Health and Human Rights News
News to 30 January 2026
A public health response to ICE violence
Health and Human Rights editor-in-chief Joseph J. Amon is calling on the public health community to adopt a disaster epidemiology approach to address the epidemic of violence in Minneapolis caused by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This will entail building resilient systems, including within hospitals, addressing urgent needs, protecting human rights, and ensuring accountability. He also outlines the ways in which the siege of Minneapolis violates numerous US Constitutional and international human rights protections.
See also: VIEWPOINT, A Multi-Level Approach to Promoting the Health Rights of Immigrant Children in the United States, Lars Lindgren and Karla Fredricks, Vol 26/2, 2024, pp. 133-136
Violence against protesters in Iran enters second month
The nationwide protests in Iran, spurred by severe economic hardships and restrictions imposed by Iranian authorities on social, cultural, and economic rights, have entered their second month despite the extreme brutality of the Iranian government’s response. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said “Thousands of people, including children, were killed in the course of a security crackdown that intensified on 8 January, with the use of live ammunition by the security forces against demonstrators. More specific facts are difficult to verify because of the communications shutdown that was also initiated on 8 January, and because we do not have access to Iran.”
Aid organizations ordered out of Jonglei, South Sudan
Expanding conflict in South Sudan is putting more civilians at risk of violence, displacement, and shrinking access to humanitarian aid, Human Rights Watch warned this week. “On January 25, South Sudan’s military called on civilians, aid workers, and United Nations personnel to evacuate from opposition-controlled areas in Jonglei state.” Intensifying violence across the country and increasingly incendiary rhetoric from military authorities have given rise to even greater concern in a region where millions remain displaced and face flooding, food insecurity, and life-threatening limits to accessing health care.
Expanded Global Gag Rule
Greater restrictions are to be placed on groups receiving US government assistance which will stop gender-affirming care, as well as any diversity initiatives. US Vice President JD Vance announced the restrictions contained in the “Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance Policy,” effective from the end of February. Human Rights Watch described the policy as draconian.
See also: FIGHT FOR RIGHTS: Reclaiming Sexual and Reproductive Rights Through a Decolonial Lens, Tlaleng Mofokeng, 26 May 2025
US now officially out of the Paris Agreement
The United States is no longer a party to the Paris climate agreement, stopping global solidarity in combating climate change. Amnesty International commented, “The US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement sets a disturbing precedent that seeks to instigate a race to the bottom…The US is one of several powerful anti-climate actors but as an influential superpower, this decision, along with acts of coercion and bullying of other countries and powerful actors to double down on fossil fuels, causes particular harm and threatens to reverse more than a decade of global climate progress under the agreement.”
See also: EDITORIAL Health Rights and the Urgency of the Climate Crisis, Carmel Williams and Gillian MacNaughton, December 2021
Trump administration bans abortions through Veteran Affairs
From 1 February US military veterans, including 2.1 million women, will not be able to access abortions under Veterans Affairs health benefits package, and there will be no exceptions. The Trump administration is reversing a Biden reform that allowed access to abortion. Human Rights Watch and the Center for Reproductive Rights have condemned this rule noting that pregnant veterans already face increased health risks.
See also: FIGHT FOR RIGHTS: The US Administration’s Assault on Global Reproductive Health and Autonomy, Winona Xu, 13 February 2025
WHO guideline encourages healthy school food
The World Health Organization is urging countries to provide food and beverages in schools that are healthy and nutritious. “The food children eat at school, and the environments that shape what they eat, can have a profound impact on their learning, and lifelong consequences for their health and well-being,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General when launching the WHO Guideline on the topic. “Getting nutrition right at school is critical for preventing disease later in life and creating healthier adults.”
See also: FIGHT FOR RIGHTS: Let All Children Eat, Thomas Pogge, 2 March 2025
Pandemic Agreement moving on PABS
Negotiations on the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) system, a key component of the WHO Pandemic Agreement adopted in 2025 have resumed. The PABS system is intended to enable safe, transparent and accountable sharing of pathogens with pandemic potential and their genetic sequence information, alongside the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their use, including vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. “A strong Pathogen Access and Benefit‑Sharing system will be a cornerstone of a safer and more equitable world,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
See also: The Right to Science as a Guidepost for Fair Access to COVID-19 Vaccines: Investigating the Interpretive Role of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Katrina Perehudoff and Jennifer Sellin, Volume 24/2, December 2022, pp. 191-204
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