*I didn’t know or had forgot that December 10th, now past, was International Human Rights Day. Seems quaint, almost, to have such a day in such a messy, unfair, dangerous and conflicted – conflict ridden – world. Yet – if we don’t declare our values, and what we aspire to be and do, aren’t we the poorer for it? If we don’t seek personally, and collectively to be and do better – stating goals, and hopes and dreams – we’re failing a basic test of humanity, which is to aspire, to improve, to grow and to learn.
The following is from one of my many follows in Social Media, A Mighty Girl, which you can check out at https://www.amightygirl.com
December 10th marks International Human Rights Day, commemorating the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. But this year, the Trump administration is fundamentally rewriting America’s long-standing understanding of human rights — erasing protections for the vulnerable while rebranding far-right priorities as human rights.
For nearly 50 years, the State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices have documented abuses in countries around the world. Starting with a drastically revised version released in August, followed by new directives released last month for future reports, the Trump administration has removed entire categories of abuses including women’s rights violations, LGBTQ+ persecution, racial and ethnic discrimination, government corruption, harsh prison conditions, political prisoner abuse, and freedom of assembly restrictions. At the same time, the administration instructed U.S. diplomats worldwide to begin reporting on countries’ diversity policies, abortion access laws, gender-affirming care, migration facilitation, and European hate speech laws, labeling these as “human rights infringements.”
This represents an unprecedented politicization of what had been a relatively consistent and credible assessment of global human rights conditions used by Congress, courts, asylum seekers, and human rights defenders worldwide. As Sarah Yager of Human Rights Watch warned: “The State Department’s human rights report has long provided a strong, if too frequently ignored, basis for US support for the global human rights movement. The Trump administration has now turned much of the report into a weapon that makes autocrats seem more palatable and minimizes the human rights abuses happening in those places.”
The changes come through official guidance sent to all U.S. embassies and consulates, instructing diplomats to “streamline” reports by stripping them down to only what is legally required and aligning them with Trump’s executive orders rather than international human rights standards. The administration frames its approach around “natural rights” that are “given to us by God, our creator” — a theological reimagining that conveniently lets the administration decide which rights are real. Unsurprisingly, the ones that make the cut align perfectly with far-right Christian political priorities, while protections for women, LGBTQ+ people, and minorities are discarded.
This marks an abandonment of the universal human rights framework the United States helped build after World War II, when Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the committee that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As Amanda Klasing of Amnesty International USA put it: “This shift away from universal human rights towards elusive and undefined ‘natural rights’ will cause real harm to women, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, religious minorities, and other marginalized groups around the world.”
The administration didn’t stop at rewriting the reports — it also withdrew the United States from the UN’s Universal Periodic Review in August 2025, becoming the first country in history to refuse participation in this peer review process that all 193 UN member states are required to undergo. Even when Trump withdrew from the Human Rights Council during his first term in 2018, the U.S. still participated in the review. Now, America’s seat sits empty. As Jamil Dakwar of the ACLU stated: “This move is a chilling attempt to evade accountability, setting a terrible precedent that would only embolden dictators and autocrats.”
The August 2025 report revealed how these changes play out in practice — systematically whitewashing abuses by Trump allies while amplifying criticism of adversaries. The Israel section was slashed by over 80%, with no mention of mass displacement in Gaza, the use of starvation as a weapon of war, or the more than 61,000 deaths (*12/25 numbers, that have only increased) that human rights experts say amount to war crimes and acts of genocide. El Salvador, which the U.S. paid $6 million to house deportees in a notorious mega-prison where torture and extrajudicial killings have been documented, was assessed to have seen “no credible reports of significant human rights abuses.” Hungary’s report struck out the corruption section entirely and removed documentation of Viktor Orbán’s crackdown on civil society and LGBTQ+ people; Trump has called the autocrat, now in his 15th year in power, “a great man and a great leader.”
The pattern is unmistakable. Last month, Trump welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House and scolded a reporter who asked about the murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying “You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that” — despite the CIA’s conclusion that the crown prince personally approved the killing. The administration has deepened ties with authoritarian leaders while State Department reports now claim the UK, France, and Germany have “backslid” on human rights due to their hate speech laws.
The consequences extend far beyond diplomatic messaging. Asylum courts rely on these reports to assess whether individuals can safely return to their home countries; with entire categories of abuse erased and friendly autocrats whitewashed, refugees face deportation to places where they may be tortured or killed. Congress uses these reports for decisions about foreign aid and arms sales. Human rights defenders in repressive countries have relied on U.S. documentation to lend credibility to their cause. All of this is now compromised. As Phil Lynch, executive director of the International Service for Human Rights, summed it up: “Under Trump, the U.S. is rapidly becoming a human rights pariah.”
On this Human Rights Day, the United States is no longer the imperfect but committed defender of universal rights it once claimed to be. It has become the first country in history to rewrite human rights to mean their opposite and to refuse international scrutiny of its own increasingly questionable record. The message to autocrats worldwide is clear: America is not just looking away — the Trump administration is cheering you on.