Findings

Congress finds the following: (1) Around the world, a rise in democratic backsliding, authoritarian practices, and armed conflict threaten the observance of internationally recognized human rights, disproportionately impacting girls, women, youth, ethnic minorities, indigenous communities, LGBTQI+ persons, individuals with disabilities, and other marginalized groups. (2) Progress in advancing human rights must be grounded in facts. The Department of State's annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (Human Rights Reports) provides a record of the state of human rights in the world. These reports are an essential tool for activists who courageously struggle to protect rights in communities around the world, for journalists and scholars who document rights violations, and for governments, including our own, as they work to craft strategies to better protect victims of human rights violations, encourage greater observance of human rights, and protect United States taxpayer funding from flowing to violators. (3) Any effort to reduce the scope or tailor the content of the Human Rights Report based on political considerations undermines its legitimacy and the credibility of the United States as an honest promoter of human rights. Such actions also embolden authoritarians and perpetrators of human rights violations, threatening grave risks to the brave women and men working tirelessly to advance these rights. (4) Maintaining the veracity and integrity of the Human Rights Report through mandatory and comprehensive reporting on the full scope of internationally recognized human rights is critical to sustain the value and international legitimacy of the reports and to hold human rights violators accountable.