[Epoch Times, November 22, 2025] (Epoch Times reporter Gao Shan compiled report) The U.S. State Department recently made significant adjustments to the compilation guidelines for its annual Human Rights Report. Foreign governments implementing so-called "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" (DEI) policies, affirmative action, state-subsidized abortions, gender reassignment surgery for children, and facilitating large-scale illegal border crossings will all be included in the category of human rights violations. This adjustment reflects the new direction of the Trump administration's "America First" foreign policy.

According to a Reuters report on Friday (November 21), a senior U.S. State Department official revealed that new directives require U.S. embassies and consulates abroad to document, when compiling their Human Rights Reports, instances of foreign governments arresting or investigating citizens for their speech, state subsidies for abortion or abortion drugs, the estimated total number of abortions each year, and the implementation of DEI policies that "provide preferential treatment to employees based on race, sex, or caste."

U.S. officials will also define “child sex reassignment surgery” as an act “involving chemical or surgical mutilation… to change one’s gender” and consider the act of facilitating large-scale illegal immigration “crossing the territory of one country into another” as a human rights violation.

State Department Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott stated, “In recent years, new destructive ideologies have provided a safe haven for human rights abuses. The Trump Administration will never allow those who commit such human rights abuses to go unpunished, including those who harm children, enact laws that violate freedom of speech, and discriminate in employment based on race.”

Piggott also noted that the new guidelines aim to “change the behavior of governments” and reaffirm the United States’ commitment to the inalienable human rights recognized in the Declaration of Independence, rights that “are given to us by God, our Creator, and not by governments.”

For years, the annual Human Rights Report, compiled by the State Department under congressional authorization, has been regarded as the most comprehensive official reference document on the global human rights situation and has long served as a blueprint for promoting democratic values ​​in the United States. With this revision of the guidelines, the Human Rights Report will shift its focus to the “destructive new ideologies” that the Trump administration has identified as constituting human rights violations.

The latest report, released in August of this year, reflects this shift: criticism of some U.S. allies has decreased significantly, while criticism of countries such as Brazil and South Africa has intensified.

The report specifically points out that the practice of punishing citizens for online hate speech in some European countries has led to the erosion of freedom of speech, with the human rights situation in countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany showing a "deterioration".

In addition, this report also significantly reduced content from previous versions regarding government corruption and the persecution of LGBTQ+ individuals.

The newly revised guidelines are expected to affect several European countries. Trump administration officials have repeatedly criticized authorities in Romania, Germany, France, and other countries for suppressing right-wing leaders and censoring criticism of illegal immigrants, and have viewed the so-called Internet security laws implemented in some European countries as a threat to freedom of speech.

The Trump administration emphasized that the guidelines were revised to no longer provide ideological sanctuaries for human rights abuses and to ensure that traditional human rights standards are no longer distorted.

A State Department official stated that the United States will continue to document violations of life, freedom of expression, and anti-discrimination principles worldwide through its annual Human Rights Report in order to uphold the inalienable human rights granted by the Creator.

This new guideline has been distributed to all U.S. embassies and consulates involved in the report’s preparation and will be formally implemented in the next annual report.

Editor in charge: Ren Zijun #