Donald Trump has been listed as a threat to human rights by the Human Rights Watch, an independent, international organization that advances the cause of human rights for all and reviews human rights practices in more than 90 countries.
"Donald Trump's election as U.S. president after a campaign fomenting hatred and intolerance, and the rising influence of political parties in Europe that reject universal rights, have put the postwar human rights system at risk," the group said in a Friday statement regarding its new 687-page report titled "Demagogues Threaten Human Rights."
The 2016 presidential campaign between Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was one of the most divisive in U.S. history. The Human Rights Watch said Trump’s campaign “floated proposals that would harm millions of people, including plans to engage in massive deportations of immigrants, to curtail women’s rights and media freedoms, and to use torture.”
The report touched on Trump’s threat to block Syrian refugees and send back those who have already settled in the U.S.
The report also cites a rise in populist leaders in Europe a "dangerous threat to basic rights protection," and is critical of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jingping, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, Syria’s Bashir al-Assad and India’s Narendra Modi.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.