01 February 2017•Update: 02 February 2017
By Fatih Erel
GENEVA
A group of UN human rights experts Wednesday said that U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent controversial executive order on immigration and refugees violates the country’s international human rights obligations, and specifically the principles of not forcibly returning refugees and not discriminating based on race, nationality, or religion.
Trump’s executive order last week bars all nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries -- Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria. and Yemen -- from entering the U.S. for the next 90 days and stops the entire U.S. refugee program for 120 days, indefinitely bans Syrian refugees, and halts the planned entry of more than 50,000 refugees in U.S. fiscal year 2017, which began last October and ends this September.
"Such an order is clearly discriminatory based on one’s nationality and leads to increased stigmatization of Muslim communities," said a statement by UN Rapporteurs François Crepeau (on migrants), Mutuma Ruteere (on racism), Ben Emmerson (on human rights and counter-terrorism), Nils Melzer (on torture), and Ahmed Shaheedon (on freedom of religion).
"In the midst of the world’s greatest migration crisis since World War II, this is a significant setback for those who are obviously in need of international protection. The U.S. must live up to its international obligations and provide protection for those fleeing persecution and conflicts," the statement said.
"The U.S. is also involved in conflicts such as those in Iraq and Syria, and its responsibility must extend to offering refuge to those fleeing from the conflicts," it added.
