PHR leadership and staff recently presented key findings and evidence at the 61st Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva. The team delivered several statements before the Council, partnered with other NGOs to amplify findings about the impact of attacks on health, and met with states and other partners about ongoing human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Gaza, and Ukraine.
Attacks on Health and Civilians in Ukraine and Beyond
Four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, attacks on health in Ukraine increased 50% in 2025, despite promises of ceasefire and peace negotiations. In an interactive dialogue with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, PHR International Advocacy and Ukraine Program Coordinator Uliana Poltavets delivered a statement sharing data on the human costs of these attacks.
Renewed attacks on energy infrastructure are driving health harms and weaponizing winter conditions. Health workers we surveyed reported recurring power disruptions affecting their facilities – causing the delay and denial of life-saving care. Disruptions to medical devices, treatment routines, and basic services, often combined with water and heating outages, have led to heightened risks for people with chronic illness, disabilities, and older adults.
Documenting direct and reverberating impacts of attacks on health is essential for accountability and deterrence. Documentation by commissions of inquiry is indispensable to this work. The Council should renew the Ukraine Commission of Inquiry’s mandate and ensure all investigative mandates are sufficiently funded.
PHR also co-hosted three side events related to attacks on health, including impacts of attacks on health by Israel in Gaza and during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Our first side event, “Reverberating Impacts of Attacks on Health,” explored how impunity persists for unprecedented levels of attacks on health from Gaza to Ukraine to Syria , with civilians paying the price. The event underscored the full breadth of civilian harm, including reproductive violence, resulting from attacks on health and called for consideration of these harms in legal assessments of the legality of these acts by parties to conflict.
The side event “Russia’s War on Civilians in Ukraine” examined how Russia has deployed tactics to suppress resistance, erase Ukraine identity, and exert power over civilian life – conduct that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law. We urged member states and UN mechanisms to pursue meaningful investigation, prosecution, reparations, and investment to address Ukraine’s damaged systems, lost medical expertise, untreated trauma, and disrupted communities.
A third side event held by PHR and partners, “Health Care in the Dark,” drew upon recent field research documenting the measurable health harms of systematic power disruptions. Expert analysis examined how legal accountability frameworks – including the roles of the International Criminal Court and UN human rights mechanisms – can bring together states, NGOs, and civil society to address the evidentiary gaps that hinder accountability.
Children in Armed Conflict
PHR also spoke out on grave violations that continue to be committed against children in conflict settings in Ethiopia, Gaza, and beyond. In an interactive dialogue with the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Children in Armed Conflict, PHR Executive Director Sam Zarifi delivered an oral statement expressing concern over the scale and severity of these harms and urging accountability efforts.
In Ethiopia, PHR has documented conflict-related sexual and reproductive violence, including multiple perpetrator rape and forced witnessing of sexual violence, impacting children in the Tigray, Amhara, and Afar regions. We urged the Special Representative to advocate for Ethiopia to be listed as a situation of concern to mandate reporting to the Security Council and Human Rights Council.
In Gaza, PHR has also documented how attacks on health facilities, and restrictions on humanitarian aid, including medical supplies and food, have led to health harms for children and newborns, including death. We expressed deeply alarm over the intensity of violence perpetrated against children in Gaza by Israeli armed and security forces, including through attacks on health and the denial of humanitarian access.
These violations demand accountability. The international community should prioritize documentation and accountability for crimes against children including by supporting mandate positions and trauma-informed expertise within human rights investigative teams, dedicated funding streams, and ongoing support at the state, regional, and international level.
Torture and Abuse Against Immigrants in the United States
PHR and our partners continue to document how the U.S. government inflicts deliberate suffering on asylum seekers and immigrants. In an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Inhuman Treatment, PHR Medical Adviser Dr. Katherine Peeler delivered a statement to sharing PHR’s investigative findings concerning solitary confinement practices and preventable deaths in immigration detention.
Our evidence exposes how prolonged solitary confinement in U.S. immigration detention meets the UN’s definition of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
In interviews with migrants deported to Honduras from the United States, PHR has also documented the deliberate family separation occurring in violation of the U.S. government’s directives aimed at family unity.
We urged the Special Rapporteur to conduct a country visit to the United States and to address these escalating practices.