In response to the Trump administration’s new sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), the following quote is attributable to Sam Zarifi, JD, executive director of PHR: “The Trump administration’s new sanctions on the ICC are an attack on children who survived conflict-related sexual violence in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The sanctions are […]

In a health clinic in Uganda, a doctor recounted to PHR that five babies were born HIV positive among the 20 deliveries at the facility between mid-January and mid-April 2025 – a devastating setback after years of virtually eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The head of another Ugandan health facility described his feeling of helplessness […]

To Permanent Representatives of Member and Observer States of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (Geneva, Switzerland) 8 October 2026 Ethiopia: The Human Rights Council should convene a special session to address the quickly deteriorating human rights situation and prevent further atrocity crimes Excellencies, As armed hostilities have resumed on a large scale in […]

A decade ago, the UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 2286 condemning attacks on health care facilities and personnel in conflict. While this resolution was hailed as a turning point, attacks on health care have since skyrocketed. 2025 saw a record 1,981 health workers and patients killed, more than twice as many killings as in […]

The Assad family ruled Syria for 53 years, overseeing decades of repression, a crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011, and 14 years of brutal armed conflict. Following nearly two years of transition after the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, Maram Haddad – a Syrian expert who serves as PHR’s Deputy Director of […]

The Trump administration’s sanctions (Executive Order 14,203) on the International Criminal Court (ICC) will lead to “direct, irreparable harm” to survivors of grave human rights abuses around the globe, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) argues in a new amicus brief filed at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in American […]

Regional and international actors must act now to help deescalate mounting conflict in Ethiopia, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said today. Ethiopia stands on the brink of resuming widespread conflict, following reports of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front’s (TPLF) seizure of several airports in Tigray and offensive against federal forces in Amhara and Afar, increasing […]

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Organization for Justice and Accountability in the Horn of Africa (OJAH) have conducted extensive research on attacks on health care in Ethiopia. Their August 2026 research brief, Stolen, Broken, Destroyed: How Impunity Has Fueled Ongoing Attacks on Health Care in Ethiopia, shows how years of impunity have turned […]

As Deputy Director of Major Gifts at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), Olga Palinkasev Gregorian leads the strategy for cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding major donors in support of PHR’s work. With more than 20 years of experience in the international nonprofit sector, she brings strategic leadership expertise in major gifts, donor engagement and communications, institutional […]

Russian forces must immediately cease their mounting attacks on medical warehouses, transport, and distribution infrastructure, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said today, following multiple strikes against medical supply facilities over twelve days that reportedly destroyed hundreds of metric tons of medicines and the storage capacity that Ukraine’s health system and population depends on. “Destroying a […]

The Trump administration’s “America First Global Health Strategy” has damaged efforts to respond to the most urgent public health crises facing the world, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said today. September 18, 2026 marks one year since the launch of the America First Global Health Strategy, which represented a new approach to U.S. global health […]

Africa is responding to an active Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — in a global health landscape that has shifted sharply beneath it. Financing is being reconfigured, donor commitments have contracted, and the surveillance, treatment and workforce arrangements Africa has relied on for two decades can no longer be assumed. This […]

In the United States, the Supreme Court’s rollback of the right to abortion in June 2022 has led to widespread violations of human rights.

Torture is the intentional infliction of severe mental or physical pain or suffering, by or with the approval of state agents. Torture breaks people’s bodies and minds, rips apart communities, and destroys democratic institutions and the rule of law. Since our founding in 1986, PHR’s core mission has included investigating, documenting, and reporting the devastating […]

NEW YORK — As the risk of renewed armed conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region grows and conflicts in the Amhara and Afar regions continue, all armed forces must cease the deliberate attacks on hospitals and health workers that have nearly collapsed the health system, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Organization for Justice and […]

Attacks on health care have become a major feature of armed conflict in Ethiopia. Attacks and threats to health care infrastructure, supply chains, and the health care workforce continue to be used as a tactic in conflict-affected regions of Ethiopia, including Tigray, Amhara, and Afar.

The aim of this publication is to provide practical guidance and tools for documenting civilian harm from attacks on energy infrastructure. The focus is on measuring the impacts of attacks on energy infrastructure through indicators related to civilians’ physical health, mental health, education, and livelihoods, among other aspects of civilian life. This guide provides an […]

(New York) – The death over the weekend of Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, a 41-year-old from El Salvador, at the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark is the 53rd known death in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody since the start of this administration. That represents nearly four times the death rate under the Biden administration, or two and a half times the rate during the first Trump administration. Deaths are increasing faster than the […]

(Nairobi, Kenya)— Kenya’s Supreme Court heard final arguments today in a landmark case that could determine the extent of the state’s obligation to provide reparations and effective remedies to survivors of election-related sexual violence. Eight survivor-petitioners of the country’s 2007-08 post-election violence were joined in the case by four civil society organizations: the Coalition on […]

(New York / RDC) – Plus de 1 000 décès liés à Ebola ont désormais été confirmés depuis que l’Organisation mondiale de la Santé (OMS) a déclaré une épidémie de maladie à virus Ebola le 15 mai 2026. Cette flambée, dont l’épicentre se situe, dans la province de l’Ituri en République démocratique du Congo (RDC), […]

Nairobi, Kenya — Nearly two decades after Kenya’s 2007-08 post-election violence, the Supreme Court will hear final arguments on July 29, 2026, in a case that will decide the government’s constitutional duty to protect survivors of sexual violence committed by non-state actors. The case concerns eight survivor-petitioners of election-related violence and originated before the High […]

(New York / DRC) – More than 1,000 Ebola-related deaths have now been confirmed since the World Health Organization declared an outbreak of the Ebola virus on May 15, 2026. The outbreak, with its epicenter in Bunia, Ituri Province, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), involves the Bundibugyo strain for which no approved vaccine or […]

Strategic litigation is a core tool that PHR uses to advocate for justice. By bringing medical evidence into the courtroom, we challenge policies that harm patients, undermine science, and violate fundamental human rights. Our work bridges medicine and law – translating frontline clinical expertise and research into compelling legal arguments that protect lives and hold governments accountable.  PHR partners with legal organizations, […]

Law enforcement agencies in the United States have used excessive force and wielded crowd-control weapons in dangerous ways against demonstrators protesting the dramatic escalation in immigration enforcement. To document that misuse systematically, and give the public, government officials, and oversight bodies the information they need to prevent further abuses, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and […]

New York, N.Y. / Berkeley, California — Law enforcement agents misused crowd-control weapons during protests against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations in 412 verified incidents across 16 U.S. cities from when immigration enforcement protests escalated in Los Angeles in June 2025 until May 2026, according to Charting the Crackdown, a digital mapping report released […]