The human rights report is a collection of reports on conditions in nearly 200 countries and territories across the world, though not the United States. | Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images State Dept. to release human rights report as Pompeo nears confirmation vote Expected changes in the annual report’s format include a reduced focus on family planning.

The State Department plans to release its annual human rights report on Friday, a document that will draw unusual scrutiny thanks to expected changes to its format, including the amount of space devoted to women’s reproductive rights.

The report’s release, confirmed to POLITICO by multiple department officials, comes days before an expected confirmation vote for President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, whom many Democrats have harshly criticized for his positions and past statements on Muslims, the LGBT community and other issues related to human rights.


The human rights report is a collection of reports on conditions in nearly 200 countries and territories across the world, though not the United States. It tackles subjects such as freedom of the press and domestic violence. The report is widely used by lawmakers, rights groups and even asylum seekers as an authoritative reference.

Under former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whom Trump fired last month, department officials were ordered at the last minute to revise the upcoming report to reduce its focus on family planning and oppressive behavior by nongovernmental entities. Activists decried the intervention as a sign of Trump’s and Tillerson’s desire to de-emphasize human rights in U.S. foreign policy. Some also saw it as a victory for anti-abortion forces within the administration.

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Human rights advocates are eager to comb through the latest report and see exactly how the ordered changes will appear in its text; some worry the changes will taint the report’s reputation as a fair examination of the rights situation in dozens of countries.

“We’ll be reviewing the report closely for any indication that it’s been politicized,” said Rob Berschinski, senior vice president for policy at Human Rights First.

The idea behind the changes, State Department officials have told POLITICO, is to focus the report more on what governments are doing as opposed to other forces. So, for example, the influence that the Catholic Church in a particular country has on societal attitudes toward the LGBT community may get cut.

The State Department has declined to lay out the changes in detail but downplayed their impact. Spokeswoman Heather Nauert has said the goal is to have more clarity and to avoid duplicating information found elsewhere.

Questions about changes to the report arose during Pompeo’s confirmation hearing last week before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Pompeo, who is currently the CIA chief, said he was gathering facts about the matter and pledged to look into it further.

By releasing the report now, the State Department is doing Pompeo one favor: He won’t have to decide how he’ll handle the report’s rollout in his first year as secretary of state, if he gets the job.

Tillerson drew fierce criticism last year when he broke with bipartisan tradition and did not unveil the report in person. Activists viewed Tillerson’s decision as a signal that the Trump administration would put little emphasis on human rights.

Acting Secretary of State John Sullivan is expected to unveil this year’s report in person.

Talk of the report will nonetheless dampen the mood among Democrats ahead of the vote on Pompeo, expected Monday. On Thursday, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who faces a difficult re-election race this fall, became the first Democrat to say she’d vote “yes” on Pompeo. For now, it appears Pompeo has just enough votes to get confirmed.

A spokesman for Pompeo did not offer responses to questions on Thursday about whether he weighed in on the human rights report’s release or was concerned about it. The State Department press office also did not offer comment.

The State Department was supposed to have finished the report and handed it to Congress by Feb. 25. But such deadlines are often ignored, and the last-minute revisions requested under Tillerson made that timeline hard to meet. Trump’s decision to fire Tillerson and replace him with Pompeo threw another wrench in the process.

Human rights has been, in many ways, a major weakness of Pompeo’s during the confirmation process.

Democrats are especially concerned about his views on Muslims. Pompeo has longstanding affiliations with groups and figures known to be hostile to Islam, including ACT for America, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a hate group.

When he was a congressman from Kansas, Pompeo alleged that American Muslims had failed to condemn the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and that that made them potentially “complicit” in the attacks. In fact, several U.S. Muslim groups had loudly condemned the deadly bombings.

When asked by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) during his confirmation hearing whether he would apologize to Muslims for his earlier comments, Pompeo sidestepped the question.

In his written testimony to the Senate committee, Pompeo made several, but brief, references to the importance of human rights and America's championing of such values. “If we do not lead the calls for democracy, prosperity and human rights around the world, who will?” he asked.

Pompeo also insisted to skeptical Democrats during his hearing that he would never discriminate against employees over race, religion or other factors.

