Health and Human Rights News
Week ending 4 October 2025
Israel intercepts Sumud Flotilla
Vessels in the Global Sumud Flotilla were intercepted and crew members were detained by Israeli forces this week as the flotilla tried to get aid to the Gaza Strip. Multiple organisations condemned the attacks on the peaceful initiative and urged the international community to take action. “By continuing to actively block vital aid to a population against whom Israel is committing genocide, including by inflicting famine, Israel is once again demonstrating its utter contempt for the legally binding orders of the International Court of Justice and its own obligations as the occupying power to ensure Palestinians in Gaza have access to sufficient food and lifesaving humanitarian assistance,” said Amnesty International.
Nearly 42,000 suffer life-changing injuries in Gaza
A total of 167,376 people have been injured in Gaza since October 2023, and for 42,000 the injuries life-changing. Over 5000 people have undergone amputations, over 2000 experienced spinal cord injuries, and more than 3300 have major burns. The need for specialized surgical and rehabilitation services is immense, and 25% of these injured people are children. The World Health Organization has called for an immediate ceasefire, and added that “the people of Gaza deserve peace, the right to health and care, and a chance to heal.”
See also:
Amputating the Body, Fragmenting the Nation: Palestinian Amputees in Gaza, Ghada Majadli and Hadas Ziv, Vol 24/2, 2022
Ghummeida: Outdoor Play in a Militarized Zone, Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian and Razzan Quran, Vol 24,2, 2022
General Comment on sustainable development
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has issued guidance on the negative consequences of environmental degradation on economic, social and cultural rights. General Comment 27 affirms the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, as well as interconnected rights, such as the right to health. In discussing states’ obligations to ensure the right to health, CESCR explains, “Health policymaking and resource allocation must account for long-term health challenges arising from environmental crises. States parties must design, implement and maintain health systems and services that are resilient to environmental shocks and their associated economic and social impacts.”
See also:
Human rights are the ‘golden thread’ of SDGs, says Türk
Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk emphasized the importance of data collection to ensure human rights are protected and delivered in his speech at the launch of the SDG 16 (promoting peaceful and inclusive societies) progress report. He welcomed the report being delivered in a Human Rights Council session for the first time, saying that human rights are the golden thread of the entire SDG agenda. The report identified positive trends, such as declining homicide rates worldwide, as well as worrying ones, such as increasing sexual violence and discrimination around the globe.
SDG SERIES: What Might the SDGs Mean for Health and Human Rights? An Introduction to the Series, Carmel Williams and Alison Blaiklock, September 2015
UNAIDS reaffirms partnership with Africa CDC
UNAIDS and Africa Centres for Disease Control have signed a memorandum of understanding to deepen collaboration in advancing Africa’s health security, strengthening community health systems, and ensuring sustainable HIV responses. “By joining forces, we can strengthen community health workforces, advance local manufacturing, and secure sustainable financing for HIV and broader health services,” said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS.
Civilians must be protected in Sudan
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk and UN experts are urging the international community to take action to prevent further atrocities and spiralling violence in Sudan. They are calling for an end to the siege in El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur State and condemn the indiscriminate use of violence by the Rapid Support Forces. The situation on the ground in Darfur is rapidly deteriorating as food, water, and health care are severely limited, and there is a high risk of further ethnically-motivated violence.
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
Healthcare key debate in US government shutdown
This week, the US government shut down after Congress failed to approve a funding bill at the heart of which is a standoff over healthcare. The budget plan risks seriously weakening Medicaid, and Democrats are pushing for a spending bill that would reverse major Medicaid cuts and extend tax credits for Affordable Care Act plans. Thousands of federal employees have been told not to work while others continue to work without pay.
Trump administration is endangering health
The politicization of science and health-related information by the Trump administration’s US Department of Health is endangering the nation’s health, says Human Rights Watch. The administration is limiting access to fact-based medical information, and recently, Health Secretary RFK Jr and President Trump furthered false claims about acetaminophen. HRW stated “Government refusal or failure to use scientifically and medically appropriate research and health education to inform health policy is inconsistent with its obligations to the public and undermines the right to health.”
See also:
“Politicized” Science and Attacks on Public Health, Viewpoint, Joseph J. Amon, 18 September 2025
US rejects global health goals
The United States could not support World Health Organization policies that promote abortion and “radical gender ideology” said Health Secretary Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. when explaining that the United States would reject a United Nations declaration on chronic diseases. The New York Times reported the text of the UN declaration does not mention reproductive rights or gender ideology.
See also:
Gender Abuses Omitted in the 2024 US Human Rights Reports, Winona Xu, 10 September 2025
FIGHT FOR RIGHTS: Are Women’s Rights Human Rights Once and for All?, Flavia Bustreo, Revati Phalkey, Rajat Khosla, and Kate Gilmore, 7 July 2025
Abortion bans disrupt other medical services
Physicians for Human Rights research highlights the adverse impacts that US state abortion bans are having on medical care. It identifies the wide-ranging consequences including increased delays in emergency care, barriers to essential medications, lowered standards of care, and physicians leaving states where bans are in place, worsening “maternity care deserts” and creating gaps in cancer and cardiac care. Twenty-eight states have introduced legislation banning or curtailing access to abortion care following the US Supreme Court ruling overturning the constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson in June 2022.
See also:
FIGHT FOR RIGHTS: The US Administration’s Assault on Global Reproductive Health and Autonomy, Winona Xu, 13 February 2025
Reproductive rights violations in Argentina
Argentina continues to dismantle key sexual and reproductive health protections, creating a climate of risk and uncertainty, writes Human Rights Watch. President Javier Milei’s administration has halted the national distribution of the medical abortion drugs misoprostol and mifepristone, and has cut distribution of contraceptive methods, including emergency contraception, and pregnancy tests, and cut the National Plan for the Prevention of Unintended Adolescent Pregnancy, which had helped reduce adolescent fertility rates in Argentina by nearly half between 2018 and 2021.
See also:
Health and Human Rights: Territories in Dispute FIGHT FOR RIGHTS VIEWPOINT SERIES, Vol 27/1, Jacqueline Pitanguy
Events and Courses
- Addressing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in a Time of Crisis: Intergenerational Solidarity and Cross-Sector Partnerships – USC Institute on Inequalities in Globah Health: October 22, 2025
- The G. Barrie Landry Child Protection Professional Training Program 2026 is now inviting applications for the course held at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. 1-5 June, 2026; Applications close: 1 December 2025
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