On Tuesday, Denny Adan Gonzalez, a Cuban man detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, died from apparent suicide, according to an ICE news release and earlier reporting by immigration researcher Andrew Free – the latest in a surge of deaths inside U.S. immigration detention facilities. […]

Ten years after the UNSC passed Resolution 2286 and committed to protect health care in conflict zones, combatants have attacked health care at least 18,000 times around the world – with attack totals on the rise each year. On this decade anniversary, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) calls on the UN Secretary-General and UN Member […]

Trump administration cuts to HIV programs, research, and diplomatic relations have delt a “triple blow” to South Africa that wastes years of U.S. investment and risks lives in South Africa, the United States, and around the world, according to a new report published today by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), Advocates for the Prevention of HIV in South Africa (APHA), and Emthonjeni Counselling & Training.  “Wasted Investments, Looming Crisis: The […]

South Africa is unique among the many countries impacted by the Trump administration’s actions, having experienced triple blows of cuts to HIV funding, research, and cooperative diplomatic relations.

C. Nicholas Cuneo, MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and affiliate faculty with the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights and Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health. He practices clinically as a hospitalist for adults and children at Johns Hopkins […]

Despite the ongoing conflicts and crises in the Middle East, the international community should not shift its attention away from confronting ISIS crimes.

The war between the United States, Israel, and Iran has continued to escalate over more than a month, with impacts expanding across the region and beyond. Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Human Rights, and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War renew our call for an immediate end to all fighting and a return to negotiations for […]

U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure, including oil refineries, gas treatment facilities and fuel storage depots, pose severe health and environmental risks to civilian populations in Iran, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA) warned today. All parties to the conflict must cease attacks on energy infrastructure that lead to widespread […]

Asylum Program Coordinator (Kenya) Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which shared in the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, is a U.S.-based international advocacy organization working at the intersection of medicine, science, and law. With a global network of thousands of medical, scientific, and legal experts, PHR uses the power of medical and scientific evidence to […]

Advocacy and Operations Coordinator Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which shared in the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, is a U.S.-based international advocacy organization working at the intersection of medicine, science, and law. With a global network of thousands of medical, scientific, and legal experts, PHR uses the power of medical and scientific evidence to […]

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 […]

Russia’s war against Ukraine, which began in 2014 before escalating into a full-scale invasion in 2022, has been marked by widespread and systematic violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. On the frontlines and across occupied territories, places of detention, and areas affected by hostilities, these violations have fallen on civilians and […]

This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court will hold oral argument in Noem v. Al Otro Lado (Case No. 25-5). The case raises the question of whether a non-citizen stopped on the Mexico side of the U.S.-Mexico border can be turned back regardless of U.S. statutory or international law provisions conferring rights to asylum and protection against […]

Washington, DC / New York — A new report from the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), based on firsthand interviews with recently deported parents and reception center staff in Honduras, documents clear violations of US immigration policy. What About My Children: Family Separation Among Parents Deported to Honduras finds U.S. […]

“Of all the years I’ve been here, this has been the most unusual and difficult year we’ve had. The emergency began on January 31 [2025], due to the change in government under the new [US] president. The difference is that now they are being mistreated more in [US] detention centers, especially. […] And there are […]

On November 10, 2025, just after 4:00 p.m., we uploaded our final written submissions on behalf of eight survivors of post-election sexual violence to Kenya’s Supreme Court digital filing system. The moment felt both heavy and hopeful, marking the next step in a twelve-year legal journey that has made its way up to the Supreme Court.   Watching the confirmation message appear on my screen felt […]

As the military conflict between Iran, Israel, and the United States escalates and spreads across the Middle East, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) calls on all parties to comply with international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including by protecting medical personnel and health facilities from attack and ensuring health care can function unimpeded.   “We are hearing alarming reports of health care […]

Starting on January 13, 2026, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) began to hold public hearings on the case of genocide brought against Myanmar by The Gambia. Following clearance operations in Northern Rakhine state in Myanmar in August 2017, PHR worked with partners to use a variety of methodologically rigorous approaches to document forensic medical […]

New testimonies from physicians inside the Islamic Republic of Iran, shared with Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), add to mounting evidence from health care professionals about the scale and severity of the recent nationwide crackdown, which many observers describe as the most violent in the country’s recent history, including the 1979 Revolution.  “The doctors we’ve heard from are exhausted […]

Recent accounts of escalating conflicts across Ethiopia, including drone strikes, heavy fighting, and extrajudicial killings, risk causing immediate and severe health harms to affected communities, including a recurrence of widespread sexual and reproductive violence, said Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Organization for Justice and Accountability in the Horn of Africa (OJAH).  Renewed clashes […]

With the four-year mark of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaching on February 24, following over a decade of ongoing war, sustained attacks on health care continue driving widespread physical and mental harm across the country.  In 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion, attacks on health care became one of the most visible symbols […]

Physicians for Human Rights and the Council for Global Equality filed a lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to compel the U.S. Department of State to comply with the Freedom of Information Act Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Council for Global Equality (CGE) filed a […]

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has submitted an amicus curiae brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit challenging a purported “abortion trafficking law” which would prohibit physicians from “intentionally recruiting… a pregnant unemancipated minor … for the purpose of … [c]oncealing an act that would constitute a criminal abortion [or] [o]btaining […]

PHR and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, in collaboration with the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, hosted a webinar briefing on findings from two independent reports examining how the collapse of Gaza’s health system, restrictions on humanitarian aid, and persistent displacement have caused severe harm to maternal and newborn […]

The Islamic Republic of Iran must immediately stop the persecution, physical harm, and detention of all medical professionals who are reportedly being targeted for treating people injured during the recent protests, said Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today. “Evidence coming out of Iran points to tens of thousands of protesters killed or injured, many by […]