Health and Human Rights News
News to 17 January 2026
United States withdraws from 66 international organizations
President Trump has announced plans to withdraw the United States from 66 international organizations, including the United Nations Population Fund and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Human Rights Watch describes the withdrawal from the climate agreement as endangering progress towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions and shifting to renewable energy, which could have serious consequences for human rights worldwide.
Unethical US trial in Africa cancelled
A controversial US-funded study on hepatitis B vaccines among newborns in Guinea-Bissau has been halted, according to officials at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reports the Guardian. “The $1.6m study, funded under the purview of Robert F Kennedy Jr, a longtime vaccine skeptic and the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), drew outrage and criticism over ethical questions about withholding vaccines proven to prevent hepatitis B in a country with a very high burden of the disease.”
USAID cuts hinder health care for rape survivors in the DRC
Reports of conflict-related sexual violence perpetrated by armed groups and military forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are on the rise, but healthcare systems are unable to provide support to survivors. Human Rights Watch and SOFEPADI report a 32% increase in rape from 2024 to the same period in 2025, while USAID made sudden and chaotic cuts to emergency health care. Many survivors contracted HIV or became pregnant as clinics were without stocks of the post-exposure prophylactic kits that US-funded projects previously supplied.
See also:
Enforceable Commitments to Global Health Needed to Fulfill Rights, FIGHT FOR RIGHTS VIEWPOINT SERIES, Vol 27/1, Moses Mulumba, Jessica Oga, Juliana Nantaba, and Ana Lorena Ruano, first published 2 March 2025
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
Wealthy states resist global tax cooperation
The Center for Economic and Social Rights’ analysis of 41 state submissions on the UN Tax Convention finds resistance from Global North countries and uneven engagement across much of the Global South. Many European countries are pushing for the convention to be non-binding and without legal consequence. Negotiations commence mid-February when it will be determined whether a fair, effective, and enforceable tax cooperation framework will result.
A Tax on the World’s Ultra-Rich to Fight Hunger and Disease, FIGHT FOR RIGHTS VIEWPOINT SERIES, Vol 27/1, Eric A. Friedman and Lawrence O. Gostin, 20 May 2025
WHO: Tax sugary drinks and alcohol
In two new reports the World Health Organization is urging governments to increase taxes on sugary drinks and alcoholic beverages, cautioning that the cheaper these drinks are, the greater likelihood of long-term health issues. “The combined global market for sugary drinks and alcoholic beverages generates billions of dollars in profit, fueling widespread consumption and corporate profit. Yet governments capture only a relatively small share of this value through health-motivated taxes, leaving societies to bear the long-term health and economic costs.”
See also:
Obesity Under International and National Spotlights, Giulia Bosi, 14 January 2026
Medical debt in the US equals less housing security
Medical debt decreases housing stability, researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the School of Public Health at Washington University in St Louis report. Their study to evaluate the connection between the increasing burden of medical debt in the United States and future housing outcomes offers evidence that medical debt correlates with social drivers of health consequences.
Sudan’s health system “at the brink of collapse”
The World Health Organization is describing the situation in Sudan as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and after 1000 days of conflict, the health system is collapsing. “The health system has been severely damaged by ongoing fighting, increasingly deadly attacks on health care, mass displacement, lack of essential medical supplies, and shortages of health personnel and funding. Despite sustained efforts by WHO and partners to restore and revive health services across the country, more than one third of health facilities (37%) remain non-functional, depriving millions of people of essential and lifesaving health services.”
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 decry Israel’s ban on aid groups in Gaza
Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right to health, and other UN experts have decried Israel’s suspension of 37 international NGOs from operating in Gaza and the West Bank. They wrote, “The ban is not an isolated act, but part of a systematic assault on humanitarian operations in the occupied Palestinian territory and another step in the deliberate dismantling of Gaza’s lifeline.”
Reproductive violence in Gaza continues
Physicians for Human Rights and the University of Chicago Law School Global Human Rights Clinic as well as Physicians for Human Rights – Israel have published separate reports highlighting the severe and systematic harms resulting from the war in Gaza, and its continuing impact on women, mothers, and newborns. “The PHR-GHRC report provides a clinical analysis of the collapse of Gaza’s health system and its medical consequences from the perspective of health care workers, while the PHRI report brings forward Palestinian women’s voices, illustrating the human cost behind the data. Both reports conclude that these harms are not isolated incidents but part of an ongoing pattern of systematic damage to the health of women and their children in Gaza, amounting to reproductive violence.”
Human rights chief calls for an end to violence in Iran
State security forces in Iran have become increasingly violent toward protestors since the nationwide protests started in late December 2025. Iranian authorities shut down access to the internet and telecommunications services on 8 January 2026, but despite the communications blackout, reports indicate escalating and widespread use of lethal force by security forces. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has called for an end to violence, emphasizing that “The use of lethal force against peaceful protesters, arbitrary arrests–including of children–and attacks on medical facilities represent clear violations of international human rights law.”
Accountability and reparations needed in Sri Lanka
The UN Human Rights Office report on accountability for conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in Sri Lanka documents the violence and the consistent failure of the state to ensure accountability, support and provide justice to survivors following the Sri Lankan civil war. The report draws on survivor consultations and connects systematic failures to human suffering and outlines recommendations to advance accountability.
Egypt’s budget neglects economic and social rights
Egypt has failed to meet constitutional requirements for minimum funding of health and education, undermining healthcare services, the education system, and the rights of its population, says Human Rights Watch. “The Egyptian government has failed for years to adequately ensure the rights of education and health for everyone, as demonstrated by its chronic underfunding…The lack of adequate funding for health and education demonstrates the government’s deep indifference toward its citizens’ rights.”acks on humanitarian workers and aid blockades.”
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