Human Rights Watch: U.S. Department of Human Rights Report “Mixes Facts, Deception, Political Spin”

A Human Rights Watch report concludes that the Trump administration’s omission of key sections and manipulation of certain countries’ rights abuses degrade and politicize the 2025 U.S. State Department human rights report. It argues that, “by undermining the credibility of the report, the administration puts human rights defenders at risk, weakens protections for asylum seekers, and undercuts the global fight against authoritarianism.”

Yesterday, the State Department released its “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices” for 2024. The report omits several categories of rights violations that were covered in past editions, including women, LGBT people, persons with disabilities, corruption in government, and freedom of peaceful assembly. According to Human Rights Watch, “[t]he administration has also grossly mischaracterized the human rights records of abusive governments with which it has or is currently seeking friendly relations.”

“The State Department’s new human rights report is in many places an exercise of whitewashing and deception,” said Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “Entire categories of abuses have been erased, while serious rights violations by allied governments have been papered over.”

The secretary of state is required to send Congress an annual report on the human rights conditions of countries and territories around the world.

KJ