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"<h4><strong>Welcome to Trump World</strong></h4>\n<p><strong>By Ishmael Bundi</strong></p>\n<p><strong>Trump: With goodwill towards none and malice towards all  </strong></p>\n<p>Who’s afraid of Donald Trump? The short answer, it appears, is “the world”. Or more specifically, those who see themselves as guardians of the world’s fundamental rights and freedoms. After barely a week in power, the new American president has struck fear in the hearts of members of the international human rights community to the point of inspiring nostalgia for the good-old Bush-Cheney “<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_of_evil\" target=\"_blank\">axis of evil</a>” The <a href=\"http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/314329-human-rights-org-lists-trump-as-threat-to-human-rights\" target=\"_blank\">headline</a>s <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/25/donald-trump-war-on-terror-black-sites-torture?CMP=twt_gu\" target=\"_blank\">speak</a> for <a href=\"https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/01/20/us-dawn-dangerous-new-era\" target=\"_blank\">themselves</a>.</p>\n<p><strong><br /><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><a href=\"//twitter.com/hrw/status/821608032220172288* [1]* *</p>\n<p>[1] https://twitter.com/hrw/status/821608032220172288\">Tweet</a>.</blockquote></strong></p>\n<p> </p>\n<p><strong><br /><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><a href=\"//twitter.com/guardian/status/824517293065596928* [1] **</p>\n<p>[1] https://twitter.com/guardian/status/824517293065596928\">Tweet</a>.</blockquote></strong></p>\n<p> </p>\n<p><strong><br /><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><a href=\"//twitter.com/astroehlein/status/822315065751674880* [1] **</p>\n<p>[1] https://twitter.com/astroehlein/status/822315065751674880\">Tweet</a>.</blockquote></strong></p>\n<p> </p>\n<p>Politicians, they say, campaign in poetry and govern in prose. Rights defenders fear Trump could be the rare politician who does keep his campaign pledges which include restricting entry into America by Muslims, clamping down on the media, shooing away migrants and embracing repressive regimes as long as they advance America’s economic interests.</p>\n<p>Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth this week <a href=\"https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/01/20/us-dawn-dangerous-new-era\" target=\"_blank\">said</a> Trump’s “America First” doctrine spelled trouble for America and the world:</p>\n<p>“By trampling on the rights of millions of people in the US and abroad, Trump’s proposals if enacted would weaken everybody’s rights.”</p>\n<p>It’s not just about what Trump intends to do either. Rights defenders fear the Trump-knock-on-effect Specifically, that Trump’s overtly authoritarian style could embolden rogue regimes and erode America’s long (however imperfectly applied) rights-based foreign policy agenda. </p>\n<p>The panic is palpable, not least because of the worrying updates on Trump’s intentions coming out of White House. Most alarming for human rights defenders is Trump’s plan to bring torture back into vogue because he believes, as <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/26/donald-trump-torture-absolutely-works-says-us-president-in-first-television-interview\" target=\"_blank\">reported</a> by The Guardian, “we have to fight fire with fire.”</p>\n<p><strong><br /><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><a href=\"//twitter.com/rgoodlaw/status/824275062178148356* [1]* *</p>\n<p>[1] https://twitter.com/rgoodlaw/status/824275062178148356\">Tweet</a>.</blockquote></strong></p>\n<p> </p>\n<p>Human rights groups are now calling for other countries to step up to the plate before Trump uses America’s influence to dismantle the global rights agenda.</p>\n<p><strong> <br /><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><a href=\"//twitter.com/AFP/status/824366885789728768* [1] **</p>\n<p>[1] https://twitter.com/AFP/status/824366885789728768\">Tweet</a>.</blockquote></strong></p>\n<p> </p>\n<p>Which country should lead the way in challenging Trump? Only one name keeps coming up:</p>\n<p><strong> <br /><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><a href=\"//twitter.com/GeorgeTakei/status/822523052877643777* [1]* *</p>\n<p>[1] https://twitter.com/GeorgeTakei/status/822523052877643777\">Tweet</a>.</blockquote></strong></p>\n<p> </p>\n<p>Your move German Chancellor Angela Merkel.</p>\n<h4>Green shoots of hope in The Gambia </h4>\n<p>Much <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/world/africa/yahya-jammeh-gambia-exile.html\" target=\"_blank\">ink</a> is still being spilled over Yahya Jammeh. Though now in exile, the former strongman has become the perfect muse for a certain kind of journalism. The kind of journalism that revels in counting the many ways a dictator of his mould took from the people to give to himself.</p>\n<p><strong><br /><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><a href=\"//twitter.com/AJENews/status/823426887632482304* [1] **</p>\n<p>[1] https://twitter.com/AJENews/status/823426887632482304\">Tweet</a>.</blockquote></strong></p>\n<p> </p>\n<p><strong><br /><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><a href=\"//twitter.com/TIMEWorld/status/823361820144660480* [1] **</p>\n<p>[1] https://twitter.com/TIMEWorld/status/823361820144660480\">Tweet</a>.</blockquote></strong></p>\n<p></p>\n<p>Of course, cars and money aren’t the only things Jammeh took from the people of The Gambia. In his 22-year rule, as detailed in countless human rights <a href=\"https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/africa/gambia/report-gambia/\" target=\"_blank\">reports</a>, he also systematically robbed the people of their freedom of expression, assembly and viciously clamped down on dissent.  Naturally, now that he has been booted out, the question on many minds is if Jammeh will ever answer for the excesses of his regime <a href=\"http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2016/10/hissene-habre-dictator-trial-161030093148939.html\" target=\"_blank\">à la Hissène Habré</a>.</p>\n<p><strong><br /><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><a href=\"//twitter.com/ngos4justice/status/824376489181376512 [1] *</p>\n<p>[1] https://twitter.com/ngos4justice/status/824376489181376512\">Tweet</a>.</blockquote></strong></p>\n<p></p>\n<p><strong><br /><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><a href=\"//twitter.com/justice_hub/status/823854891512856576* [1] **</p>\n<p>[1] https://twitter.com/justice_hub/status/823854891512856576\">Tweet</a>.</blockquote></strong></p>\n<p></p>\n<p>Jammeh’s successor appears to have no stomach for putting him on trial. President Adama Barrow has instead expressed a desire to establish a truth and reconciliation commission to look into the outgoing regime’s wrongs<a>.</a></p>\n<p><strong><br /><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><a href=\"//twitter.com/justice_hub/status/824161255074201601 [1] *</p>\n<p>[1] https://twitter.com/justice_hub/status/824161255074201601\">Tweet</a>.</blockquote></strong></p>\n<p></p>\n<p>It’s early days yet, so it will be interesting to see if Barrow’s “let bygones be bygones” attitude towards Jammeh holds. There are already rumblings that indicate that not everyone is willing to let Jammeh off so lightly. News outlets in The Gambia this week <a href=\"https://gambia.smbcgo.com/2017/01/25/darboe-will-not-object-jammehs-trial-icc/\" target=\"_blank\">reported</a> vaguely - that Ousainou Darboe, the former leader of the opposition, wouldn’t be opposed to Jammeh’s trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC).</p>\n<p><strong><br /><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><a href=\"//twitter.com/saineymkmarenah/status/824326925141344256* [1] **</p>\n<p>[1] https://twitter.com/saineymkmarenah/status/824326925141344256\">Tweet</a>.</blockquote></strong></p>\n<p></p>\n<div>\n<p>It’s too early to tell whether Darboe’s ambivalent shrug about the possibility of putting Jammeh on trial will – in fact - one day turn into the sort of groundswell that brought Habré to justice. For now, we should all be glad that the green shoots of a free press are starting to emerge in The Gambia. </p>\n<p><strong><br /><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><a href=\"//twitter.com/jwormington/status/824009027386560512* [1]**</p>\n<p>[1] https://twitter.com/jwormington/status/824009027386560512\">Tweet</a>.</blockquote></strong></p>\n<p> </p>\n<h4><strong>Kenya is staying in the ICC…….for now </strong></h4>\n<p>Kenya’s August elections will be the first in a decade to be held without the spectre of cases at the ICC looming large over the proceedings. The decision to prosecutor the eventual victors, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, at the ICC essentially defined the 2013 presidential election.</p>\n<p>The 2007/08 post-election violence, which landed Kenyatta and Ruto at The Hague, is fast receding in popular memory. President Kenyatta wants another five-year mandate but faces tough competition from the leader of the opposition Raila Odinga who sees 2017 as his last chance at clinching power. </p>\n<p>Stakes are high and <a href=\"http://www.voanews.com/a/kenya-president-kenyatta-signs-new-election-law/3669894.html\" target=\"_blank\">talk of rigging</a>, even this early, is rife. Odinga <a href=\"https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000231095/raila-odinga-claims-nis-registering-voters-from-uganda-and-ethiopia\" target=\"_blank\">reportedly</a> threatened that “there will be no country” left, if the security services continues what he alleges to be actions aimed at tipping the election in president Kenyatta’s favour. </p>\n<p>Meanwhile, local news outlets reported that some victims of the 2007/08 violence threatened to boycott the August elections because they lack <a href=\"https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000231039/idps-in-kenya-to-miss-out-on-voting-for-lack-of-key-documents\" target=\"_blank\">documents</a> to register for the polls and still haven’t received any <a href=\"https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000230636/victims-of-kenya-s-2007-post-election-violence-threaten-to-boycott-2017-polls\" target=\"_blank\">compensation</a>.</p>\n<p><strong><br /><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><a href=\"//twitter.com/KTNKenya/status/822436015566528512* [1]* *</p>\n<p>[1] https://twitter.com/KTNKenya/status/822436015566528512\">Tweet</a>.</blockquote></strong></p>\n<p></p>\n<p><strong><br /><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><a href=\"//twitter.com/JFJustice/status/823841179234160640* [1]* *</p>\n<p>[1] https://twitter.com/JFJustice/status/823841179234160640\">Tweet</a>.</blockquote></strong></p>\n<p></p>\n<p>In this rancorous environment, the Kenyan MP who had sponsored a bill to pull Kenya out of the ICC, Boniface Otsiula, decided that it maybe wasn’t so appropriate.</p>\n<p>“We are in the period of electioneering, which is a period of uncertainty and many of my colleagues prevailed upon me and said that looking at the time we are [in], it would not be ideal to withdraw from the ICC,” he told The <a href=\"https://t.co/HC6dqo3duL\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Nation</a>. </p>\n</div>\n<p><em>Image: Facebook/Donald Trump</em></p>"
<https://justicehub.org/article/the-global-human-rights-round-up-january-2017/>