Health and Human Rights News
UN declares genocide in Gaza
Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a UN Independent International Commission announced on 16 September. The Commission urges Israel and all States to fulfil their legal obligations under international law to end the genocide and punish those responsible for it. In addition to establishing genocidal acts through extensive investigations and examination of the last two years, “the Commission also analysed the pattern of conduct of Israeli authorities and the Israeli security forces in Gaza, including imposing starvation and inhumane conditions of life for Palestinians in Gaza, and found that genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference that could be concluded from the nature of their operations.”
See also:
Free Speech, the Right to Health, and Genocide, Editorial, Joseph J. Amon Vol 27/1, 2025
NY Times editors: Trump’s policies are endangering health…
“Make America Healthy Again” is one of President Trump’s signature promises, about which The New York Times editorial board has delivered a scathing review: “As is so often the case with Mr. Trump, however, he has both identified a real problem and enacted a set of policies that will worsen that problem. With public health, the damage could be vast. His administration is rejecting basic medical knowledge and turning back the clock to an era when people were sicker and died sooner…His cuts to Medicaid…will leave millions of Americans without health insurance and, by extension, health care. His rollback of environmental regulations has allowed corporations to pump more pollution into the air and water, which will contribute to lung diseases and other ailments.”
…Sacked US CDC leaders testify
Two former US Centers for Disease and Prevention leaders gave evidence at a congressional hearing this week, speaking out strongly against Robert F Kennedy’s vaccine agenda. Ex-CDC director Susan Monarez said she was fired for not complying with the RFK Jr’s vaccine agenda: “I have built a career on scientific integrity, and my worst fear was that I would then be in a position of approving something that would reduce access of life-saving vaccines to children and others who need them,” she said. Along with the former chief medical officer Debra Houry, they both stated that politics is driving the changes, that RFK Jr has “censored CDC science, politicized its processes and stripped leaders of independence”.
See also:
“Politicized” Science and Attacks on Public Health, Viewpoint, Joseph J. Amon, 18 September 2025
US justice department removes study about far-right violence
A report that analyzed 893 terrorist attacks between 1994 and 2020 and found rightwing extremists have killed more Americans than other domestic terrorist groups vanished from the United States Department of Justice website after the fatal shooting of Trump-supporting conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The now missing study opened with: “Since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists, including 227 events that took more than 520 lives. In this same period, far-left extremists committed 42 ideologically motivated attacks that took 78 lives.”
See also:
“Politicized” Science and Attacks on Public Health, Viewpoint, Joseph J. Amon, 18 September 2025
World leaders urged to commit to human rights and fund UN
Ahead of the United Nations General Assembly from 22 to 30 September, Human Rights Watch is urging world leaders to recommit to human rights and to protect the UN from powerful governments seeking to defund it. The UN is in the throes of an existential financial crisis, largely due to the United States’ refusal to pay its assessed contributions which countries are obligated to pay. China is also delaying its payments and the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and others have followed the US decision to gut foreign aid programs by further reducing their own foreign aid budgets, exacerbating the UN’s financial troubles.
See also:
FIGHT FOR RIGHTS: Enforceable Commitments to Global Health Needed to Fulfill Rights, Moses Mulumba, Jessica Oga, Juliana Nantaba, and Ana Lorena Ruano, 2 March 2025
UNAIDS: Reverse funding cuts and fight gender backlash
UNAIDS is taking three key messages to the UN General Assembly next week: a need to reverse funding cuts and an expansion of access to HIV medicines globally; a global commitment to fight “well-funded, globally-coordinated backlash against gender equality and the human rights of women and girls”; a need to seize “an opportunity to redefine cooperation” in light of new challenges to the international system.
WHO adds sunscreen to essential medicines list
The World Health Organization’s addition of sunscreen to its lists of essential medicines, has been welcomed by the UN experts on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism, and Special Rapporteur on climate change. They described sunscreen’s inclusion as an alignment “with States’ international obligations to prevent foreseeable human rights harm arising from climate change and avoid discrimination in their climate and health responses.”
ICE is using solitary confinement more and for longer
The use of solitary confinement in immigration detention is on the rise in the United States, and may constitute torture. A report published by Physicians for Human Rights reveals more than 10,500 people were placed in solitary confinement in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers between April 2024 to May 2025. Solitary confinement lasting more than 15 days is considered torture, and the average time spent in solitary under ICE is a month.
A Narrative Review of Dual Loyalty Conflicts in Custodial Settings and Implications for Community Practice, Paper in Press, Michelle Suh, Marc David Robinson, and Holland Kaplan, September 18 2025
Spiralling crisis in Sudan makes conditions unbearable
In Sudan, essential services including hospitals are collapsing, the civilian death toll is on the rise, flooding continues, and millions have been displaced. UN News reported on the humanitarian crisis, noting that multiple regions are presently facing famine, and “water trucking to the only functioning hospital was suspended over the weekend and community kitchens shut down after running out of food.” The Peoples Dispatch reported, “The war in Sudan is a perfect storm of political ambition, ethnic animosity, and callous disregard for human life.”
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
Three years later: Women’s rights still violated in Iran
Three years after the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom protests in Iran, the nation has still not investigated the violent crackdowns and serious human rights violations perpetrated by authorities, says Human Rights Watch. Furthermore, “authorities have adopted a wide range of violent and repressive measures to coerce women and girls to abide by compulsory hijab rules”, carrying out further gross violations, and perpetuating impunity. These measures include “arbitrary arrest and detention; unjust prosecution; harsh punishments; denial of basic services; deprivation of fundamental rights, including to education, health, and employment; impounding of vehicles; and the use of surveillance technologies.”
WHO: Deaths by cholera increase by 50%
World Health Organization cholera statistics for 2024 reveal the number of cholera cases was up by 5% but deaths from the preventable and treatable disease had increased 50% over 2023. WHO said this disturbing trend is fuelled by conflict, climate change, displacement, and other crises. The case fatality ratio for Africa increased from 1.4% in 2023 to 1.9% in 2024, revealing critical gaps in the delivery of life-saving care, and signalling the fragility of many health systems, along with challenges in access to basic health services.
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