In the two years since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision, 14 states have banned abortion in almost all circumstances. As a result, growing numbers of clinicians are facing possible criminal and civil penalties for the provision of basic health care, creating real threats to public health and human rights.
To mark Human Rights Day, PHR hosted a conversation about how health professionals can use their skills and platforms to document and call attention to human rights violations.
December 7, 2022
Asylum, Attacks on Health Care, COVID-19, Persecution of Health Workers
In June, world-leading anti-torture experts launched the Istanbul Protocol 2022, the updated United Nations-backed guidelines for effective investigation and documentation of torture to help health professionals, lawyers, and other human rights specialists to contribute to accountability for torture in countries and communities around the world. In September 2022, PHR convened experts to reflect on the […]
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) hosted an online panel briefing to discuss topline findings and key recommendations of its new report, “‘Excited Delirium’ and Deaths in Police Custody: The Deadly Impact of a Baseless Diagnosis,” which finds that “excited delirium” is not a valid, independent medical or psychiatric diagnosis. Launching the new study, medical and […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the chronic underfunding of the U.S. public health system and has engendered violent threats and politically motivated attacks on officials and institutions, jeopardizing the safety of public health workers and the foundation of public health systems nationwide. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) hosted a discussion on how these unrelenting attacks […]
On Monday, September 20, 2021, PHR hosted a virtual press conference with top public health, epidemiology, and human rights experts calling on high-income countries to do much more to scale up vaccine manufacturing and equitable distribution. The event was moderated by PHR COVID-19 senior policy expert Max Hadler. Participants included: Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, President […]
The COVID-19 virus has posed a heightened threat to those in U.S. immigration custody. On Monday, June 28, at 11 a.m. EDT, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) hosted a discussion on the health and human rights implications of COVID-19 within ICE detention centers, including how the public health crisis has been handled throughout the pandemic, […]
On June 10, 2021 at 12:00 PM EDT, Physicians for Human Rights hosted a discussion on how the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of health care workers in speaking out for health and human rights on the front lines of the pandemic. The panel featured alumni of PHR’s Student Advisory Board. The conversation was […]
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) hosted a discussion on how governments, advocates, and community organizations are working to address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. The conversation was moderated by Heidi Larson, MA, PhD, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she is professor of anthropology and risk and […]
The Trump administration’s misuse of a long-forgotten public health statute has turned the Title 42 policy into one of the most restrictive immigration policies ever implemented at the U.S. southern border. President Biden has yet to repeal the policy, sustaining massive expulsions of asylum seekers, including families, and putting people’s lives in danger by blocking […]
