Report suggests easing of US criticism towards Israel's human rights record
In a move that has raised eyebrows among human rights advocates, the US State Department is planning to significantly ease its criticism of human rights abuses in countries like Israel, El Salvador, and Russia in its 2024 Human Rights report. This revision, part of a broader effort under the Trump administration, aims to scale back, streamline, and politically reshape the report.
The 2024 report, which was released late due to the transition from the Biden to Trump administration, has undergone a radical transformation. Many country reports have been reduced by dozens of pages, increasing their field utility and accessibility. This streamlining involves minimising statistical data and omitting customary categories such as abuses against women, LGBTQ+ individuals, persons with disabilities, government corruption, and peaceful assembly rights.
Critics argue that these omissions and reductions amount to a politicization and whitewashing of the human rights record of allied or favoured countries. Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First have condemned these changes, stating that they degrade the report’s credibility and undermine global human rights advocacy.
A senior official explained that the prior administration’s priorities were reconsidered since they were “rejected by the American people,” suggesting a deliberate reorientation of the report to fit the Trump administration’s political agenda.
The State Department's annual instructions now aim to shift focus towards reported abuses but within a framework that omits politically sensitive issues or countries’ violations that could complicate alliances or relations.
The changes in the draft report on Israel are particularly significant compared to previous years. The report eliminates references to the government's controversial judicial overhaul, movement restrictions, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ongoing corruption trial. It also omits Amnesty International's report on facial recognition technology used in the occupied territories and prior findings on Israeli surveillance of Palestinians.
Similarly, the draft report on El Salvador claims no credible reports of significant human rights abuses in 2024, despite documented government-sanctioned killings, instances of torture, and harsh prison conditions in the previous year's report.
In a related development, the draft report on Russia has removed references to anti-LGBTQ+ violence and government crackdowns on civil society.
The new version of the draft prepared for Israel is only 25 pages, compared to over 100 in the previous report prepared under the Biden administration. The draft versions of the State Department's annual human rights reports show major changes from previous years.
The 2024 Human Rights report has been restructured to remove redundancies, increase report readability, and be more responsive to the legislative mandate that underpins the report. However, critics warn that these changes undermine longstanding U.S. commitments and could potentially weaken the global human rights advocacy efforts.
[1] The Washington Post [2] Human Rights Watch [3] Human Rights First [4] Politico
- The restructuring of the 2024 Human Rights report, as reported by The Washington Post, has raised concerns among human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First, as it appears to politicize the human rights record of certain countries, particularly Israel, El Salvador, and Russia, potentially weakening global human rights advocacy.
- The new policy-and-legislation under the Trump administration, as highlighted in general news outlets such as Politico, is causing a shift in the State Department's approach to human rights abuses, with a focus on reducing criticism of allied or favored countries, which critics argue amounts to whitewashing and could undermine the report's credibility.
