Case on Behalf of the Council for Global Equality Could Reveal “Cover-up of a Cover-Up” in Administration’s Hiding of International Human Rights Abuses

Washington, D.C. – The Council for Global Equality (CGE), an internationally-focused membership coalition of U.S.-based human rights and LGBTQI+ advocacy organizations, has filed suit to compel the production of documents being withheld by the U.S. State Department regarding the potential manipulation of human rights reports. CGE is represented by Democracy Forward Foundation. 

The State Department is required by Congress to release annual reports regarding human rights practices in countries around the world. These reports address internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements, and in many cases, the Department’s annual reporting on these issues is the most comprehensive global survey available each year. In fact, this reporting is heavily relied on by human rights and development experts, businesses, and courts and governmental adjudicators around the world. Other countries also use these reports in asylum adjudications and to help shape their own foreign aid engagement. 

Earlier this year, State Department officials reportedly directed employees to “streamline” the human rights reports by stripping them down and omitting key facts about the status of human rights for certain marginalized groups, including LGBTQI+ persons,  and in certain countries favored by the Trump-Vance administration. This revision raises alarming questions about the accuracy of the reports, and it has also delayed their release by nearly six months. The reports are required by law to be sent to Congress in February, although they are normally released in March or April every year.  The current reports covering the 2024 calendar year have yet to be published.

CGE Managing Director Keifer Buckingham emphasized that “for decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, the State Department has reported on human rights violations perpetrated against LGBTQI+ persons, including under the first Trump Administration. Those references have now reportedly been deleted. Secretary Rubio’s overtly political rewriting of the human rights reports is a dramatic departure from even his own past commitment to protecting the fundamental human rights of LGBTQI+ people. Strategic omission of these abuses is also directly in contravention to Congress’s requirement of a ‘full and complete report’ regarding the status of internationally recognized human rights.”

“The Trump-Vance administration is refusing to hand over documents that could show their culpability in hiding international human civil rights abuses. The world is watching the United States, we cannot risk a cover-up on top of a cover-up. If this administration is omitting or delaying the release of information about human rights abuses to gain favor with other countries, it is a shameful statement of the gross immorality of this administration,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “We are honored to work with the Council for Global Equality to demand the information the public has a right to see.”

On June 17, CGE sent the State Department a series of requests for public information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), seeking documents and communications regarding the reports, including any instructions from officials to omit information about LGBTQI+ human rights abuses in certain countries. Though the State Department acknowledged receipt of the requests, the agency has not released the records in the time required by law. 

The legal team at Democracy Forward on this case includes Senior Oversight Counsel Daniel McGrath, Counsel Anisha N. Hindocha, and Legal Director Robin Thurston. 

Read the complaint here. 

– # # # – 

Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.