UN rights chief 'watching the US very carefully' under Trump

Source: Associated Press

Updated 12:07 pm, Monday, May 1, 2017


GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations human rights chief says his office is "watching the United States very carefully" under President Donald Trump, even as it watches whether possible U.S. budgetary cuts could affect his agency's ability to monitor crimes like torture, rape and killings worldwide.

The comments Monday from U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein came in his first meeting in months with the U.N. press corps in Geneva, where he laid out an array of concerns about countries like Turkey, Venezuela, South Sudan, Syria, and beyond.

Zeid, a Jordanian prince, said he'd noticed a "change in some of the rhetoric" from Trump since he took office in January, and expressed hopes that the president's campaign trail rhetoric on issues like torture would "dissipate."
 
In October, Zeid had said Trump would be "dangerous from an international point of view" unless he changed his rhetoric on issues like torture and immigrants.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/UN-rights-chief-watching-the-US-very-closely-11111299.php