Zürcher Nachrichten - US denounces Europe on speech in pared-down rights report

The State Department's congressionally required report historically has offered extensive accounts of all nations' records, documenting in dispassionate detail issues from unjust detention to extrajudicial killing to personal freedoms.

For the first report under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the State Department trimmed sections and took particular aim at countries that have been in the crosshairs of Trump, including Brazil and South Africa.

On China, which the United States across administrations has identified as a top adversary, the State Department report said that "genocide" was ongoing against the mostly Muslim Uyghur people, whose plight Rubio took up as a senator.

But the report also took striking aim at some of the closest allies of the United States, saying that human rights had worsened in Britain, France and Germany due to regulations on online hate speech.

In Britain, following the stabbing deaths of three young girls, authorities took action against internet users who falsely alleged that a migrant was responsible and urged revenge.

The State Department report described the British efforts as officials having "repeatedly intervened to chill speech" and said that the close US ally had experienced "credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression."

The criticism comes despite Rubio moving aggressively in the United States to deny or strip visas of foreign nationals over their statements and social media postings, especially student activists who have criticized Israel.

Trump is an avid social media user who frequently berates opponents in personal tones. His administration has repeatedly taken on Europe over restrictions on social media platforms, many of which are US-based.

In February, Vice President JD Vance used a visit to Germany to champion the far-right AfD party after the country's spy agency called it extremist.

- Brazil denounced but not El Salvador -

The report also said that rights deteriorated in 2024 in Brazil, where Trump has pressed against prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro, his ally accused of a coup attempt with echoes of the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol by Trump's supporters.

Brazil, the report said, has "undermined democratic debate by restricting access to online content deemed to 'undermine democracy,' the report said.

The State Department said that rights "significantly worsened" in South Africa, where Trump has embraced the cause of the white minority.

The report accused the post-apartheid government of taking "substantially worrying steps towards land expropriation" of Afrikaners and other minorities.

By contrast, the State Department said there were "no credible reports of significant human rights abuses" in El Salvador and noted a "historic low" in crime.

President Nayib Bukele has unleashed a sweeping crackdown on crime in which rights groups say many innocent people have wound up in detention.

Bukele took in migrants sent from the United States in Trump's mass deportation drive, some of whom have since reported mistreatment during nearly round-the-clock confinement in a maximum-security prison, which took place after the time covered by the report.

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who the Trump administration admits was wrongly deported, filed a lawsuit alleging severe beatings, sleep deprivation and inadequate nutrition in El Salvador's CECOT prison.

The latest report trimmed down its section on Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. It acknowledged cases of arbitrary arrests and killings by Israel but said that authorities took "credible steps" to identify officials responsible.

In a letter earlier this year, Democratic senators led by Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, voiced alarm over changes to the report that they said damaged US credibility.

"When the United States conveniently wields human rights principles as a political cudgel against our adversaries, but does not apply those same standards to our allies, countries like China and Russia are quick to point out such hypocrisy, and American influence on the world stage drops precipitously," they wrote.

M.J.Baumann--NZN