Human Rights Watch concerned Donald Trump could commit massive rights violations

Donald Trump is a threat to human rights according to a new report called that highlights a plethora of troubling concerns about the incoming administration. While the 687-page report outlines the global state of human rights, special attention was paid the president-elect and other populist politicians coming to “power through appeals to racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and nativism.” This is such a concern the report was titled “Demagogues Threaten Human Rights” this year.

“[Trump’s] campaign floated proposals that would harm millions of people, including plans to engage in massive deportations of immigrants, to curtail women’s rights and media freedoms, and to use torture,” the group explains in the introduction to the report.

The group expresses particular concern about the reality that vulnerable groups, who are least able to defend their rights in the courts or through the political process, are at a heightened risk under a Trump presidency.

The election of Donald Trump as president in November 2016 capped a campaign marked by misogynistic, xenophobic, and racist rhetoric and Trump’s embrace of policies that would cause tremendous harm to vulnerable communities, contravene the United States’ core human rights obligations, or both. Trump’s campaign proposals included deporting millions of unauthorized immigrants, changing US law to allow torture of terrorism suspects, and “load[ing] up” the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

President-elect Trump also pledged to repeal most of the Affordable Care Act, which has helped 20 million previously uninsured Americans access health insurance and to nominate “pro-life” Supreme Court justices who would “automatically” overturn Roe v. Wade, which would allow individual states to criminalize abortion.

You can read the full report on the U.S., which delves into policing, voter disenfranchisement, sexual assault in the military, national security, and several other issues here.