What Trump can do for human rights and American values

The United States has an outsized effect on human rights. When America acts, it shapes the world, for better or for worse. Sadly, President Joe Biden’s human rights agenda has left the world far worse off than it was four years ago. Rather than advancing the God-given rights reflected in our Constitution, this administration has seemed more interested in pushing abortion and gender ideology on unwilling nations while paving the way for global censorship. The new administration under President-elect Donald Trump will have a mountain of errors to reverse. Yet with the right steps, it can renew America’s role as the global standard-bearer for our God-given freedoms.

The first step will be to reassert U.S. leadership at international institutions like the United Nations. Understandably, many conservatives are wary of these global bodies given their bloated budgets, frequent anti-Israel sentiment, and tendency to encroach on national sovereignty. But disengaging from these spaces only gives bad actors more influence. Rather than withdraw, the United States should engage selectively and strategically. The incoming administration should stake out principled ground on the issues that matter most: protecting life, combatting gender ideology, safeguarding parental rights, preserving free speech, and promoting religious freedom. Our leaders should unabashedly uphold these values in negotiations at the UN and other international institutions while building the coalitions needed to advance them.

As part of this approach, the Trump administration should demand accountability for the billions of tax dollars we give the UN annually. In 2022 alone, the United States provided around $12.5 billion to the UN. The United States should press for reform, pulling back funds from bodies like the UN Population Fund and World Health Organization, which are hotbeds of abortion activism and vaccine-mandate authoritarianism. Additionally, we should rejoin and strengthen the Geneva Consensus Declaration, a coalition of 36 countries committed to protecting unborn life and advancing women’s health. The first Trump administration helped launch this coalition, only for the Biden administration to withdraw. Rejoining it would send a clear message that there is no such thing as a “human right” to abortion.

Critically, the United States must abandon the Biden-era paternalism that exports abortion to developing countries. Millions of Americans have rejected abortion extremism as recently as this last election. It is a sin of the highest order to push abortion on foreign nations, many of which firmly protect unborn life in their laws and cultures. To stop this practice, President-elect Trump should reinstate the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance Policy (a stronger version of the Mexico City Policy), ensuring that no U.S. foreign aid is used to promote abortion. When this policy was applied during the first Trump term, it cost the International Planned Parenthood Federation around $100 million.

President-elect Trump has emerged as a national voice against the scourge of gender ideology. This bankrupt doctrine is destroying women’s sports, eroding parental rights, and has already left thousands of U.S. children maimed for life by irreversible procedures. Much of the global footprint of this ideology has emanated from international institutions and wealthy governments that seek to impose gender-ideological conditions in foreign aid and various legal agreements. The United States should oppose these efforts tooth and nail. We should champion biological reality in international forums, promoting policies that respect the inherent differences between men and women and ensuring that treaties and resolutions respect those differences. And we should come to the aid of developing countries where traditional values remain strong, offering them a strong partner in resisting outside pressure to adopt gender ideology.

The new administration can also make a huge difference in defending persecuted religious minorities. The mass killing of Christians in places like Nigeria continues to be one of the gravest human rights atrocities in our day. Yet year after year, the Biden State Department refused to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, which would create new options for diplomatic leverage. This unconscionable display of disregard for the persecuted must be reversed. The Trump administration should once again make religious freedom a first-order human rights priority.

Lastly, the Trump administration should go all-in to defeat global censorship. Free speech is the cornerstone of any free society, as it allows for the pursuit of truth and holds powerful leaders accountable. Yet the rise of “hate speech” laws, as well as censorship under the pretext of fighting “misinformation/disinformation,” has turned the West into an increasingly Orwellian nightmare, where dissenting views are silenced and punished. America is now the last country still mounting a full-on resistance to government censorship. President-elect Trump should proudly seize the mantle of global free speech champion. He should insist on First Amendment principles in multilateral forums, tie foreign aid to respect for free speech, and dismantle the censorship-industrial complex that has created a mass chilling effect on speech, as he has already vowed to do.

World leaders are already adjusting to a new Trump term. They know he will make a splash, and the administration should make it count. With these steps as a starting point, the Trump administration can dramatically alter the global climate on human rights. And it can remind the West of the God-given freedoms that made our civilization the envy of the world.