Health and Human Rights News
Week ending 26 April 2025
Harvard sues Trump administration
Harvard University has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on the grounds the freeze on research funding is unconstitutional and unlawful. It calls on the court to restore more than $2.2 billion in research funds. In his letter to the Harvard community, President Alan Garber said the suit was in response to the government’s “sweeping and intrusive demands—which would impose unprecedented and improper control over the University—the government has, in addition to the initial freeze of $2.2 billion in funding, considered taking steps to freeze an additional $1 billion in grants, initiated numerous investigations of Harvard’s operations, threatened the education of international students, and announced that it is considering a revocation of Harvard’s tax-exempt status. These actions have stark real-life consequences for patients, students, faculty, staff, researchers, and the standing of American higher education in the world.” The FXB Center for Health and Human Rights is one of the centers named in the administration’s letter of demands.
Across state travel for abortion increases in US
The latest Guttmacher report finds 155,000 people crossed state lines in the United States for abortions–double number who did so in 2020 before the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade and paved the way for state-level abortion bans. There are now 14 states that have no abortion clinics, leaving 36 states to provide an estimated 1,038,000 abortions, up 12% from 2020. Online-only clinics accounted for 14% of clinician-provided abortions in states without total bans, an increase from 10% in 2023.
See also:
An Explicit Right to Abortion is Needed in International Human Rights Law, Audrey Chapman, June 2023
Returning to a Pre-Roe World Threatens More than Abortion Rights, Sarthak Gupta and Pruthvirajsinh Zala, June 2022
Letter estimates deaths after PEPFAR freeze
An open letter condemning the Trump Administration’s dismantling of foreign aid and global health partnerships estimates these actions will have resulted in more than 31,000 deaths between the end of January and the end of March. The letter was drafted by social scientists working on HIV and global health.
See also:
From Dependency to Sovereignty, Beatrice Were and Vanessa Okumu-McCarron, February 2025
Global Reproductive Health and Autonomy, Winona Xu, February 2025
Trump’s first 100 days catalogued
To mark the first 100 days of US President Trump’s second term, Human Rights Watch has catalogued 100 of the administration’s executive policies, orders, and actions that pose significant risks to the human rights of people in the United States and globally. Despite the widespread protests against the measures, and the court challenges, HRW says many of the rights abusive policies are moving ahead. Eleven areas of concern were listed in the health section, including cuts to food assistance, impediments in accessing Medicaid, staffing cuts across many health-related agencies, trans youth health support, and housing assistance. The report also addresses impacts on reproductive freedom, stating “Millions of people around the world will find it more challenging to access contraception, maternal health care, and other health services.”
Immigration policies block access to health care
The Trump administration’s immigration policies are resulting in decreased access to health care among undocumented immigrants, individuals with other immigration status, and US citizens, according to a new survey of 173 health care professionals across the United States, published by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). They found that fear is already contributing to negative health outcomes, including delayed care, missed preventive services, treatment interruptions, and patients arriving for care later and sicker.
See also:
Understanding US Immigration Detention: Reaffirming Rights and Addressing Social-Structural Determinants of Health, Altaf Saadi, et al, 22/1, 2020
Pandemic agreement ready for WHA
It has taken over three years of intensive negotiations, but a draft pandemic agreement has been reached and will be submitted to the World Health Assembly in May for consideration and adoption. The proposal aims to strengthen global collaboration on prevention, preparedness and response to future pandemic threats. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General said, “In reaching consensus on the Pandemic Agreement, not only did they put in place a generational accord to make the world safer, they have also demonstrated that multilateralism is alive and well…” However, the media has reported that the United States did not participate in the final round of negotiations, following its January announcement to withdraw from the global health body, and will not be bound by the pact.
See also:
Human Rights Must Guide a Pandemic Treaty, Timothy Fish Hodgson, Roojin Habibi, Benjamin Mason Meier, at al, November 2021
Psychiatric treatment as political punishment in Belarus
UN human rights experts, including the UN Special Rapporteur for the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, have raised serious concerns about reports of at least 33 people in Belarus who have had coercive psychiatric treatment because they expressed dissent with the authorities. The experts said Belarusian criminal courts have transferred accused persons to mental health institutions for psychiatric treatment in retaliation for their exercise of civil and political rights, including participating in protests. They warned that this highly irregular penalty could amount to inhuman or degrading punishment and noted that trials culminating in transfers to mental hospitals allegedly happened behind closed doors.
UN expert condemns attack on Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza
The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, this week condemned the Israeli attack on Al-Ahli hospital, the last functioning hospital in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. “I am horrified to learn that the war on hospitals, health care providers and civilians continues, making the provision of health services even more impossible in a system that has already been brought to its knees,” she said. Al-Ahli Hospital was hit by an airstrike on 13 April 2025, destroying the emergency department and causing the death of a child due to lack of access to appropriate care. WHO has reported at least 670 health attacks from 7 October 2023 to 14 March 2025, including 122 health facilities affected and 33 hospitals damaged.
See also:
Environmental Destruction is a Human Rights Violation: The Health Crisis in Gaza, Meena Hasan and MA, May 2024
Drone Attacks on Health in 2023: International Humanitarian Law and the Right to Health, Joseph J. Amon and Leonard Rubenstein, 7 June 2024
Executions surge for drug offences in Saudi Arabia
There has been a dramatic surge in executions for drug offences in Saudi Arabia this year, according to Amnesty International. Between January and April 2025, at least 88 people including 52 for drug-related crimes have been executed, up from a total of 46 during the same period in 2024, none for drug-related crimes. This week two Saudi nationals were executed for “promoting hashish” and one Pakistani national for “trafficking heroin”. Amnesty accused Saudi Arabia of blatantly disregarding international law and standards.
Deportation follows health care in Dominican Republic
A new policy in the Dominican Republic will expose migrants to deportation after receiving medical care which “not only violates the right to health, but also dehumanizes undocumented persons and will in all probability deter them from seeking hospital care, thus putting lives at risk,” said Ana Piquer, Americas director of Amnesty International. The policy sets a fee for services and establishes that people with irregular migration status will be deported after receiving care, in defiance of the international obligations and the Dominican Republic’s own constitutional principle on free and universal access to health.
Previous news bulletins