Deceptively known as “less-lethal,” these weapons can in fact cause severe injuries and even death when used with excessive force. Physicians for Human Rights has worked extensively on the health impacts of these weapons and has issued the following guidance to help people seeking to exercise their right to protest prepare for, protect against, and […]
The Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC), of which PHR is a part, has released a report (available in English and Ukrainian) documenting 394 incidents of violence against or obstruction of health care in Ukraine in 2023. The ongoing conflict, initiated by Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, has left nearly a fifth of Ukraine’s […]
This fact sheet summarizes the findings of the first published multi-sectoral consensus-building exercise on medico-legal affidavits in the U.S. immigration context. Medico-legal affidavits are underpinned by an expert medical evaluation which can objectively contextualize trauma and corroborate accounts of abuse; they are a critical component in immigration proceedings where somebody is seeking protection on the […]
The novel coronavirus has spread rapidly around the globe, infecting more than 100 million people and killing more than two million, with the toll rising daily. There are more than 25 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 450,000 deaths in the United States alone. Meanwhile, new coronavirus variants originating from Brazil, South Africa, and […]
In response to recent protests against racism and police brutality sparked by the killing of George Floyd by police in May 2020, law enforcement officers across the United States have deployed crowd-control weapons, such as tear gas, rubber bullets, and pepper spray to disperse large crowds. While these weapons are often referred to as “non-lethal” […]
Kinetic impact projectiles (KIPs) commonly known as rubber and plastic bullets, are used for crowd-control purposes by law enforcement worldwide in multiples forms and are shot from myriad types of guns and launchers.
Overview Chemical irritants (CIs), commonly known as tear gas and pepper spray, are used for crowd-control purposes by law enforcement worldwide. While the public perception may be that CIs cause minimal, transient harm, the findings of a systematic review of medical literature carried out by Physicians for Human Rights identify troubling levels of morbidity and […]
