“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 […]

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.

Two years ago, the government of Myanmar unleashed a scorched-earth campaign against the Rohingya Muslims. Impunity prevails for these atrocities, which are only the most recent in the long story of the Rohingya’s persecution in Myanmar. When will the Rohingya see justice done?

PHR has been investigating human rights violations in Iraq for three decades, including the repression of the country’s Kurdish minority by the government of Saddam Hussein and the serious medical consequences of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. PHR’s current work in Iraq is focused on training and preparing medical and non-medical professionals to investigate and prosecute […]

PHR documented the wounds of this Rohingya man at Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh. He was shot from behind by the Myanmar military while fleeing his village. Photo: Salahuddin Ahmed for Physicians for Human Rights I’ve never met so many survivors of gunshots in a single place before. They’re not hard to find in the […]

This post originally appeared on Wing of Zock. Physician colleagues and their hospitals have been the targets of direct attacks during the past three years in Syria. According to UN war crimes investigators, Syrian forces have deliberately targeted hospitals, attacked field hospitals, and prevented patients from receiving medical care. A United Nations Commission of Inquiry […]

Full names have not been used in this post in order to protect individuals’ security. The severe lack of medical supplies in Syria has been well documented by both the media and humanitarian and human rights groups. Humanitarian missions are blocked, supply trucks are targeted for attack, and those attempting to move critical medical supplies […]

War and civil unrest turn soldiers—and, often, civilians—into deliberate targets. Medical professionals have an ethical duty to provide care and treatment to those in need, without discrimination, even in times of conflict. But during conflict and civil unrest, health care professionals, facilities, and patients too often come under attack. These attacks are not a natural […]

Earlier this week, Gambian lawyer Fatou Bensouda was chosento be the new Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. She will bethe second person, and the first African, to hold this position. Bensouda wasthe likely choice for the position given her professional qualifications,including serving as Deputy Prosecutor to Luis Moreno-Ocampo during hisnine-year tenure as Chief […]

On September 22, PHR Sudan Program Fellow Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Abdullah Eisa delivered a lecture titled “Human Rights and Health” at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center’s School of Public Health in Brooklyn, New York. The lecture was part of the Scholar Rescue Fund’s Hite Chair Scholar Lecture Series, which appointed Dr. Mohammed to be a […]

On September 29, guilty verdicts and harsh sentences were issued in Bahrain against 20 medical professionals and two protestors who were convicted for providing care to protestors during the country's popular uprising earlier this year. PHR's Chief Policy Officer, Hans Hogrefe, appeared on BBC World News on to discuss the draconian sentences. Source: BBC World […]

Evidence of Human Subject Research and Experimentation in the "Enhanced" Interrogation Program.