Dangerous New Reporting Guidelines for US Annual Human Rights Reports

The U.S. State Department recently sent new instructions to all U.S. embassies to guide in the preparation of the State Department’s 2025 Human Rights Reports. (See our LinkedIn post on this here.) As expected, they are removing the section of the annual report that covers abuses against LGBTQI+ persons. But even more alarming, they are now requiring reporting on transgender medical care as a human rights abuse involving the “chemical or surgical mutilation of children.” In short, the reports are no longer even vaguely credible on LGBTQI+ issues and are now creating an anti-rights framework to legitimize attacks against our communities.

The Council for Global Equality (CGE) has long encouraged human rights groups to report abuses to U.S. embassies for inclusion in the annual human rights reports. Over the past years, based on those local partnerships and the work of a dedicated LGBTQI+ policy team at the State Department in Washington, the U.S. human rights reports became increasingly comprehensive and were used by the United States and many other governments to formulate policy and adjudicate refugee claims. Unfortunately, based on recent instructions and the last 2024 reports, we now know the next reports will no longer be credible on LGBTQI+ and related issues, and CGE fears that the continued submission of information to U.S. embassies could create risks for the community itself. 

Given this new policy directive, we encourage groups to maintain cautious contact with trusted U.S. embassy staff, but we also urge groups to exercise extreme caution if you plan to submit information to U.S. embassies or the State Department, as we fear the information could be twisted or used against community interests. For refugee and asylum adjudication purposes only, there may be ways to submit relevant information on extrajudicial executions, torture, or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of LGBTQI+ persons, but please reach out to us (info@globalequality.org) or refugee groups directly to discuss how best to present and submit that information so that it is not cited inappropriately.  

At the same time, we want to encourage all human rights groups to continue to document and share information widely on abuses targeting LGBTQI+ persons — that information is more important than ever given the current backlash.  Many of you already have robust dissemination networks for your data, including other embassies and the European Union, but please feel free to reach out to discuss how to ensure your documentation reaches the broadest possible audience. And please note that the following CGE member organizations and allied human rights groups regularly compile human rights reports that document violations against LGBTQI+ people globally, which are often useful for policymakers in Washington and beyond: Amnesty International USA, Global Justice Institute, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, ILGA, Outright International, Synergía – Initiatives for Human Rights, and The Williams Institute. Please reach out to those groups directly or reach out to us to help make connections to share your documentation.