The Trump administration has significantly rewritten and downscaled the US government’s annual report on global human rights abuses.
The document, previously seen as the most comprehensive study of its kind by any government, significantly reduces criticism of some US allies such as Israel and El Salvador while escalating disapproval of perceived foes such as Brazil and South Africa.
Entire sections included in reports from previous yeas are also eliminated, dramatically reducing coverage of issues including government corruption and persecution of LGBTQ+ individuals.
State department officials say it has been “restructured” to “remove redundancies” and “increase readability”.
The report also describes the human rights situation as having “worsened” in major European democracies including the UK, France and Germany.
The language used echoes previous criticism by the Trump administration and some US tech bosses who oppose online harm reduction laws in some European countries, portraying them as attacks on free speech.
Uzra Zeya, a former senior state department official who now runs the charity Human Rights First, accused the Trump administration of “gutting” decades of highly respected work on human rights protections and an “abandonment of core values” to the US.
“It sends a signal that there’s going to be a free pass from the United States government, that it will look the other way if a government is willing to cut deals or do the bidding of this administration,” she told the BBC.
The report accuses the UK of “significant human rights issues”, including “credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression”. It also describes prosecution and punishment for human rights abuses as “inconsistent”.
Brazil, which the Trump administration has frequently criticised, was singled out for “disproportionate action to undermine freedom of speech”.
Both the UK and Brazil have previously rejected similar criticism from the US.
In the section on Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, the report says the ongoing war “led to a rise in reports of human rights violations”. However, the report continues, “the government took several credible steps to identify officials who committed human rights abuses”. It also accuses Hamas and Hezbollah of war crimes, charges both have denied.
The report omits reference to the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former defence minister Yoav Gallant and a Hamas commander, Mohammed Deif. ICC judges concluded there were “reasonable grounds” the men bore “criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes. Both Israel and Hamas have rejected the allegations.
El Salvador has has been accused by Amnesty International of “arbitrary detentions and human rights violations” as well as “inhumane” detention conditions. However the state department report concluded there were “no credible reports of significant human rights abuses”.
Trump has a close relationship with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who he lauded in April as “one hell of a president” who was doing a “great job”.
The document was published following a months’ long delay amid reports of significant internal dissent at the state department over its contents.
It follows internal guidance issued by political leaders earlier this year reportedly advising staff to shorten the reports to remove some references to issues including corruption and gender-based crimes, and follows some executive orders on related issues issued by President Trump.
During a visit to Saudi Arabia earlier this year Trump berated “Western interventionists” and said the US would no longer be “giving you lectures on how to live or how to govern your own affairs”.
