The Department of State headquarters building in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood in Washington, D.C., on April 15, 2025. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
"NPR’s report that the State Department is scaling back the Human Rights Report is misleading and misguided," a senior State Department official told Fox News Digital. "This year’s modifications are critical for removing report redundancy, increasing readability, maintaining consistency to U.S. statutes, and returning focus to human rights issues rather than political bias."
Fox News Digital is told the restructuring of the reports "will be more responsive to legislative mandates that underpin the report" and "does not reflect a change in U.S. policy on promoting respect for human rights around the globe or in any particular country." The State Department notably has attempted to streamline the reports to better align with statutory requirements under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
NPR and Politico reported on an internal memo that purportedly showed the 2024 Human Rights Report, which was finished in January but has been adjusted under the new administration, will no longer include references to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) or sections on discrimination or abuse against the LGBTQ+ community.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio sits alongside President Donald Trump during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 10, 2025. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
During President Donald Trump's first term, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited what he categorized as a "proliferation of human rights" on the global stage.
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"We wanted to go back to first principles, back to our founding documents, our Declaration of Independence, our Bill of Rights to focus on those things that are central to the understanding of rights here in America," he said in July 2020.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is overseeing changes at the department during Trump's second term. Last week, he announced the closure of the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI), formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC), which he accused of costing taxpayers more than $50 million per year and spending "millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving."
Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on X: @danimwallace.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/state-dept-defends-human-rights-abuse-reporting-changes-says-streamlined-process-eliminates-political-bias