Health and Human Rights News
Week ending 8 November 2025
Global health, human rights, and car crashes
At this week’s American Public Health Association annual meeting, Health and Human Rights Editor in Chief Joseph Amon drew analogies between US global health policy and a car crash. “It is difficult to look at the field of global health today and see anything other than a car crash, but there is no alternative but to push forward, to fight to ensure that the values we share—to advance the right to health globally—are realized, and to understand that this won’t come quickly, it won’t come without obstacles, and it won’t come without periods of moving backwards…There’s no other road to travel but to work toward the realization of the right to health for all.”
“Politicized” Science and Attacks on Public Health, VIEWPOINT, Joseph J. Amon, 18 September 2025
Trump’s Banned Words and Disastrous Health Policies, FIGHT FOR RIGHTS VIEWPOINT, Joseph J. Amon, 3 February 2025
G20 global inequality report warns of an “inequality emergency”
The G20’s landmark report on global inequality, led by Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, highlights a present-day “inequality emergency” and urges reform in global economic governance, including the formation of an International Panel on Inequality. “By framing equality through the lens of rights and nondiscrimination, the G20’s inequality report reinforces …that human rights offer a shared, legitimate framework for global cooperation and substantive equality,” explained the Center for Economic and Social Rights. The report found that between 2000 and 2024, the richest 1% captured 41% of all new wealth, while the poorest 50% shared only 1%. 83% of countries (representing 90% of the world’s population) now meet the World Bank’s definition of “high inequality.”
See also:
Economic Inequality and the Right to Health: On Neoliberalism, Corporatization, and Coloniality, EDITORIAL, Gillian MacNaughton and A. Kayum Ahmed, Vol 25/2, 2023
Inequality is making pandemics more likely, more deadly, and more costly
Increasing inequality worldwide is increasing the likelihood of pandemics, and pandemics also exacerbate inequality, finds the latest report of the Global Council on Inequality, AIDS, and Pandemics. Supported by UNAIDS, the report describes the inequality-pandemic cycle, drawing on expertise from leading economists, public health experts, and policy-makers, and released just ahead of the G20 meetings. “Pandemic preparedness that focuses only on better surveillance or faster vaccine development alone will not be enough to stop pandemics. Reimagining global health security will require including measures that both account for the high levels of inequality we have today and addressing economic, social and legal determinants of pandemics in the long run.”
US Government shutdown: millions to lose health care
As the now record-long US government shutdown pushes into another week, subsidies for private health insurance enhanced in 2021 are set to expire and will threaten the right to health of millions across the country. “Congress’ failure to extend these subsidies is driving the government shutdown and will harm millions of people already struggling with soaring prices and healthcare costs,” said Human Rights Watch. “These cuts are making ordinary people sacrifice their health to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy few.”
WHO guidance on adapting to reduced health aid
The World Health Organization has released official guidance for countries struggling with the short- and long-term impacts of global health funding cuts. “Responding to the health financing emergency: immediate measures and longer-term shifts” addresses the decreases in health aid. It says health should be a political and fiscal priority even during times of crisis, because health spending is not just a cost, but an investment in social stability, human dignity, and economic resilience. It recommends prioritizing health services accessed by poorest members of the population, safeguarding essential health services and budgets, and integrating specific services into primary healthcare based delivery models.
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
COP30: People not profits
Ahead of COP30, which begins in Belém, Brazil, Monday 10 November, Amnesty International is urging states to put climate justice and people, not profits, at the center of all negotiations. The organization is calling on delegates to “conclude with a clear plan and timeline to phase out fossil fuels, deliver the wholly inadequate US$300 billion climate finance target agreed at COP29 and scale up the provision of public grants-based finance.” It also urges high-income high-emitting states to provide financial support for low and middle-income countries that are most vulnerable to climate change.
See also:
Special Section on Ecological Justice and the Right to Health
Special Section on Health Rights and the Urgency of the Climate Crisis
South Africa’s response to floods is a rights failure
Frequent and intense flooding, exacerbated by the climate crisis, has pushed 5 million people in South Africa to live in informal settlements, where they are deprived of their rights to housing and health. “Flooded and Forgotten”, a report from Amnesty International, details the experiences of those living in these informal settlements, explores how these exacerbate historical injustices of colonialism and apartheid, and provides recommendations for the government of South Africa to guarantee people’s rights.
European governments must protect abortion access
Access to abortion is increasingly under threat in Europe, and governments must take a stand to defend reproductive health care, says Amnesty International. “Hard-won victories on reproductive rights are at serious risk of being reversed by a wave of regressive policies promoted by the anti-gender movement and championed by populist political actors deploying authoritarian practices.” At least 12 European countries continue to enforce medically unnecessary mandatory waiting periods before accessing a legal abortion and 13 countries enforce compulsory counselling.
Trump’s plans for nuclear testing condemned
Health workers groups are raising the alarm about the health risks of nuclear testing and proliferation following President Trump’s announcement that the United States would begin testing nuclear weapons again. “As physicians and health professionals, we condemn any and all nuclear weapons testing and destabilizing posturing,” International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War stated. “The only result of these tests would be immense human and environmental harm, poisoning generations to come and increasing the risk of nuclear escalation today.”
Development and environmental protection are inseparable from human rights
At the second World Summit on Social Development this week, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada Al-Nashif, referred to the 1995 Copenhagen Declaration which “gave us a bold vision of a world where poverty is eradicated, every person enjoys the highest attainable standard of health and education, and no one is excluded because of race, national origin, gender, age, or disability. Yet today, many of these commitments remain unfulfilled.” She urged states to push a human rights economy forward, remove barriers to sustainable social development, and confront persistent structural inequalities.
Türk: Rights-based approaches succeed while the war on drugs fails
Speaking at the Drug Policy Summit Malaysia, the first summit of its kind in the Southeast Asian country, High Commissioner Volker Türk urged participants to ground drug policy in human rights. He applauded Malaysia’s abolition of the mandatory death penalty and introduction of harm reduction measures. “We need to build on this momentum, because there is much more to be done.” He said states should decriminalize drug use, involve civil society in drug policy making, and use evidence to develop drug-use prevention methods. “States need to dispel the lingering myth that punishment works.”
Cholera threatens vulnerable communities in Haiti
Haiti’s ministry of health is warning that an outbreak of cholera is unfolding and threatening the lives of thousands. Severe lack of access to clean water, sanitation, and adequate hygiene facilities combined with growing insecurity across the country and heavy rainfall heighten the risk of the disease’s resurgence. “This cholera outbreak is being fuelled by years of institutional neglect and the near collapse of essential services,” said Human Rights Watch. “Foreign governments should be doing all they can to help Haiti put an end to cholera.
Events and Courses
Institute for Universal Rights, Health & Justice Leadership Program: 1 June-10 July 2026, A virtual six-week program
The G. Barrie Landry Child Protection Professional Training Program 2026 is now inviting applications for the course held at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. 1-5 June, 2026; Applications close: 1 December 2025
FXB, Harvard School of Public Health Webinar: Inherited trauma, inherited equity: Reparations as a determinant of health, November 19, 2025 from 13:00 pm – 14:00 pm EST
University of Essex event: Human rights through art: Conversations on Cinema, Justice and Rights, “Children of the Enemy” November 20, 2025. 14:00 – 16:00 pm GMT
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