Each year, the State Department publishes its country rights reports. NPR has obtained internal documents from the State Department which show major changes to come this year
Mary Louise Kelly, host:
Each year, the State Department publishes its country rights reports. These are what they look like – closely read relationships on human rights practices, Country by Country. They follow things like the right to privacy and freedom of expression. Well, NPR has now obtained internal State Department documents which show major changes to come this year. Graham Smith is with our investigation office. Hey, Graham.
Graham Smith, Byline: Hey, how are you, Mary Louise?
Kelly: I’m fine. I am curious to know these internal documents that you have obtained, including, I bring together, which describes a whole multitude of human rights that have been abandoned from this year’s report.
Smith: Yes, the main thing I obtained was a document describing essentially how these reports are supposed to be edited. This is a whole list of types of rights that should be deleted. You have mentioned the right to privacy. It will disappear. It must be removed. Also freedom of assembly, right to free and fair elections – it indicates that publishers essentially delete everything that is not specifically called in the law which requires these reports.
Kelly: And when were these reports finished?
Smith: These were completed in January just before President Trump took office, but his State Department came and wanted to change what was in these reports.
Kelly: OK, so let’s do this specific. Give me an example of a specific country and how the relationship on this subject has changed or changed.
Smith: Yes, let’s take the case of El Salvador. You look at the report for 2023, you look at the report for 2024 – it is much smaller. State sources have told our Michele Kelemen that the objective was to reduce the duration of these two -thirds reports. And in this case, they exceeded. This drops by almost 70%. Of course, with recent events, the Trump administration sending immigrants to be imprisoned there, I went immediately for the section that covers prisons.
Kelly: Yeah.
Smith: You look at that of 2023, there is this huge section covering the bad conditions there, the lack of good food and water, access to medical care. In this 2024 report, it all disappeared. The whole section on prison conditions has disappeared. There are some details on deaths in prison because there is a required category on additional judicial deaths, but none of the other things.
Kelly: And then, other categories, whole buckets of disappearing things. I am curious, for example, on LGBTQ rights and how they will be followed and reported.
Smith: They will not be reported. In fact, directives are to remove any reference to LGBTQ people and violence against them, also violence against people with disabilities, sexual exploitation of women and children. There is a section which appeared in the report on the refusal of a fair public trial. You look in El Salvador’s report, and he says that the government theoretically provides for fair and public trials, but in Salvador, they operate in what they call a state of exemption, which suspends these rights. Thus, the 2023 report indicates that, under exemption, they allow trials of 900 people at a time, and that is a problem. In the 2024 project, it all left.
Kelly: I just want to be clear. These are not public documents, these internal documents to which you had access.
Smith: right. They were essentially emails sent to people supposed to make these changes, then some, you know, examples of documents, as well as that of Salvador, which was just shared with me so that I could have an idea of what this crunch will look like. But ultimately, they will be published, but not the advice on how he should be shortened.
Kelly: I had. I am sure you contacted the State Department to ask the obvious question of reason. Have you heard of the State Department, why these changes?
Smith: Well, we asked for comments. They refused to comment or answer one of our questions. But if you look at this note with the advice on publishing, just at the top, he says that the ministry revises reports, quote “rationalize reports”, but they are always supposed to remain in accordance with the law and with decrees recently issued. But, you know, what we see here is that they absolutely delete everything that is not specifically necessary to be reported by law. So things like torture, child labor, freedom of the press – they are still there. But freedom of expression for ordinary people – it came out.
And I must say that when you look at the laws that highlight these reports, which were adopted in the 60s and 70s, you must wonder if these new minimized reports meet the legal requirements. The law specifically indicates that reports should be complete and complete and that they should document internationally recognized human rights violations. Some people would say that it argues for a much wider set of reports than we see here.
Kelly: Graham Smith of NPR, thank you for that, and thank you for staying on it.
Smith: Of course.
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