By Jennifer Hansler, CNN

(CNN) — The US State Department will require its diplomats describe enforcement of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, alleged facilitation of mass migration, and government funding that supports abortion medications as “human rights infringements” in its next human rights report, a senior State Department official said Thursday, as the Trump administration moves to further align the report with its domestic politics.

The report will also shift focus to “natural rights” like freedom of speech, the official said, in a move likely to target traditional European allies for alleged freedom of speech restrictions.

The State Department instructed all embassies and consulates in a diplomatic cable Thursday to begin preparing the congressionally required annual report, which is meant to describe human rights abuses in countries around the world. The official said they are encouraging diplomats to “go out in the field, talk to people, collect data that then informs the report.”

The new requirements further institutionalize changes seen in the latest report released in August, which covered the 2024 calendar year. They also align with the administration’s domestic priorities.

On Friday the State Department called migration “an existential threat to Western civilization” and said it instructed its diplomats “to report on the human rights implications and public safety impacts of mass migration.”

Top administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have lambasted European nations over allegations of free speech backsliding while also meeting with far-right European political figures. At the same time, the administration has also revoked and denied visas for alleged antisemitic speech and comments made about the murder of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk.

The senior State Department official said Thursday that they “are moving away from group identities, group labels, and focusing on the fact that when a person is persecuted for whatever reason, that is a violation of the moral law.”

“We’re making sure that we’re promoting individual freedom not based on some group identity,” they said.

The official described a catalogue of “infringements on human rights” that diplomats preparing the report will be required to note.

These include “arrests, administrative penalties, and ‘official investigations or warnings’ for speech; the enforcement of policies like affirmative action of diversity, equity, and inclusion that ‘provide preferential treatment’ to workers on the basis of race, sex, or caste; the facilitation of mass or illegal migration across a country’s territory into other countries;” gender affirming care for minors; and “state subsidization of abortions or abortifacient drugs.” They will also be required to note “the total estimated number of annual abortions.”

“In recent years, new destructive ideologies have given safe harbor to human rights violations. The Trump administration will not allow these human rights violations, such as the mutilation of children, laws that infringe on free speech, and racially discriminatory employment practices, to go unchecked,” State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement Thursday.

A former senior State Department official who worked on human rights decried the changes, arguing that Secretary of State Marco Rubio “is abandoning decades of bipartisan U.S leadership on universal human rights, and replacing it with a dangerous theocratic ideology that has more in common with The Handmaid’s Tale than with the Declaration of Independence.”

“This is yet another example of the Trump Administration sacrificing the rights and principles that generations of Americans have fought and died for, and that generations of people around the world looked to for moral inspiration,” they said.

The latest report, which was released in August, was drastically pared down from past years. It alleged “significant human rights issues” in allied countries including the United Kingdom, France and Germany over “serious restrictions on freedom of expression.”

That report had been stripped of specific sections of reporting on alleged abuses based on sexual orientation, violence toward women and systemic racial or ethnic violence.

The future report is “really going to reflect what’s going on in the country,” the senior State Department official said.

“For instance, in Western Europe, we see a backsliding of the protection of freedom of expression. So of course, we’re going to prioritize that versus another country that is maybe not curtailing free speech as much,” the official said.

“When it comes to Western Europe, we’re not saying that we’re favoring one opposition party or one particular political group. We’re saying all groups, all parties, all people should be able to speak freely, and that includes on the internet. That includes on social media,” the senior State Department official said Thursday.

“In Europe, the (Digital Services Act) is a regulatory regime that restricts speech online,” the official said, referencing a sweeping EU law that requires Big Tech platforms to take meaningful steps to reduce illegal and harmful content.

The official noted that the human rights report, formally known as the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, is used “as a tool to change the behavior of governments.”

“When our European friends are restricting free speech, we’ll have a conversation, and if they make changes, we will note that in the future report,” they said.

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