡담 ㅇㅈㅍ 직딩덬들아 너네 하루에 커피 몇잔 마셔, 또 박명수는 일본을 향해 독도 건드리지 말라고 경고하기도 했다.

다카이치 총리 독도는 역사와 국제법상 일본영토, Net › square › 3699803695더쿠 애국 자막이네&mldr. 우리도 이런 게 필요하지 않겠나라고 밝혔다, 원래부터 독도사진붙여서 제작햇고 일본에 수출하려다가 그거땜에 막혔다는건데 다시읽어라. 프랑스인이 말하는 독도가 한국땅인 이유 1, 또 박명수는 일본을 향해 독도 건드리지 말라고 경고하기도 했다.

화장품 정보는 화해 화장품 성분과 정보, 리뷰 확인하고 구매.. 오키섬은 독도 침탈 야욕의 전초기지라고 해도 과언이 아니다.. 입도 전까지는 갈 수 있을까 걱정했는데 왠지 촉이 좋더라니 입도도 무사히 하고 잘 즐기다 감..

한글로는 독도, 영어로는 dokdo로 표기됐으며, 일본어 자막에서는 독도 独島, 독도의 일본식 음차인 도쿠도 ドクト를 달았다, Net › square › 4073791403더쿠 시어머니가 명품백을 사주신다고 했는데 더 비싼 드림백이 있. 윤석열 정부 들어 해양수산부 대통령 업무보고에서 ‘독도’가 언급되지 않았다는 지적이 나왔다, 무명의 더쿠 0430 조회 수 3519, 지난 1일 트레저는 일본에서 진행된 팬미팅에서 팬들에게 내년에 진행되는 일본 투어 리부트 reboot 스케줄을.

일본 정부는 18일 도쿄 영토주권전시관 확장에 대한 한국 정부의 항의에 다케시마일본이 주장하는 독도명는 일본 영토라는 궤변을 되풀이했다. yg엔터테인먼트가 내놓은 아이돌 그룹 트레저가 일본 팬미팅에서 일본 투어 계획을 발표하면서 독도의 지명을 표기를 하지 않은 지도를 공개했다가 국내 팬들로부터 질타를 받았다, 울릉도 오징어까지 파고든 일본지금 독도가 위험합니다, 요즘 독도 여행, 다들 한 번쯤은 꿈꾸잖아요, 일본 정부는 18일 도쿄 영토주권전시관 확장에 대한 한국 정부의 항의에 다케시마일본이 주장하는 독도명는 일본 영토라는 궤변을 되풀이했다.

민방위 교육영상 독도 일본영토로 표시 무려 외교부가 독도를 재외대한민국으로 표시 한국 정부자료에서 자꾸 독도를 한국아니라고 표기하는데 국제재판에서 쓰일 자료 차곡차곡 적립해주는꼴 목록 스크랩 1 210 새 댓글 확인하기, 독도토너 프레뽀폰즈 메이크업핏 토너패드 달바 화이트트러플 퍼스트 스프레이 세럼 밀크터치 송악크림 💚그동안 써본 기초템💚 코스알엑스 오리지널 패드 빨강 ️아무변화없음 코스알엑스 모이스쳐 패드 파랑 ️붉어지고 상태나빠짐. 이슈 현재 실트 1위인 독도케이크 50,413 388 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo, 조직적으로 독도 자기네 나라 땅이라고 물밑작업 하는 일본에 밀려나고 있는데 일본하고 대립이던 뭐던 이런식의 발언은 매우 찬성, 민방위 교육영상 독도 일본영토로 표시 무려 외교부가 독도를 재외대한민국으로 표시 한국 정부자료에서 자꾸 독도를 한국아니라고 표기하는데 국제재판에서 쓰일 자료 차곡차곡 적립해주는꼴 목록 스크랩 1 210 새 댓글 확인하기, Net › square › 3152200388더쿠 독도는 일본 고유영토&mldr.

토미오카 기유 처벌

일본 정부는 18일 도쿄 영토주권전시관 확장에 대한 한국 정부의 항의에 다케시마일본이 주장하는 독도명는 일본 영토라는 궤변을 되풀이했다. 여권 챙겨서 관광와라 ㅇㅇ 미나상들 대환영가능. 비회원은 작성한 지 1시간 이내의 댓글은 읽을 수 없습니다. 프랑스인이 말하는 독도가 한국땅인 이유. 이슈 현재 실트 1위인 독도케이크 50,413 388 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo.

탐욕이 아니라 무현이야 1,942 4 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 독도토너 프레뽀폰즈 메이크업핏 토너패드 달바 화이트트러플 퍼스트 스프레이 세럼 밀크터치 송악크림 💚그동안 써본 기초템💚 코스알엑스 오리지널 패드 빨강 ️아무변화없음 코스알엑스 모이스쳐 패드 파랑 ️붉어지고 상태나빠짐. Days ago 157 5 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 사진경상북도 사이버 독도 홈페이지 캡처. 이슈 현재 실트 1위인 독도케이크 50,413 388 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 트위터 bl 야썰

트위터 뒷터미널 이슈 독도는 우리땅 챌린지 끝판왕 등장 ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ. Net › travel › 1449446222더쿠 전에 갔던 울릉도+독도 자유여행 간단 정보. 495 2 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 독도는 아무튼 일본 땅이라 우기지만 독도가 무슨 섬인지. 원래부터 독도사진붙여서 제작햇고 일본에 수출하려다가 그거땜에 막혔다는건데 다시읽어라. 트위치 렐라

트위터 19금 Net › beauty › 4076137835더쿠 일리윤 아토로션 얼굴에 발라도 되는거야. 지난 15일 공개된 대환장 기안장 6회에는 울릉도를 찾은 가족이 태극기를 들고 독도 관광에 나서는 모습이 공개됐다. 한사발포차 신도림맛집 read more. 한글로는 독도, 영어로는 dokdo로 표기됐으며, 일본어 자막에서는 독도 独島, 독도의 일본식 음차인 도쿠도 ドクト를 달았다. 11 2354 최근에 독도 폼클렌징으로 바꿨는데 거품칠 할 때 폼클렌징에서 역한 냄새. 토끼짤

투모로우 다시보기 영화 조아 요즘 독도 여행, 다들 한 번쯤은 꿈꾸잖아요. 언론사들의 행패에 더쿠회원의 팩폭 nokcha. 특별한 안주와 맛집 투어를 즐겨보세요. 민방위 교육영상 독도 일본영토로 표시 무려 외교부가 독도를 재외대한민국으로 표시 한국 정부자료에서 자꾸 독도를 한국아니라고 표기하는데 국제재판에서 쓰일 자료 차곡차곡 적립해주는꼴 목록 스크랩 1 210 새 댓글 확인하기. 4집 이후 대부분의 노래들이 히트하면서 대중성 높은 뮤지션으로 대우받았고, 여기에 잦은 기부 활동과46 독도 지킴이 등 여러 사회활동에 참여하면서 이미지도 굉장히.

트럼프 왕관 나무위키 대부분 패키지로 가던데 난 걍 자유로 갔거든. 05 1857 원래 에뛰드 순정토너 썼는데 완전 물이라 좋았거등 독도토너도 그런류일까. 16 1436 아직 뭐 써볼진 모르겠궁 목록 스크랩 0. Net › square › 3698738099더쿠 넷플이 공식으로 말아주는 독도. 일제강점기 때 일본인들이 독도와 울릉도를 드나들며 오징어를 잡은 기록 연구다.

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.