‘Politically driven' US government report slams South Africa, Brazil
In April secretary of state Marco Rubio wrote an opinion piece saying the bureau had become a platform for 'left-wing activists', and vowing the Trump administration would reorient it to focus on 'Western values'.
In Brazil, where the Trump administration has clashed with the government, the state department found the human rights situation declined after the 2023 report found no significant changes.
This year's report took aim at the courts, stating they took action undermining freedom of speech and disproportionately suppressing the speech of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro, among others. Bolsonaro is on trial before the supreme court on charges that he conspired with allies to violently overturn his 2022 electoral loss to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Trump has referred to the case as a 'witch hunt' and called it grounds for a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods. 'South Africa took a substantially worrying step'
In South Africa, whose government the Trump administration has accused of racial discrimination towards Afrikaners, this year's report said the human rights situation significantly worsened.
It said: 'South Africa took a substantially worrying step towards land expropriation of Afrikaners and further abuses against racial minorities in the country.'
In last year's report, the state department found no significant changes in the human rights situation in South Africa.
Trump issued an executive order this year calling for the US to resettle Afrikaners.
He described them as victims of 'violence against racially disfavoured landowners', accusations that echoed far-right claims but which have been contested by the government.
South Africa dismissed the report's findings, and said it was flawed, inaccurate and disappointing.
The government said: 'It is ironic that a report from a nation that has exited the UN Human Rights Council and therefore no longer sees itself accountable in a multilateral peer review system would seek to produce one-sided fact free reports without any due process or engagement.'
Reuters
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