Trump Has a New Definition of Human Rights
State Department reports portray Germany as more oppressive than El Salvador.
By Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic
For nearly half a century, the State Department has reported annually on human-rights conditions in countries around the world. The purpose of this exercise is not to cast aspersions, but to collect and disseminate reliable information. Congress mandated the reports back in 1977, and since then, legislators and diplomats have used them to shape decisions about sanctions, foreign aid, immigration, and political asylum.
