From ... in Social issues — Jan 22, 2025

Trump’s Executive Orders Threaten Broad Range of Human Rights

United States President Donald Trump, on his first day in office on January 20, 2025, issued numerous executive orders that threaten to undermine respect for international human rights both in the US and abroad, Human Rights Watch said today. “The sweeping scope and impact of these executive orders is deeply alarming,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch. “They threaten the rights of people across the United States and around the world, particularly the rights of already marginalized and vulnerable populations who are disproportionately people of color.” Refugees vetted and enroute to the US have now been blocked from entry. Immigration-related executive orders attempt to eviscerate the right to seek asylum and other forms of humanitarian protection, increase immigration detention, and fast-track deportation without due process. An effort to restrict birthright citizenship – which is already facing legal challenges – is an ominous signal that children will again be targeted in the name of deterrence. Other orders invoke war rhetoric without basis in an apparent bid to justify the US military’s involvement in civilian immigration enforcement, contemplate discriminatory travel bans, chill the work of civil society groups, and other abusive actions. Executive orders once again prohibit transgender people from serving in the US military, or from being acknowledged as transgender by the US government under an order to recognize only male and female genders.

The administration is also rescinding Biden-era rules aimed at phasing out the federal government’s use of privatized criminal detention facilities. US foreign development assistance has been paused, putting many human rights defenders around the world and the people they help protect at greater risk, as they depend on that support for their work.

There will also be far-reaching consequences for international humanitarian and development assistance, disrupting vital life-saving assistance to millions of people. Executive orders that create “enhanced vetting” for visa applicants from “regions or nations identified as security risks” could lead to racial profiling; the revocation of sanctions on violent settlers and settler organizations in the occupied West Bank could further entrench impunity or harm to Palestinians; signals of support for imposing sanctions targeting the International Criminal Court that would come at the expense of victims of grave crimes; and the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords could increase climate-related devastation on people and communities. Several of President Trump’s cabinet nominees testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said they were committed to human rights and democratic values.

The Trump administration should reconsider the impact of these policies on individuals and communities, and on US credibility around the world, Human Rights Watch said. “We will not stand by as governments trample on human rights,” Hassan said. “We will hold the Trump administration and others accountable for policies that erode freedoms and undermine equality. And we will stand in solidarity with human rights defenders everywhere, which means ordinary people, in the United States and beyond who are fighting tirelessly for dignity, freedom, and justice.”.

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