More than 1000 attacks have now been recorded on health workers, patients, hospitals, and other medical infrastructure in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) since October 7, 2023, more reported attacks on health care than any other conflict over a 10-month period on record, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said today. PHR calls for independent investigations […]
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 […]
Russia’s attack today on Okhmatdyt National Children’s Hospital in Kyiv – the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine – continues the systematic assault on Ukraine’s health care system, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said. “Russia’s strategy in Ukraine includes attacking babies and children. Domestic and international actors should intensify efforts to hold perpetrators accountable for these […]
The Supreme Court’s decision to avoid ruling on the conflict between Idaho’s extreme ban on access to abortion and a federal law guaranteeing access to abortions in cases of emergency provides a reprieve to pregnant patients in Idaho but leaves pregnant patients experiencing grave health risks and emergency room clinicians facing a medical ethics crisis […]
The Paris Appeals Court’s decision to uphold the international arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, for his role in the August 2013 chemical weapons attack that killed more than 1,400 people and injured thousands more in the Damascus suburb Ghouta, affirms that no one is immune from prosecution for egregious war crimes and crimes […]
Kenyan law enforcement must cease their misuse of crowd-control weapons during ongoing protests across the country, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said today. “Law enforcement officials who are meant to protect civilians used lethal tactics against protestors and medical personnel trying to help people. Such use of force constitutes a clear violation of human rights,” […]
A new report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union, American Oversight, and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) exposes the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) flawed internal oversight mechanisms and failure to provide adequate medical and mental health care, resulting in preventable deaths of immigrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities. “Deadly Failures: […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s internal oversight mechanisms have failed to conduct rigorous investigations, impose meaningful consequences, or improve conditions that cause immigrants to die in ICE detention.
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.
Child-rights experts from Physicians for Human Rights are collaborating with clinicians at HEAL Africa to care for thousands of people displaced by conflict in North Kivu, including children who suffered sexual violence.
