The US State Department has scaled back criticism of some close partners of President Donald Trump in its annual human rights report, softening language on El Salvador and Israel.
The 2024 Human Rights Report, released after months of delay, drew criticism from rights groups for removing detailed allegations of abuses found in previous editions and focusing instead on what the department called "Life," "Liberty" and "Security of the Person."
In the latest report on El Salvador, last year’s references to “credible reports” of human rights concerns were replaced with the statement: “There were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses.”
Washington has deepened ties with the El Salvadoran government, which is receiving $6 million from the US to house deported migrants in a high-security prison.
Blatant bias
The section on Israel was significantly shorter and made no mention of the humanitarian crisis or death toll in Gaza, where the local Health Ministry says over 61,500 people have been killed since Israel’s genocide began in 2023.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the report was restructured to improve readability and remove "politically biased demands and assertions."
Critics called it politically driven.
"The outcome is a much-abbreviated product that is more reflective of a Soviet propaganda release than of a democratic system," said Josh Paul, a former State Department official.
The report increased criticism of Brazil, citing court actions that it said undermined freedom of speech and disproportionately suppressed backers of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
In South Africa, it said the human rights situation had "significantly worsened," citing steps toward land expropriation from Afrikaners and abuses against racial minorities — language echoing Trump’s earlier executive order to resettle Afrikaners in the US.
Trump appointees reportedly rewrote large portions of the report to align with "America First" priorities, moving away from previous administrations’ focus on promoting democracy abroad and toward selective criticism consistent with Trump’s broader foreign policy approach.
