Tom BatemanState Department correspondent
The US State Department has removed an online portal for reporting alleged human rights violations by foreign military units supplied with American weapons.
The Human Rights Reporting Gateway (HRG) acted as a formal "tip line" to the US government.
It was the only publicly accessible channel of its kind for organisations or individuals to inform it directly of potentially serious abuses by US-armed foreign forces.
Its deletion has been condemned by human rights campaigners and by a senior congressional aide who drafted the law requiring it. The State Department insisted it was still abiding by the law.
The portal was established in 2022 following pressure on successive administrations to abide by updated provisions of the Leahy Law, named after former US Senator Patrick Leahy. These require the government to "facilitate receipt" of information on alleged gross violations of human rights by military units supplied by Washington.
Among the cases submitted via the HRG was the alleged excessive use of force by security forces during anti-government protests in Colombia, while several cases were due to be submitted relating to US-armed units of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the occupied West Bank, according to Amnesty International.
Tim Rieser, former senior aide to Senator Leahy who wrote the 2011 amendment mandating information gathering, told the BBC the gateway's removal meant the State Department was "clearly ignoring the law".
He added it was a further sign that "the entire human rights architecture" within the department was being "rendered largely ineffective".
"The United States will find itself supporting foreign security forces that commit heinous crimes even though nothing is done about it," said Mr Rieser. "As a result there will be less incentive for foreign governments to bring people who commit such crimes to justice."
In response, the US State Department insisted it was continuing to receive reports regarding gross violations of human rights and was engaging with "credible organisations" on a full spectrum of human rights concerns. It said: "The Department abides by its legal requirements".
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has overseen a sweeping reorganisation of the State Department involving widespread layoffs and eliminating some offices focused on human rights monitoring. The department this year released a slimmed-down annual human rights report which critics said omitted alleged crimes by US allies but included those by foreign leaders the Trump administration opposes.
The department has previously said its restructure made it leaner and more efficient and followed President Trump's "America First" foreign policy which sees some human rights promotion as ideologically driven.
Charles Blaha, former Director of the Office of Security and Human Rights at the State Department, said people in the field would now have "no established channel" for reporting gross violations of human rights by foreign security forces.
The government's ability to deter abuses was "severely weakened", said Mr Blaha who is now an adviser to the Washington-based think tank Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).
The BBC learned during the summer that the HRG site was earmarked for deletion. Its removal was highlighted by DAWN in August but has not previously been acknowledged by the State Department. The BBC confirmed this week that officials phased out the reporting channel during the department's restructure.
Screengrabs of the portal taken by the BBC before its deletion show it asked for information on US-armed foreign military units involved in alleged abuses including extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, torture and rape. It required extensive details to ensure credible reporting including unit names, identities of alleged perpetrators, specific locations and dates.
Blaha had already voiced frustration that despite the HRG passing its pilot phase, the Biden administration had not done enough to publicise it, meaning the provision to "facilitate receipt" of information was still not being fully honoured before the Trump administration deleted the channel entirely.
The US is the world's biggest contributor of military aid to foreign countries, supplying funding, equipment, training and arms to more than 150 nations. Its vetting procedures to prevent arms going to units involved in breaches of international law have evolved over the years, with the 1997 legislation named after Senator Leahy being one its major pillars.
At the heart of the law is Congress sending a message to the administration that taxpayer funding cannot support human rights abuses abroad, says Amanda Klasing, who oversees government relations at Amnesty International USA.
"If I'm a member of Congress, my perspective is: 'I want to protect my constituents and their taxpayer funding from going to torturers or people that kill their own citizens for protesting," she told the BBC.
Klasing oversaw the compilation and submission of several reports to the Human Rights Reporting Gateway.
These included allegations that American arms were used by Colombian security forces during mass anti-government protests in 2021, in which at least 47 people were killed and many wounded according to the group. Amnesty says among the arms were US-supplied high-capacity launchers for stun and smoke grenades.
Klasing says she had also gathered evidence relating to the killing of 20 Palestinians during IDF raids in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in October and November 2023. Amnesty was preparing to submit its report on these incidents to the HRG before its deletion.