O-blog-dee-o-blog-da

by Melanie Nathan, June 18, 2025.

As mandated by Congress, every year since 1977, the State Department’s dedicated public servants in U.S. missions abroad and in Washington scrupulously examine, track, and document the state of human rights in nearly 200 countries and territories around the world.

The Trump Rubio State Department (Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor) has FAILED to publish the 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for ALL countries. –

The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, also known as the Human Rights Reports, cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements. The U.S. Department of State submits reports on all countries receiving assistance and all United Nations member states to the U.S. Congress in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 1974.*

Since 1999, these reports have been published online every March/ April for the preceding year. The current due reportwhich has failed to appear is for 2024.

As an expert witness for Country Conditions reporting on African countries, I use these reports authoritatively in my reporting and testimony, and as guidelines to deepen my research. I believe this failure by the Trump – Rubio Regime and State Department is purposely designed to thwart human rights work and the ability to provide U.S. country conditions reporting for asylum seekers. It also in my opinion serves as a tacit admission of our failure to adhere to basic human rights standards. This is just one of many signs that this said REGIME has no regard for human rights and is seeking to diminish and even eliminate human rights frameworks, from existence in the U.S.

Well no worries folks ! As bad as it is we can thank other countries for their commitments to uphold their obligations to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, such as Canada, The United Kingdom, EU Countries- Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Australia, Iceland … the list goes on….

*NOTABLY:

During the Biden Administration  Secretary Anthony Blinken’s State Department Report for 2023 submitted the following (shortened here) Preface:

Preface

As mandated by Congress, every year since 1977, the State Department’s dedicated public servants in U.S. missions abroad and in Washington scrupulously examine, track, and document the state of human rights in nearly 200 countries and territories around the world.  In compiling these “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,” commonly known as the Human Rights Report (HRR), we have drawn from a variety of credible, fact-based sources, including reporting from government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and media.  The HRR helps connect U.S. diplomatic and foreign assistance efforts to the fundamental American value of protecting and promoting respect for human rights for all, while helping to inform the work of civil society, human rights defenders, scholars, multilateral institutions, and others.

The President’s Summit for Democracy underscores the United States’ commitment to advancing respect for human rights, and to the promotion of democracy as the most effective system of government to secure them.  We are pleased the third Summit for Democracy took place this year under the Republic of Korea’s leadership.  Through the Summits for Democracy, the United States and other participating governments, along with partners from civil society, youth, and other stakeholders, seek to cement progress in human rights, foster democratic reforms, expand space for independent media, advance women’s rights, combat corruption, and make technology work for democracies and their people, not misused by malign actors as a tool of repression.

The year covered by this HRR coincided with the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).  In commemoration of the anniversary, the United States made several new commitments, including to renew investments around the world in democracy and human rights, to help protect human rights defenders online, and to advance racial and gender justice in the United States.

In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, one of the authors of the UDHR, “The destiny of human rights is in the hands of all our citizens in all our communities.”  We hope that this Report proves a useful contribution to that shared global effort, by chronicling both sobering developments in specific countries, as well as evidence of progress.

……….. (includes a summary) ……………

This Report could not have been compiled without the selfless work of human rights defenders, independent journalists, and other civil society leaders whose daily work to advance human rights is an inspiration to us all.  I hope that the honest and public assessments of human rights abuses, as well as the reports of progress, reflected in these pages gives strength to these brave individuals across the globe who often put their lives at risk to improve conditions in their own countries, and, ultimately, make the world a freer, safer place for us all.

Antony J. Blinken
Secretary of State

The headers (topics covered) in these approximately 40+ page long, country by country reports, generally include the following taken from the Example of a Ugandan Report:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Section 1

Respect for the Integrity of the Person

1. Arbitrary Deprivation of Life and Other Unlawful or Politically Motivated Killings
2. Disappearance
3. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and Other Related Abuses

Prison and Detention Center Conditions

1. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention

Arrest Procedures and Treatment of Detainees

1. Denial of Fair Public Trial

Trial Procedures

Political Prisoners and Detainees

1. Transnational Repression

Not applicable.

1. Property Seizure and Restitution
2. Arbitrary or Unlawful Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence

Section 2.

Respect for Civil Liberties

1. Freedom of Expression, Including for Members of the Press and Other Media

Internet Freedom

1. Freedoms of Peaceful Assembly and Association

Freedom of Peaceful Assembly

Freedom of Association

1. Freedom of Religion
2. Freedom of Movement and the Right to Leave the Country
3. Protection of Refugees

Access to Asylum:

Abuse of Refugees and Asylum Seekers: S

Durable Solutions:

Section 3.

Freedom to Participate in the Political Process

Elections and Political Participation

Abuses or Irregularities in Recent Elections:

Political Parties and Political Participation:
Participation of Women and Members of Marginalized or Vulnerable Groups:

Section 4.

Corruption in Government

Section 5.

Governmental Posture Towards International and Nongovernmental Monitoring and Investigation of Alleged Abuses of Human Rights

Retribution against Human Rights Defenders:

The United Nations or Other International Bodies:

Government Human Rights Bodies:

Section 6.

Discrimination and Societal Abuses

Women

Rape and Domestic Violence:

Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C):

Other Forms of Gender-based Violence or Harassment:

Discrimination:

Reproductive Rights:

Systemic Racial or Ethnic Violence and Discrimination

Indigenous Peoples

Children

Education:

Child Abuse:

Child, Early, and Forced Marriage:

Sexual Exploitation of Children:

Infanticide, Including Infanticide of Children with Disabilities:

Antisemitism

Trafficking in Persons

Forced Organ Harvesting

Acts of Violence, Criminalization, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity or Expression, or Sex Characteristics

Criminalization:

Violence and Harassment:

Discrimination:

Availability of Legal Gender Recognition:

Involuntary or Coercive Medical or Psychological Practices:

Restrictions of Freedom of Expression, Association, or Peaceful Assembly:

Persons with Disabilities

Other Societal Violence or Discrimination

Section 7.

Worker Rights

1. Freedom of Association and the Right to Collective Bargaining
2. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
3. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment
4. Discrimination (see section 6)
5. Acceptable Conditions of Work

Wage and Hour Laws:

Occupational Safety and Health:

Wage, Hour, and OSH Enforcement:

After reviewing the above headers, noting the failure of the U.S.A. to continue to provide such reports, and the current corruption, fascist behavior and diminishing of Democratic institutions in the U.S., one can only deduce that the United States is unlikely to call out the human rights abuses of these other countries, when it is headed in the same direction of those very countries it has been calling out for decades.