Amnesty International UK called on the Prime Minister to take up key human rights issues when she meets the president for talks, including the US administration’s policy of detaining child migrants and the reinstatement and expansion of a highly controversial “global gag rule” affecting funding for international women’s health programs.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International, a host of other groups and thousands of members of the public will be staging protest marches and rallies on Friday, July 13, when Trump is due to hold political talks with May and her fellow ministers.
“In only 18 months, Mr. Trump has presided over a nightmarish human rights roll-back – from locking up child migrants and withdrawing from global human rights bodies, to imposing a discriminatory travel ban and decimating global funding for women,” said Kate Allen, executive director of AIUK. “Theresa May should stand up to Trump, reassert the core values of multilateralism and human rights, and put the Anglo-American diplomatic relationship on a new ‘intelligently critical’ footing.”
Amnesty International USA called on both parties to prioritize human rights: “While President Trump should surely be held accountable for failures to uphold human rights at home, both the U.S. and UK shoulder responsibility for violations like their inadequate responses to civilian deaths in Yemen or the lack of urgency in responding to the refugee crisis, and they must hold each other to account,” said Daniel Balson, advocacy director for Europe at Amnesty International USA. “This historic meeting must not treat human rights as a footnote.”