U.S. must reverse Trump course, make human rights central - HRW

[January 13, 2021]  By Cecile Mantovani and Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Joe Biden needs to restore the country's credibility on human rights at home and abroad, the head of New-York based Human Rights Watch told Reuters on Wednesday, after what he said were four years of abuse of democratic principles.

Speaking to Reuters before the release of the activist group's annual report, Kenneth Roth said outgoing president Donald Trump had flouted human rights at home and been inconsistent in criticising other countries' rights records.

Biden, due to take office on Jan. 20, should make human rights a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy, said Roth, HRW executive director.

"Trump has been a complete disaster for human rights, he flouted human rights at home with the fomenting of the January 6 attack on the Capitol being just the latest example of the natural culmination of four years of abuse of democratic principles," Roth told Reuters Television in Geneva.

With eight days remaining of Trump's term, the House will vote on Wednesday on an article of impeachment accusing him of inciting insurrection in a speech to his followers last week before a mob of them stormed the Capitol, leaving five dead.

Trump has denied responsibility for the violence and previous allegations of violating human rights. He has said his critics stole the election to block his "Make America Great Again" and "America First" policies, but produced no evidence.

Roth accused Trump of having "cozied up to every friendly autocrat under the sun" while reserving criticism on human rights issues for his "perceived adversaries" - Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, and "sometimes China".

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, poses after an interview with Reuters in Geneva, Switzerland, January 12, 2021. Picture taken January 12, 2021. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

"But that kind of utterly inconsistent approach had no credibility. There was no force to his criticism when people knew that it was serving another political agenda, not a principled agenda," he said.

Biden should articulate human rights as a "guiding principle of US foreign policy and then to stick with it, even when that’s difficult", Roth said.

He urged him to call off arms sales to countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel and criticise Indian prime minister Modi over his policy towards Muslims, "even though India is going to be an important ally in contesting China".

Roth also called for Biden to re-engage with the United Nations' Human Rights Council, a Geneva forum which Trump quit in June 2018, "even though it criticizes Israel".

(Reporting by Cecile Mantovani and Stephanie Nebehay; writing by Stephanie Nebehay, editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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