Health and Human Rights News
Week ending 12 July 2025
UN liquidity crisis hits human rights activities
In response to High Commissioner Volker Türk’s announcement that the international aid funding crisis has placed the UN in a liquidity crisis, the Human Rights Council (HRC) has cancelled 13 human rights activities, including one related to eliminating domestic violence, and others on prevention of adolescent pregnancy and discrimination against women and girls. The HRC will only partially deliver a further five. Türk said, “The situation is deeply regrettable, and I will not conceal my concern at the overall impact that this will have on the promotion and protection of human rights on the ground”.
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
HRC Resolution on medicine and vaccine access
One of the 25 resolutions adopted by the Human Rights Council this week focuses on vaccine and medicine access as a right to health concern. The resolution urges the international community to assist (financially and otherwise) countries to promote the right to health, invites the Special Rapporteur to continue the mandate with a focus on effective and quality health products, and calls for the High Commissioner’s office to report on “the measures necessary to bridge protection gaps to ensure the accessibility and availability of medicines, vaccines and other health products”.
US sanctions against UN Expert a “disgraceful affront”
UN High Commissioner Volker Türk, and UN Human Rights Council President Jürg Lauber have called for the United States to reverse its sanctions against UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Francesca Albanese. Albanese, a human rights lawyer, has repeatedly called for the end of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and criticized other countries’ support of Israel. Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard described the sanctions as shameless, and a disgraceful affront on the fundamental principles of international justice.
Protecting climate system is a human rights duty
A ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has been issued clarifying that states have a legal obligation to prevent harm to the climate system. Human Rights Watch commented that the court’s opinion may help drive new climate commitments and ensure people can influence these decisions through meaningful participation. The long-anticipated Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency and Human Rights was requested by Chile and Colombia in 2023. They asked the court to clarify states’ obligations under the American Convention, the San Salvador Protocol to that treaty, and other regional treaties.
See also:
Health Care in a Changing Climate: A Review of Climate Change Laws and National Adaptation Plans in Latin America, Thalia Viveros-Uehara, Volume 23/2, December 2021
A Breath of Fresh Air: Indian Supreme Court Declares Protection from Climate Change a Fundamental Right, Parth Chhapolia, 20 April 2025
Taliban leaders wanted for persecution of women must do better
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for the Supreme Leader and the Chief Justice of the Taliban, for their propagation of the persecution of women, girls, and gender-nonconforming individuals. This discrimination, falling under Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute, has been imposed by the Taliban since the group seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. It has led to the targeting of women, gender and sexual minorities, and those described as “allies of girls and women”.
See also:
FIGHT FOR RIGHTS: Are Women’s Rights Human Rights Once and for All? Flavia Bustreo, Revati Phalkey, Rajat Khosla, and Kate Gilmore, 7 July 2025
US seeks confidential gender-related patient records
The US Justice Department has issued subpoenas demanding confidential patient information from more than 20 doctors and hospitals that provide gender-related treatments to minors, according to the New York Times. The Trump administration is opposed to transgender medical care. Most of the subpoenas, issued through the consumer protection unit of the department’s civil division, attempt to sidestep federal confidentiality protections for patients and their medical providers.
US medical groups sue Health Secretary over COVID advice…
Leading US medical organizations have filed a lawsuit against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. following his changes to federal COVID-19 vaccine recommendations which contravene research and consensus from vaccine experts. The groups include American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, and the American Public Health Association, among others.
…and measles cases highest since 2000
There have been 1288 measles cases in the United States this year, more than in any other year since 2000, when the virus was declared eliminated. One adult and two children have died this year, the first such deaths in a decade. The New York Times reported that experts fear the country will soon lose its elimination status.
Israel’s restrictions on medical supplies causing death and anguish
The Israeli government’s restrictions on medical supplies entering Gaza have led to preventable suffering and death, according to a new study published by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Global Human Rights Clinic (GHRC) at the University of Chicago Law School. “Throughout this war, Israel’s limits on life-saving medical supplies – such as anesthesia, gauze, sanitation materials, and orthopedic tools – have been deliberate, excessive, unclear, unpredictable, and unjustified,” said PHR’s executive director Sam Zarifi. The study includes 47 in-depth interviews with medical professionals who provided medical care in Gaza between December 2023 and December 2024.
Health crisis in Gaza worsens
The United Nations reports that scores of people – including medical staff and their families – have been killed in the past week in Gaza. UN health partners in Gaza are providing emergency care despite very limited resources and the health crisis in Gaza is worsening. Eleven trucks carrying medical aid entered the Gaza Strip this week but access for aid remains complex. Mass casualty incidents occur almost every day and the need for food is dire across the region. Gazan health authorities report more than 1,500 medical staff have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.
See also:
A Doctor’s Resistance in Gaza: Academic Action Abdulwhhab Abu Alamrain and Bilal Irfan, 19 June 2025
Cholera escalates in South Sudan
As peak rainy season looms in South Sudan, the nation’s cholera outbreak is escalating alongside regional outbreaks of other communicable diseases. Access to food and water has rapidly declined as the nation faces conflict, displacement, and climate shocks, and an already overstretched public health system is struggling to support thousands who have contracted the disease since the outbreak was declared in October 2024. The UN warns that “Floods more than double the frequency of cholera outbreaks by imperilling access to clean water and impeding humanitarian access to affected areas. And with rising global temperatures making floods more severe, millions of South Sudanese who were not previously in regions of concern may now be at risk for cholera outbreaks.”
See also:
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, June 30, 2025
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