In U-turn, US rights report to track gender changes, DEI

In a sharp change, the United States said Thursday that its signature human rights report would start tracking countries that support gender changes for children and diversity and equity programs.

First launched nearly 50 years ago, the State Department's annual report on human rights practices has long attempted to offer comprehensive accounts of abuses overseas, often angering other governments.

President Donald Trump's administration has shifted the US tone on human rights, seizing on the issue as a cudgel against adversaries and as a way to promote domestic priorities while downplaying concerns when other interests are at play.

In a cable sent to US embassies around the world, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for reporting on a series of key causes for Trump as part of a revamped and more concise annual report.

"In recent years, new destructive ideologies have given safe harbor to human rights violations," State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.

"The Trump administration will not allow these human rights violations, such as the mutilation of children, laws that infringe on free speech and racially discriminatory employment practices, to go unchecked," he said.

"We are saying enough is enough."

Specifically, the report will ask US embassies to report on countries that allow "chemical or surgical mutilation of children in operations that attempt to modify their sex."

Rubio also asked embassies to track affirmative action and other "preferential treatment" on "the basis of race, sex or caste."

Trump has repeatedly railed against transgender rights. Rubio's State Department has insisted that passports now reflect Americans' sex as listed on their birth certificates, ending decades of allowing people to select their sex, and has ended the option of an "X" for gender initiated under his predecessor Antony Blinken.

Former president Joe Biden's administration had made LGBTQ rights a major thrust of its foreign policy, appointing the first State Department envoy to advocate for sexual minorities overseas -- a position immediately ended by Rubio.

Trump has not only ended equity programs aimed at providing opportunities for historically disadvantaged groups but has threatened companies that do practice such policies, saying they hurt America's white majority.

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- 'Natural rights' -

Amnesty International called the changes "chilling" and "a blatant attempt to institutionalize a philosophy that only recognizes some rights for some people, depending on who you are or where you live."

"It sends the message that the US no longer believes in the foundational element of the human rights system it helped build," said Amanda Klasing of Amnesty International USA.

In the first human rights report released by the second Trump administration -- unveiled in August but researched largely before he returned to office -- LGBTQ rights were significantly downplayed, with references removed even for countries such as Uganda, which has imposed an anti-homosexuality law that carries the death penalty.

In the cable, Rubio also ordered embassies to track violations of "free speech," another major issue for the administration.

Vice President JD Vance has castigated Germany for restrictions against the far-right AfD and the United States has criticized top ally Britain for penalties over online posts that targeted migrants.

The push comes despite Rubio revoking visas for foreigners over their speech, including statements against Israel's military offensive in Gaza and posts mocking conservative commentator Charlie Kirk after his murder.

Trump on Tuesday brushed aside concern over the murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, strangled and dismembered in a Saudi consulate, as he rolled out the red carpet for the kingdom's crown prince, who promised major investment.

A senior State Department official said  Rubio was seeking to refocus on "natural rights," a cherished concept for philosophical conservatives that was also pushed during the first Trump administration.

"The United States remains committed to the Declaration of Independence's recognition that all men are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights," the official said on customary condition of anonymity.

Rights "pre-exist governments" and "are given to us by God, our Creator, not by governments," he said.

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