Trump Is A Danger To The World – UN Chief
Even in the United Nations, Mr. Donald Trump is sorely unpopular.
Trump would be “dangerous from an international point of view” if he is elected, the U.N. human rights chief said Wednesday. The UN chief is defiantly doubling down on his recent expression of concerns about “populist demagogues”. His last reaction on “populist demagogues” prompted a rebuke from Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations.
In a broad-ranging news conference touching on issues like violence in Yemen, Syria and sub-Saharan Africa, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said some remarks by Trump are deeply unsettling and disturbing to him. He said particularly disturbing was Trumps statements on torture and about ‘vulnerable communities.’
Trump’s words haunt him
“If Donald Trump is elected, on the basis of what he has said already and unless that changes, I think he would be dangerous from an international point of view,” Zeid told reporters in Geneva.
Recent comments from Zeid, a Jordanian prince, are likely to fan a debate in U.N. circles. Some UN officials may be wondering whether Zeid has not been overstepping his mandate as the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Only a day earlier, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Vitaly Churkin, said Zeid shouldn’t criticize foreign heads of state and government for their policies. “This is not his business. He should focus more on his specific responsibilities,” Vitaly said.
Zeid alluded to a report Friday by The Associated Press indicating that Churkin had last month formally complained directly to the U.N. secretary-general about Zeid’s comments, saying: “I was not there, of course, and there was no demarche (formal report) made to me.”
The rights chief also advanced the debate publicly. While he acknowledged U.N. rules that instruct the world body to avoid intervening in issues that are the “domestic jurisdiction of states,” Zeid alluded to similar complaints about interference once made by apartheid South Africa that the U.N. General Assembly dismissed “time and again.”
As for the run-up to the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election, Zeid said: “Clearly I am not keen or intent on interfering in any political campaign within any particular country.” Still, he added that he felt he should speak out in the wake of Trump’s calls that suggested he favored a “potential” for an increase in “the use of torture.”
Reuters/NAN
