Health and Human Rights News
Week ending 18 November 2025
US snubs UN review of its human rights record
The United States has refused to participate in its scheduled Universal Periodic Review (UPR), an act that has been censured by rights groups and the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). “This is particularly concerning given the deteriorating human rights situation in the country,” commented Human Rights Watch. UPR is a process where the human rights record of every member state is reviewed by other states every four years. No UN member state has failed to be reviewed since the creation of the UPR process in 2006.
Gender Abuses Omitted in the 2024 US Human Rights Reports, Winona Xu, 10 September 2025
G20 asked to address threats to human rights and global stability
A report from the Center for Economic and Social Rights calls on the G20 to act decisively to protect people and the planet at its summit in South Africa this month. “People around the world are bearing the cost of an economic system built to protect wealth and power instead of rights and dignity. This report makes clear that the G20 has a choice…It can keep reinforcing this unjust system, or it can act on the priorities of the Global South and confront the deep inequalities it has helped create.”
See also:
Economic Inequality and the Right to Health: On Neoliberalism, Corporatization, and Coloniality, EDITORIAL, Gillian MacNaughton and A. Kayum Ahmed, Vol 25/2, 2023
Fossil fuel infrastructure risks rights and health of 2 billion people
The fossil fuel industry is taking a devastating toll on ecosystems and human rights, details Amnesty International’s report on the lifecycle of fossil fuels, showing its harmful impacts at every step. The report, “Extraction Extinction: Why the lifecycle of fossil fuels threatens life, nature and human rights,” notes that those who live near fossil fuel infrastructure, and indigenous peoples, (whose territories are often used for this infrastructure) are disproportionately exposed to environmental and health risks.
Rights violations suffered by climate-displaced Somalians
The Somali government and international communities failed to address a serious health crisis and support those displaced by climate-induced droughts and flooding, Amnesty International reports. “No rain, no food, no animals: The human rights impact of drought and displacement in Somalia” reports on thousands of climate-displaced people following widespread droughts between 2020 and 2023. “Somalia’s contribution to global warming is negligible, yet its people are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis, while also facing long running conflict and poverty. High income countries, especially those most responsible for climate change, must step in and meet their obligations to support Somalia in adapting to the effects of climate change.”
Türk calls for urgent inquiry into El Fasher atrocities
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk said at a UNHRC meeting on Sudan that the atrocities unfolding in El Fasher were foreseen and preventable–but they were not prevented and they constituted the gravest of crimes. His office had issued more than 20 statements on El Fasher alone over the past year, warning repeatedly about the siege, the spread of famine, and that the fall of the city to the Rapid Support Forces would result in a bloodbath. “But its wake-up calls were not heeded.” A fact finding mission will undertake an urgent inquiry into the human rights violations and identify those responsible.
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
Global health funding cuts could reverse TB successes
The World Health Organization Tuberculosis Report 2025 highlights success in the fight to prevent, diagnose, and treat TB worldwide. However, progress is under threat as global health funding cuts have slashed the budgets needed to sustain these efforts, particularly in low-income nations. WHO is calling for “sustained political commitment, increased domestic investment, and intensified research to accelerate progress” to end TB once and for all.
New TB vaccines need new funding strategies
TB vaccines in clinical development will help combat the world’s most deadly infectious disease, but not unless they are made available equitably, says the World Health Organization. In its report “Catalysing solutions for equitable global access for sustainable financing for novel tuberculosis vaccines for adults and adolescents,” launched at the G20 health ministers meeting in South Africa. “New TB vaccines have the potential to save millions of lives faster and change the course of the epidemic,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “By harnessing the power of science, partnership and finance, we can realize our shared vision to end TB.”
World Parliamentarians discuss health equity and rights
The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) committee on health held its inaugural meeting in late October at the IPU’s 151st assembly, bringing parliamentarians from around the world together to discuss health equity and the role of parliaments in safeguarding health and rights. The World Health Organization joined the talks to discuss sexual and reproductive health and rights, food insecurity challenges, upholding humanitarian law and action, health system resilience, and tobacco control.
Events and Courses
Institute for Universal Rights, Health & Justice Leadership Program: 1 June-10 July 2026, A virtual six-week program
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
FXB, Harvard School of Public Health Webinar: Inherited trauma, inherited equity: Reparations as a determinant of health, November 19, 2025 from 13:00 pm – 14:00 pm EST
University of Essex event: Human rights through art: Conversations on Cinema, Justice and Rights, “Children of the Enemy” November 20, 2025. 14:00 – 16:00 pm GMT
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