Hospitals destroyed. Health workers targeted. Survivors of sexual violence left without care. Ethiopia’s escalating human rights crisis demands urgent attention – and action. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Organization for Justice and Accountability in the Horn of Africa (OJAH) have documented attacks on health care and the devastating consequences of sexual and reproductive […]

Women and children in Gaza continue to suffer from poor health due to ongoing violence and Israeli restrictions on medical supplies more than one year since the ceasefire was reached in Gaza on October 10, 2025, according to new data published today by Médecins du Monde (MdM) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).  Interviews with […]

From Al Jazeera: “In September 2025, 39-year-old Ismael Ayala-Uribe died just one month after entering California’s Adelanto ICE Processing Center. He was one of more than 50 people to die in immigration custody during Donald Trump’s first 500 days back in office. His family says he repeatedly complained of intense pain and asked for medical […]

PHR’s work to strengthen pathways to justice and healing for survivors of sexual violence and torture in Iraq and Ukraine has produced landmark achievements, made possible by the rare and meaningful access we have gained to key government bodies in both countries.   Prior to PHR’s intervention in Iraq in 2017, survivors of sexual violence and […]

Michael Dowling is one of health care’s most influential voices, taking a stand on societal issues such as gun violence and immigration that many healthcare leaders shy away from. As CEO Emeritus, he serves Northwell Health in an advisory capacity, supporting the advancement of key public health initiatives, and focusing on teaching and writing. Mr. […]

PHR’s work in Iraq is centered on building up the country’s ability to investigate crimes of torture, including sexual violence. Our focus is support to investigations of international crimes committed by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in northern Iraq, particularly against the long-persecuted Yazidi people, who suffered a brutal 2014 attack by ISIS […]

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 […]