Health and Human Rights News
Week ending 3 May 2025
Authoritarians and corporate greed create a global crisis
Amnesty International’s annual report The State of the World’s Human Rights claims the Trump administration’s anti-rights campaign is turbocharging harmful trends, gutting international human rights protections and endangering billions across the planet. This “Trump effect” has compounded the damage done by other world leaders and is accelerating humanity’s plunge into a “brutal new era characterized by authoritarian practices and corporate greed”. AI Secretary General Agnès Callamard writes in her preface that “unless there is concerted and courageous resistance, this historic juncture will mutate into an historic transformation: not merely an era of change but a change of era.”
See also:
Economic Inequality and the Right to Health: On Neoliberalism, Corporatization, and Coloniality, Gillian MacNaughton and Kayum Ahmed, Editorial, 25/2, 2023
Human Rights chief promotes harm reduction drugs policy
In his opening remarks to a conference in Bogota, Colombia, on drugs policy, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said harm reduction, guided by human rights, has a critical place in peaceful, just societies. “In contrast, the so-called War on Drugs has destroyed countless lives and damaged entire societies…Criminalization and prohibition have failed to reduce drug use and failed to deter drug-related crime.”
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Devastation continues in Sudan
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has continued to speak out against violence in Sudan, where at least 542 civilians had been killed over the last three weeks. Though the World Food Program’s has finally been able to start food distribution in Khartoum, escalating violence, serious aid cuts, and an impending rainy season mean that famine remains a serious threat.
Legal obligations to protect Palestinians
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called again on the international community to fulfil obligations under international law to protect Palestinians in Gaza. “As the complete blockade of assistance essential for survival enters its ninth week, there must be concerted international efforts to stop this humanitarian catastrophe from reaching a new unseen level.” He warned that a reported Israeli plan to assign Rafah as a ‘humanitarian zone’ could not sufficiently support individuals living in Gaza.
WHO asks health workers to stop performing FGM
The World Health Organization has issued a recommendation calling on the medical community to expressly prohibit Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) through codes of conduct and regulations. This follows a 2020 report which found that around one in four cases of FGM (around 52 million girls and women) were carried out by health workers in medical contexts, but for non-medical reasons. WHO stated, “Research shows that health workers can be influential opinion leaders in changing attitudes on FGM, and play a crucial role in its prevention.”
Global emergency network turns 25
The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network marked its 25th anniversary this week. The health emergency response network now consists of over 310 institutions worldwide, and has been essential in coordinating responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, SARS and Marburg virus outbreaks, and environmental disasters. “GOARN calls on all Member States, partners and the global community to continue working together to build a global health emergency architecture that is resilient, equitable, and capable of addressing future health challenges.” However, the United States announced its withdrawal from WHO in January.
See also:
Human Rights Must Guide a Pandemic Treaty, Timothy Fish Hodgson, Roojin Habibi, Benjamin Mason Meier, at al, November 2021
US climate report researchers sacked
Researchers working on the sixth US National Climate Assessment were all dismissed this week. The report, required by Congress since 2000, examines the impact of rising temperatures on human health, agriculture, fisheries, water supplies, transportation, energy production, and other aspects of the US economy.
See also:
A Breath of Fresh Air: Indian Supreme Court Declares Protection from Climate Change a Fundamental Right, Parth Chhapolia, 20 April 2025
Climate Change and Economic Inequality: Are We Responding to Health Injustices? Thalia Viveros-Uehara Vol 25/2, 2023, pp. 191-197
Volume 23, Issue 2 (December 2021) Special Section on Ecological Justice and the Right to Health and Special Section on Health Rights and the Urgency of the Climate Crisis
Mental health support for students in school shootings withdrawn
The Trump administration has cancelled $1 billion in grants to support student mental health following acts of gun violence. The cancellations were made public by Christopher Rufo, a conservative strategist who described the funding as having been used ‘to advance left-wing racialism and discrimination’.
Measles research directive could undermine public health
Over 935 cases of measles have been reported in the United States, including three deaths – the largest single measles outbreak in 25 years. In response, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to direct federal health agencies to explore new treatments for the disease, including vitamins, according to the NY Times. Experts fear this will further undermine public confidence in vaccines as an essential public health tool.
Human rights offices axed from US State Dept
The Trump administration’s restructuring of the US State Department include the offices of Civilian Security, Democracy & Human Rights, Global Health Security & Diplomacy, and Global Women’s Issues. Physicians for Human Rights claimed war criminals and perpetrators of mass atrocities would benefit from these cuts. Human Rights Watch expressed concern that human rights will no longer be of meaningful or positive policy relevance given other Trump administration actions that have gutted US foreign assistance, terminated thousands of programs that supported human rights defenders and independent media, and many that provided life-saving humanitarian assistance.
First 100 days of dismantling reproductive rights
Along with other human rights organisations’ critical reviews of the Trump administration’s first 100 days, the Center for Reproductive Rights has released a report on the impact on reproductive rights in the United States and globally. It highlights five ‘red flags’ including: restricted access to reproductive healthcare nationwide; cutting public health programs and censoring critical information across the United States; gutting protections that shield reproductive health clinics, providers, and patients from violence; aid cuts that dismantle reproductive rights and access to care globally; and disregarding the rule of law.
See also:
The US Administration Assault on Global Reproductive Health and Autonomy, Winona Xu, 13 February 2025
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