State department softens human rights criticisms of Trump-allied countries | Trump administration

Donald Trump’s administration has considerably changed a key American government report on human rights in the world, considerably softening criticism from certain countries that have been strong partners of the Republican President, such as El Salvador and Israel, who, according to defense groups, have well established history.

Instead, the US State Department sounded an alarm on what it said is the erosion of freedom of expression in Europe, including the United Kingdom, and has sparked criticism from Brazil and South Africa – with which Washington faced a multitude of problems.

The criticism of governments on their treatment of LGBTQ +rights, which was published in Biden’s administrative editions of the report, seemed to have been largely omitted. Washington referred to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia mainly as the “Russian-Ukraine War”.

The section of the report on Israel was much shorter than the edition of last year and contained no mention of the serious humanitarian crisis or the number of deaths in Gaza. About 61,000 people died, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, following Israeli military operations in response to an attack by the Palestinian Militant group in Hamas in October 2023.

The report was delayed for months because the appointed by Trump changed a previous state department project to put it in accordance with the “America first” values, according to government officials who spoke under the cover of anonymity. The report has introduced new categories such as “life”, “freedom” and “security of the person”.

“There has been no credible report of significant human rights violations,” said the 2024 report about El Salvador, in a strong contrast with the 2023 report which spoke of “important human rights problems” and listed them as credible relationships of illegal or arbitrary killings, torture and severe prison conditions.

The bilateral links of Washington with El Salvador have strengthened since Trump took office, because the administration expelled people in Salvador with the help of President Nayib Bukele, whose country receives $ 6 million in the United States to host immigrants in a high security mega-preparation.

The Trump administration has moved away from the traditional American promotion of democracy and human rights, considering it as an interference in the affairs of another country, even if it selectively criticized countries, in accordance with its broader policy towards a particular country.

An example is Europe, where Trump officials have several times weighed on European policy to denounce what they consider to be the abolition of right -wing leaders, including in Romania, Germany and France, and accused the European authorities of censoring opinions such as criticism of immigration.

The report also said that the United Kingdom had a recovery from human rights, citing anti-Semitic violence and “serious restrictions” on freedom of expression. He pointed out that legal “secure areas” that limit protest around abortion clinics and said the government had “intervened several times in the cooling speech” after three children were murdered in Southport last year.

For decades, the Human Rights report mandated by the Congress of the State Department was used as a reference plan for the advocacy of global rights.

This year’s report was prepared after a considerable overhaul of the department, which included the dismissal of hundreds of people, many from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and the Agency’s work, which takes the lead by writing the report.

Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, in April, wrote an opinion article which said that the office had become a platform for “leftist activists”. He added that the Trump administration would redirect the office to focus on “Western values”.

In Brazil, where the Trump administration clashed with the government, the United States Department of State found that the human rights situation had decreased, after the 2023 report found no significant change. This year’s report has targeted the Brazilian courts, declaring that they have taken on freedom of expression and disproportionately suppressing the discourse of the supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro, among others.

Bolsonaro is tried in the Supreme Court of accusations which he conspired with allies to violently cancel his presidential electoral defeat in 2022 against Luiz Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Trump described the “witch hunt” affair and called it a 50% price on Brazilian products.

In South Africa, whose Trump administration has accused racial discrimination against Afrikaners of white minorities, this year’s report said that the human rights situation has worsened considerably. He said: “South Africa has taken a considerably worrying step towards expropriation of the land of Afrikaners and an additional abuse against racial minorities in the country.”

In last year’s report, the State Department found no significant change in the human rights situation in South Africa.

The South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs retaliated, calling for the “inaccurate and deeply defective” report. He said that the United Nations Council for Human Rights Council was “ironic”, adding: “This is particularly striking given the important and documented concerns about human rights in the United States, including the treatment of refugees and violations in regular procedures by its own agencies, such as ice.”

Trump earlier this year published an executive decree that called on the United States to reinstall Afrikaners as refugees, describing them as victims of “violence against racially disadvantaged land owners”. The allegations echoed the far -right complaints, and the researchers said that there were no evidence that white farmers were targeted because of their race.

Reuters contributed to this report