Geneva – Zeid al-Hussein, UN Human Rights Chief, on Wednesday said Donald Trump “would be dangerous” if elected as U.S. president, given his views on issues such as torture and minorities.
He said in a news conference in Geneva that he was not keen or intent on interfering in any political campaign within any particular country, but said “to me`, Trump is out of it’’.
“If Trump is elected, on the basis of what he has said already, and unless that changes, I think it’s without any doubt that he would be dangerous from an international point of view.
Al-Hussein, the Jordanian UN diplomat, added that it was his duty to highlight comments that pointed to a possible increase of torture or to vulnerable communities being deprived of their rights.
He, however, pointed out that many of Trump’s comments were in that direction and were deeply unsettling and disturbing to him and host of others.
He recalled that Trump had advocated the use of torture, and had said that the U.S. should consider doing “unthinkable” things in response to atrocities committed by Islamic State extremists.
The envoy said that the Republican candidate had called Mexican immigrants “a source of sex and drug crime’’, and had suggested that Muslim U.S. citizens had failed to report extremists to authorities.
“I always believe that it’s incumbent upon leaders to lead, and to lead in a way that’s ethical and moral,’’ he said.
He said that it was “extremely dangerous” for leaders to stray from that principle, because they would be no longer simply voice opinions, “but moving well into incitement’’.