{"id":84667,"date":"2025-08-15T11:52:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T11:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/84667\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T11:52:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T11:52:13","slug":"us-guts-criticism-of-indigenous-rights-abuses-mentions-of-climate-change-from-annual-human-rights-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/84667\/","title":{"rendered":"US Guts Criticism of Indigenous Rights Abuses, Mentions of Climate Change From Annual Human Rights Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forget Indigenous rights, climate change and environmental protection. That\u2019s the stark message from the latest edition<\/a> of the U.S. Department of State\u2019s reports on human rights practices across the world, according to an Inside Climate News analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 196 country reports released Tuesday\u2014relied on by businesses, lawmakers, courts, civil society, diplomats and others\u2014cover issues during 2024, the final year of the Biden administration. But they bear heavy fingerprints from officials working to further the agenda of President Donald Trump and his secretary of state, Marco Rubio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The reports were extensively reworked to reflect the Trump administration\u2019s priorities, which explains their late arrival. For the previous eight years, the reports were released in March or April.<\/a> They have also been scaled back to about one-third of the length of the reports for 2023, released last year.<\/p>\n

The ICN analysis,<\/a> which considered the rate of mentions of specific terms per 100,000 words, to control for the brevity of the new reports, found that mentions of \u201cIndigenous\u201d were down 84 percent from the prior eight-year average, with sections addressing alleged abuses against Indigenous peoples entirely removed from the reports.<\/p>\n

Those sections had emphasized credible allegations that some governments were failing to formally consult<\/a> Indigenous communities about extractive projects\u2014like oil, gas and mining\u2014that affect them. The sections had also highlighted how land invasions and other illegal activities like logging affect Indigenous communities, as well as the extreme danger<\/a> Indigenous land defenders face for peacefully resisting environmental destruction<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The report for 2023 on Honduras, released by the Biden administration, said that violence against Indigenous peoples and other environmental defenders \u201cwas often rooted in a broader context of conflict regarding land and natural resources, corruption, lack of transparency and community consultation, other criminal activity, and limited state ability to protect the rights of vulnerable communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside Climate News\u2019 analysis found mentions of corruption, which often goes hand-in-hand with environmental degradation, are down by around 80 percent in the new reports from the prior eight-year average.<\/p>\n

The annual State Department reports have historically been the largest and most comprehensive summary of human rights issues worldwide. They played an especially important role for human rights defenders living and working in authoritarian countries or in places where access to information is limited, former State Department employees say.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many environmental defenders, particularly Indigenous people, operate in remote areas with little government support. The State Department reports previously drew attention to abuses those groups face.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Differences between the last two years of reports on Brazil illustrate how the Trump administration is overhauling the U.S. approach to these issues. The 2023 report released by the Biden administration noted that violence against Indigenous peoples in Brazil rose during the four-year presidency of Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro, with an average of 374 violent attacks each year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new Brazil report for 2024 omits any mention of \u201cIndigenous peoples\u201d and says the left-wing Brazilian government now in charge has disproportionately suppressed the speech of Bolsonaro supporters. Trump recently criticized as \u201cserious human rights abuses<\/a>\u201d the charges against Bolsonaro and some of his supporters for trying to overturn the 2022 presidential election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Edson Krenak, advocacy coordinator for the Indigenous-rights group Cultural Survival, said in a written statement that the new reports undermine Indigenous peoples\u2019 \u201cstruggles for sovereignty and justice \u2013 deep democratic values.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis erasure is especially troubling given the well-documented role of U.S. corporations in driving Indigenous Peoples land dispossession, environmental destruction, and human rights violations through extractive industries and opaque global supply chains,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"AA group of Indigenous women marches through the streets of Bel\u00e9m, Brazil, during the Pan-Amazon conference known as FOSPA in 2022. Credit: Katie Surma\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n

Introductory remarks to the reports released last year by the Biden administration underscored the focus on human rights defenders, which include environmental defenders: \u201cAs in 2022, there is attention to reporting threats and violence against human rights defenders, particularly those exercising their civil and political rights to advocate for the environment and land as well as for Indigenous peoples\u2019 rights.\u201d The Trump administration\u2019s remarks this year mention human rights defenders but are silent on environmental defenders and issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The State Department did not respond to specific questions from Inside Climate News about the new reports\u2019 scaled-back coverage of Indigenous peoples and environmental issues, including climate change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But an agency spokesperson provided a written statement saying the new reports remove redundancy and improve readability. They\u2019re a response to what Congress originally mandated for the reports, the statement added, \u201crather than an expansive list of politically biased demands and assertions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Human Rights Report only makes the United States\u2014and the world\u2014safer, stronger, and more prosperous if individual reports are useful, factual, and unclouded by political biases and cherry-picking,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThis year\u2019s revised individual reports are a welcome step in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Posner, who oversaw the production of the country reports on human rights practices from 2009 to 2013, said the new reports have \u201cmore cherry-picking and increased political intrusion into what has been a professional process, resulting in reports that are less factually credible or useful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe outcome will be that people around the world will view these reports as politically charged documents that lack the rigor and comprehensiveness of those that came before,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rubio dismantled the office Posner used to lead, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, part of the sweeping reorganization of the department that laid off hundreds of officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Desir\u00e9e Cormier Smith, who served as special representative for racial equity and justice in that office until she resigned in January, said the reports are typically completed by the end of each calendar year, with some adjustments made before their release the following spring. This year\u2019s draft reports, she said, had included sections on Indigenous peoples, women, LGBTQI+ people and racial and ethnic discrimination. Those sections were deleted, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so deeply offensive and shocking to the conscience that this administration would attempt to erase the very people who tend to be the most vulnerable and those who are most frequently denied their human rights,\u201d Cormier Smith said, noting that Indigenous peoples are often on the front lines of the impacts of climate change.<\/p>\n

Mary Lawlor, the United Nations\u2019 special rapporteur on human rights defenders, said she was \u201cappalled\u201d that the State Department appeared to scale back reporting on attacks and killings of environmental human rights defenders. She noted that more than 320 human rights defenders were killed last year, the majority of whom were focused on environmental protection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the destruction of the environment worsens and the climate crisis is ever present, it is shocking that the U.S. seeks to ignore these courageous people,\u201d Lawlor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the phrase \u201cclimate change\u201d was never a dominant theme in the State Department\u2019s human rights reports, it appeared four times in the 2023 reports. The term appeared in discussions of wildfires in Algeria, drought and the movement of livestock for grazing in Chad, internal displacement of people in Guatemala and threats made against activists who raised the issue in Iraq. In the new reports for 2024, \u201cclimate change\u201d doesn\u2019t get a single mention.<\/p>\n

The omission is evidence of a widening gap between the United States and the rest of the world, as well as with the scientific community, on how climate change is impacting human rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change<\/a>, a body of hundreds of scientists from across the world, has reported that climate change intensifies droughts, floods and other extreme weather events, worsening water and food insecurity, displacing communities and harming human health. Those findings are echoed by human rights experts<\/a>, medical doctors<\/a>, multiple courts<\/a> and other<\/a> experts<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Climate change also exacerbates existing vulnerabilities<\/a> of certain groups, including children and women. Inside Climate News\u2019 analysis found the reports\u2019 mentions of \u201cwomen\u201d are down by about 75 percent from the prior eight-year average, \u201cgender\u201d is down by more than 96 percent and \u201cLGBT\u201d is down by more than 99.9 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In July, the International Court of Justice, reviewing<\/a> more than a dozen international laws and treaties and the findings of leading scientists, called climate change<\/a> an \u201curgent and existential threat\u201d and said governments have legal obligations under human rights laws to address it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe environment is the foundation for human life, upon which the health and well-being of both present and future generations depend,\u201d the court said, noting that the impacts of climate change can impair the right to life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While estimates vary, a World Health Organization analysis found climate change is expected to contribute<\/a> to an additional 250,000 deaths annually from 2030 to 2050.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This story is funded by readers like you.<\/p>\n

Our nonprofit newsroom provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. Please donate now to support our work.<\/p>\n

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The State Department\u2019s written statement said, \u201cThe Trump Administration, both President Trump and Secretary Rubio, have been leading efforts on the most important human right, which is the right to life, including leading on ceasefire signings and treaties, and multiple other avenues, demonstrating the administration\u2019s commitment to human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other changes made to the reports include reduced criticism of the human rights record of Trump administration allies, including El Salvador and Israel<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Climate\u2019s Impact on Human Rights<\/p>\n

Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director for energy, climate and environment at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank widely seen as influencing Trump administration policy, said Trump believes the burning of fossil fuels improves human rights around the world because energy access alleviates poverty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe administration doesn\u2019t believe that there is a link between CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions and the environment,\u201d Furchtgott-Roth added, citing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s determination<\/a>, under Trump, that climate-warming gases do not harm public health.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Top climate scientists have called<\/a> the finding and a related report issued by the Trump administration \u201cdeceptive,\u201d \u201ccherry-picked\u201d and \u201cantiscientific.\u201d That report seeks to argue that climate change is \u201cless damaging\u201d than previously believed. In fact, multiple peer-reviewed studies by scientists show climate impacts are worsening as greenhouse gases keep altering the conditions that people\u2019s property, businesses and lives depend on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo not account for these major changes and the impacts they can have on communities or a country\u2019s stability is to miss a significant human rights risk,\u201d said Kirk Herbertson, U.S. director of advocacy and campaigns at EarthRights International. \u201cIt can upend the political and social order.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Herbertson said the Biden administration integrated climate change considerations into its decision-making across government, including in the State Department reports, \u201cbecause it was a highly relevant amplifier of existing threats and issues that the U.S. government cares about.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Congress tasked the State Department with creating annual human rights reports in the mid-1970s. The goal was to provide lawmakers with information on countries\u2019 human rights records to guide decisions regarding trade and foreign aid. Part of the thinking was that taxpayers shouldn\u2019t fund initiatives with or in countries that don\u2019t respect human rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, the reports are widely used by immigration judges considering asylum claims, businesses making investment decisions, activists and others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rationale for creating these reports in the 1970s still makes sense today,\u201d said Posner, the former State Department official. \u201cTo me, it is a grand abandonment of responsibility by the federal government to dismantle these reports in the way they have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tAbout This Story<\/p>\n

Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That\u2019s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can\u2019t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We\u2019ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.<\/p>\n

Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.<\/p>\n

Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don\u2019t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places? <\/p>\n

Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.<\/p>\n

Thank you,<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tKatie Surma\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tReporter, Pittsburgh<\/p>\n

Katie Surma is a reporter at Inside Climate News focusing on international environmental law and justice. Before joining ICN, she practiced law, specializing in commercial litigation. She also wrote for a number of publications and her stories have appeared in the Washington Post, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times and The Associated Press, among others. Katie has a master\u2019s degree in investigative journalism from Arizona State University\u2019s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, an LLM in international rule of law and security from ASU\u2019s Sandra Day O\u2019Connor College of Law, a J.D. from Duquesne University, and was a History of Art and Architecture major at the University of Pittsburgh. Katie lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Jim Crowell.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Peter<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPeter Aldhous\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Peter Aldhous is a science and data reporter based in San Francisco. He got his break in journalism in 1989 as a reporter for Nature in London, fresh from a Ph.D. in animal behavior. Later he worked as European correspondent for Science, news editor for New Scientist and chief news & features editor with Nature, before moving to California in 2005 to become New Scientist\u2019s San Francisco bureau chief. From 2015 to 2022 he worked on the science desk at BuzzFeed News. Peter also teaches investigative and policy reporting, data visualization, and news features writing in the Science Communication Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is a two-time winner in the Global Editors Network Data Journalism Awards. His reporting has also been honored by the Association of British Science Writers, the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Society of Environmental Journalists, and the Royal Statistical Society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forget Indigenous rights, climate change and environmental protection. That\u2019s the stark message from the latest edition of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-84667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}