On Human Rights Day, a Look at the Trump Administration’s Damaging Legacy

By Sam Hananel, Center For American Progress

Washington, D.C. — Today, on International Human Rights Day, a new issue brief from the Center for American Progress recounts the Trump administration’s disastrous human rights legacy at home and abroad and outlines how a future administration can undo the damage.

This issue brief explores the connections between domestic and foreign human rights policy under the Trump administration, from religious liberty to women’s and LGBTQ rights to racist policies that affect refugees, immigrants, and indigenous communities.

The United States cannot credibly speak against abuses abroad if U.S. policy perpetuates abuses or fails to uphold and protect rights in domestic policy. China and Russia, for example, repeatedly try to use U.S. abuses to undermine American efforts to condemn and dissuade other governments that commit human rights abuses around the world.

The brief offers suggestions for how a future administration can make progress on both the domestic and foreign policy fronts, including by:

· Ensuring that freedom of religion does not infringe on the rights and liberty of others
· Affirming that women’s rights and reproductive rights will be protected at home and supported abroad
· Reversing President Donald Trump’s regulations that discriminate against LGBTQ people in the United States
· Undoing the damage wrought by the Trump administration’s regressive immigration and refugee policies

Read the issue brief: “President Trump’s Alarming Human Rights Agenda at Home and Abroad” by Alexandra Schmitt

The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all. We believe that Americans are bound together by a common commitment to these values and we aspire to ensure that our national policies reflect these values. We work to find progressive and pragmatic solutions to significant domestic and international problems and develop policy proposals that foster a government that is “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”