State Department rolls out scaled-back Human Rights Report

Yahoo

6 days ago

The State Department is out Monday with its long-delayed annual Human Rights Report, and this year's edition looks much different than previous installations.
The report, an annual U.S. government account of human rights conditions in countries around the globe, typically comes out in February or March.
A senior State Department official explained that the later release date was due to the transition of power from the Biden administration to the Trump administration.
"The new State Department came in and we had a draft version of a Human Rights Report that prioritize things the prior administration had focused on and that the American people rejected," the official said. "And so that process of revising and ensuring that the report is readable and is factually based took several months."
Department officials acknowledge that the report, which covers the year 2024, has been pared down -- with countries' reports cut by dozens of pages in many cases.
"This year's reports were streamlined for better utility and accessibility in the field and by partners," an appendix to the document reads. "We minimize the amount of statistical data in the report. In the age of the internet, the underlying data are generally available."
MORE: State Department cuts broader than anticipated, include diplomatic security
But critics of the Trump administration are likely to argue that in some cases, the brevity -- along with other findings -- are political decisions.
"This year's reports are different. The administration has erased or watered down entire categories of abuse," the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice, a coalition of former State Department officials opposed to the Trump administration's foreign assistance cuts and many of its other policies, said in a statement.
"This is not an oversight; it is deliberate erasure," the group added.
Here's a breakdown covering some of the countries of note:
Israel, the West Bank and Gaza
The section of the 2024 report covering Israel, the West Bank and Gaza is notably brief, making several statements about the treatment of hostages held captive by Hamas while saying very little about the humanitarian conditions faced by Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
The report states that the conflict following Hamas' attack on October 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,195 people, "led to a rise in reports of human rights violations," including claims of "arbitrary or unlawful killings; enforced disappearance; degrading treatment by government officials; and arbitrary arrest or detention."
MORE: Human Rights Watch says Israel committing war crimes in alleged killings of Gazans at aid sites
The Israel-Hamas War has resulted in significant casualties. The death toll in Gaza since the war began is more than 61,500, and another roughly 153,500 people have been injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The State Department also said the Israeli government "took several credible steps to identify officials who committed human rights abuses, with multiple trials pending at year's end."
Although Israel's military actions in Gaza have been widely criticized, the subheading of the report titled "War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity, and Evidence of Acts that May Constitute Genocide, or Conflict-related Abuses," the department focused only on Hamas and Hezbollah -- writing that the designated terror groups "continue to engage in the indiscriminate targeting of Israeli civilians in violation of the law of armed conflict."
The State Department's 2023 report covered only about three months of the war between Israel and Hamas, but listed concerns about "serious abuses in a conflict by Hamas and Israel, including unlawful or widespread civilian deaths and harm." It noted that at the end of that year, Israel's "sustained, wide-scale military operation in Gaza" launched in response to Hamas' attack "had killed more than 21,000 Palestinians and injured more than 56,000 by the end of the year, displaced the vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza, and resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis."
The 2023 report on Israel, the West Bank and Gaza is 76 pages long and more than 22,000 words. The 2024 version is eight pages and less than 1,500 words.
Russia and Ukraine
As previous reports have done, this year's Human Rights Report sharply criticizes Russia over its brutal invasion of Ukraine.
"There were credible reports of summary execution, torture, rape, and attacks killing and injuring civilians and damaging or destroying civilian infrastructure by Russia's forces in Ukraine. Russia's forces and officials committed crimes against humanity, including but not limited to deporting thousands of civilians to Russia, including children," the report reads.
But this time, the State Department was also harsher in its evaluation of Ukraine, mirroring President Donald Trump's tendency to criticize both sides of the conflicts.
"Significant human rights issues involving Ukrainian government officials included credible reports of: torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; arbitrary arrest or detention; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including violence or threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, and censorship; systematic restrictions on workers' freedom of association; and the significant presence of any of the worst forms of child labor," it says.
The State Department's 2023 report listed many of the same issues regarding Ukraine. However, it noted then that they were "not comparable to the scope of Russia's abuses" -- a line not included in the 2024 version.
El Salvador
El Salvador -- a favorite of the Trump administration -- received a glowing review this year.
The 2024 report found "there were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses."
MORE: El Salvador deportees are entitled to due process, judge rules
"Reports of gang violence remained at a historic low under the state of exception as mass arrests suppressed gang activity," the report reads.
In 2023, it was a different story. That report found that "arbitrary arrests and mass pretrial hearings" had "undermined due process and exacerbated historically difficult conditions in overcrowded prisons."
France, Germany and other European allies
The 2024 report found that the human rights landscape in several traditional Western ally nations had "worsened through the year."
"Significant human rights issues included restrictions on freedom of expression and credible reports of crimes, violence, or threats of violence motivated by antisemitism," the State Department said of Germany. It included similar language in its reports covering France and the United Kingdom.
"Manifestations of antisemitism, including physical and verbal attacks, occurred at public demonstrations, sporting and social events, in schools, in the street, in certain media outlets, and online," the department said regarding Germany.
"Apart from antisemitic speech, desecration of cemeteries and Holocaust monuments represented the most widespread antisemitic acts, although there was a rising number of physical assaults on individuals perceived to be Jewish," it added.
The department's 2023 report noted concerns about antisemitism in France, Germany and the U.K., but found that there "were no significant changes in the human rights situation" in the countries through the course of the year.
ABC News' Emily Chang contributed to this report.