Health and Human Rights News
News to 30 May 2026
World Health Assembly focuses on equity…
The 79th World Health Assembly, held in Geneva under the theme “Reshaping global health: a shared responsibility,” concluded this week with the adoption of more than 20 decisions and 13 resolutions focused on health equity, digital integration, and global health security. These included: a resolution to advance pharmacovigilance; an updated global action plan on antimicrobial resistance; commitment to the Immunization Agenda 2030; measures to advance precision medicine.
……Ethical health worker recruitment code updated
Critical amendments were added to the WHO Global Code of Practice. The first significant update in 16 years expands regulations to cover internationally recruited care workers and mandates that destination nations invest back into the source countries’ health systems. The Center for Global Development commented that the amendments are a step in the right direction but enforcement will be the challenge.
…Traditional medicine a lever for global health transformation
WHA held three high level meetings focused on financing and innovation, protection of biodiversity, and youth leadership as ways to support the goals of the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034. Best ways of incorporating traditional medicine into health systems included strengthening its evidence base; supporting regulation or safe and effective use; integration into in primary health care.
See also: Governing Difference: Traditional Peoples’ Rights and the Institutionalization of Traditional Medicine in South America, Pedro Crepaldi Carlessi, Vitor Henrique Pinto Ido, and Islândia Maria Carvalho de Sousa, 19 May 2026
WHO and Africa sign agreement on quality products
The World Health Organization and African Medicines Agency signed a framework to strengthen regulations and systems to ensure quality health products across Africa. WHO described the Framework Agreement for Collaboration as a decisive step towards building a more unified, efficient and resilient regulatory ecosystem in Africa, benefiting not only the continent, but the world.
See also: FIGHT FOR RIGHTS VIEWPOINT Breaking Barriers: Strengthening Health Equity in Sub-Saharan Africa Through Improved Local Pharmaceutical Production, Stuart Ssebibubbu, Denis Kibira, and Adriano Lubanga, Vol 27/1, 2025
Most nations vote to operationalize climate accountability
An overwhelming majority voted at the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution that will bring clear guidelines and accountability to climate change commitments. Amnesty International said the adoption of the resolution showed that states have recognized that they have legal duties to address the profound human rights crisis posed by climate change as set forth in the 2025 International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) Advisory Opinion.
See also: EDITORIAL Health Rights and the Urgency of the Climate Crisis, Carmel Williams and Gillian MacNaughton, Vol 23/2, 2021
Report proposes economic indicators beyond GDP
The UN Secretary-General’s Independent High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP has developed 31 indicators to support economic decision making, structured around peace, human rights, and respect for the planet; well-being; equity and inclusion; and sustainability and resilience. Health outcomes such as healthy life expectancy at birth and environmental quality measures are included.
See also: Equality Restricted: The Problematic Compatibility between Austerity Measures and Human Rights Law, Michael G. Marcondes Smith, Vol 25/2, 2023 and Human Rights and the Political Economy of Universal Health Care: Designing Equitable Financing, Anja Rudiger, Vol 18/2, 2016
Millions to lose access to Medicaid
From 1 June, states in the US will be required to impose new work requirements on low-income Medicaid applicants and beneficiaries which will consequently deny health coverage to millions. Oxfam America and Human Rights Watch are urging federal regulators to clarify the rules stating, “Further conditioning coverage though complex work reporting requirements is likely to exclude millions more, undermining their rights to health, food, and social security, while deepening inequality.”
Aid cuts fuel Ebola …
Ten days after it was first declared an international public health emergency, there have been more than 1000 cases and over 200 deaths from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Aid cuts over the past 15 months by the Trump administration have shut down disease surveillance networks and medical supply chains that might have detected and contained the epidemic sooner, the New York Times reports.
… but efforts put into keeping it out of the US
The Trump administration has invoked a public health law known as Title 42 to bar immigrants and legal permanent residents who have been in Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the previous 21 days from entering the United States. Americans exposed to Ebola are being sent to Germany and Kenya for treatment, not back to the United States as has happened in previous outbreaks.
UN Expert condemns torture in Israeli detention centers…
The UN Special Rapporteur on torture reiterated demands that Israel review and revise its detention policies and practices. Alice Jill Edwards said her latest investigation provided detailed findings of widespread torture in detention as well as a persistent failure to ensure accountability for perpetrators.
… Former hospital director shares harrowing testimony
Former director of Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, Dr. Ahmad Mhanna, has described his 22-month detention by Israeli forces. He told Amnesty International of the harrowing conditions he and other detainees faced, including engineered starvation, nonexistence of hygiene, severe overcrowding, ritual beatings, and humiliation.
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