Health and Human Rights News
Week ending 21 June 2025
Civilian deaths in conflict surged in 2024
Civilian deaths in conflict surged by 40% last year, according to new data released by the UN human rights office (OHCHR) with already marginalised groups facing disproportionate levels of discrimination. Data show at least 48,384 individuals – mostly civilians – were killed in 2024, based on casualties recorded by OHCHR. Between 2023 and 2024, four times more children and women were killed in armed conflicts than during 2021–2022. Just over 500 of those killed in 2024 were human rights defenders, with the number of journalists killed also rising by 10% over the previous year.
See also:
Drone Attacks on Health in 2023: International Humanitarian Law and the Right to Health, Joseph J. Amon and Leonard Rubenstein, Viewpoint, 26/1, 2024
Human Rights Office investigates war crimes in the Congo
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk told the Human Rights Council that his office is investigating the ‘apparent total disregard for the protection of civilians’ in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which may amount to war crimes. Nearly 40 percent of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence are children. There are also reports of death threats, detention and other reprisals against human rights defenders, journalists and members of civil society perceived as critical of the Rwanda-backed M23.
Goma Under Siege: A Humanitarian and Health Catastrophe, Viewpoint, Patrick Ndeba, Faraan O. Rahim, Meriem Boukaabar, Mohamed Shilleh, Omar Shilleh, Alaa Shilleh, and Dang Nguyen, 18 May 2025
Fewer funds to support more sexual violence survivors
On the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, 19 June, the UN Population Fund highlighted the increase in the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and concurrent decrease in global health funding to prevent and respond to this war crime. “Women and girls living in crisis zones are too often overlooked, at a time when they are at their most vulnerable. They need live-saving, survivor-centred services for sexual and reproductive health and mental health, as well as legal aid and safe, confidential spaces for healing and reporting crimes—without shame or blame.”
See also:
Interpreting International Humanitarian Law to Guarantee Abortion and Other Sexual and Reproductive Health Services in Armed Conflict, Christina Zampas, Rebecca Brown, and Onyema Afulukwe, Vol 26/1, 2024
WHO: invest in midwifery
The World Health Organization has released new guidance to promote midwifery models of care. “Midwifery care models emphasize informed choice as well as communication and non-invasive techniques—such as mobility during labour, breathing guidance, varied birthing positions and emotional support—that seek to empower women, and reduce the likelihood of invasive procedures.” Skilled midwives can provide life-saving care to mothers and newborns in low-income and fragile settings and prevent 60% of maternal and neonatal deaths, amounting to 4.3 million lives saved annually by 2035.
Türk: Rights to food and health under assault
Addressing the Human Rights Council, High Commissioner Türk called attention to violent conflicts worldwide and “blatant disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law” globally, noting attacks on civilians, healthcare workers, and humanitarians. He also addressed increasing social tensions and economic disparity worldwide, highlighting that “many of the poorest people in the world are falling even further behind, with their rights to food, health and an adequate standard of living under assault.”
Violence at Gaza food sites horrifies UN
With starvation hanging over Gaza, UN agencies have sounded the alarm over deadly violence at food distribution points, where over 400 Palestinians have reportedly been killed while trying to access desperately needed humanitarian aid. The UN human rights office (OHCHR) has called on the Israeli military to cease the use of lethal force near aid convoys and food distribution sites, saying it is horrified at such attacks which could constitute war crimes under international law.
Discriminatory grants in US ruled illegal and void
A judge has ruled that the Trump administration discriminated against racial minorities and LGBTQI+ people with its cuts to National Institutes of Health grants. Judge William G. Young of the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts delivered a damning assessment of the Trump administrations’ motives in targeting hundreds of grants that focused on the health of Black communities, women and LGBTI people. He ordered the government to restore much of that funding for now, declaring the grant terminations “illegal and void.”
Fulbright Board quits over state interference
All members of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board have resigned in protest over what it described as unprecedented interference by the Trump administration. It was reported that nearly 200 American professors and researchers were denied scholarships for the 2025-2026 academic year by the US State Department. “The current administration has usurped the authority of the board,” its members said. Rejected research topics were climate change, environmental resilience, migration, gender, race and ethnicity and homelessness.
Anxiety risks immigrants’ right to health
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids across the United States in recent weeks are leading to death and suffering and imposing unavoidable trauma as anxiety increases in immigrant communities, claims Katherine Peeler of Physicians for Human Rights. She said detained individuals face inadequate access to medical care in ICE custody and immigrants also fear seeking both routine and urgent medical care. PHR is urging ICE to stop apprehensions in medical facilities and schools.
See also:
Detained Immigrant Children to be Released, but Urgent Action Needed, Katherine R. Peeler and Vidya Kumar Ramanathan, July 2020
A Multi-Level Approach to Promoting the Health Rights of Immigrant Children in the United States, Lars Lindgren and Karla Fredricks, 26/2, Dec 2024
Human rights financing for climate action
Ahead of COP30 in Belém in November, the 62nd session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Subsidiary Bodies (SB62) is underway. It is focused on international climate finance commitments and new strategies to address the climate crisis. The Center for Economic and Social Rights is urging an alignment of climate finance with human rights and principles of reparations for a fairer and more equitable funding that is responsive to communities in the Global South.
See also:
Climate Justice, Humans Rights, and the Case for Reparations, Audrey R. Chapman and A. Karim Ahmed, Vol 23/2, 2021
Tunisia targets protestors seeking socio economic rights
Amnesty International reports that Tunisian authorities have repeatedly targeted individuals for protesting over socioeconomic and environmental rights. Under the guise of “obstruction charges,” at least 90 individuals have been arrested, investigated, or prosecuted between 2020 and 2025 for demanding their rights to water, a healthy environment, and safe working conditions.
South Sudan’s human rights crisis
Health clinics are closing, millions are on the brink of famine, and human rights are at risk in South Sudan, according to a Human Rights Watch report. It highlights the severity of the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan, detailing widespread starvation, severe restrictions on aid access, and frequent attacks on healthcare facilities and food markets, and it calls on the international community to take action. “As needs rise, donor funding is shrinking.”
Previous news bulletins