US annual human rights circus show exposes its hypocrisy and political bias

The US Department of State released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices on Tuesday, about three months later than usual. However, the additional time has not been spent improving the content to align with facts, but instead on reducing it to about one-third the length of last year's reports.

The tremendous amount of reediting work that has been done is to ensure that the reports conform with the US administration's policies, even though the State Department has described it as an effort to make the reports more "streamlined", "more readable" and adhering more closely to what's required to be in them by law.

For instance, the agency removed whole categories of violations not "explicitly required by statute", including gender-based violence and environmental justice. The deleted material includes issues widely regarded as fundamental rights under international law, such as the right to a fair public trial, as National Public Radio observed in a report.