Jordanian Prince Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, United Nations Commissioner on Human Rights, is reportedly preparing to take on President-elect Donald Trump over human rights.
“If [Trump] puts any of those ghastly campaign pledges into action we will condemn,” a U.N. official declared to Foreign Policy. It was necessary to call out the U.S. to set an example for other smaller member states, the officials said.
Hussein publicly chastised Trump throughout the 2016 campaign, telling reporters Trump’s rhetoric is “deeply unsettling and disturbing to me.” Hussein even compared Trump’s campaign style to that of ISIS propaganda saying his “use of half-truths and oversimplification, the propaganda of Daesh uses tactics similar to those of the populists.” He went so far as to declare that Trump’s election would be “dangerous from an international point of view.”
While Hussein served as Jordan’s Ambassador to the U.N. he voted in favor of resolutions that would criminalize blasphemy. Blasphemy laws in the Islamic countries are frequently used to target critics of the Muslim faith, including 2006 Danish cartoons which depicted the Prophet Muhammed. Jordan itself convicted the Danish cartooners in absentia in 2011.
The incoming U.N. Secretary General, António Guterres, also called out Trump in December, 2015, for proposing a temporary ban on Muslim immigration. “Those that reject Syrian refugees because they are Muslims are the best allies in the recruitment propaganda of extremist groups,” he told the U.N. Security Council at the time. Guterres served as the chief U.N. refugee official, and will likely challenge Trump’s pledge to not accept any refugees from Syria or Iraq.
Hussein’s main qualm with Trump’s candidacy focused on his campaign pledge to bring back waterboarding of captured terrorist suspects. Trump backed away from the earlier commitment Tuesday, telling The New York Times that Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis changed his mind on the subject.
Follow Saagar Enjeti on Twitter
Send tips to saagar@dailycallernewsfoundation.org
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.