Washington DC - President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday ordered a revamp of the State Department's signature human rights report to de-emphasize "group identity," the latest US shift from promoting LGBTQ+ rights.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a cable to US embassies to order changes in the annual rights report to refocus on "natural rights," a key concept for philosophical conservatives.

"The United States remains committed to the Declaration of Independence's recognition that all men are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights," a senior State Department official said on customary condition of anonymity.

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Rights "pre-exist governments" and "are given to us by God, our Creator, not by governments," he said.

He said that the report would also reflect the Trump administration's insistence on "free speech" in Europe, where Vice President JD Vance and others have berated allies for restrictions on far-right content.

In the first human rights report released by the second Trump administration – unveiled in August but compiled largely before he returned to office – LGBTQ+ rights were significantly downplayed, with references removed even for countries such as Uganda, which has imposed an anti-homosexuality law that carries the death penalty.

"We are moving away from group identities, group labels," the official said.

"Prior administrations had maybe focused on certain issues that we think were politically driven," he said.

Former President Joe Biden's administration had made a major push to focus on LGBTQ+ rights, including naming the first envoy to advocate for sexual minorities overseas.

Trump has severely curtailed measures for transgender people, including ordering the removal of an "X" gender marker on passports started under Biden.