Rights for thee, not for me: US rights report whitewashes allies

The US State Department's 2025 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices are out — and what they omit says more than what they include.

Once a respected barometer of global rights conditions, the reports have been gutted under the Trump-Rubio administration. According to NPR, the average country section is now two-thirds shorter than last year's, with some reduced by over 90%. Whole categories — women's rights, corruption, freedom of assembly — have been deleted for many allies. Human Rights Watch calls it "an exercise of whitewashing and deception" that erases "entire categories of abuses" while papering over serious violations by friendly governments.

The most blatant example is Israel. Last year's 103-page record of "significant human rights issues" in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank has been slashed to just nine pages. Entire sections on Israel's destruction of Gaza's civilian infrastructure, its use of starvation as a weapon of war, and the ICJ's genocide case against its leaders have disappeared.

Gone too are references to the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes. Instead, the "War Crimes" section names only Hamas and Hezbollah for indiscriminate attacks on Israeli civilians — erasing the overwhelming civilian toll in Gaza, where over 61,000 people have been killed according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

This is not an oversight; it's a political choice. By stripping out UN and human rights group documentation, the State Department has turned what was once a legal and advocacy tool into a shield for an ally accused of mass atrocities.

The omissions are not confined to the Middle East. Despite mounting international concern over India's democratic backsliding — arbitrary detentions and curfews in Jammu & Kashmir, the targeting of journalists and activists, and a rising tide of anti-Muslim hate speech — the 2025 US report offers no meaningful criticism.

For years, previous State Department reports at least acknowledged these trends. Now, in the era of an expanded US-India strategic partnership aimed at countering China, those sections have gone quiet. The result? Documented violations that impact millions, particularly in Kashmir, are airbrushed out of Washington's official record.

For Pakistan, this silence is instructive. If India's record can be sanitised to suit strategic priorities, then human rights in Washington's calculus are not a principle — they're a bargaining chip.

The double standard runs throughout the new reports. South Africa, which has taken Israel to the ICJ, receives sharper condemnation. Brazil, whose government has clashed with Washington, is portrayed as sliding into repression.

Meanwhile, El Salvador, under President Nayib Bukele, is declared free of "significant human rights abuses" despite extensive evidence of arbitrary detention, torture and inhumane prison conditions documented by Amnesty International and others. Hungary, another Trump ally, is praised for its "open environment for Jews" while its repression of dissent and curbs on press freedom are downplayed.

As The Intercept notes, these reports are now "wholly political documents" that protect friends and punish foes.

For decades, these reports have been used to shape US foreign aid, arms sales and asylum decisions — often cited by courts, diplomats and human rights defenders. Now, stripped of credibility, they serve as another instrument of foreign policy messaging.

The lesson for Pakistan is clear: in Washington's current human rights framework, accountability is negotiable. Strategic alignment can outweigh even the most serious abuses, while political friction can magnify them.

Human rights must be universal — not transactional. They must apply whether the perpetrator is an enemy or a friend, a rival or a partner. This is a lesson being lost on far too many.

If Pakistan and the region want moral consistency in the international system, they cannot rely on Washington's selective compass. They must strengthen their own rights frameworks, grounded in international law, and apply them without fear or favour. Because when hypocrisy becomes official policy, injustice doesn't just survive — it thrives.