00:00Thank you. On the human rights report, the State Department has cut down
00:04criticism of some countries that have extensive records of human rights abuse
00:08including in El Salvador where the State Department said there was no credible
00:12reports of significant human rights abuses, cutting an entire paragraph from
00:16last year's report that mentioned issues such as arbitrary arrests and harsh and
00:21life-threatening prison conditions. What is this change based on? Has El Salvador
00:26taken any steps to change these issues or how did the State Department determine
00:31that these abuses were no longer taking place? Well I'm not going to speak on from
00:35country to country. This is something that is available. People can go look. Again
00:41Americans, obviously the reporters here in this room have had it for a little bit
00:45of time and have had a chance to take a look at it which is important. Again
00:49state.gov and you can search for a human rights report and you'll get all the
00:54countries, etc. First thing I want to mention is that every administration in a
00:59transition year has to deal with this particular product, this particular
01:04report, for the last calendar year to be released by the new administration and
01:11there's always changes. As you might imagine if someone is the new president,
01:16you've got a new administration, the American people made a choice and they
01:20clearly are taking over for the previous administration. Each administration, like
01:24with President Trump, reflects a value system and an agenda and a vision that
01:29convinced the American people to vote for them. And in this case President Trump
01:33always, as ever I should say, was clear and and obvious about the nature of what he
01:40wanted to achieve and the American people agreed with him. This report as a
01:43result, because it was also late and many of you noted that, it was late because we
01:48weren't just like with other administrations, we weren't going to
01:51release something compiled and written by the previous administration. It needed
01:56to change based on the point of view and the vision of the Trump administration. And
02:02so those changes were made. In addition to the fact that it one of the things
02:07we're proud of and what you'll also see next year is the notion of something
02:12being readable by people, something being a reflection over all of what it is that
02:17we're dealing with with certain nations. So it does not, the restructuring doesn't
02:21reflect a change of any U.S. policy when it comes to human rights. It is, it
02:28certainly promotes, as does our work, respect for human rights around the globe. It
02:33does not reflect on any particular country. We've stopped ranking countries by the
02:39way. People can make their own decisions about what nations are doing. So that is one
02:44thing also that is over. We also, I want to mention the notion of the how large the
02:53report had become in its condemnation of nations and it's the detailed listing of
03:00certain things. But what I can say is, and I think it's pretty clear, that you can
03:05issue reports, you can make them giant, but it depends on what we do. The Trump
03:13administration has proven from day one their commitment to human rights around the globe
03:18and to the quality of people's lives. We will have perhaps some, in this case, smaller
03:24reports. But I would suggest that you watch the actions that are taken by an administration
03:31and that commitment to human rights. In this case, you could have giant reports from the
03:36Biden administration as the world began to collapse into war, into conflicts. And it's
03:43a reminder. So reports are important. Transparency about our positions are important. That's what
03:50these reports will serve. And I can tell you again, for the people who work here at the State
03:55Department, these reports do matter. And our actions as a nation also back up the nature of
04:02our commitment to human rights. I understand that this is a narrowed report, but can you
04:06explain why this was changed and why an entire paragraph on rights abuses was omitted from this
04:12report? Well, again, I won't go into the details of each country. What I do know is that the approach
04:20in the attitude of what we expect, and new complaints are added in. Complaints regarding censorship of
04:28people in various countries has been added in that had not been dealt with before. So I'm not going to
04:34speak on the decisions that our diplomats have made in looking at the nature of the data that they're
04:41receiving. But I can tell you that the nature of the attitude, the reason for the report hasn't changed.
04:48It is to make sure people know what's happening around the world, what our posture is toward that,
04:53and our actions show our willingness and our commitment to changing the quality of life in
04:59people around the world. Yes.
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