Washington, Feb 22 (IANS) Human rights group Amnesty International on Thursday accused US President Donald Trump of practicing "hateful" politics and said his policies mark "a new era of human rights regression" in the US and around the world.
"Trump takes actions that violate human rights at home and abroad... his backward steps on human rights are setting a dangerous precedent for other governments to follow," the rights group said in its annual report released at an event in Washington.
It said world leaders failed to prevent abuses such as the persecution of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. Instead, many had offered a vision of fear, Amnesty alleged in its "State of the World's Human Rights" report for 2017.
Amnesty put Trump in the same group as the leaders of Egypt, Russia, China, the Philippines and Venezuela, the BBC reported.
It said Trump and other leaders, including Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, "are callously undermining the rights of millions".
"The spectres of hatred and fear now loom large in world affairs, and we have few governments standing up for human rights in these disturbing times," said Amnesty head Salil Shetty.
The Amnesty report called Trump's travel ban, implemented days after he took office in 2017, a "transparently hateful move".
"The transparently hateful move by the US government in January to ban entry to people from several Muslim-majority countries set the scene for a year in which leaders took the politics of hate to its most dangerous conclusion," said Shetty.
In its report, Amnesty criticized the willingness of world leaders to cry "fake news" -- a phrase popularised by Trump -- in their attacks on the media.
It also attacked the "weak and inconsistent" response of social media companies to a wave of abuse against women and minorities.
Among the many issues highlighted in the 400-page report are the "crimes against humanity" and war crimes in Iraq, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen, attempts to roll back women's rights in the US, Russia and Poland as well as sweeping crackdowns on LGBT communities in Chechnya and Egypt.
