Health and Human Rights News
Week ending 7 September 2025
Harvard wins legal victory in Trump’s power battle
Harvard University (co-publisher of Health and Human Rights) has won a crucial legal victory in its clash with the Trump administration, with Judge Allison D. Burroughs of the US District Court in Boston ruling that freezing $2.2 billion was unlawful. She said the government had broken the law by freezing billions of dollars in research funds in the name of stamping out antisemitism. Judge Burroughs wrote that it was “difficult to conclude anything other than that defendants used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.”
Experts warn against regressive approaches to gender
Tlaleng Mofokeng, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, and other UN experts, called on “states, UN entities, businesses, and other stakeholders to reaffirm their commitment to gender equality, the experts urge the continued integration of gender in international law, policy, and practice.” The experts voiced concern at global backlash against gender equality and human rights, noting also that gender-blind policies and laws are dangerous and ignore the realities of gender discrimination. They expressed deep concern about attempts to reassert rigid, binary conceptions of sex – minimising the social, historical and cultural factors that shape gender.
See also:
FIGHT FOR RIGHTS: Reclaiming Sexual and Reproductive Rights Through a Decolonial Lens, Tlaleng Mofokeng, 26 May 2025
UN Report: Reparatory justice for people of African descent
A report published by the UN Human Rights Office urges states to provide reparatory justice for Africans and people of African descent and highlights ongoing widespread systemic racism. Delivering this justice must be assured by states as primary duty bearers to eliminate racial discrimination. Moreover, the implementation of this process must respond to the demands of affected communities, for example, “In Europe and North America, demands place an emphasis on apologies, compensation, closing the racial wealth gap and equal access to housing, education, healthcare, employment, political participation and representation.”
WHO: Mental health services are a right
The World Health Organization has revealed that more than 1 billion people worldwide are living with mental health conditions, saying nations must transform, invest in, and scale up mental health services. “Investing in mental health means investing in people, communities, and economies,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Every government and every leader has a responsibility to act with urgency and to ensure that mental health care is treated not as a privilege, but as a basic right for all.”
See also:
PERSPECTIVE “Reducing the Treatment Gap” Poses Human Rights Risks, Lisa Cosgrove, Cristian Montenegro, Lee Edson Yarcia, Gianna D’Ambrozio, and Julie Hannah Vol 26/1, 2024
US disaster funds not for undocumented immigrants
The US Department of Homeland Security threatens to stop funding to states and organizations that deliver programs that might support ‘illegal immigrants’, according to the Washington Post and Human Rights Watch (HRW). HRW outlines the potential consequences of this move, and its specific implications for the work of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as it responds to natural disasters nationwide. “Do Americans really want emergency responders to check IDs before throwing a lifeline?”
Taliban must ensure human rights in response to earthquake
A 6.0 magnitude earthquake hit eastern Afghanistan on 31 August, creating a humanitarian disaster with nearly 2000 killed and at least as many injured. Taliban de-facto authorities are pleading for international aid but humanitarian response has been complicated by difficult access and global foreign aid cuts alongside the Taliban’s shrinking of operations of humanitarian and aid agencies in the country. “Special measures must be put in place to ensure that the human rights of the most at-risk groups who often face compounded challenges in crisis situations, including women, children, older persons, and people with disabilities, are guaranteed in relief and recovery efforts” said Amnesty International.
UN must protect civilians in Sudan
The UN Security Council must protect civilians in Sudan and hold to account those who violate the arms embargo, says Human Rights Watch. Ongoing siege and continued deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians perpetrated by the Rapid Support Forces and Sudanese Armed Forces, as well as other parties to the conflict, have left civilians facing starvation, widespread violence, and lack of access to necessary medical treatment.
See also:
A Forgotten War: Sudan’s Humanitarian and Human Rights Crisis, Ketan Tamirisa, Lara Kendall, Faraan O. Rahim, Paul Kim, Esraa Usman Eltayeb, and Nhial T. Tutlam, 1 July 2025
UN Experts: Enforced disappearances at food sites in Gaza
Palestinian civilians have been forcibly disappeared while waiting at aid distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Rafah, say UN Experts. Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Palestinian territories, and other experts, have sounded the alarm on the disappearances, saying it further discourages an already-starving population from seeking food assistance. “Reports of enforced disappearances targeting starving civilians seeking their basic right to food is not only shocking, but amounts to torture. Using food as a tool to conduct targeted and mass disappearances needs to end now,” the experts said.
Double hospital bombing in Gaza
At least 20 people, including healthcare workers, rescuers, and journalists, were killed in a double air strike by Israeli forces on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza on 25 August. Rescuers and journalists who had rushed to the scene of the first attack were killed in a second attack 10-15 minutes later. The UN, the World Health Organization, and Médecins Sans Frontiers all called for a “prompt and impartial investigation.”
See also:
The Other Humanitarians: Emergency First Responders and the Problem of Eradication-Level Harm, Adriana Petryna, 11 March 2025
Infectious disease spreads in Gaza
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Gaza Ministry of Health have raised the alarm about a new contagious disease spreading in Gaza, with symptoms similar to COVID-19. As there is no supply of necessary PCR tests or other diagnostic equipment, the disease has yet to be identified. “The severe shortage of medical supplies, from medicine to basic tools needed to administer treatment, and the fuel essential to keep health facilities running, has left the local healthcare system in a perpetual state of collapse, likely accelerating the spread of disease and risking a deadly epidemic.”
WHO meets Palestinian people with disabilities
World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with a delegation of Palestinian persons with disabilities in Geneva to discuss the urgent challenges they face in Gaza and Palestine. Their primary concerns are “barriers to medical evacuation and vital health services for persons with disabilities, including reproductive health care for women with disabilities; limited access to assistive technologies as part of health aid being provided to Gaza; and integration of disability inclusion as a must in the long-term plan for restoration of the health system.”
Global Day of Action for Palestine: 18 September
The Palestinian NGO Network has called for a Global Day of Action and Strike on 18 September 2025, the deadline date set by the UN General Assembly for Israel to withdraw from the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The Network is urging the international community, governments, and UN missions to take all possible measures to end Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Sumud Flotilla carries aid to Gaza
The Global Sumud Flotilla, comprising 50 boats and 350 activists carrying humanitarian aid, left Barcelona on Monday, 1 September. The flotilla is “the largest attempt yet to break Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza by sea.” Previous flotillas, such as the Madleen and Handala, were blocked by Israeli forces.
Contradictory rights in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso’s recently adopted Persons and Family Code includes provisions that expands protections for selected human rights but criminalizes consensual same-sex. The new code, adopted on 1 September, states, ‘behaviour likely to promote homosexual practices’ is punishable by a prison sentence of two to five years and stiff fines. Amnesty International is urging Burkina Faso’s president to call for its revision before enacting the law.
Maputo Protocol ratified in CAR
The Central African Republic (CAR) ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol), a symbolic move that must be followed by action, says Amnesty International. This “long-awaited step in promoting and protecting women and girls’ rights in the country, including from all forms of gender-based violence such as early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation that have long hindered their education, health, and well-being”, is significant, but authorities must ensure the protocol’s practical implementation. Amnesty also urges Niger and Chad, the two countries in West and Central Africa who have not yet ratified the Maputo Protocol, to do so without delay.
Disruptions to PEPFAR harm HIV programs and outcomes
The Trump Administration’s aid cuts have disrupted key HIV services like PEPFAR, incurring serious consequences in Tanzania and Uganda. A new report from Physicians for Human Rights, titled “On the Brink of Catastrophe”, details the direct and indirect impacts of the abrupt suspension of aid, ranging from life-threatening treatment disruption to an erosion of public trust in public health. “While the damage to date has been acute, there is still a narrow window to salvage PEPFAR and save lives…Congress must act now to preserve what has been the most impactful global health program in history.”
See also:
Enforceable Commitments to Global Health Needed to Fulfill Rights, FIGHT FOR RIGHTS VIEWPOINT SERIES, Moses Mulumba, Jessica Oga, Juliana Nantaba, and Ana Lorena Ruano, Vol 27/1, 2025
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