Health and Human Rights News

News to 17 April 2026

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WHO convenes first global forum of leading institutions

The first Global Forum of Collaborating Centres brought together over 800 institutions from 80 countries to discuss global health threats and innovation. The World Health Organization said in a time of growing global health challenges, this spirit of trusted scientific collaboration is not only valuable—it is indispensable to protecting lives. Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the collaborating centres translate evidence into action to support countries, strengthen health systems, protect populations and demonstrate what it means to stand with science.

Global Fund and US expand access to lenacapavir

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the United States have committed to providing access to long-acting HIV prevention medication, lenacapavir, to 3 million people by 2028. UNAIDS welcomed the commitment but added more is needed, including large-scale generic manufacturing, especially in Africa, and “lowering prices through transparent, equitable pricing frameworks that enable widespread uptake in low- and middle-income countries.”

See also: Deepening Accountability: The Fair Pharma Scorecard and Access to Medicines in a Fragmented Global Health Law Landscape, Rosalind Turkie and Pramiti Parwani, Vol 27/2, 2025

IFIs must be held to account for influence on rights

The Center for Economic and Social Rights has released a report exploring the outsized role of international financial institutions (IFIs) in shaping national level economic policies, and funding for essential public services, including health care. “The report shows how measures frequently associated with IFI programs, including austerity policies, subsidy cuts, and privatization, often undermine economic and social rights and deepen inequalities. It also examines the gendered impacts of these policies, which frequently place disproportionate burdens on women and marginalized communities.”

See also: Are Development Finance Institutions Meeting Their Human Rights Obligations in Health? Anna Marriott, Anjela Taneja and Linda Oduor-Noah, Vol 25/3, 2023

UN Experts: Israel must end attacks on Gaza shelters

UN Experts including Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right to health, called on Israel to end its attacks on sites sheltering displaced civilians in Gaza and expressed concern over a sharp escalation in forced displacement across the West Bank. “This cycle of displacement, terror, and targeted attacks serves an ultimate purpose: to make life unbearable for Palestinians and permanently force them from their land,” the experts said. “We reiterate our call on States to bring Israel’s unlawful occupation to an end.”

Sudan health crisis deepens as conflict enters fourth year

This week marks three years of conflict in Sudan, where a health crisis is deepening and funding for humanitarian response is shrinking, warned the World Health Organization. “The war in Sudan is devastating lives and denying people their most basic rights, including health, water, food and safety. The health system has been crippled, leaving millions without essential health care,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. WHO has verified 217 attacks on health care in Sudan since 15 April 2023, with 2052 deaths and 810 injuries.

`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, July 2025`

Child trafficking rises in South Sudan

The UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory reports that conflict across the Middle East is obscuring the suffering of the Palestinian people and continued violations by Israeli authorities. It stated, “In Gaza, Israeli attacks–including air strikes, shelling and drone attacks and shelling, are continuing to cause civilian casualties resulting in at least 200 people killed since 28 February 2026…Israeli authorities have also closed and reduced border crossings, suspended humanitarian movements in certain areas, almost completely suspended medical evacuations, and prevented Palestinians from returning to their homes.”

Medical misogyny a focus of UK women’s health strategy

A renewed strategy on women’s health in England addresses medical misogyny and aims to improve women’s care. A report by the Women and Equalities Committee found reproductive health education in the UK was insufficient and under-resourced and women’s concerns about pain were repeatedly ignored by healthcare providers. The strategy includes an expanded menstrual education program, a redesign of clinical pathways to speed up diagnosis, and a new standard of care for providing pain relief for invasive procedures.

Trump nominates vaccine supporter to lead CDC

The Trump administration has nominated Dr Erica Schwartz, a physician and vaccine supporter, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If the Senate confirms the appointment she will become the agency’s fourth leader in just over a year, reports the New York Times.

US vaccine guidance unclear

Uncertainty surrounds the charter, membership, and advice on recommended vaccines, of the US Advisory Committee on Immunization (ACIP). Following success in March that blocked US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s overhaul of the childhood immunization schedule, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other public health groups are now facing new threats to vaccine access. The Trump Administration published a charter for ACIP last week that AAP says “paves the way for an unqualified committee to promote misleading narratives about vaccine safety.”

See also: “Politicized” Science and Attacks on Public Health, Joseph J. Amon, 18 September 2025

Mexico steps toward universal health care

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced the creation of a universal health service which will start providing some essential services by 1 January 2027. “The goal is that… any Mexican man or woman will be able to seek treatment for any condition at any healthcare facility,” said Sheinbaum. The plan will centralize and unify the variety of government health services and aims to implement universal coverage for prescriptions, outpatient specialty care, and referral-based hospitalization by 2028.

`See also: Ethical and Human Rights Foundations of Health Policy: Lessons from Comprehensive Reform in Mexico, Julio Frenk and Octavio Gómez-Dantés, Vol 17/2, 2015`

Rights groups call on Singapore to halt execution for cannabis charges

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Capital Punishment Justice Project (CPJP), and Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) jointly called on Singapore to halt the execution of Omar bin Yacob Bamadhaj for trafficking cannabis. “International human rights law and standards say that countries that have not abolished the death penalty should reserve its use ‘only for the most serious crimes,’ which UN experts, including the UN high commissioner for human rights, agree do not include drug-related offenses.” Since January 1, 2026, Singapore has executed seven people, all for drug-related offenses. In 2025, the authorities executed fifteen people for drug-related offenses, seven more than the previous year.

See also: What Does it Mean to Adopt a Human Rights-based Approach to Drug Policy? Damon Barrett, Julie Hannah, and Rick Lines, January 2020