November, 09 2016, 09:45am EDT

US: Trump Should Govern With Respect for Rights
President-elect Should Leave Divisive Rhetoric Behind and Set New Tone
WASHINGTON
United States President-elect Donald Trump should abandon campaign rhetoric that seemed to reject many of the United States' core human rights obligations and put rights at the heart of his administration's domestic and foreign policy agendas, Human Rights Watch said today. Official results gave Trump the necessary electoral college votes to win.
"Now that he has secured victory, President-elect Trump should move from the headline-grabbing rhetoric of hatred and govern with respect for all who live in the United States," said Kenneth Roth, executive director at Human Rights Watch. "He found a path to the White House through a campaign marked by misogyny, racism, and xenophobia, but that's not a route to successful governance. President-elect Trump should commit to leading the US in a manner that fully respects and promotes human rights for everyone."
The US presidential campaign was dominated by a number of controversial statements and policy proposals by Trump. When announcing his intent to run for president in June of 2015, Trump stated, "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best... They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." He also proposed banning Muslims from entering the US.
During a primary debate, Trump floated bringing back waterboarding and "a hell of a lot worse." He has also stated that he would keep the Guantanamo Bay detention facility open and "load it up with some bad dudes." Late in the campaign, a 2005 video of Trump appearing to brag about sexually assaulting women became a focal point of the campaign. Trump later apologized for his statements. After the release of the tape, more than a dozen women accused Trump of sexual assault.
President-elect Trump will inherit enormous global and domestic human rights challenges when he takes office in January 2017, including how to address the US role in conflicts where a crushing toll in civilian lives has become the norm, whether in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, or Yemen. In Yemen, the US has become a party to an armed conflict that has seen its ally Saudi Arabia inflict devastating and indiscriminate violence on the country's civilian population.
Trump has an opportunity to put his often-abhorrent campaign rhetoric behind him and place human rights at the center of his domestic and international policies. He should recognize that US government credibility in promoting rights, good governance, and the rule of law cannot be fully realized unless the US government itself demonstrates a better record on issues like the rights of women and children, criminal justice, Guantanamo, drone strikes outside conventional war zones, and justice for torture.
"It is difficult to press other countries to respect human rights when your own government is sometimes ignoring them," said Roth. "At home, for example, President-elect Trump should address criminal justice and immigration reform, and place special emphasis on addressing systematic racial discrimination."
At the international level, Trump should focus especially on the growing global crackdown on civil society and free expression, including in Russia, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh. His administration should also come up with new approaches to address totalitarian governments like North Korea, and press for an end to growing repression in countries whose governments are increasingly consolidating power, like Turkey.
The president-elect should also seek to strengthen arms control norms by working with other countries to finalize a legal ban on fully-autonomous weapons systems ("killer robots") and taking further steps to end the US use of land mines and cluster munitions, joining international treaties that restrict their use.
Beyond the federal election, several important propositions were put to voters on November 8, including whether Californians would vote to repeal the state's death penalty and whether Nebraskans choose to not reinstate capital punishment after their state legislature voted for its abolition. Several states also voted on whether to legalize the personal use of marijuana.
Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.
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"The harm caused by deep-sea mining isn't restricted to the ocean floor: It will impact the entire water column, top to bottom, and everyone and everything relying on it," one campaigner warned.
Apr 24, 2025
Amid global calls for a ban on deep-sea mining to protect marine ecosystems, U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to advance the risky practice and "restore American dominance in offshore critical minerals and resources."
"The broad order avoids a direct confrontation with the United Nations-backed International Seabed Authority and seeks essentially to jump-start the mining of U.S. waters as part of a push to offset China's sweeping control of the critical minerals industry," notedReuters, which had previewed the measure aimed at attaining nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, titanium, and rare earth elements.
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Trump's order directs Cabinet members including Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick—whose department oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—to expedite the permit process and work on various related reports.
"Authorizing deep-sea mining outside international law is like lighting a match in a room full of dynamite—it threatens ecosystems, global cooperation, and U.S. credibility all at once."
Deep-sea mining is opposed by over 30 countries as well as academics and advocacy groups worldwide. Among them is Greenpeace USA, whose campaigner Arlo Hemphill said Thursday that "authorizing deep-sea mining outside international law is like lighting a match in a room full of dynamite—it threatens ecosystems, global cooperation, and U.S. credibility all at once."
"We condemn this administration's attempt to launch this destructive industry on the high seas in the Pacific by bypassing the United Nations process," Hemphill declared. "This is an insult to multilateralism and a slap in the face to all the countries and millions of people around the world who oppose this dangerous industry."
"But this executive order is not the start of deep-sea mining. Everywhere governments have tried to start deep-sea mining, they have failed. This will be no different," he added. "We call on the international community to stand against this unacceptable undermining of international cooperation by agreeing to a global moratorium on deep-sea mining. The United States government has no right to unilaterally allow an industry to destroy the common heritage of humankind, and rip up the deep sea for the profit of a few corporations."
No exaggeration, deep sea mining could cause the massive collapse of the entire deep sea ecosystem and food chain. This is an existential risk to every person on this planet. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/c...
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— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) April 24, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Ocean Conservancy vice president for external affairs Jeff Watters also blasted the move, saying that "this executive order flies in the face of NOAA's mission. NOAA is charged with protecting, not imperiling, the ocean and its economic benefits, including fishing and tourism; and scientists agree that deep-sea mining is a deeply dangerous endeavor for our ocean and all of us who depend on it."
"Areas of the U.S. seafloor where test mining took place over 50 years ago still haven't fully recovered," Watters pointed out. "The harm caused by deep-sea mining isn't restricted to the ocean floor: It will impact the entire water column, top to bottom, and everyone and everything relying on it. Evidence tells us that areas targeted for deep-sea mining often overlap with important fisheries, raising serious concerns about the impacts on the country's $321 billion fishing industry."
He highlighted that "NOAA is already being threatened by this administration's unprecedented cuts. NOAA is the eyes and ears for our water and air. NOAA provides Americans with accessible and accurate weather forecasts; it tracks hurricanes and tsunamis; it responds to oil spills; it keeps seafood on the table; and so much more. Forcing the agency to carry out deep-sea mining permitting while these essential services are slashed will only harm our ocean and our country."
"It's not just our country this executive order would harm: This action has far-reaching implications beyond the U.S.," Watters added, warning that by unilaterally allowing deep-sea mining, "the administration is opening a door for other countries to do the same—and all of us, and the ocean we all depend on, will be worse off for it."
As The New York Timesreported:
The executive order could pave the way for the Metals Company, a prominent seabed mining company, to receive an expedited permit from NOAA to actively mine for the first time. The publicly traded company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, disclosed in March that it would ask the Trump administration through a U.S. subsidiary for approval to mine in international waters. The company has already spent more than $500 million doing exploratory work.
"We have a boat that's production-ready," said Gerard Barron, the company's chief executive, in an interview on Thursday. "We have a means of processing the materials in an allied friendly partner nation. We're just missing the permit to allow us to begin."
In response to the late March disclosure—which came during International Seabed Authority negotiations—Louisa Casson, senior campaigner for Greenpeace International, said that "this is another of the Metals Company's pathetic ploys and an insult to multilateralism. It shows that a moratorium on deep-sea mining is more urgently needed than ever. It also proves that the company's CEO Gerard Barron's plans never focused on solutions for the climate catastrophe."
"The Metals Company is desperate and now is encouraging a breach of customary international law by announcing their intent to mine the international seabed through the United States' Deep-Sea Hard Mineral Resources Act," the camapigner asserted. "This comes after the Metals Company has spent years exerting immense pressure on the International Seabed Authority to try and force governments to allow mining in the international seabed—the common heritage of humankind."
Casson stressed that "states, civil society, scientists, companies, and Indigenous communities continue to resist these efforts. Having tried and failed to pressure the international community to meet their demands, this reckless announcement is a slap in the face to international cooperation."
Less than a week later, the Norwegian deep-sea mining company Loke Marine Minerals declared bankruptcy—which Haldis Tjeldflaat Helle, a campaigner for Greenpeace Nordic, noted came "on the same day that we shut down a deep-sea mining conference in Bergen."
The Norwegian government in December halted plans to move forward with deep-sea mining in the Arctic Ocean, which Steve Trent, CEO and founder of the Environmental Justice Foundation, had called "a testament to the power of principled, courageous political action, and... a moment to celebrate for environmental advocates, ocean ecosystems, and future generations alike."
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"May sanity prevail between both nations."
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Pakistani authori and activist Ehtesham Hassan wrote that "as a Pakistani who visited India and received immense love, I am devastated by the news from Pahalgam."
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