The United States’ human rights practices are taking a nosedive

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative, an independent data project, reports that U.S. civil and political rights scores fell on eight of nine measured categories in 2025, including the largest declines HRMI has ever recorded for freedom from forced disappearance and for freedom of religion and belief. Declines were also the second-largest on record for arbitrary arrest and for freedom of opinion and expression.

Researchers tied worsened detention and torture scores to expanded use of incommunicado detention and warrantless arrest by ICE and other immigration agencies, and linked a worsened extrajudicial killing score partly to airstrikes and ICE operations. The U.S. was already the worst performer on physical integrity rights among six high-income OECD countries HRMI tracks, a rank it has held since 2017.

The piece notes the Trump administration marked the country's 250th anniversary by calling it 'the home of freedom' and 'the most extraordinary, most exceptional, most incredible nation ever to exist,' while separately narrowing the scope and independence of the State Department's own human rights reporting.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.