Speaking to Reuters before the release of the activist group's annual report, Kenneth Roth said outgoing president Donald Trump had flouted human rights at home and been inconsistent in criticising other countries' rights records. Biden, due to take office on Jan. 20, should make human rights a cornerstone of US foreign policy, said Roth, HRW executive director. Trump has denied responsibility for the violence and previous allegations of violating human rights. Biden should articulate human rights as a "guiding principle of US foreign policy and then to stick with it, even when that’s difficult", Roth said. Roth also called for Biden to re-engage with the United Nations' Human Rights Council, a Geneva forum which Trump quit in June 2018, "even though it criticizes Israel".

Source: bd News24 January 13, 2021 14:24 UTC