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Human Rights Watch writes letter to Donald Trump, listing everything he should backtrack on

The list is not short - it includes hateful rhetoric, deporting immigrants, curtailing women’s rights and aligning with abusive governments

Rachael Revesz
New York
Thursday 24 November 2016 22:38 GMT
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Mr Trump has been warned that his proposals could endanger millions of Americans
Mr Trump has been warned that his proposals could endanger millions of Americans (The Washington Post)

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Campaign and advocacy group Human Rights Watch has written to president-elect Donald Trump, urging him to reverse several proposals that would endanger the safety of millions of people.

In the letter by executive director Kenneth Roth, he said Mr Trump should stop his plan to deport two to three million immigrants, stop using hateful rhetoric against immigrants and refugees, reverse his decision on Obamacare and to not allow the curtailing of women’s healthcare rights.

"You have accepted the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding marriage equality on the ground that it is "settled" law, but the court’s recognition of reproductive freedom has been settled for more than forty years, with a series of cases reaffirming the privacy rights first protected in Roe v. Wade.

"In addition, you have said that you will support making the Hyde Amendment, which blocks Medicaid funding for abortion except when the pregnancy results from rape or incest or endangers the woman’s life, a permanent law. These proposals, if enacted, would cause harm to millions of women."

Mr Roth also lambasted Mr Trump for his plans to make it easier to sue the media, for his apparent alignment with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and scrapping the Environmental Protection Agency.

The group joined growing calls for the president-elect to drop Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist, despite Mr Trump’s insistence that he would never have hired him if he believed that Mr Bannon was a white supremacist.

"Bannon’s stewardship of Breitbart News is widely recognised as promoting White Nationalism’s message of hatred and intolerance and its accompanying racist and anti-Muslim discourse," the letter read.

The letter has joined the likes of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) which have pushed Mr Trump to reconsider his proposals.

Following a meeting with the New York Times, Mr Trump weakened his stance against climate change, said he liked president Obama "a lot" and his desire to prosecute Hillary Clinton for the alleged misuse of her personal email server was no longer something he "felt strongly about".

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