The controversial directive to separate families seeking asylum at the United States-Mexico border has received condemnation from the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, who gave an address last week in Geneva, Switzerland. The directive has already resulted in the detention of about 2,000 children over the past six weeks. The commissioner noted that the policy of separating children from their families violate children's rights and international law. Additionally, the policy has been said to subject children to “permanent and irreversible harm” by this “government-sanctioned child abuse”. This is from the president of American Academy of Pediatrics, whose remarks prompted the announcement of condemnation by the high commissioner himself. Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. retorted the address by commissioner Al-Hussein by stating that “Neither the United Nations nor anyone else will dictate how the United States upholds its borders.” Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. congress have begun the process of legislatively overturning the policy put into place by President Trump, who has already shifted responsibility for his actions onto their caucus.