A Trump administration is frightening in view of human rights

Article by Juana Kweitel and Anthony D. Romero on Folha de S. Paulo

Originally published in Portuguese by Folha de S.Paulo.

“On the basis of what [Trump] has said already and unless that changes…without any doubt he would be dangerous from an international point of view.” This is according to Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Five days before the inauguration of the new president of the United States, we are yet to see any shift in Donald Trump’s tone. If he really wants to implement the promises made during the electoral campaign, it would trigger a constitutional storm in the US.

On immigration policy, for example, the Trump administration intends to deport more than 11 million people within two years of taking office – the equivalent of 15,000 people per day. Even his plan to immediately deport two to three million undocumented immigrants with criminal records is impossible would strike fear in immigrant communities.

In the realm of counterterrorism policy, many of the Trump’s proposed measures, and that he himself considers “frankly unthinkable”, are unconstitutional.

Among them is to launch a surveillance offensive on Muslim communities simply for professing their faith. A similar strategy was once attempted by the New York Police Department in 2002. This resulted in sowing fear among Muslims and made them less trustful of the police. A court also held the practice to be illegal.

If the criminalization of the Muslim faith is not enough, he wants to use torture. Although the George W. Bush-era torture program has been widely discredited as barbaric and ineffective — not to mention illegal — Trump has suggested that he will bring back waterboarding.

As much as his election casts uncertainty over the future of human rights on US soil, a Trump presidency equally threatens to destabilize an already shaky international human rights landscape. Political analysts suggest that there will be a shift in US foreign policy not seen since the end of World War Two (1939-1945).

How this will concretely affect human rights is difficult to say but Trump’s muddled attempts at setting out his foreign ambitions have no references to the protection of human rights.

Of particular concern is how Trump appears to be courting a number of authoritarian leaders including Turkey’s Erdogan and of course Russia’s Putin. Their administrations have restricted a functioning civil society with repressive measures against the press, by persecuting dissidents and discriminating against minority religious groups and the LGBT community.

Trump’s choice of cabinet is also indicative of the value that he places in human rights. One of the most concerning nominations is that of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, former CEO of ExxonMobil – a company with a dangerous track record on human rights and the environment.

Indeed, it is impossible to consider Trump administration’s impact abroad without discussing climate change. There is the concern that the country will exit both the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris agreement. Such action would have a catastrophic effect on the efforts to reduce global warming, impacting on the right to life, housing, water and food.

Dark days lie ahead, but if every cloud has a sliver lining, it is important to emphasize that the election of Trump has generated a strong wave of resistance from individuals worldwide.