Health and Human Rights News
News to 6 June 2026
Attacks on health are a feature of modern conflicts
The Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition report on violence against health care in conflict for 2025, published this week, documents over 2,500 incidents across 33 countries, including kidnappings, arrests, and killings of health workers. States are the dominant perpetrators of these attacks but there are rising numbers of attacks by non-state actors, drone warfare has expanded, and more health workers and being kidnapped. Coalition Co-chairs Joseph Amon and Rohini Haar note that “ongoing attacks on health are happening in a context of retreat from global health assistance,” and therefore “compound the inability of already vulnerable community to access care.”
See also: A Decade of Failure: Attacks on Health Care Ten Years After Resolution 2286, VIEWPOINT, Joseph J. Amon and Rohini J. Haar, 5 June 2026
Clarification of social rights in armed conflict 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.
US strikes on ships have killed 196 people
The Trump Administration air strikes on ships in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific have now killed nearly 200 people since September 2025, under the guise stopping drug trafficking, reports Amnesty International. They state, “These actions, committed against people who pose no imminent threat to life, are extrajudicial killings, a form of murder, and amount to crimes under international law.”
More political control on research grants for health
The White House is proposing to gain extensive control over billions of dollars in government grants for health, housing, science, and transportation research so it is politically aligned with the Trump Administration. “In exchange for federal assistance, researchers would face limits on the subjects that they can explore, the foreign labs with which they may collaborate and even the conferences at which they can appear” reports the New York Times. The American Public Health Association claims the policy could devastate innovation, science and research in the United States
See also:“Politicized” Science and Attacks on Public Health, Joseph J. Amon, Vol 27/2, 2025
UN Experts welcome resolution on climate change
The Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, and other UN Experts applauded the UN General Assembly’s recent vote to adopt the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion on state’s obligations on climate change. They urge all States to rely on the ICJ findings in the upcoming UN climate negotiations including the second Conference on Transitioning away from Fossil Fuels, the UN biodiversity and desertification conferences, and in ongoing UN treaty negotiations on plastic pollution, protection of persons in the event of disasters, and on business and human rights..
See also: EDITORIAL Health Rights and the Urgency of the Climate Crisis, Carmel Williams and Gillian MacNaughton, Vol 23/2, 2021
Thousands of Cubans stranded after deportation to Mexico
Over 4,300 Cubans living in the United States have been deported to Mexico by the Trump Administration, claims Human Rights Watch. It says many are older people with serious health conditions and who have lived in the United States for decades. “The Mexican government is not offering them any way to obtain durable legal status outside of the asylum system, leaving many in limbo with no shelter, no medication, and at the mercy of criminal organizations.”
UN Experts condemn surging Israeli settler violence
UN Experts, including the Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, expressed alarm at a rapid escalation in Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. “The escalating violence, carried out with full impunity, serves as an instrument of coercion in the hands of the occupying power, facilitating ethnic cleansing.” They note a sharp increase in the number of Palestinians killed or injured in settler attacks in 2026 with at least 13 Palestinians killed and close to 500 injured in five months. They called on Israel to cease facilitating this violence as mandated under international human rights law.
Indigenous Peoples gravely vulnerable to Ebola
The Ebola outbreak is most prominent in and around the territories of Indigenous Peoples who already face limited access to health services, warned Tlaleng Mofokeng, special rapporteur on the right to health and Albert K Barume, Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples. They urged the international response “to ensure equitable and non-discriminatory access to healthcare, as well as to strengthen targeted support for Indigenous Peoples affected or at risk from this epidemic.”
WHO invites submissions on select medicines for substance use disorders
Aiming to address the lack of medical treatments for substance abuse disorders, particularly opioid addictions, the World Health Organization issued an invitation to manufacturers to submit expressions of interest for evaluation under the WHO Prequalification Programme. Substance use disorders remain a major global public health concern. Opioids account for a large share of drug-related harm, including fatal overdoses, while access to effective treatment remains limited.
WHO: Protect youth from tobacco addiction
On World No Tobacco Day, 31 May, WHO called on governments to protect young generations from tobacco and nicotine addictions by banning flavoured products, banning advertising, promotion and sponsorship, making indoor public places completely smoke- and vape-free and stepping up enforcement. “Even as tobacco continues to kill millions of people, major tobacco companies are reinventing their business model, continuing to profit from deadly cigarettes while aggressively pushing flavoured e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches and other nicotine products aimed at hooking the next generation.”
WHO paper on use of AI in health policy
The World Health Organization has released a discussion paper on the use of Artificial Intelligence in health policy work. “A unifying principle runs through this guidance: AI should augment, not automate. Humans remain responsible for framing the questions, judging the quality of evidence, interpreting results in context, and weighing ethical considerations.”
See also: Volume 22, Issue 2 (December 2020) Special Section on Big Data, Technology, Artificial Intelligence and the Right to Health
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