“Imagine providing critical care to patients with no access to medications or equipment, while your salary is withheld, your basic needs are unmet, and the very place you call home is no longer safe. Hospitals are routinely attacked by combatants. Insidious acts of sexual violence persist, and places of healing are turned into death traps. […]

Submission for Universal Periodic Review of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Fourth Cycle, 47th Session of the Human Rights Council (4 – 15 November, 2024) Submission for Universal Periodic Review of Ethiopia Fourth Cycle, 47th Session of the Human Rights Council (4 – 15 November, 2024)

Introduction Read the full report: English, Arabic, Russian Graphic design generously contributed by Sarah Georgakopoulos. [1] This expert report is provided to accompany a Communication submitted to the Human Rights Committee on May 1, 2024 concerning an alleged attack on a hospital in Syria – the Kafr Nabl Surgical Hospital – on May 5, 2019, […]

“If any of you worry about the issues that are going on in the world as you listen to the news every day and you feel somewhat powerless because the problems, the fractures, are too large and too many, I think you and I can take comfort that PHR is playing its part everywhere in […]

The 55th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva concluded last week. Headed by PHR’s Executive Director Sam Zarifi, JD, LLM, the PHR delegation included Christian De Vos, JD, PhD, director of research and investigations, and Uliana Poltavets, Ukraine emergency response coordinator. The team presented several interventions before the Council, partnered […]

The conflict that started in Tigray, Ethiopia in 2020 continues to cause devastating harm to civilians and the health sector and has led to a large-scale humanitarian and human rights crisis that continues in Tigray and has spread to other regions of Ethiopia. PHR has worked with our medical, public health, and human rights partners […]

After 10 years of war and untold suffering in Syria, the landscape for human rights, justice, and accountability looks bleak. Explore an interactive timeline of the conflict.

Alors que le conflit dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC) continue de s’intensifier, le partenaire médical de Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), HEAL Africa, fournit des soins intensifs aux survivants des violences sexuelles et sexistes. Nous avons échangé avec HEAL Africa pour en savoir plus sur la fourniture des services des soins […]

As the conflict in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to escalate, PHR medical partner HEAL Africa is providing intensive care to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

Today the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel must take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts of genocide and take effective action to ensure the provision of “urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance” to address the “public health disaster” in Gaza.   “Complying with the ICJ’s provisional […]

In response to reports that the Russian Federation is attempting to rejoin the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), the following quote is attributable to Sam Zarifi, JD, LLM, executive director at PHR:  “Russian forces have routinely bombed hospitals, tortured civilians, abducted children, raped women, and destroyed critical infrastructure in Ukraine. Russia’s president is a […]

(New York, September 13, 2023) – We, the heads of over 50 human rights and humanitarian organizations are coming together to sound the alarm about Sudan, where a disaster is unfolding before our eyes. With fighting continuing across the country, brutal sexual violence rising, widespread deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and journalists and human […]

PHR joins global coalition of civil society to call upon the UN Human Rights Council to extend the mandate of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (“the Commission,” or ICHREE) for a further term of one year, until September 2024. To Permanent Representatives of Member and Observer States of the United Nations […]

For more than 35 years, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has worked at the intersection of medicine, science, and law to end human suffering, save lives, and secure justice and universal human rights for all. Read about our impact in our 2022 Annual Report.

The United Nations Human Rights Council’s 52nd session in Geneva concluded this week with some meaningful advances for health and human rights. In addition to the adoption of the landmark resolution on the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment (A/HRC/51/L.7), the Human Rights Council (HRC) also renewed the mandates for several important […]

PHR delivered strong statements to world leaders to stop illegal attacks on health care in places such as Myanmar, Syria, and Ukraine, and demand accountability for human rights abuses.

As Russian artillery shells fall indiscriminately in Ukraine, efforts are under way by the international community to document the resulting human rights violations, including a range of attacks that likely constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. These efforts may indeed be the most robust in recent history. But as the International Criminal Court (ICC) […]

This article was originally published by The New Humanitarian, a news agency specialised in reporting humanitarian crises. Many Syrians are experiencing heart-wrenching flashbacks as we watch the mounting devastation in Ukraine and the millions of refugees fleeing. As a Syrian physician who provided medical care amid the war in my country, it’s especially painful when […]

Last week, the Biden administration formally announced its determination that violence committed against the Rohingya by  Myanmar’s military (the Tatmadaw) amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity. In response, the following statement is attributable to Lindsey Green, MA, program officer, Program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones, at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR):  “PHR welcomes […]

The Syrian government has targeted health care workers with detention, abuse, and torture. Here are some of their stories.

PHR report provides evidence of compounded health disparities and inequities across northern Syria in the wake of a decade-long assault on health care by the government

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) welcomes the reported agreement by the Sudanese government to transfer ousted dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to stand trial for charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.  “The hand-over of al-Bashir would represent a historic milestone for international justice and […]

Sandra Mon is a senior researcher at the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at the Johns Hopkins Department of Epidemiology. As a Myanmar national, she is an active voice for health care workers in Myanmar since the beginning of the coup there on February 1. PHR’s digital communications manager Hannah Dunphy spoke with […]

On Saturday, May 15, 2021, the Myanmar military – known as the Tatmadaw – launched a coordinated attack against the town of Mindat in Myanmar’s western Chin State. This latest crackdown was precipitated by  several weeks of sustained fighting between the Tatmadaw and civilian defense forces in Mindat, formed in March in response to increasing […]

If the Biden administration is to lay the groundwork for future U.S. leadership on issues of rule of law and international justice, it must start by reviving its historical dedication to advancing accountability for serious crimes.