The US Department of State released its 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, also referred to as the Human Rights Report, months later than usual on Tuesday. The tone and scope notably changed from the 2023 report, altering or removing references to human rights abuses based on sexuality, gender or race, as well as significantly revising the evaluation of certain countries.
The report is intended to “cover the status of internationally recognized human rights and worker rights” in countries that either receive aid from the US or are member states of the UN. The report serves as a resource for policymakers and legislators and is mandated by the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 1974. The 2024 report was drafted during the Biden administration and was edited in March 2025, following President Trump’s inauguration. The notes on its preparation state that it was “streamlined for better utility and accessibility… to be more responsive to the underlying legislative mandate and aligned to the administration’s executive orders.”
The report has removed references to “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex individuals,” which were present in the 2023 report. It has also scaled back mentions of women’s rights and race. Criticism of particular countries has also been substantially reduced or increased compared to the 2023 report. For example, the 2024 report states that “there were no credible reports of human rights abuses” in El Salvador, despite the 2023 report mentioning numerous “credible reports” of abuses such as “unlawful or arbitrary killings,” “torture,” and “extensive gender-based violence.” Israel and Hungary also received less criticism in the 2024 report. Many European countries, on the other hand, received greater censure for “restrictions on freedom of expression” and antisemitism. This included the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
Amnesty International said on X that the report “reveals a disturbing effort by the Trump administration to purposefully fail to fully capture alarming and growing attacks on human rights in certain countries around the globe.” Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch, also criticized the report as “an exercise of whitewashing and deception.”
In a press briefing on Tuesday, the State Department’s Spokesperson Tammy Bruce stated that the report has been “restructured” to be more readable. She further emphasized that it is more objective and “address[es] abuses that had not previously been covered.”
