US Administration Reinterprets Human Rights in Diversity Policies

Fri Nov 21 2025 14:11:55 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

New rules issued by the US State Department classify countries with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies as violating human rights. This move has sparked significant backlash from rights advocates.

The US State Department has introduced new guidelines categorizing countries that enforce diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies as infringing on human rights. Alongside this, nations that facilitate abortion and mass migration are also implicated. The decision aims to reshape global perspectives on human rights aligned with the Trump administration's domestic agendas. Critics argue this redefinition undermines established human rights principles and targets marginalized communities.

Countries enforcing race or gender diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies will now be at risk of the Trump administration deeming them as infringing on human rights.

The State Department is issuing the new rules to all US embassies and consulates involved in compiling its annual report on global human rights abuses.

The new instructions also deem countries that subsidise abortion or facilitate mass migration as infringing on human rights.

The changes, which the State Department says are intended to stop destructive ideologies, have been condemned by rights campaigners who argue the Trump administration is re-defining long-established human rights principles to pursue ideological goals.

The changes reflect a major shift in Washington's established focus on global human rights protection, and signal the expansion into foreign policy of the Trump administration's domestic agenda on issues that have become a lightning rod of division in the US over recent years.

A senior State Department official said the new rules were a tool to change the behaviour of governments.

DEI policies were designed with the objective of improving outcomes for specific racial and identity-based groups. Since assuming office, President Donald Trump has aggressively sought to terminate DEI and restore what he calls merit-based opportunity in the US.

The senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: The United States remains committed to the Declaration of Independence's recognition that all men are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights. The official added that rights were given to us by God, our creator, not by governments.

Other policies by foreign governments which US embassies will be told to categorise as human rights infringements include:

Subsidising abortions, as well as the total estimated number of annual abortions.
Gender-transition surgery for children, defined by the state department as operations involving chemical or surgical mutilation... to modify their sex.
Facilitating mass or illegal migration across a country's territory into other countries.
Arrests or official investigations or warnings for speech - a reference to the Trump administration's opposition to internet safety laws adopted by some European countries to deter online hate speech.

State Department Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the new instructions are intended to stop new destructive ideologies [that] have given safe harbour to human rights violations.

He said: The Trump administration will not allow these human rights violations, such as the mutilation of children, laws that infringe on free speech, and racially discriminatory employment practices, to go unchecked. He added: Enough is enough.

Critics have accused the administration of redefining long-established universal human rights principles to pursue its own ideological goals.

Uzra Zeya, a former senior State Department official who now runs the charity Human Rights First, said the Trump administration was weaponising international human rights for domestic partisan ends.

Attempting to label DEI as a human rights violation sets a new low in the Trump administration's weaponization of international human rights, she said.

She added that the new instructions excluded the rights of women, LGBTQI+ persons, religious and ethnic minorities, and non-believers — all of whom enjoy equal rights under US and international law, despite the meandering and obtuse rights rhetoric of the Trump Administration.

The new rules conveyed jaw-dropping animosity towards LGBTQI+ people, Ms Zeya added.

The State Department's annual human rights report has historically been seen as the most comprehensive study of its kind by any government. It has documented abuses, including torture, extrajudicial killing, and political persecution of minorities. Much of its focus and scope had remained broadly similar across Republican and Democrat administrations.

The new instructions follow the Trump administration's publication in August of the latest annual report, which was significantly rewritten and downscaled compared to those of previous years.

It reduced criticism of some US allies while escalating disapproval of perceived foes. Entire sections included in reports from previous years were eliminated, dramatically reducing coverage of issues including government corruption and persecution of LGBTQ+ individuals.

The report also said the human rights situation had worsened in some European democracies, including the UK, France, and Germany, due to laws against online hate speech. The language in the report echoed previous criticism by some US tech bosses who oppose online harm reduction laws, portraying them as attacks on free speech.