World Report launch: Human Rights Watch executive director @KenRoth making his initial presentation on “The Pushback Against the Populist Challenge”... #Rights2018
A year ago, as Donald Trump entered the White House, the global surge of authoritarian populists seemed unstoppable. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
Politicians claiming to speak for “the people” built support by demonizing minorities, attacking human rights principles, and fueling distrust of democratic institutions. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
Today, resistance in many countries has left the future of these populists less certain. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
Where the pushback is strong, populist advances have been limited. But where mainstream politicians capitulate to their message of hate and exclusion, the populists flourish. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
France was the most prominent turning point in 2017. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
In other European countries such as Austria and the Netherlands, centrist and center-right politicians competed with populists by emulating their nativist positions but ended up reinforcing their message. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
Macron, by contrast, overwhelmingly defeated the National Front by vigorously defending democratic principles. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
(By the way, you can find the full World Report 2018 here: hrw.org/world-report/2…) @KenRoth’s opening comments continue… #Rights2018
After Trump’s election, the US saw broad reaffirmation of human rights from civic groups, journalists, lawyers, judges, and the public. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
Trump still took regressive steps, but the reaction limited the harm done, notably his efforts to discriminate against Muslims seeking to enter the US, undermine Americans’ right to health care, and expel transgender people from the military. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
Germany made headlines in 2017 when the Alternative for Germany (AfD) became the first far-right party to enter the Bundestag in decades. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
But beyond economically depressed eastern parts of Germany, where widespread xenophobia has not been addressed since ‘89, AfD gained most votes in wealthy Bavaria, where CSU adopted far more of AfD’s nativist positions than did Merkel’s CDU. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
Principled confrontation rather than calculated emulation proved more effective. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
In Central Europe, large public protests & the threat of EU legal action challenged Poland’s efforts to undermine judicial independence & rule of law. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
They also impeded Hungary’s plans to close CEU, a bastion of independent thought that opposed the “illiberal democracy” championed by PM Orbán. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
In Venezuela, protesters also took to the streets in large numbers as President Nicolás Maduro’s incompetent autocracy destroyed the economy of this potentially oil-rich nation. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
Many Latin American governments joined in, shedding their traditional reluctance to criticize a neighbor’s repression. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
In Africa, several abusive leaders, some with blood on their hands and fearing prosecution, invoked African nationalism to plot a mass exodus of their countries from the International Criminal Court (ICC). - @KenRoth #Rights2018
But that became a mass fizzle when an outpouring of popular support for the ICC by civic groups across Africa helped persuade most African governments to continue standing behind the court. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
(We are live-tweeting @KenRoth’s opening comments at the launch of our World Report in Paris. Find the full World Report 2018 here: hrw.org/world-report/2… ) #Rights2018
Sometimes, if more powerful states were obstructive or unhelpful, smaller states led the global defense of rights.- @KenRoth #Rights2018
Some small countries are playing a big role in human rights. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
The UN Human Rights Council opened an investigation of abuses by all sides in Yemen thanks to leadership of the Netherlands. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
The UN General Assembly circumvented Russia’s Security Council veto and named a prosecutor for war crimes in Syria because of leadership from Liechtenstein.- @KenRoth #Rights2018
Iceland led an effort at the Human Rights Council to challenge Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign of summary executions for drug suspects. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
None of this resistance is guaranteed success. Autocrats in office have the advantage of being able to harness state power. But the resistance shows that a real struggle is underway. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
By contrast, where domestic resistance is suppressed and international concern lacking, populists and other anti-rights forces prosper. - @KenRoth #Rights2018
