A/73/305 29. In her most recent report to the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur denounced the growing number of States that have threatened to adopt, or even adopted, blanket bans against refugees and other non-nationals of particular religious affiliation or national origin, most commonly Muslims and residents of Muslim majority countries. In the United States, such bans have been implemented by the executive orders of a President who has publicly made racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic statements against non-nationals as well as United States citizens belonging to racial and ethnic minorities. President Trump ’s nationalist populist agenda has also included policies separating thousands of children from their asylum seeking families at the southern border of the United States, which have rightly drawn global condemnation. 45 30. Also in her most recent report to the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur highlighted the racialized impact that nationalist populist mobilizations can have on counter-terrorism policy. 46 Populists in Europe and beyond have capitalized on the increased number of terrorist attacks in the past two years to garner support for policy proposals that are blatantly discriminatory and legitimize profiling in security-related surveillance that targets mainly Muslim communities. In her report, she explains why such policies violate equality and non-discrimination principles. Shrinking of liberal democratic and civic space 31. Empirical research has shown that “populist parties in government and opposition are negatively associated with mutual constraints [including separation of powers] compared to instances where no populist parties are in government or opposition”. 47 Evidence shows that, generally, nationalist populist Governments have tended to exacerbate corruption and to weaken the mechanisms of checks and balances that are intended to prevent the illegitimate usurpation of power by any one branch of government or political party. They have also tended to suppress civ il society, all in the name of the will of “the people”. 32. In Asia, as in other regions, nationalist populist leaders have cracked down on political dissent, vilifying anyone with different political views as an enemy of the people and thus to be disposed of. Populist traditional values and law and order rhetoric, for example, in the Philippines, have sustained brutal extrajudicial killings of so-called drug users. 48 Government attacks in that country have also targeted those committed to defending the rule of law. For example, the populist leader of the Philippines threatened and insulted a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after she had expressed concerns regarding threats to the rule of law. The Chief Justice was voted off the Court two days later, prompting the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers to issue a statement of concern. 49 The erosion of judicial institutions that otherwise function as central to the defence of racial, ethnic, sexual, gender and other minorities makes those groups even more vulnerable to discriminatory treatment. 33. Nationalist populists in Latin America have presided over the systemic oppression and repression of political opponents, including the use of deadly violence. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has documented this __________________ 45 46 47 48 49 12/22 OHCHR, “United Nations experts to United States: ‘Release migrant children from detention and stop using them to deter irregular migration’”, 22 June 2018. See A/HRC/38/52. Huber and Schimpf, “On the distinct effects of left-wing and right-wing populism on democratic quality”, p. 151. Rainer Eizenberger and Wofram Schaffer, “The political economy of new authoritarianism in Southeast Asia”, Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies, vol. 11, No. 1 (2018). OHCHR, “Judicial independence in Philippines is under threat, says United Nations human rights expert”, 1 June 2018. 18-12945