Foreign Aid Cuts

The Donald Trump administration has announced the end of nearly 10,000 contracts and grants from the US State Department, including the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), representing about 90 percent of USAID's contracts overall.

Human rights organizations say the cuts have undermined years of global democracy-building and free speech initiatives and put the lives of their staff at risk. Many of the groups affected by the cuts focus on providing cybersecurity support for people like journalists, activists, and other vulnerable groups in authoritarian countries.

The cuts have also sparked confusion, with some organizations receiving notices that their funding was being reinstated, only to have it cut again. The Trump administration has stated that each program underwent a review to align with the administration's policy priorities, but the criteria for these decisions are unclear.

Impact on Nonprofit Organizations

Nonprofit organizations that rely on US foreign aid are struggling to cope with the sudden loss of funding. Many of these organizations work with vulnerable populations, such as religious minorities or members of the LGBTQ+ community, and the cuts put their lives and livelihoods at risk.

Some organizations have expressed concern about the safety and security of their staff, particularly in high-risk countries. The data security fears are not entirely unfounded, as DOGE reportedly shared classified information on its website.

Response from the Human Rights Community

The human rights community has been quick to respond to the cuts, with many organizations attending hastily arranged closed-door meetings to swap information and strategize about how to manage the fallout.

Questions about how the human rights world should respond to the sudden and enormous funding gap have also been raised, with many calling for a coordinated response to mitigate the impact of the cuts.