Physicians for Human Rights and the Council for Global Equality filed a lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to compel the U.S. Department of State to comply with the Freedom of Information Act
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Council for Global Equality (CGE) filed a lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to compel the U.S. Department of State to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and release critical data and planning documents related to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Plaintiffs are represented by Democracy Forward.
Since launching in 2003, PEPFAR has been central to global efforts to combat HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths. For years, the Department routinely released PEPFAR data that reported on the number of people receiving lifesaving HIV treatment and prevention services, and how the program was being implemented around the world. Under the Trump–Vance administration, however, that transparency has abruptly stopped.
Despite multiple FOIA requests submitted in December 2025 seeking Fiscal Year 2025 PEPFAR data, the Department has failed to produce records or provide a lawful timeline for release, forcing PHR and CGE to seek court intervention. This is also true of the six-month FY 2026 “bridge” plans, which could reveal whether lifesaving HIV programs were maintained after October 2025.
The plaintiffs are seeking the release of PEPFAR Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting (MER) datasets, as well as final PEPFAR Bridge Plans, budgets, and planning memoranda for FY 2026. These materials are essential for understanding how recent disruptions to U.S. foreign assistance are affecting the delivery of lifesaving care, particularly for people living with HIV.
“PEPFAR is widely recognized as one of the United States’ most successful foreign aid programs because it follows the science to reduce HIV infections and save lives. As Physicians for Human Rights continues to document the impact of U.S. aid cuts, health workers across Africa report devastating and preventable harms, including increased maternal deaths and infants acquiring HIV despite proven methods to stop transmission,” said Payal Shah, JD, PHR director of research, legal, and advocacy. “We filed this lawsuit to seek transparency: the administration’s PEPFAR data blackout withholds information the public, health providers, and affected communities need to track the HIV epidemic and prevent avoidable illness and death, obscuring the true human cost of these policy decisions.”
“Transparency and inclusion have been hallmarks of PEPFAR’s success in the last decade. This unprecedented withholding of data, and concurrent ideological misdirection of foreign assistance to exclude LGBTQI+ people and others who need inclusive programming, has potentially devastating and asymmetrical impacts on already marginalized communities,” said Beirne Roose-Snyder, Senior Policy Fellow at the Council for Global Equality. “This data is vital to understanding who’s getting access to care and who’s being left behind.”
“The Trump-Vance administration is hiding data about a program that keeps millions of people alive. It begs the question: what are they hiding, and why,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “The State Department didn’t just pause transparency; it slammed the door shut on it. Our clients are in court because the public has the right to know whether political decisions are translating into preventable suffering and death.”
The lawsuit alleges that the State Department has violated FOIA by failing to respond within legally required timelines and by withholding records that have historically been made public. The plaintiffs are asking the court to order the State Department to conduct an adequate search, release all non-exempt records, and stop unlawfully withholding information.
The case is Physicians for Human Rights et al. v. U.S. Department of State, and the legal team at Democracy Forward includes Daniel McGrath, Amy Vickery, and Robin Thurston.
Read the filing here.
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.