Original Date Announced

Politico reports that the Department of State (DOS) plans to omit sections about women, indigenous people, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ+ community, and more from its annual human-rights report. The 2024 report, scheduled for 2025 release, is being edited "to get rid of several sections and limit the number of abuse cases under each." These omissions may impact individuals' U.S. asylum applications, as asylum officers and immigration judges rely on DOS reports.

Trump 2.0 [ID #1628]

Subsequent Trump and Court Action

2025.04.18 Reported: The State Department is changing its mind about what it calls human rights - NPR

NPR reports that the administration is cutting significant sections of DOS’s annual human-rights reports by removing long-standing sections such as prison conditions, government corruption, and political repression. A leaked memo directs staff to cut them down "to only that which is legally required" and align the reports with "current U.S. policy" and "recently issued Executive Orders." Any references to violence against LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, and restrictions on free assembly are deleted. In the El Salvador report, a section on abusive prison conditions has been erased, after the administration transferred immigrants into that prison system. Advocates say the changes signal "an American retreat from its position as the world's human rights watchdog."

Subsequent Trump and Court Action

2025.08.12 State Department - 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

DOS released substantially pared-back versions of the 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The reports largely track anticipated omissions.

Subsequent Trump and Court Action

2025.11.21 Reported: State Department to identify DEI polciies and mass migration as 'human rights infringements'

CNN reports that "[t]he US State Department will requires its diplomats to describe enforcement of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, alleged facilitation of mass migration, and government funding that supports abortion medications as 'human rights infringements' in its next human rights report." "The report will also shift focus to 'natural rights' like freedom of speech . . . in a move likely to target traditional European allies for alleged freedom of speech restrictions."