US President Donald Trump has bravely backtracked on refugee detentions by signing an executive order to halt the egregious practice of separating kids from their parents. The sight of children being “orphaned” as the system decides on illegal immigrants’ fate was heart-wrenching. This humanitarian problem must be seen on a wider plane. How heartless nations can get was evident in the way this was handled until voices within the White House — Melania and Ivanka Trump — breathed reason and compassion. There couldn’t be a worse example of the suppression of human rights than this “Guantanamo”-type treatment of migrants, who represent a growing humanitarian concern worldwide. The separation of children could be another reason why the US felt compelled to quit the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The US made this empty gesture on the pretext that it was targeting Israel, though the world knows Israel is a leading offender in human rights abuses by its treatment of Palestinians. As a leading democracy, the US had a duty to stay in and fight if it believed the current UN high commissioner for human rights was overbearing and showing a clear bias. India too has a bone to pick with UNHCR for the way in which it ruled, quite illogically, that an international probe was needed in Kashmir. Every country with a conflict zone faces the dilemma of whether to abridge human rights to secure its sovereignty. The world may need constant reminders on human rights even if all nations are suppressors.
