The U.N.'s human rights chief said Wednesday that if elected the next U.S. president, Donald Trump would be "dangerous from an international point of view."
Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein called some of Trump's comments about vulnerable communities and the use of torture "deeply unsettling and disturbing."
His comments to reporters in Geneva come a month after he said that populist politicians like Trump and Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders are using fear and the promise of a world that has never existed in order to gain appeal.
The High Commissioner said he has no plans to tone down those kinds of statements.
Russia complains
Russian diplomats in Geneva and New York have complained directly to Zeid and to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon about his remarks.
“He should stick to human rights, he should not be criticizing foreign heads of state and government for their policies, this is not his business,” Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters this week. “He should be more focused on his specific responsibilities,” he added.
Churkin said he had received instructions from Moscow to raise the issue with Ban Ki-moon. He denied earlier media reports that he had intervened on the U.S. Republican presidential nominee’s behalf.
“Whether Trump was mentioned in his statement, I have no idea,” Churkin said. “Because I was referring to other politicians; I wasn’t aware that he was even mentioned.”
