Health and Human Rights News
Week ending 11 April 2025
Global healthcare funding insufficient to fulfil rights
Global public funding for healthcare is insufficient for nations to fulfil their right to health obligations, according to a Human Rights Watch report analysing World Health Organization data. As global health systems worldwide recoil from the United States’ sudden termination of much foreign aid and assistance, HRW urges richer governments to consider debt restructuring or relief that, along with appropriate tax reforms, can help improve resourcing of public health care. The 2024 data shows reduced government funding for healthcare increases the out-of-pocket spend, worsens inequalities in healthcare provision, and limits healthcare access.
See also:
Enforceable Commitments to Global Health Needed to Fulfill Rights, Moses Mulumba et al, Viewpoint, March 2025
Abrupt aid cuts put millions at risk in Yemen
Millions of people in Yemen will be left without desperately needed support if the United States does not reinstate foreign aid support to one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, says Amnesty International. Many programs were immediately stopped when the USAID cuts were announced, which Amnesty reports have severely hurt efforts to support and protect women, children, and other vulnerable populations. It is estimated nearly 20 million people, half the population of Yemen, are dependent on aid.
Declining trend in maternal deaths threatened by aid cuts
Although there was a 40% decline in maternal mortality between 2000 and 2023, as reported by WHO, UN, and the World Bank, WHO is warning that progress is at risk in the current aid climate. It states that USAID funding cuts “have led to facility closures and loss of health workers, while also disrupting supply chains for lifesaving supplies and medicines such as treatments for haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and malaria – all leading causes of maternal deaths.” Trends in maternal mortality, was released on World Health Day, 7 April.
Progressive tax policies urged in UN resolution
A UN Human Rights Council resolution has been adopted which links tax justice to human rights obligations. Welcomed by the Center for Economic and Social Rights and other rights-based NGOs, the resolution calls on states to implement efficient and progressive taxation and fiscal policies to uphold economic, social and cultural rights. It also urges action to combat corruption, illicit financial flows, and tax evasion to help mobilize resources for services, such as healthcare, for all.
See also:
Ecuador Court Forces Tax Changes to Comply with the Right to Health, Berenice Cerra and Daniel Dorado, 11 September 2024
The Equity Effect of Universal Health Care, Anja Rudiger, Vol 25/2, 2023
Human Rights and the Political Economy of Universal Health Care: Designing Equitable Financing, Anja Rudiger, Dec 2016, Vol 18/2.
Anti-Trump protests in US and the world…
Called “Hands Off” protests, anti Trump administration rallies took place last weekend in the United States and across Europe. Labelled as a pro-democracy movement, the protests were in response to what is considered a ‘hostile takeover’ and an attack on human rights and freedoms. Organizers said “Hands Off!” demands an end to power grabs by billionaires, referring especially to Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, responsible for the slashing of staff especially in USAID and the Health and Human Services. Further protests are planned later in April.
… Preparing protestors for tear gas
Physicians for Human Rights have released a new guide for protestors focused on so-called ‘crowd control weapons’ including tear gas and other chemical irritants. The brief fact sheet offers advice on what to bring to protests, how to prepare for the use of ‘less-lethal’ weapons by police, and how to respond if exposed to such weapons.
Record numbers of executions especially for drug use
Amnesty International reports that over 1518 people were executed in 15 countries in 2024, the highest number since 2015. Most executions took place in the Middle East. However, the report was unable to include numbers executed in China, North Korea, and Vietnam, all of which use the death penalty extensively, with numbers likely to be in the thousands. One positive finding is that the number of countries carrying out executions is the lowest on record. Over 40% of 2024’s executions were carried out unlawfully for drug-related offences.
See also:
Virtual Roundtable on Compulsory Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation, Health and Human Rights in Asia, by Quinten Lataire, Karen Peters, and Claudia Stoicescu
No Exit: China’s State Surveillance over People Who Use Drugs, by Mu Lin, Nina Sun, and Joseph, J. Amon, 24/1, June 2022
The Politics of Drug Rehabilitation in the Philippines, by Gideon Lasco and Lee Edson Yarcia, 24/1, June 2022
NIH told to study transition regret
After cancelling nearly all US National Institutes of Health (NIH) projects studying transgender health, the White House has now instructed the agency to study negative consequences of transitioning, according to Nature. An email stated the agency “has been directed to fund research on a few specific areas” related to what it calls “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children and adults — a reference to gender-affirming care and surgery. “This is very important to the President and the Secretary” of the HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Nature reported that many scientists, reeling from the abrupt cancellation of more than US$180 million in NIH funding for research on transgender health, slammed the proposed studies as ideologically driven.
See also:
Trump’s banned words and disastrous health policies, Joseph J. Amon 4 February 2025
Forced transfer: Displaced communities, forgotten people
The displacement of Palestinians, and particularly members of seven Palestinian shepherding communities in the West Bank, has been documented by Physicians for Human Rights Israel as constituting the war crime of forced transfer. The report states that the systematic practices of ethnic cleansing have created dire health consequences for Palestinian individuals and communities in the region, including harm from physical violence, reduced food security, poor housing conditions, chronic anxiety, and more.
See also:
It’s Not Whatever, Because This Is Where the Problem Starts”: Racialized Strategies of Elimination as Determinants of Health in Palestine, Benjamin Bouquet, Rania Muhareb, and Rhona Smith, Vol 24/2, 2022
UN Experts: World must act with urgency to save Palestinians in Gaza
Tlaleng Mofokeng, the Special Rapporteur on the right to health, along with other UN Experts, continue to call for the world to help save Palestinians in Gaza. Following the discovery of a mass grave of 15 health and humanitarian workers in Gaza, the experts are advising states that material and political support for Israel “violates their obligation to prevent genocide and risks making them complicit in it.” Heads of multiple UN agencies including UNICEF, UNOPS, UNRWA, WFP, and WHO collectively made a statement on Monday, 7 April, calling for a return to a ceasefire in Gaza. “The partially functional health system is overwhelmed,” the statement reads, “Essential medical and trauma supplies are rapidly running out, threatening to reverse hard-won progress in keeping the health system operational.”
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