PRESS RELEASE

AUGUST 12, 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS AND HUMAN RIGHTS EXPERTS SLAM REDACTED AND MANIPULATED HUMAN RIGHTS REPORTS THAT INVISIBILIZES ABUSE OF CERTAIN GROUPS

(Washington, DC) The annual Human Rights Reports are more than a record. They are a test of America’s commitment to human rights and to honesty — about the state of the world and about ourselves. They show whom we defend, whom we excuse, and whether we uphold the rule of law equally for all.

These reports are vitally important. They reveal the Administration’s definition of human rights — a definition with sweeping consequences for U.S. policy at home and abroad. They reflect our relationship with every country on earth — relationships that shape global stability and impact America’s everyday lives. They show how seriously the U.S. addresses survivors of human rights abuses and whether it lays the groundwork for real accountability and rehabilitation.

The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice knows these reports from the inside. As former Ambassadors, Special Representatives, and Special Envoys with human rights portfolios, we helped research, edit, and oversee them. The claim that they had to be rewritten because they were drafted by partisan actors in the State Department is demonstrably false. In reality, they were written by career public servants at U.S. embassies worldwide and vetted line-by-line by experts across the State Department to ensure accuracy and credibility.

This year’s reports are different. The administration has erased or watered down entire categories of abuse — against victims of racial or ethnic discrimination or violence, Indigenous peoples , workers, women and girls (including in Afghanistan), and LGBTQI+ people. This is not an oversight; it is deliberate erasure.

The claim that the HRRs were simply pared back to their statutory requirements is also false. In many cases, even the data required by law has been diluted or rewritten to fit partisan priorities.

And the cost is real. We have betrayed the trust of human rights defenders who risked their safety to share the truth. Some are now less safe. Asylum courts in the US and globally will have less credible data to rely on — and often, the HRRs were the only source considered trustworthy. Data that had shown remarkable consistency year after year has now been weakened. The reports rely on reports by Freedom House (especially for freedom of expression violations) and other NGOs. And yet, these partners have all been defunded. This invites the question: next year, where will credible, independent info come from? An official government resource that once mapped where, how, and why the U.S. should invest in human rights globally has been narrowed and undermined. America’s credibility, built over decades, has been damaged.

The Human Rights Reports, mandated by Congress since the mid-1970s, are traditionally released in February or March. This year’s delay had one purpose: to rewrite history. But the abuses of 2024 happened. Erasing them from the record will not erase the survivors or suffering. It will only make justice harder — and injustice easier to repeat.

Shocking Examples of HRR Revisions and Ommissions

The intro claims that the reports are meant to be “objective and uniform in scope” and to aim for a “high standard of consistency” – the departures in this year’s reports from years past reveal these aims to be illusory.

• The removal of key sections that were in previous years’ reports, including on:
• Racial and Ethnic Violence and Discrimination
• Indigenous Peoples
• Women
• LGBTQI+ persons
• Child protection issues, including sections on child abuse and child sexual exploitation
• Discrimination as it relates to Workers’ Rights (Section 7) and the internationally recognized right to elimination of discrimination in employment and occupation
• The erasure of LGBTQI+ people is particularly egregious
• In a quick review of 15+ reports, we found no references to routine terminology such as LGBTQI+ people, LGB people, homophobia, transphobia, interphobia or related intolerance. Just two reports referenced “sexual orientation” and two reports made reference to “forced anal exams”, a police practice considered to be torture that frequently targets LGBTQI+ people.
• A quick analysis of the reports reveal shocking revisions and omissions, for example:
• Iraq: This report should have documented a new law criminalizing homosexuality, so-called cross-dressing, and LGBTQI+ right advocacy alongside anti-LGBTQI+ honor killings, but it made no mention of this vulnerable minority.
• Uganda: This report should have documented the extreme harm resulting from the passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, made no reference to heightened violence, homelessness, and unemployment by LGBTQI+ Ugandans in spite of ample evidence collected by the US government.
• Hungary: There is no mention of Roma people, despite being the country’s largest minority and the well-documented instances of systemic discrimination against them, including widespread segregation in housing and education.
• El Salvador: The US has long supported the right of human rights defenders around the globe to investigate and report on abuses; these actors are critical sources of accurate information about the state of human rights in particular countries and drive justice efforts. And yet, the report makes no mention of the disappearance of several well known and respected human rights advocates and the fact that the premier human rights organization, Cristosal, has fled the country in fear of further attacks. Bukele has collapsed the distinction between human rights defender and human rights victim.
• Israel, West Bank and Gaza: The failure of the Government of Israel to address or enforce millions of dollars in unpaid wages for approximately 200,000 Palestinian workers, as documented in the 2024 petition before the International Labor Organization.
• South Africa: Discusses the Expropriation law under the Torture section and yet there is no evidence of abuses against Afrikaaners pursuant to that law. All actual violations by security forces and other state actors involve other victim communities.
• Papua New Guinea: The absence of the word “women” in the entire country report even though violence against women—including rape, abductions, killings and gruesome attacks—are rampant and well documented. In fact, the government has identified violence against women as the leading cause of instability in the country and a priority that needs to be addressed.

Quote on the HRRs on behalf of the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice:

“The Human Rights Reports show whom the U.S. defends, whom we excuse, and whether we uphold the rule of law for all. This administration erased entire categories of abuse — against victims of racial or ethnic discrimination or violence, Indigenous peoples, workers, women and girls, and LGBTQI+ people. The abuses of 2024 happened. Erasing them will not erase the survivors. Nor will it erase the actors who committed or enabled those abuses. It will only make justice harder to achieve and injustice easier to repeat.”

About the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice

The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice is a coalition of former State Department officials founded in response to America’s present diplomatic crisis. Through strategic human rights advocacy and public engagement, the Alliance seeks to inform lawmakers and the American public on the consequences of gutting U.S. human rights policy.

For more information, please contact:

• Desiree Cormier Smith (dcs@thealliancefordiplomacyandjustice.org)
• Abby Finkenauer (af@thealliancefordiplomacyandjustice.org)
• Geeta Rao Gupta (grg@thealliancefordiplomacyandjustice.org)
• Kelly Fay Rodgiquez (kfr@thealliancefordiplomacyandjustice.org)
• Jessica Stern (New York) (jls@thealliancefordiplomacyandjustice.org)
• Sarah Blanton (sarah@thealliancefordiplomacyandjustice.org)