US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

The US State Department has removed an online portal reporting allegations of human rights abuses by foreign military units supplied with American weapons.

The Human Rights Reporting Gateway (HRG) served as an official “tip line” to the U.S. government.

It was the only public channel of its kind for organizations or individuals to directly inform themselves of potentially serious abuses by U.S. armed foreign forces.

The deletion was condemned by human rights advocates and a senior Congressional aide who drafted the legislation requiring it. The State Department emphasized that it was still complying with the law.

The portal was established in 2022 following pressure on successive administrations to comply with updated provisions of the Leahy Act, named for former U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy. These require the government to “facilitate the receipt” of information on alleged gross human rights abuses by military units provided by Washington.

Among the cases submitted through HRG was the alleged use of excessive force by security forces during anti-government protests in Colombia, according to Amnesty International, while several cases related to US armed units of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the occupied West Bank were also expected to be presented, according to Amnesty International.

Tim Rieser, a former senior aide to Senator Leahy who wrote the 2011 amendment mandating the collection of information, told the BBC that removing the gate meant the Foreign Office had “blatantly ignored the law”.

He added that this was another sign that the “entire human rights architecture” within the ministry had been “largely neutralised”.

“The United States will find itself supporting foreign security forces that commit heinous crimes, even though nothing is done about it,” Mr. Rieser said. “As a result, foreign governments will have less incentive to bring individuals who commit such crimes to justice.”

In response, the US State Department emphasized that it continues to receive reports of gross human rights violations and is in contact with “credible organizations” regarding all human rights concerns. “The ministry complies with legal requirements,” he said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has overseen a sweeping restructuring of the State Department that includes sweeping layoffs and the closing of some offices focused on monitoring human rights. The department this year released a pared-down annual human rights report that critics said excluded crimes allegedly committed by U.S. allies but included crimes by foreign leaders opposed by the Trump administration.

The department has previously said its restructuring has made it leaner and more efficient and follows President Trump’s “America First” foreign policy, which ideologically sees the promotion of some human rights.

Charles Blaha, former Director of the State Department’s Office of Security and Human Rights, said people in the field will no longer have an “established channel” to report gross human rights violations by foreign security forces.

Mr Blaha, an adviser to the Washington-based think tank Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), said the government’s ability to deter abuses had been “severely weakened”.

The BBC learned in the summer that the HRG site had been marked for deletion. Its removal was highlighted by DAWN in August but had not previously been acknowledged by the Department of State. The BBC confirmed this week that authorities were phasing out the news channel amid a restructuring of the department.

Screenshots obtained by the BBC from the portal before it was deleted show that the portal requested information on US armed foreign military units allegedly involved in abuses such as extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and rape. Extensive details were needed to provide reliable reporting, including unit names, identities of alleged perpetrators, specific locations and dates.

Blaha had expressed disappointment that although HRG had passed its pilot phase, the Biden administration did not do enough to publicize it; This meant that the provision to “facilitate the retrieval” of information was still not fully implemented before the Trump administration deleted the channel entirely.

The United States is the country that provides the world’s largest military aid to foreign countries, providing financing, equipment, training and weapons to more than 150 countries. Investigative procedures to prevent weapons from reaching units involved in violations of international law have evolved over the years; The law named after Senator Leahy in 1997 was one of the main pillars of this.

Amanda Klasing, who oversees government relations for Amnesty International in the United States, says the heart of the law is that Congress sends a message to the administration that taxpayer funding cannot support human rights abuses abroad.

“If I’m a member of Congress, my perspective is: ‘I want to protect my constituents and their taxpayer funds from going to torturers or people who kill their own citizens in protest,'” he told the BBC.

Klasing oversaw the compilation and submission of various reports to the Human Rights Reporting Gateway.

These included allegations that American weapons were used by Colombian security forces during mass anti-government protests in 2021, which left at least 47 people dead and scores injured, according to the group. Amnesty International says the weapons included US-supplied high-capacity launchers for stun and smoke grenades.

Klasing also said he collected evidence of the killing of 20 Palestinians during IDF raids in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in October and November 2023. Amnesty International was preparing to submit its report on these events to HRG before it was deleted.