Opinion: With Trump US President, Sweden Must Stand Up for Human Rights

Donald Trump has made a number of statements which suggest that the USA is going to protect human rights to a lesser degree than before. As such, the EU and Sweden, with its place on the UN Security council, must step forward and take a greater responsibility to protect human rights on a global level, writes Civil Rights Defenders.

The new US President Donald Trump is expected to make human rights less of a priority. This situation requires the EU to advance its position as a global human rights defender, and Sweden must work for that to become reality. With Sweden on the UN Security Council, it’s an excellent opportunity for the government to show that it is serious about human rights being a security issue.

Trump has both during his campaign and in the months after the election made a number of statements which suggest that the US will protect human rights to a lesser degree than before. These signals are a cause for concern for human rights defenders and for our colleagues who are fighting against governments who systematically violate civil and political rights. Forces hostile to human rights across the world are rubbing their hands together.

This is a translation, published in “The Local”, of an opinion piece originally written in Swedish by Civil Rights Defenders executive director Robert Hårdh for newspaper “Dagens Nyheter”.

To read the full article:

Read the full article in English here (The Local, 24 January)
Read the full article in Swedish here (DN Debatt, 19 januari)