Jessica Stern and Desirée Cormier Smith Quoted

Read in: Amnesty International

Human rights organizations are concerned with reports that the U.S. State Department has directed staff preparing its annual Country Reports on Human Rights not to use as resources civil society organizations or media outlets that promote the human rights of transgender, nonbinary, or intersex persons, racial justice or diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Decades ago, Congress mandated these annual reports, based on universal human rights standards, to help inform legislation, funding decisions, and oversight to ensure the U.S. does not contribute to abuses abroad. Advocates warn that the racist, transphobic, and biased restriction of which organizations can be used as a source undermines that mandate, overlooks certain human rights violations, and weakens a critical accountability tool.

As we saw with the release of these reports in August 2025,  the Trump Administration has already put politics above human rights and downplayed or ignored certain human rights abuses. The administration issued problematic guidance in November 2025, asking employees to focus on so-called “natural rights,” which Amnesty International argued at the time would “cause real harm to women, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, religious minorities, and other marginalized groups around the world who are facing human rights violations.”

This latest report on a directive in that guidance is aligned with broader attacks by the Trump administration on organizations concerned with human rights, racial justice, LGBTQI+ equality and press freedom. These attacks ultimately target the people whose rights human rights organizations support and defend, people who have survived torture, killings and imprisonment due to identity or bias. Congress must exercise its oversight authority to ensure future reports are grounded in facts and universally recognized human rights standards.

Amanda Klasing, Amnesty International USA’s National Director of Government Relations and Advocacy, said:

“This guidance to ignore facts based on who reports them doubles down on the administration’s selective documentation of human rights abuses and attempts to institutionalize a backwards-looking philosophy that recognizes only some rights for some people. Limiting credible sources because the organizations promote equality for all, including racial justice or LGBTQ+ equality, is racist, chilling and signals a retreat from the human rights standards the U.S. helped build under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and beyond. This is a massive step in the wrong direction—and breaks with long bipartisan reliance on reporting from civil society on atrocities around the world. Failing to fully and accurately report abuses leaves Congress and the public with unreliable information. Worse, it leaves people facing violations around the world to fend for themselves.”

Mark Bromley, Co-Chair of the Council for Global Equality, said:

“This State Department directive is yet another attempt by the Trump administration to redefine human rights through an extremist Christian nationalist lens that denies the dignity and humanity of marginalized communities. Embassies that have long relied on credible, evidence-based reporting from trusted human rights organizations – backed by both Republican and Democratic administrations – are now being pressured to conform to the ideological demands of Trump’s MAGA base. The real threat to the credibility of U.S. human rights reporting is the Trump administration itself, not the organizations that have spent decades defending the rights of women, LGBTQI+ people, racial and ethnic minorities, and other vulnerable communities.”

Uzra Zeya, President & CEO, Human Rights First, said:

“Once again, Rubio’s State Department is vilifying human rights organizations for doing their jobs.  Instructing his staff to ignore reporting from organizations that defend human rights for all — including women, minorities, persons with disabilities, or LGBTQ+ people — means dismissing most credible human rights reporting from around the world. Protecting people who are most at risk—whether because of who they are, whom they love, or what they believe—is what human rights work is all about and reflects long-standing international standards. Censoring annual State Department human rights reports in such a reckless fashion turns a blind eye to persecution, defies their Congressional mandate, and renders them largely meaningless.”

Jessica Stern and Desirée Cormier Smith, Co-Presidents of The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice, said:

“The State Department’s human rights reports used to expose some of the world’s worst abuses. Now, the Trump Administration is turning these abuses into a farce. Silencing NGOs that defend rights for all transforms these reports from instruments of accountability into a blueprint for a hierarchy of humanity — and a global vision rooted in exclusion. This is a clear attempt by the State Department to whitewash foreign policy. Without the objective and intersectional insights that these organizations provide — from decades of expertise and research — we are losing crucial tools to promote justice, and communities around the world are left in the crosshairs of this administration’s hateful agenda.”

Sarah Yager, Washington director, Human Rights Watch, said:

“Congress mandated the State Department country reports to expose abuses, not to filter them through ideology. Excluding credible sources because they document racial injustice or discrimination is racism, plain and simple—and it distorts reality for anyone reading these reports.”

Contact: media@aiusa.org