Health and Human Rights News
News to 13 February 2026
Human Rights Office launches $400 million appeal
The UN Human Rights office has launched an appeal for US $400 million to respond to crises and defend human rights worldwide. UN High Commissioner Volker Türk stressed the life-saving work of the office, as well as the dire consequences of the ongoing funding crisis. “The cost of our work—compared to so many other costs—is low; the human cost of underinvestment is immeasurable,” he said. “At this critical juncture, this amount will enable us to defend all rights—civil, political, social, cultural, and economic—of all people.”
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
WHO urges universal access to cataract surgery
Globally, almost half the people with cataract blindness do not have access to sight-restoring surgery. A study published in the Lancet Global Health also found that women have consistently lower access to cataract care than men, and that in the African region, three out of every four people facing cataract blindness remain untreated. Drawing on this research, the World Health Organization is urging governments and civil society to commit to making this surgery accessible for all.
Millions of girls still undergo FGM
This year, an estimated 4.5 million girls are at risk of undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM) and more than 230 million girls and women are living with its lifelong consequences. Marking the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, UN agencies including the World Health Organization, reaffirmed commitments to end FGM and to continue working to ensure those subjected to the harmful practice have access to necessary services. WHO said interventions over the last three decades are having an impact, with nearly two-thirds of the population in countries where it is prevalent expressing support for its elimination.
India recognises menstrual health as a right
In January 2026, India’s Supreme Court recognized access to menstrual health and hygiene as an integral component of the right to life, dignity, and bodily autonomy under its Constitution. The move takes menstrual health from the realm of welfare schemes and policy initiatives into the domain of enforceable constitutional rights, writes Suhana Roy in an HHR blog. The court acknowledged that when menstruating students miss school due to a lack of menstrual facilities, the resulting learning gaps accumulate over time, contribute to patterns of dropout and ultimately limit economic opportunities. Menstrual inequality becomes a structural barrier to the constitutional promise of equal citizenship.
Global HIV funding returns to near pre-Trump levels
The US government has passed a bipartisan funding package for global HIV/AIDS response. The package allocates US $4.6 billion to bilateral HIV support through the America First Global Health Strategy, US $1.25 billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and US $45 million to UNAIDS. Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS, said the funding would provide lifesaving support for millions of people.
See also: AIDS 2024: Politics and Human Rights, Joseph J. Amon, July 2024.
AIDS 2024: HIV is Inherently Political, Joseph J. Amon, July 2024.
Hidden health effects of US trade tariffs
The direct and indirect health effects of trade tariffs including access to medicines, food costs, and employment conditions “must be treated as integral to trade policy rather than a peripheral concern,” argue Courtney McNamara and Benjamin Hawkins in the BMJ. Evidence suggests short term harms include higher medicine costs, volatile food prices, and increased economic uncertainty.
Tennessee physicians in position of dual loyalty
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has submitted an amicus brief challenging a Tennessee state law that restricts medical providers’ ability to provide abortion care. The so-called “abortion trafficking of a minor” law was enacted in 2024, challenged in July of that year, and now will come before the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. PHR argues that the recently enacted law places physicians in an untenable position: comply with the state’s statutory scheme and potentially jeopardize their patients’ health, or follow medical standards and risk substantial civil and criminal penalties.
See also: US Clinicians Face a Dual Loyalty Crisis over Reproductive Health Care, Ranit Mishori, Payal K. Shah, Karen Naimer, and Michele Heisler, Vol 26/1, 2024.
Outrage after funding slashed to replace toxic lead pipes in US
There is outrage among some politicians and activists after the US Congress voted to slash $125m for replacing toxic lead drinking water pipes that are particularly a threat to children, reported The Guardian. The move will hit Michigan, Illinois, Texas, New York and other states with the highest levels of lead pipes the hardest. The Environmental Protection Agency has said no level of exposure to it is safe, and it lowers IQ scores in children, stunts their development and increases blood pressure in adults.
See also: Mobilizing Health Metrics for the Human Right to Water in Flint and Detroit, Michigan, Nadia Gaber, Volume 21/1, June 2019
UN experts demand medical care for Yang Li
Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right to health, and other UN human rights experts, are urging China to provide full medical care to Yang Li, a human rights defender. She has repeatedly been arbitrarily detained, harassed, and assaulted since 2014 due to her advocacy against land requisition and crop clearance, said the experts, adding that since 2023, she has repeatedly been subjected to physical assaults, administrative detention, and other obstructions when attempting to travel to Beijing to file petitions and receive medical treatment.
Indonesian health coalition challenges patent law
The Indonesian Coalition for Patient Rights Advocacy for Access to Medicines is seeking a judicial review of the extension of a 2024 Indonesian Patent Law. The extension excluded a central article that protects patient care from patent monopolies. The Indonesian Pulmonary Hypertension Foundation, explained that the extension of patents without clear innovation keeps drug prices high and places an enormous burden on patients, families, and the national health insurance program.
Older people in Gaza overlooked in humanitarian response
Amnesty International and HelpAge International report that older people in Gaza are being overlooked yet they are deprived of adequate shelter, stable support and housing, food, and medication. “Many continue to endure degrading living conditions and desperate humanitarian situation following the destruction of their homes and repeated displacements. Israeli authorities must immediately and unconditionally lift their blockade, and allow the unhindered entry of essential supplies, including medicine and shelter materials.”
See also: A destruction of the conditions of life: Report on Genocide in Gaza, Fiona Campbell, July 2025
Türk: Resurgence of violence in Tigray must stop…
Escalating tensions and clashes in the northwest of Ethiopia’s Tigray state raise concerns that conflict in the state may spread. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk expressed alarm at these trends and urged for de-escalation from both sides: the Ethiopian army and regional forces. “The situation remains highly volatile, and we fear it will further deteriorate, worsening the region’s already precarious human rights and humanitarian situation,” he said, noting also that civilians are once again bearing the brunt of conflict in the country.
.. global inaction over Sudan condemned
Türk has also condemned inaction and urged involvement in the effort to bring the humanitarian and human rights crisis to an end in Sudan. “My Office sounded the alarm about the risk of mass atrocities in the besieged city of El Fasher for more than a year…The threat was clear, but warnings were not heeded…If we stand by, wringing our hands while armies and armed groups commit well-flagged international crimes, we can only expect worse to come.”
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