Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today called on the incoming U.S. Congress to protect fundamental rights through stronger oversight and science-based policymaking. The new Congress has both an important opportunity and a responsibility to act.
Our Mission
For 40 years, PHR has wielded medical evidence for human rights and justice. Across administrations and political circumstances, our mission has remained steadfast: to ensure that medical and scientific evidence informs decisions affecting people’s lives and to hold perpetrators of human rights violations accountable.
Priorities for the Next Congress
PHR calls on the next Congress to advance the following priorities:
- Defend human rights and public health: Uphold the fundamental right to health, protect access to essential medical care, defend the independence of health professionals, and ensure that government policies are grounded in science, medical ethics, and respect for human dignity. Restore the scientific independence and decision-making capacity of health agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
- Protect asylum seekers and immigrants in detention: Strengthen oversight of immigration detention, including by investigating preventable deaths, medical neglect, and solitary confinement. Improve medical care in detention facilities and restore Department of Homeland Security (DHS) oversight mechanisms. End immigration enforcement actions that harm health and terrorize families and communities. Protect people from torture, including their right to seek asylum and protection from forced return to danger, while ending removals to third countries.
- Protect the right to protest: Defend the right to peaceful assembly and expression, investigate excessive force by law enforcement, and establish stronger protections against the misuse of dangerous crowd-control weapons, including during immigration enforcement operations and public demonstrations.
- Advance reproductive justice: Protect access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including emergency medical treatment and medication abortion. Ensure that patients can make decisions about their health and reproductive futures without discrimination or political interference, and that clinicians can fulfill their professional obligations without legal risk.
- Protect civilians in conflict zones: Strengthen U.S. leadership in ending gender-based violence and protecting civilians, health workers, and medical facilities during armed conflict. Uphold and promote international humanitarian law, including in conflicts like Ethiopia, Gaza, and Ukraine. Support independent domestic investigations into violations of the laws of war, and where necessary, support regional and international accountability measures and advance accountability for attacks on health care, conflict-related sexual and reproductive violence, and other human rights abuses.
- Restore U.S. global health assistance: Rebuild U.S. investments in lifesaving global health programs and restore essential services disrupted by funding cuts. Ensure that U.S. global health assistance prioritizes health outcomes and equitable access to care. Investigate and ensure accountability for the predictable harms of U.S. global health cuts to date.
- End the assault on human rights and global health institutions: Reverse U.S. sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and end interference in the ICC’s vital work for survivors of atrocities. Restore and strengthen U.S. engagement with multilateral organizations including the United Nations (UN) and World Health Organization (WHO).
Evidence for Action
PHR has spent the last two years and beyond gathering data and documenting harms in many situations where the U.S. government abdicated its long-standing role in monitoring and research. We have investigated violations ranging from the consequences of U.S. global health cuts to the injuries caused by law enforcement abuse during protests to the surging death rate in immigration detention. PHR’s unique data can now be harnessed for advocacy, accountability, and reform. In the months ahead, PHR will mobilize its community of medical, scientific, and legal experts to advance policies grounded in health, dignity, and rights.
Working Together
PHR stands ready to work with policymakers across the political spectrum and officials across branches of the U.S. and state governments to bring rigorous medical evidence, the expertise of health professionals, and the experiences of affected communities into the policymaking process. Effective oversight, independent investigations, and meaningful legislative protections can save lives, prevent abuses, and deliver sustainable improvements.
As a new Congress prepares to take office, PHR will continue mobilizing medical evidence for justice – and working to ensure that this moment of political change becomes an opportunity for meaningful human rights progress.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a New York-based advocacy organization that uses science and medicine to prevent mass atrocities and severe human rights violations. Learn more here.