Human Resources and Administrative Officer Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which shared in the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, is a U.S.-based international advocacy organization working at the intersection of medicine, science, and law. With a global network of thousands of medical, scientific, and legal experts, PHR uses the power of medical and scientific evidence […]

Strategic litigation is a core tool that PHR uses to advocate for justice. By bringing medical evidence into the courtroom, we challenge policies that harm patients, undermine science, and violate fundamental human rights. Our work bridges medicine and law – translating frontline clinical expertise and research into compelling legal arguments that protect lives and hold governments accountable.  PHR partners with legal organizations, […]

Law enforcement agencies in the United States have used excessive force and wielded crowd-control weapons in dangerous ways against demonstrators protesting the dramatic escalation in immigration enforcement. To document that misuse systematically, and give the public, government officials, and oversight bodies the information they need to prevent further abuses, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and […]

New York, N.Y. / Berkeley, California — Law enforcement agents misused crowd-control weapons during protests against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations in 412 verified incidents across 16 U.S. cities from when immigration enforcement protests escalated in Los Angeles in June 2025 until May 2026, according to Charting the Crackdown, a digital mapping report released […]

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Human Rights Center at the University of California at Berkeley (HRC) published “Charting the Crakdown”, a report that documents 412 incidents where federal and local agencies misused crowd-control weapons (CCWs) between June 2025-2026.

Health and Human Rights Researcher (Middle East or Africa Consultant) Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which shared in the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, is a U.S.-based international advocacy organization working at the intersection of medicine, science, and law. With a global network of thousands of medical, scientific, and legal experts, PHR uses the power […]

Lawyers for Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya say the Palestinian physician is facing grave illness and abuse inside Israel detention. Dr. Nahreen Ahmed traveled to Gaza and worked alongside Dr. Abu Safiya in Gaza. She was moved by his unwavering dedication to his patients as director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital. “He was able to find […]

Development Operations Manager Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which shared in the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, is a U.S.-based international advocacy organization working at the intersection of medicine, science, and law. With a global network of thousands of medical, scientific, and legal experts, PHR uses the power of medical and scientific evidence to document […]

Advocating on Behalf of Patients in Immigration Custody: What Clinicians Need to Know Wednesday, July 8 | Held online via Zoom | 7:00pm ET / 6:00pm CT / 5:00pm MT / 4:00pm PT (90 minutes)  Immigration enforcement is increasingly reaching into hospitals and clinics across the United States. Clinicians are caring for patients who arrive accompanied by, and in the custody of officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and […]

Webinar: Expanding Medical Expertise into Broader Immigration, Civil Rights, and Accountability Work Wednesday, July 29 | Held online via Zoom | 7:00pm ET / 6:00pm CT / 5:00pm MT / 4:00pm PT (90 minutes)  Clinicians trained in forensic medical evaluation (FME) and the Istanbul Protocol have long applied those skills within humanitarian protection and asylum […]

(Washington, DC, June 25, 2026) – The rate of people dying in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody has soared, with at least 52 deaths reported since the start of President Donald Trump’s current administration, Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights said in a report released today. The 72-page report, “Dying in […]

The mortality rate of deaths in ICE custody is at its highest level in over a decade and has more than doubled since Trump’s second term began.

Rachel Guerreiro is the Advocacy and Operations Coordinator at Physicians for Human Rights, supporting PHR’s research, legal, and advocacy efforts to ensure accountability for human rights violations, as well as the general operational functions that enable the organization to advance its mission. Prior to joining PHR, she served as Program Coordinator at the NGO Committee […]

When clinicians, scientists, lawyers, and advocates in our global network come together around a shared commitment to use expertise in service of justice, the truth cannot be silenced.

Care in the Crosshairs: Violence Against Health Care in Conflict in 2025, released today by the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC), documents 2,546 incidents of violence against or obstruction of health care across 33 countries in 2025, including 790 incidents where hospitals were damaged or destroyed and 455 health workers killed. International humanitarian law […]

As Ethiopia prepares to hold parliamentary and regional elections on Monday, June 1, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Organization for Justice and Accountability in the Horn of Africa (OJAH) warned that the vote is taking place amid growing instability, escalating repression, and ongoing humanitarian and human rights crises across the country. Drone strikes and attacks against civilian infrastructure in Amhara, reports of a health system near collapse due to a […]

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) submission to the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for the Draft General Comment on the Application of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Situations of Armed Conflict (May 2026)

(Statement available in English here) Des coupes massives américaines dans les programmes de santé mondiaux essentiels, notamment des coupes de financement et de personnel aux Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), le démantèlement de l’Agence américaine pour le développement international (USAID) et le retrait des États-Unis de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS), ont dangereusement affaibli la capacité […]

In response to the Trump administration invoking Title 42 authorities to block access to the U.S. asylum system following the Ebola outbreak, the following quote is attributable to Thomas McHale, SM, public health director at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR): “The Trump administration’s revival of Title 42 in response to the Ebola outbreak in the […]

(Déclaration disponible en français ici) Sweeping U.S. cuts to critical global health programs, including funding and staffing reductions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), have dangerously weakened the world’s ability to respond […]

Senior Manager for Major Gifts  Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which shared in the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, is a U.S.-based international advocacy organization working at the intersection of medicine, science, and law. PHR uses medical and scientific evidence to document violations of human rights and humanitarian law, prevent abuses, protect survivors, and promote justice and universal human rights for […]

U.S. law enforcement agencies increasingly deployed three crowd-control weapons in dangerous ways to crack down on immigration protests over the past year, according to a new visual investigation by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). The PHR visual investigation spotlights these three weapons (scattershot impact projectiles, Muzzle Blast rounds, and chemical obscurants), unpacks their health hazards, […]

Drawing on four decades of research on the health and human rights harms of CCWs, a team of PHR experts have documented injuries from these weapons and identified the prominent role certain lesser-known CCWs have played in policing U.S. protests throughout 2025 and 2026.

Scott Reynhout is a research specialist in open-source investigations and small arms and light weapons. His work unites armament research with analyses of public data to approach law enforcement use of force from the perspective of human rights. He is particularly interested in the study of the health impacts of “less-lethal” or crowd-control weapons as […]

On Tuesday, Denny Adan Gonzalez, a Cuban man detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, died from apparent suicide, according to an ICE news release and earlier reporting by immigration researcher Andrew Free – the latest in a surge of deaths inside U.S. immigration detention facilities. […]