The State Department publishes reports on human rights practices each year.
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The Trump administration considerably reduces the State Department Annual reports On international human rights to remove long -standing criticisms such as harsh prison conditions, government corruption and restrictions on participation in the political process, NPR learned.
Despite decades of precedents, the reports, which aim to shed light on the decisions of the Congress on foreign aid allowances and security assistance, no longer call governments so that the refusal of freedom of movement and the Pacific Assembly. They will not condemn the conservation of political prisoners without regular procedure or restrictions on “free and fair elections”.
Forcibly return a refugee or asylum seeker to a country of origin where they can face torture or persecution will no longer be underlined, nor the serious harassment of human rights organizations.
According to an assembly note and other documents obtained by NPR, the employees of the State Department are responsible for “rationalizing” the reports by stripping them only to what is legally required. The memo indicates that changes aim to align reports on current American policy and “recently issued decrees”.
Officially calls “country reports on human rights practices”, annual documents are required, by law, as a “full and complete report concerning the status of internationally recognized human rights”.
Human rights defenders say that the cuts are an American retirement from his position as a dog on the world.
“What is a signal that the United States will no longer go to other countries to respect the rights that guarantee civic and political freedoms-the ability to speak, to bring you, to protest, to organize,” said Paul O’Brien, Executive Director of Amnesty International, United States.
A spokesperson for the State Department refused to comment on memo or human rights reports. NPR confirmed the authenticity of the memo with two sources close to the process.
Reports, published in March or April most years, are eagerly awaited by foreign leaders and diplomats with participation in the way their countries are represented. The 2024 reports were initially completed in January, before President Trump took office, but they were reissued by the new administration. Sources of the State Department indicate that revised versions will not be published before May.
NPR documents examined confirmation Politico report These reports of violence and discrimination against LGBTQ people will be deleted, as well as all references to Dei.
Among other ordered subjects to be struck by reports:
- Involuntary or coercive medical or psychological practices.
- Arbitrary or illegal interference with privacy.
- Serious restrictions on Internet freedom.
- Extended violence in gender
- Violence or threats of violence targeting disabled people.
According to the law, the State Department publishes annual reports for each country, and they traditionally follow a basic overview. The cuts ordered in the MEMO of the Trump administration are not intended for specific countries. Rather, they eliminate entire categories of abuse from all reports.
But some deletions are more remarkable than others. The Trump administration recently negotiated the transfer of immigrants from the United States to the notorious Salvador penitentiary system. In a project of the next report on this country examined by NPR, the section on penitentiary conditions is erased. The only vestiges of these violations are reports on the deaths of prisons that enter the category of “extrajudicial murders” and a mention of abuse by prison guards in a legislative mandate section on “torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments or punishment”.
In the Hungary report, a marked version of which has been distributed as a model to apply the new guidelines, the section entitled Corruption to the Government is struck. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was called authoritarian, and previous relationships noted restrictions on civil freedoms. President Trump called him “a great man and a great leader in Europe”.
András Lederer of the oldest and the largest human rights group in Hungary in Hungary, the Hungarian Helsinki committee, told NPR that the new policy of the State Department weakens the position of human rights defenders in countries with problematic experience on these issues.
“You delete the pressure, and this definitively sends the message to the authors that this is no longer important for (in the United States),” said Lederer.
People specializing in human rights work declared that they were concerned that the cuts would have on the influence of documents within the international community.
“You cannot overestimate the value in the real world of the annual state Department of Human Rights reports being credible and impartials,” said Christopher Lemon, until January an assistant secretary of the Democracy, Human Rights and State Rights.
“You cannot overestimate the damage it will make to this credibility either if the modifications of the Trump administration decrease – not only the scope of what is defined as human rights – but also if these modifications are considered to be played.”
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo complain During the first Trump administration on what he called “a proliferation of human rights” and he moved to put them away. He trained a commission on the inalienable rights which focused on the concepts of rights of the era of the revolution and the post-second world war, the unsubscription of questions such as discrimination and reproductive rights, putting more emphasis on religious freedom and the right to private property.
The note examined by NPR describes the changes that are much more radical.
In 2013, then-sen. Marco Rubio stressed the importance of these audits, saying that they have highlighted “the failure of foreign governments to respect” the fundamental rights of citizens … from the sexual exploitation of women and children to the refusal of political rights to minorities “.
He said reports show that “the United States will be held with people of freedom in the world”.
As Secretary of State, Rubio is now responsible for reports. It is the person who traditionally, would promote his release to the public. But under his management, these violations which he cited – sexual exploitation of women and children and the refusal of political rights to minorities – are removed from reports.
The reports will always include human rights issues which are specifically required by law, in particular war crimes and genocide, anti -Semitism, workers’ rights and child marriage. Attacks on press freedom must be reported, but not those that are not linked to freedom of expression for regular citizens.
For all these categories required, the assembly note dictates that when several examples have been cited in the original sketches, the reports must be “reduced” to a single example.
Paul O’Brien by Amnesty International called it malavly.
“These things are not supposed to be novels or cliffhangers,” he said, “they are deeply useful as reference documents for people with all kinds of different needs. You try to understand whether to invest in a country. You try to understand how to approach a set of political actors who are now in charge of a country and where you want to keep them responsible.”
Reports on Hungary and Salvador are among the 20 countries whose reports, the memo, must be reported for a special examination by a “main advisor” in the department – a policy. The other reported countries include Argentina, Egypt, South Africa, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Italy, the Philippines, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
