By Tom Bateman, State Department correspondent
The Trump administration has significantly rewritten and downscaled the US government’s annual report on global human rights abuses.
The document, previously seen as the most comprehensive study of its kind by any government, significantly reduces criticism of some US allies such as Israel and El Salvador while escalating disapproval of perceived foes such as Brazil and South Africa.
Entire sections included in reports from previous years are also eliminated, dramatically reducing coverage of issues including government corruption and persecution of LGBTQ+ individuals.
State department officials say it had been “restructured” to “remove redundancies” and “increase readability”.
The report also describes the human rights situation as having “worsened” in major European democracies, including the UK, France and Germany.
The language used echoes previous criticism by the Trump administration and some US tech bosses who oppose online harm reduction laws in some European countries, portraying them as attacks on free speech.
Uzra Zeya, a former senior state department official who now runs the charity Human Rights First, accused the Trump administration of “gutting” decades of highly respected work on human rights protections and an “abandonment of core values” to the US.
“It sends a signal that there’s going to be a free pass from the United States government, that it will look the other way if a government is willing to cut deals or do the bidding of this administration,” she told the BBC.
The report accuses the UK of “significant human rights issues”, including “credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression”. It also describes prosecution and punishment for human rights abuses as “inconsistent”.
Brazil, which the Trump administration has frequently criticised, was singled out in the state department report for “disproportionate action to undermine freedom of speech”.
Both the UK and Brazil have previously rejected similar criticism from the US.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: Trump administration rewrites and scales back annual human rights report
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