July 08 , 2025
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump made significant changes to a major U.S. government report on human rights around the world, notably softening its criticism of certain countries that have strong partnerships with the Republican president—such as El Salvador and Israel—which human rights groups say have extensive records of human rights violations.
Instead, in its 2024 annual human rights report, the U.S. State Department issued a warning about the decline of freedom of expression in Europe and escalated its criticism of Brazil and South Africa, both of which have clashed with Washington over a range of issues.
Washington mainly referred to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as the “Russian-Ukrainian war.”
The section dedicated to Israel in the report was much shorter than last year’s edition and made no mention of the severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza or the casualty figures there.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, about 61,000 people have been killed or injured as a result of Israel’s military campaign in the Strip since October 7, 2023.
Government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the report’s release had been delayed for months because Trump-appointed officials made substantial changes to a previous State Department draft to align it more closely with “America First” values, according to Reuters. The report also added new categories such as “Life,” “Liberty,” and “Personal Security.”
Regarding El Salvador, the report stated there were “no credible reports of significant human rights abuses,” a sharp contrast to the 2023 report, which cited “serious human rights issues” and included credible accounts of unlawful or arbitrary killings, torture, and harsh prison conditions that posed life-threatening risks.
Bilateral relations between Washington and El Salvador have strengthened since Trump took office, with the U.S. deporting individuals to El Salvador with the assistance of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, whose country receives $6 million from the United States to house migrants in a massive high-security prison.
The Trump administration abandoned the traditional U.S. approach of promoting democracy and human rights, considering it interference in other nations’ affairs, but at the same time selectively criticized countries in ways consistent with its broader policy toward each nation.
This year’s report was prepared following a comprehensive overhaul of the department, which included dismissing hundreds of people—many from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, the office that takes the lead in writing the report.
In April, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote an opinion piece stating that the bureau had become a platform “for leftist activists,” and that the Trump administration would redirect the office to focus on “Western values.”