The election of Donald Trump as US President poses a grave threat to human rights—in the US and worldwide. To meet this threat, the global human rights movement, and in particular its US components, must reprioritize and refocus their work. US policy at home and abroad needs to come under much greater scrutiny. Under Trump’s leadership, the US must be treated as a human rights pariah, dangerously unfit to champion the universal values Mr. Trump so obviously scorns.
It can’t be business as usual. Yet, in its press release after Trump’s election, Human Rights Watch (HRW), while documenting and urging him to renounce his anti-human rights positions, also suggested that doing so would enhance US credibility to promote human rights and the rule of law abroad. HRW urged a duly enlightened Trump to focus on the “… global crackdown on civil society and free expression, including in Russia, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh ... and press for an end to growing repression in countries whose governments are increasingly consolidating power, like Turkey.”
Asking Donald Trump to champion human rights in Turkey is like asking Nigel Farage to speak out for migrants’ rights in Poland. No! Asking Donald Trump to champion human rights in Bangladesh, Egypt or Turkey is like asking Nigel Farage to speak out for migrants’ rights in Poland.
