Trump and Duterte ‘cause backlash on human rights’

Erdogan is also named in Amnesty report for hate talk

PARIS // Amnesty International says fear-mongering by anti- establishment politicians including US president Donald Trump is contributing to a global pushback against human rights. Others named were Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban.

Amnesty yesterday released its 408-page annual report on rights abuses around the world.

It described last year as “the year when the cynical use of ‘us versus them’ narratives of blame, hate and fear took on a global prominence to a level not seen since the 1930s” when Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany.

Amnesty said the leaders were “wielding a toxic agenda that hounds, scapegoats and dehumanises entire groups”.

Mr Trump’s speech in his campaign exemplified “the global trend of angrier and more divisive politics”.

“Politicians are shamelessly and actively legitimising all sorts of hateful rhetoric and policies based on people’s identity: misogyny, racism and homophobia,” Amnesty said.

“The first target has been refugees and if this continues in 2017, others will be in the crosshairs.”

The White House did not respond but the Philippines rejected Amnesty’s statements and accused the general secretary of the human rights group of arrogant lecturing.

Mr Duterte had high public approval and had been willing to listen and adapt himself, his spokesman said, adding that his fiery speeches were far from the poisonous rhetoric of which he was accused.

He has previously said he would be “happy to slaughter” three million drug addicts and talked of fattening fish in Manila Bay with corpses. His crackdown on illegal drugs is believed to have killed more than 7,000 mostly poor drug users and petty pushers since he took office last June.

Amnesty’s report, The State of the World’s Human Rights documented “grave violations” in 159 countries last year.

It said “the big question in 2017 will be how far the world lets atrocities go before doing something about them”.