Health and Human Rights News
Week ending 16 August 2025
US public health experts fight Trump administration disinformation
Defend Public Health, an organization of public health professionals and advocates in the United States, published a report addressing public health threats and improving health outcomes across the country. “Improving the Health of Americans Together” was released this week to provide an alternative to US Health Secretary RFK Jr’s soon-to-be published second ‘Make America Healthy Again’ report. The Defend Public Health report pays close attention to social determinants of health and the group recommends RFK Jr’s removal from the role of Health Secretary.
See also:
FIGHT FOR RIGHTS: Trump’s Banned Words and Disastrous Health Policies, Joseph J. Amon, 3 February 2025
US State Department human rights report is harmful
The 2025 US State Department human rights report, released this week, leaves out significant categories of human rights violations and mischaracterizes human rights records of authoritarian and abusive nations, says Human Rights Watch. Its minimization of human rights violations and crises worldwide is particularly harmful for asylum seekers, who previously have utilized the report to illustrate their need to remain in the United States. “That essential resource for keeping people safe is not only no longer reliable or helpful, but in some cases could put people at risk by denying abuses in places where the United States or other countries intend to deport asylum seekers and immigrants.”
See also:
EDITORIAL Promises (Un)fulfilled: Navigating the Gap Between Law, Policy, and Practice to Secure Migrants’ Health Rights Stefano Angeleri and Jacqueline Bhabha, 2024, Vol 26/2
US destruction: 1.4m African women denied contraception
A decision by the US government to incinerate $9.7m of contraceptives could lead to 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions, says International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). The contraceptives, many of which will not expire until 2027-29, had already been manufactured, packaged, and were ready for distribution from Europe. IPPF offered to take them for redistribution at no cost to the US taxpayer, but the offer was declined.
See also:
FIGHT FOR RIGHTS: The US Administration’s Assault on Global Reproductive Health and Autonomy, Winona Xu, 13 February 2025
Cuts to Planned Parenthood hurt poorest women in US
The Trump Administration’s tax and spending bill puts the work of Planned Parenthood, and people seeking affordable reproductive health care, at risk by stopping the organisation from receiving Medicaid funds. Though the ban on Planned Parenthood was paused temporarily by a court ruling, if defunding progresses, people living on low incomes will lose a critical safety net. Planned Parenthood clinics provided more than 1.5 million Medicaid consultations in 2024, reports the Guardian, reflecting the impact this cut would have on access to reproductive health services.
Trump’s Medicaid cuts start this month
The first required changes of the Trump administration’s sweeping budget reconciliation bill will take effect on August 25, barring two legal challenges. Sabrina Corlette of Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms explains the changes including cutting coverage for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), ending enrollment opportunities, and more. She also covers pending litigation filed in Maryland and Massachusetts and what could happen if these lawsuits are successful.
Judge orders NSF to reinstate science grants to UCLA
A federal judge in California, Rita F. Lin, ordered the National Science Foundation (NSF) to reinstate millions of dollars in grants awarded to the University of California, Los Angeles, finding that the agency had tried to circumvent a ruling in June requiring restoration of the funds. She wrote that the Trump administration had misleadingly framed its latest attempt to cancel the grants as suspensions. Judge Lin noted in the order that the University of California system had lost around $324 million in grant funding earlier this year as the Trump administration began culling science funding for projects it considered out of step with the president’s agenda.
UN experts: Israel committing medicide in Gaza…
Israel’s deliberate attack on Gaza’s healthcare system is ‘medicide’, a component of genocide, said UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, and Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese. The experts condemned this intentional destruction of health infrastructure and health care workers, including the starvation of health workers. “They called for an immediate ceasefire as a first step to hold Israel accountable and to save what is left of Gaza’s healthcare system and prevent the extermination of its population.
See also:
EDITORIAL: Free Speech, the Right to Health, and Genocide, Joseph J. Amon, Vol 27/1, 2025
…International community must recognise the ‘genocidal campaign’
Expansion and escalation of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza must be recognized by the international community and uninterrupted humanitarian aid must be allowed to enter into the Gaza Strip, said another group of UN Experts. They noted that “the United Nations has yet to definitively refer to the situation in Gaza as a genocide, despite irrefutable evidence of Israel committing multiple prohibited acts under the Genocide Convention and public statements from Israel’s leadership calling for the continued starvation of Gaza.”
Maldives urged to reject death penalty for drug trafficking
The introduction of the death penalty for drug trafficking offences in the Maldives would violate human rights and go against a global movement away from the death penalty, said Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and seven other organizations this week. Co-signatories said that the President of the Republic of Maldives’ proposal must be rejected as it would expand the use of a punishment and has not been proven to have a “unique deterrent effect on drug use or trafficking.”
Amnesty publishes G20 recommendations
Amnesty International has compiled recommendations for G20 states attending the November 2025 meeting, focusing on climate, economic and social justice. Amnesty asks attendees to address challenges presented by crises and growing inequality worldwide. The report highlights that many governments are spending more money paying off debt than on social spending – and that in 116 nations debt servicing exceeds total health spending. It urges universal social protection with the aim of furthering the realization of economic, social, and cultural rights around the globe.
See also:
PERSPECTIVE: The Equity Effect of Universal Health Care, Anja Rudiger, Vol 25/2, 2023
UN Human Rights chief wants justice in Sri Lanka
UN Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Türk is calling on Sri Lanka’s government to break with ‘entrenched impunity’ and provide justice and accountability for past human rights violations including in its civil war. Noting that abuses have been perpetrated by both the state and non-state groups, he explained: “as I witnessed first-hand during my visit to Sri Lanka, the pain and suffering of victims remains palpable and their demands for truth and justice must be addressed.” A UN report also underscores economic struggles faced by Sri Lankans, and urges international financial institutions to support the nation as it endeavors to realize economic, social, and cultural rights.
Amnesty law in Peru is a “backwards step” for human rights
Peru has passed legislation that provides amnesty to state forces who committed crimes during the nation’s internal conflict between 1980 and 2000. UN Human Rights chief Volker Türk has condemned the move, saying it is “an affront to the thousands of victims who deserve truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees of non-recurrence, not impunity.”
Dengue fever season extends in the Pacific
World Health Organization research shows that dengue fever infections in the Pacific Islands are at the highest level since 2016, and experts say that the climate crisis is increasing the likelihood of transmission. “Pacific Island countries produce just 0.03% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), but face some of the most severe climate-related health threats, including vector-borne diseases.” Since the start of 2025, 16,502 cases and 17 deaths have been confirmed in the region.
Previous news bulletins