Health and Human Rights News
News to 13 June 2026
Health as an enabler of dignity
In her final report to the HRC Special Rapporteur on the right to health Tlaleng Mofokeng returns to the issue she identified at the start of her six-year tenure, in 2020: dignity as a strategic priority. She writes that dignity cannot be an abstract claim or aspiration, dignity must be embedded within governance, processes and institutions that manage relationships between the state, private sector, civil society, communities and individuals.
Children in conflict must be protected
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Human Rights Volker Türk said he is appalled by the horrific impact of war on children, “Children are disproportionately affected both by the decline in respect for international human rights and humanitarian law around the world, and by the weapons used in today’s wars.” Latest statistics show that in 2024 armed conflict directly affected 473 million children – nearly one in six globally and double the number from 1994. Attacks on schools across the world increased by a staggering 166 per cent between 2021 and 2024, notably in Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar, and Ethiopia.
See also: SPECIAL SECTION: CHILDREN’S RIGHT TO HEALTH EDITORIAL Foreseeable Harms and Children’s Right to Health Michael Garcia Bochenek, Vol 28/1, June 2026
Femicides and missing children lead to protests in Kenya
Demonstrators in Nairobi are calling for government investigations into both increasing violence against women and growing numbers of missing children across Kenya. They are demanding that the government declare a national crisis and take immediate action to strengthen protections as well as accountability mechanisms. The protesters also expressed concern over reproductive rights following the recent controversy surrounding restrictions on abortion services, arguing that women’s bodily autonomy and healthcare rights remain under threat.
See also: Balancing Protection and Autonomy: Adolescent Sexual Rights and the Limits of Criminal Law in Kenya, VIEWPOINT, Mourice Onyango Okuon and Rita Babirye, Vol 28/1, June 2026
Innovation must drive social progress not just profit
Speaking to the Accelerating AI and Tech for a Better Tomorrow summit, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said: “Through digital tools, you are making cities safer for children, reducing discrimination, and expanding access to healthcare, education, and civic participation. These and countless other advances show that human rights do not limit us – they push the limits of what we can achieve.”
See also: Special Section on Big Data, Technology, Artificial Intelligence and the Right to Health, Vol 22/2, 2020
US pressures countries to provide health data
United States health aid funding is becoming increasingly dependent on recipient states giving broad access to surveillance data and extractive rights to pathogen samples and data for pharmaceutical development. Human Rights Watch assessed seven recently agreed bilateral health contracts with African nations and commented, “After the sudden and devastating pullback from US assistance in 2025, governments are now being pressured to accept agreements with contingencies that jeopardize human rights.”
See also: Health Data Protection and Governance Under the Kenya–US Health Agreement, VIEWPOINT, Allan Maleche, Sharifah Sekalala, and Timothy Wafula, Vol 28/1, 2026
US sanctions against Cuba are harming children
Children are dying in Cuba as a result of the US sanctions, said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. “The fuel restrictions imposed since early 2026 …are directly harming Cubans, especially the most vulnerable.” He said blocking access to essential medical supplies is unacceptable. Since the fuel restrictions were imposed public health data shows a doubling of infant mortality to 9.9 per 1,000 births and a decline in childhood cancer survival rates from 85% to 65%.
UN Experts warn declaration narrows migrant protection
A new Council of Europe declaration risks undermining the protections the European Convention on Human Rights provides to migrants. Experts including the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, warned that the Chișinău Declaration materialises concerns we previously raised, including the prioritisation of coercive migration control, restrictions on access to asylum, expanded detention and returns, the weakening of due process, and other actions that could lead to death, torture, ill-treatment, enforced disappearance or persecution of migrants.
See also: EDITORIAL Promises (Un)fulfilled: Navigating the Gap Between Law, Policy, and Practice to Secure Migrants’ Health Rights, Stefano Angeleri and Jacqueline Bhabha, Vol 26/2 2024
Africa CDC and WHO launch Ebola response plan
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have launched a joint continental preparedness and response plan on the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. “The only way to beat this outbreak is through close partnership, working together under the leadership of the affected countries,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Containing Ebola depends on political commitment, sustained financing, and the trust and engagement of communities. This plan places communities at the centre, because without their participation, contact tracing falters, safe care is delayed, and transmission continues.”
HIV/AIDS gains remain fragile
The progress made in the fight to eliminate HIV is fragile because of threats to funding, growing debt burdens, and expanding humanitarian emergencies. UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima welcomed the UN report on HIV/AIDS saying, “We cannot allow financial shocks, backlashes against human rights or political backsliding to reverse decades of progress.” The world is far off track from the 2025 targets set in the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS with 9.2 million people still lacking access to HIV treatment.
Previous news bulletins