Health and Human Rights News
Week ending 11 May 2025
Editorial links free speech, health rights, and genocide
Health and Human Rights editor-in-chief Joseph Amon explains the links between the Trump administration’s attack on universities-“the professors are the enemy” says vice president Vance-health rights violations, and genocide. In his editorial Amon writes, “The weaponization of viewpoint diversity is similar to past efforts to demand ‘equal time’ for creationism, but goes much further, using the power of the state to silence some views and shift money to ideological fellow travelers. It is consistent with the Trump administration’s attitude of impunity.” He warns that attempts to restrict speech and to crack down on universities and “silencing debate about Gaza” is prelude and practice for silencing debate at home.
See also:
Trump’s Banned Words and Disastrous Health Policies, Joseph J. Amon, Viewpoint, 4 April 2025
Türk condemns ongoing attacks on Palestinians
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk decried Israel’s reported plans to forcibly transfer Gaza’s population to a small area in the south of the strip as well as threats by Israeli officials to deport Palestinians outside of Gaza. He said these plans further aggravate concerns that Israel’s actions are making the conditions of life for Palestinians increasingly incompatible with their continued existence in Gaza as a group. He again urged Israel to comply with international law and the ICJ’s 2024 advisory opinion.
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UN Experts: End unfolding genocide or watch it end life in Gaza
Escalating atrocities in Gaza present an urgent moral crossroads and States must act now to end the violence or bear witness to the annihilation of the Palestinian population in Gaza, UN experts warned this week, demanding immediate international intervention. The experts including Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right to health, said states have an obligation under international law to intervene and ensure accountability as hunger, disease, and a swath of international crimes are perpetrated against Palestinians in Gaza.
Council of Europe urged to affirm the right to a healthy environment
UN experts called on Ministers at the Council of Europe to recognize the right to a healthy environment by adding a binding protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights. Special Rapporteurs on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment; promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change; on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation; along with others, stressed that “Explicit recognition of this right would also bring substantial social, economic and environmental benefits to Member States: arising from healthier ecosystems, that help address health inequalities for individuals and communities, and allow for significant public health savings, among others.”
See also:
The Right to a Healthy Environment is a Powerful Sword for Climate Justice, Timothy Arvan, Viewpoint, December 2021.
Special Section: Ecological Justice and the Right to Health, Edited by Hope Ferdowsian, December 2021
Trial begins for compensation of land contamination by Shell oil
A trial has begun that could finally bring justice and accountability following two massive oil spills in 2008 that destroyed mangrove habitat in the Niger Delta. The Bodo community, which faced devastating impacts following the spill’s pollution of their land, has brought claims against Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited, (a Nigerian subsidiary of Shell). Amnesty International said “Despite Shell admitting responsibility for the pollution over a decade ago, this case aims to prove that their promised clean-up is far from complete and contamination continues to pose a serious health risk to tens of thousands of people.”
Health inequities widening in many countries
WHO’s World report on social determinants of health equity confirms that inequities in health are closely linked to degrees of social disadvantage and levels of discrimination. In its first report on social determinants of health since 2008, WHO states that although data is scarce, there is sufficient evidence to show that health inequities within countries are often widening. Children born in poorer countries are 13 times more likely to die before the age of 5 than in wealthier countries. Modelling shows that the lives of 1.8 million children annually could be saved by closing the gap and enhancing equity between the poorest and wealthiest sectors of the population within low- and-middle-income countries. But the WHO 2040 targets are unlikely to be met and the report notes, “people in the country with the lowest life expectancy will, on average, live 33 years shorter than those born in the country with the highest life expectancy.”
See also:
Special Section on Human Rights and the Social Determinants of Health, Vol 20/2, December 2018
Deepening the Relationship between Human Rights and the Social Determinants of Health: A Focus on Indivisibility and Power, Kristi Kenyon, Lisa Forman, and Claire E. Brolan, Editorial, 20/2, December 2018
Billionaires battle over USAID cuts
The world’s fifth wealthiest man, Bill Gates plans to donate over $200 billion through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation by 2045, to combat global poverty, eradicate diseases like polio and malaria, and reduce preventable deaths among women and children. He criticized the world wealthiest man and head of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk for cutting USAID’s spending. Gates said in a Financial Times interview, “The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one.”
See also:
Assessing the Human Rights Framework on Private Health Care Actors and Economic Inequality, Rossella De Falco, Timothy Fish Hodgson, Matt McConnell, and A. Kayum Ahmed, Vol 25/2, 2023, pp. 125-139
Harm reduction efforts hit hard by USAID cuts
Harm reduction programs for people who use drugs have been hard hit by USAID cuts in funding, according to UNAIDS. The International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD) reports that suspension of needle and syringe distribution, HIV testing, and overdose prevention has been widespread. UNAIDS warns “that without immediate and strategic intervention, the world could witness a resurgence of HIV, hepatitis C, and overdose epidemics.”
Shadow report documents sexual violence in Ethiopia
Evidence of widespread and deliberate conflict-related sexual violence in the Tigray region of Ethiopia in the conflict period between 2020 and 2022 is documented by Physicians for Human Rights and the Organization for Justice and Accountability in the Horn of Africa. Their shadow report has been submitted to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights for their upcoming state review of Ethiopia.
Pakistan: Old and young most at risk in climate disasters
A report by Amnesty International records the impacts of climate change on health and mortality in Pakistan. Older people and young children, who are the highest risk from extreme heat or the water- and mosquito-borne diseases which spread after a flood, face a disproportionate burden. This report documents the gaps in healthcare, emergency response and evacuation, and social protection, all of which fuels the uncounted deaths of older people and young children.
See also:
Tomorrow’s Stewards: The Case for a Unified International Framework on the Environmental Rights of Children, Karen E. Makuch, Sunya Zaman, and Miriam R. Aczel, Volume 21/1, June 2019, pp 203 – 214
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