A leak of draft annual State Department reports on human rights, whose preparation was delayed for a long time, indicates that the Trump administration intends to sharply reduce criticism of the American government towards certain foreign countries where numerous human rights violations have been recorded, writes The Washington Post.
The new versions of the reports are significantly shortened, with all mentions of LGBTQ+ or crimes against them removed, and descriptions of violations that remain have been softened. All documents, according to the dates, were edited over the past few days.
As stated in the State Department, the report was 'restructured' to improve its 'readability'.
Meanwhile, the draft report on Russia does not mention violence against LGBTQ+, despite the country's Supreme Court recognizing the non-existent 'International LGBT Movement' as an 'extremist' organization, followed by mass arrests in the country. The rhetoric regarding political repression has also been softened.
For El Salvador, which at the insistence of the Trump administration agreed to detain migrants deported from the USA in prisons, it is stated that in 2024 there were 'no credible reports of significant human rights violations' in the country. However, in the report from the previous year, they were recorded in large numbers.
The draft prepared for Israel consists of 25 pages, whereas last year's report had more than 100 pages.
American diplomats have been compiling annual State Department reports on human rights for almost 50 years. Their findings are considered the most thorough and extensive of their kind, and courts in the USA and beyond constantly rely on them.