Health and Human Rights News

News to 24 April 2026

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Humanity under attack from global anti-rights movements

Amnesty International is calling on states to reject the backslide on human rights identified in its latest annual report, The State of the World’s Human Rights. “We are confronting the most challenging moment of our age. Humanity is under attack from transnational anti-rights movements and predatory governments determined to assert their dominance through unlawful wars and brazen economic blackmail,” said Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard. “This is a direct assault on the foundations of human rights and the international rules-based order by the most powerful actors for the purpose of control, impunity and profit.”

Ending poverty without environmental damage

UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Olivier De Schutter published a Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth that guides poverty reduction without ecological destruction. “For decades, the dominant narrative has been that economic growth is the only route out of poverty. Yet, this is neither realistic nor sustainable.” The Roadmap provides policy recommendations for a just transition to a human rights economy that works for all people and the planet.

See also: EDITORIAL Economic Inequality and the Right to Health: On Neoliberalism, Corporatization, and Coloniality, Gillian MacNaughton and A. Kayum Ahmed, Vol 25/2, 2023

Africa’s minerals could herald a just energy transition

Africa’s wealth of critical (or green) minerals places it at the center of the energy transition, writes the Center for Economic and Social Rights, but a just transition must consider the human rights implications of this demand for extraction. “Africa is not simply a supplier of the materials the world needs for its green future. It is a continent of people with human rights and the sovereign capacity to shape their own development path. The just transition must honor that as a structural commitment.”

UN Experts’ call for suspension of EU-Israel trade agreement fails

UN experts including Special Rapporteur on the right to health Tlaleng Mofokeng urged the European Union to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement. They argued that the gravity and scale of Israel’s human rights violations merited full suspension of the trade agreement as a legal imperative incumbent on the European Union. However, the EU meeting of Foreign Ministers on 21 April did not unanimously support suspension.

US judge: Gender affirming care ban “unlawful and cruel”

“Unserious leaders are unsafe” wrote US district judge Mustafa T Kasubhai in his judgment that overturned the Trump administration’s ban on gender-affirming care for children. Adding to other recent legal decisions against Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy’s rulings (changing vaccine recommendations and autism treatments), the judgment barred the administration from implementing similar policies to restrict care nationally by withholding funding. He wrote, “Secretary Kennedy’s unlawful declaration harmed children. This case illustrates that when a leader acts without authority and in the absence of the rule of law, he acts with cruelty.”

See also: Denying Pediatric Gender‑Affirming Health Care Is a Human Rights Violation, Swarupa Deb, 17 February 2026

Children in US breathe polluted air

As the Environmental Protection Agency continues to roll back standards to protect public health, the American Lung Association has released a report revealing that nearly half all American children are breathing unhealthy levels of air pollution. Communities of color are disproportionately exposed to unhealthy air and are also more likely to be living with one or more chronic health conditions that makes them more vulnerable to air pollution, including asthma, diabetes and heart disease.

`See also: Trump’s War on Clean Air, Richard Pearshouse, 9 April 2026`

US cuts to HIV programs in South Africa have global impact

The Trump administration’s axing of HIV programming and research funding in South Africa have damaged health services there and will have devastating consequences for global health security. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), Advocates for the Prevention of HIV in South Africa (APHA), and Emthonjeni Counselling & Training detail these consequences, ranging from wasted investments to leaving millions more people vulnerable to new HIV infections. “While last week the United States and the Global Fund announced efforts to expand access to lenacapavir to an additional one million people, the new report published today shows that the U.S. is simultaneously dismantling the public health systems that are needed to scale up this new game-changing drug.”

See also: Fight for Rights Viewpoint Enforceable Commitments to Global Health Needed to Fulfill Rights, Moses Mulumba, Jessica Oga, Juliana Nantaba, and Ana Lorena Ruano, 2 March 2025

Bahamas eliminates mother-to-child transmission of HIV

This week, the World Health Organization certified the Bahamas as having eliminated the mother-to-child transmission of HIV, saying the key to the success “has been the provision of universal antenatal care to all pregnant women, regardless of nationality or legal status, across both public and private facilities.” A rigorous testing protocol screens all pregnant people at their first antenatal appointment and again in the third trimester.

Health system focus in Colombia’s 2026 election

Medicine shortages in Colombia since 2023 are a focus of political debates ahead of the May 2026 presidential election. The People’s Health Movement describes endless lines to claim medications in cities such as Bogotá and Medellín and writes that the shortages are symptomatic of efforts on the part of the private pharmaceutical sector and political elites to maintain their own high profits while limiting oversight. PHM says Colombians will choose between two distinct models: one focused on health sovereignty and the other driven toward foreign investment and deregulation.

Tigrayans medical travel restricted

In Western Tigray, Ethiopia, ethnic Tigrayans have their movement restricted and face difficulties acquiring temporary passes to travel for medical purposes. Human Rights Watch reports widespread discrimination and abuse against those who were forcibly displaced during the 2020-2022 conflict and are still unable to return home. Those living in IDP camps are facing dangerous conditions, particularly as financial cuts have reduced the amount of food and other aid reaching the region.y.”

Police abuse stops Afghans accessing healthcare

Intensified border clashes at the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan have spurred a rise in abuse of Afghan refugees by Pakistani authorities. “Afghan refugees in Pakistan cannot access health facilities and services unless they can provide valid visas, even in medical emergencies involving children,” Human Rights Watch explained. “Fear of arrest has prevented families from seeking medical care, worsening physical and mental health conditions.” More than 146,000 Afghan refugees have been arbitrarily detained and forced to return to Afghanistan in 2026.

UN decries Singapore executions for drug crimes

Following last week’s eighth execution for drug crimes in Singapore this year, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk again condemned the practice. “At every level, the taking of this man’s life is both cruel and inhuman. Quite simply, the death penalty is fundamentally incompatible with human dignity and the right to life.” He called for a moratorium on the practice.

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