Amnesty International released its annual Human Rights Report Wednesday, warning that President Donald Trump set a tone of “hate-filled rhetoric” for 2017. Speaking from Washington, D.C., Secretary-General Salil Shetty said Amnesty was releasing the report from the U.S.A. for the first time ever, because of the “significant and serious new threats to human rights” brought by the Trump administration.
Salil Shetty: “The rising rhetoric of hate translated into horrific real-world consequences. That is the bad news from 2017. But there’s also a lot of encouraging news. 2017 showed us what happens when people mass in great numbers to say that they will not accept the injustices they face. Rather than capitulate to narratives of fear, ordinary people clamored for justice, breathing new life into long-standing struggles and igniting a new era of social activism. There’s no better example of that than what we’ve seen with the kids in this country standing up against gun violence in the last few days.”