Health and Human Rights News
News to 14 August 2026
Public health research for accountability in Gaza
Public health researchers who have been documenting Israeli actions against the health system in Gaza since October 2023, write that their findings reveal a purposeful effort to collapse Gaza’s health sector, and can be used for future justice, accountability and restitution. They document interconnected mechanisms through which Gaza’s health sector was dismantled: mass casualties; destruction of hospitals and other health infrastructure; damage to water and other civilian systems essential to population health; and the sustained degradation of health system functionality through siege and military operations.
Ill treatment of Palestinians returning to Gaza
The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) raised serious concerns over the systemic ill-treatment, violent handling, and confiscation of medical supplies and personal belongings targeting Palestinians returning to Gaza. “These violations we are seeing against Palestinians returning to Gaza are part of a broader pattern of violations and dehumanization, and are discouraging people from returning,” said the head of UN Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Law suit filed against Trump’s ICC sanctions
Four human rights groups have this week filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York alleging that the Trump administration is illegally sanctioning individuals and organizations assisting the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The suit challenges Trump’s executive order authorizing sanctions on ICC officials, judges, and others working with the court to seek justice for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, reports Human Rights Watch.
Afghan women erased from public life
Five years after the Taliban seized power, women and girls in Afghanistan have been systematically stripped of their rights, UN agencies said this week. De facto authorities have issued more than 100 decrees curbing education, work and freedom of movement – restrictions compounded by cuts to aid. In the past year alone, this exclusion of women and girls from education, employment, public life, justice systems and healthcare has only intensified, entrenching what remains the “world’s most severe women’s rights crisis”, said UN Women.
WHO concerned at Trump’s vaccine change
Donald Trump signed an executive order this week calling for a reduction in childhood immunisations from 18 to 11, and recommending the separation of the MMR vaccine into three single-disease shots. The World Health Organization said the change in policy is not aligned with decades of evidence that show when children are most vulnerable to disease, when vaccines provide the strongest protection, how many doses are needed, and which vaccines can be given together safely.
Details of Trump-UK drug trade deal “can remain secret”
A challenge to the UK government’s refusal to release an impact assessment of a controversial pharmaceutical trade deal with the US has been denied. The UK transparency regulator said that it accepted the government’s argument that details should not be released because of an “ongoing process of policy development.”
Nearly 2900 excess deaths in UK over summer
England has seen a surge in heat related deaths so far this summer, and experts predict that numbers could hit record levels if periods of hot weather continue, reports the BMJ. Over May and June this year 2877 deaths were linked to heat, nearly double the 1504 recorded during the whole summer of 2025, in provisional figures from the UK Health Security Agency.
UNICEF responds to Colombia earthquake
Following a devastating 7.4-magnitude earthquake which has killed at least 265 people, injured more than 3,500 and left almost 500 missing, UNICEF has scaled up emergency water, sanitation, and child protection interventions for 22,000 heavily affected people in Chocó and Buenaventura. Damage to critical infrastructure has disrupted access to water, electricity, education, healthcare and telecommunications, while connectivity challenges and the geographical dispersion of communities hampered needs assessments.
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