Human Rights Report Under Trump Blunts Language on Israel and El Salvador

The State Department on Tuesday released an annual collection of reports on human rights records in nearly 200 nations, but left out language on persistent abuses in many nations that was present in prior reports.

The omissions were another sign of the Trump administration’s sharp move away from criticizing human rights offenses.

The collective report had been expected months ago, but was delayed as State Department officials worked under the orders of political appointees in the agency to cut language in the report. This year’s report, which covers actions in 2024, is much shorter and less detailed than last year’s.

Key language in sections on El Salvador, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel — all seen as close partners by the Trump administration — was scaled back or excised.

The Biden administration also viewed Israel as a close partner, in line with decades of U.S. policy. But last year’s report on the 2023 record of the country had many more lines in the executive summary on the country’s human rights violations during the military strikes that followed the Hamas attacks in October of that year.

The new report also leaves out many prior references to violations of the rights of women and L.G.B.T.Q. people in multiple countries.