Geneva, June 19 (RHC)-- The United Nation’s top human rights official has called on the Donald Trump administration to end its "zero tolerance" policy, which has resulted in the separation of migrant families at the southern border, calling the practice abusive.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, spoke out against the policy during an address in Geneva, The New York Times reported.  “The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable,” al-Hussein said.

He highlighted in his address that U.S. immigration officials had detained about 2,000 children over the past six weeks.  Al-Hussein also cited a statement from the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who said that detaining children separately from their parents was “government-sanctioned child abuse” that could cause permanent and irreversible harm to children.

The U.N. official's office had spoken out against policies separating children and parents earlier this month, saying the measures violate children’s rights and international law.