Health and Human Rights News
Week ending 19 July 2025
US Senate passes $8 billion in foreign aid cuts…
The US Senate passed a bill that will cancel about $8 billion that had been promised for foreign assistance programs. The bill helps President Trump cut government spending and slash USAID’s global health programs, along with other foreign aid programs which have already been largely gutted.
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
… and a third of scientific research…
President Trump’s budget plan guts science funding for the next fiscal year, according to The American Association for the Advancement of Science analysis. Particularly at risk is basic research which it says it will fall by more than one-third.
…leading to Monday July 21: a day of action
Scientists, policy makers, and researchers are collaborating with the Center for American Progress to launch a Day of Action on Monday, July 21, to protect science and American innovation. This Day of Action will urge Americans to contact their members of Congress, virtually and in-person, and call on them to protect R&D funding and prevent any further cuts to federal investments. The Day of Action will also highlight stories from Americans who have been impacted by federal funding cuts.
23andMe bankruptcy ruling allows sale of genetic archive
A US Bankruptcy Court on 30 June approved the $305 million sale of 23andMe’s genetic data and assets to TTAM Research Institute. Despite objections from more than 24 US states, the court found no legal grounds to block the transaction under existing bankruptcy law. On July 10, a federal judge declined to pause the sale during appeal, and confirmed that consumer DNA data could be treated as an asset sale if structured as a change in ownership.
See also:
DNA For Sale: The Human Rights Crisis in the 23andMe Bankruptcy, Kaori Kawaguchi and Moon Hwan Lee, June 26, 2025
Horrors of Gaza leave officials without words
Health infrastructure collapse, widespread starvation, and impediments to aid are contributing to indescribable suffering in the Gaza Strip, the UN Security Council was told this week. Gaza’s health system is “shattered”, medicine is out of stock, medical equipment is damaged, and 95% of Gaza is facing water insecurity, and children are bearing the brunt. The UN Human Rights Office reported that nearly 900 Gazans have been killed while trying to get food from aid convoys, many from private aid hubs run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Desperate women in Gaza trade in urine
In Gaza, the humanitarian crisis has led to the emergence of a desperate trade in pregnant women’s urine, showing the extent of nutritional insecurity and economic desperation. Various private and international aid organizations require a positive urine pregnancy test to distribute nutritional supplements, medications, and food, hence approaches are made to pregnant women to buy their urine.
Palestinians with disabilities uniquely impacted
Disabled Palestinians face increased risk of death and injury in Gaza, Human Rights Watch told the UN Committee on the Rights of People with Disabilities on 11 July. People with disabilities are suffering violations of their rights by Israeli forces as a result of forced displacement, starvation, lack of advance warning of attacks, and repeated attacks on health care infrastructure. “Children are the most affected and children with disabilities who are in need of ongoing access to medical care have been disproportionally impacted.”
EU upholding EU-Israel Agreement is a betrayal
The European Union conducted a review of its EU-Israel Association Agreement, finding that Israel was violating its human rights obligations, yet opted to maintain the deal. “The EU’s refusal to suspend its agreement with Israel is a cruel and unlawful betrayal – of the European project and vision, predicated on upholding international law and fighting authoritarian practices, of the European Union’s own rules and of the human rights of Palestinians” said Amnesty International.
Celebrating human rights successes
In a year that has largely been filled with human rights regressions and violations, Amnesty International has documented some successes over the last six months. The 29 ‘human rights wins’ give insight into the change that can be made if people refuse to quit in the fight for justice.
See also:
FIGHT FOR RIGHTS: Politics of Health in a State of Exception: Martial Law in South Korea
Yeon Jung Yu, Eojin Yi, Young Su Park, Martin McKee, and Jiho Cha, 15 July 2025
FIGHT FOR RIGHTS: Advocating for Reproductive Rights in Northern Ireland: Access to First-Trimester Screening, Fiona Bloomer, Suzie Heaney, and Claire Lougarre, 11 May 2025
South African runner wins important victory in ECHR
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in favor of Caster Semenya, a South African runner, finding that the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and Swiss Federal Supreme Court had been discriminatory and failed to protect her rights. “The World Athletics regulations require women like Semenya, whose naturally occurring testosterone levels associated with specific sex development diagnoses fall above a set threshold, to reduce those levels to compete in specific events,” explains Human Rights Watch. “These regulations, in effect since 2019, continue a long and damaging legacy of sex testing in sport.”
Gender-blind macroeconomic policies further gender injustice
Economic policies entrench gender injustice, writes the Center for Economic and Social Rights in a blog ahead of the 2025 High Level Political Forum and the role it will play in reviewing the Sustainable Development Goals (and particularly SDG 5 — achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls). It quotes Oxfam’s 2025 Inequality Report showing that since 2020, the five richest men doubled their fortunes, while almost five billion people have seen their wealth fall, and it calculates that it would take 1,200 years for a female worker in the health and social sector to earn what a CEO in the biggest Fortune 100 companies earns on average in one year.
See also:
EDITORIAL Economic Inequality and the Right to Health: On Neoliberalism, Corporatization, and Coloniality, Gillian MacNaughton and A. Kayum Ahmed Vol 25/2, 2023, pp. 105-110
Right-based development finance panel
A Center for Economic and Social Rights panel, “Rights-Based Development Finance: A Post-Seville Agenda” was held at the recent 4th Financing for Development Conference. It focused on steps governments and international institutions must take to align fiscal and financial systems with human rights obligations, including the need to move away from regressive financing tools and austerity, and toward equitable tax systems, fair debt rules, and sustained public investment in rights-fulfilling services.
See also:
Are Development Finance Institutions Meeting Their Human Rights Obligations in Health? Anna Marriott, Anjela Taneja and Linda Oduor-Noah, Vol 25/2, 2023, pp. 141-153
Equality Restricted: The Problematic Compatibility between Austerity Measures and Human Rights Law, Michael G. Marcondes Smith, Vol 25/2, 2023, pp. 177-189
Vaccines save lives and money
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and Australia’s Burnet Institute published a study in the British Medical Journal finding that on average, rapid vaccine deployment led to an estimated 60% average reduction in illness and death. Gavi explained the significance of this research, “For the first time, we are able to comprehensively quantify the benefit, in human and economic terms, of deploying vaccines against outbreaks of some of the deadliest infectious diseases. This study demonstrates clearly the power of vaccines as a cost-effective countermeasure to the increasing risk the world faces from outbreaks.”
WHO recommends Lenacapavir for HIV prevention
The World Health Organization has recommended twice yearly injections of lencapavir for HIV prevention, and described the injectable as is a highly effective, long-acting antiretroviral alternative to daily oral pills and other shorter-acting options. The UN commented that WHO’s support for the injectable drug is significant because HIV prevention efforts are stagnating around the world.
See also:
The Role of Civil Society in Mobilizing Human Rights Struggles for Essential Medicines: A Critique from HIV/AIDS to COVID-19, Sharifah Sekalala and Belinda Rawson, Volume 24/2, December 2022
AIDS 2024: HIV is Inherently Political Joseph J. Amon, July 2024
Use of AI for health discussed at global summit
At the AI for Good Global Summit this week World Health Organization (WHO) Director for the Department of Digital Health and Innovation said WHO will be focusing on some key priority areas: governance – asking if countries are ready to take on AI-based systems within their health system; regulation – assessing if countries have the necessary regulatory and assessment frameworks to evaluate whether an AI tool is good; and localization – evaluating if an AI tool is appropriate for the context in which it is being deployed.
See also:
A Health Rights Impact Assessment Guide for Artificial Intelligence Projects, Carmel Williams, Volume 22/2, December 2020
Human Rights and Digital Health Technologies, Nina Sun, Kenechukwu Esom, Mandeep Dhaliwal, and Joseph J. Amon, Volume 22/2, December 2020
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