In just one week, President Donald Trump has launched the most systemic and aggressive assault on human rights in U.S. presidential history.
Already, his administration has disengaged with the United Nations Human Rights Council — even though the U.S. is not a current member — defunded a UN refugee agency the U.S. long supported, ordered sanctions against the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, ordered to review ratified U.S. treaties that are the law of the land, and threatened to commit ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
While the first Trump administration made similar attempts to hinder human rights, including when it withdrew from the Human Rights Council in 2018 and sanctioned ICC officials in 2020, the second Trump administration has been far more drastic, aggressive, and concentrated in its actions. There is no doubt that the larger goal is to dismantle – or at least severely disrupt – international human rights and global justice frameworks that have, for decades, protected our collective, universal rights and provided avenues for accountability.
