(MENAFN- Swissinfo) The US disengagement from the international order and the resulting crisis of multilateral bodies raises the question of how such institutions are linked to democracy – or whether they could even serve as tools for dictatorships. This content was published on October 13, 2025 - 09:00 9 minutes

As a reporter I cover developments in democracy where the Swiss perspective becomes relevant. I am Swiss and have long been fascinated by the way public discussions shape society.

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“The UN system is not perfect,” says Michael Møller, who was the director-general of the UN Office at Geneva until 2019.“But since its creation after the Second World War, it has brought about a unique level of peace, rights and well-being.”

Møller understands why some people today see the Security Council as dysfunctional. However, UN education, food and development projects continue to make a real difference on the ground, he argues.

And while the impact of individual UN agencies has decreased over the past decade, Møller says, multilateral structures are still a driver of peace and democracy.

Michael Møller with the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, in June 2019 in Geneva. Keystone / Magali Girardin

Others, meanwhile, believe this success story is under threat.

The current“global climate of radical uncertainty” is shaking“long-held assumptions about democratic resilience and multilateralism”, writes the 2025 report by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral AssistanceExternal link (IDEA) – a situation partly due to the US government.

The US – a key donor and pillar of the international order since the Second World War – is pulling out of some multilateral structures. In some cases, countries like China are stepping in to fill the gap. And multilateral organisations not known for democracy, such as the BRICS group or the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, are moving onto centre stage.

In this context, the question arises of whether multilateralism and democracy are necessarily mutually reinforcing – or, under new circumstances, could multilateralism become a force for democratic decline?

Is there a link between multilateralism and democratic backsliding?

Research by US political scientist Anna M. Meyerrose points in this direction. She warnsExternal link that states undergoing democratic backsliding could act as Trojan horses in undermining international organisations. To illustrate this, she and her colleague, Irfan Nooruddin, analysed voting data from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) from 2006 to 2021.

They focused on states that experienced democratic decline after a period of democratisation. According to the research, such“backsliders” pose a greater challenge to the Human Rights Council than their“long-time non-democratic counterparts”. Backsliding states are more likely to abstain or vote against targeted resolutions which name and shame specific countries. They are also more likely to use the Universal Periodic ReviewExternal link (UPR) mechanism to criticise human rights failings in western democracies, in order to“challenge the established liberal international order”.

Read more about the work and challenges of the Human Rights Council in our article about its latest session:

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