Olga Wacera Wathigo, MA is the Communications and Publications Manager at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), where she oversees the editorial review and production of all PHR publications. She develops and produces content with the goal of raising the visibility of PHR’s brand, research, and advocacy. She is also responsible for the brand of all […]

Zahraa Suleiman serves as the Iraq Country Coordinator where she provides support to the PHR Iraq program’s objectives of strengthening capacity to document torture and sexual violence in Iraq.   Suleiman’s responsibilities as a project manager encompass a range of activities, from liaising with governmental bodies to implementing capacity-building workshops, advocacy, and network building. Her […]

Digital Marketing Consultant 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 document […]

Recent state supreme court decisions in Arizona and Florida that uphold dangerous and draconian abortion bans seriously threaten the health of pregnant people and represent the latest attack on reproductive justice in the United States, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said today.  “PHR’s research shows that from Louisiana to Oklahoma to Texas to Idaho and […]

Rape is a horrifying reality for all too many women and girls in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where decades of conflict have produced one of the highest rates of sexual violence in the world, and where cultural norms and weak institutions have worked together to largely silence survivors of these devastating crimes. […]

MediCapt Director 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 document violations […]

Sophia Cole is the Senior Manager of Operations and Project Support at Physicians for Human Rights. She provides oversight of PHR’s business and operational processes and executes strategies to mitigate risk and ensure cross-function coordination to support advocacy and programmatic work. She also backstops PHR’s Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and other international offices. […]

Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a bill Thursday that prohibits state law enforcement, first responders, and coroners from using the invalid concept of “excited delirium,” making Colorado the second state after California to ban the term.  The bill follows a landmark research report from PHR that found that “excited delirium” – often used to explain […]

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 […]

Human Resources Systems Consultant 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 […]

Human Resources Intern, Summer 2024 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 […]

Digital Communications Intern, Summer 2024 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 […]

Asylum Case Management Intern, Summer 2024 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 […]

An Idaho state law (“The Idaho Act”) that bans pregnancy termination except to prevent the death of a pregnant patient is “demonstrably in conflict” with the federal Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires that health facilities offer stabilizing treatment – including pregnancy termination – when clinically indicated to preserve the health of […]

In amicus curiae brief filed in Idaho v. United States, PHR documents how Idaho’s abortion ban dangerously overrides U.S. government protections in the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA), fueling a health and human rights crisis for patients and physicians.

Today, Lift Louisiana, Physicians for Human Rights, Reproductive Health Impact, and the Center for Reproductive Rights published an extensive fact-finding report titled “Criminalized Care: How Louisiana’s Abortion Bans Endanger Patients and Clinicians.” This is the most rigorous and expansive study to date on the impacts of the Dobbs decision on pregnant people and clinicians in […]

Louisiana’s abortion bans violate federal law meant to protect patients, disregard evidence-based public health guidance, degrade long-standing medical ethical standards, and, worst of all, deny basic human rights to Louisianans seeking reproductive health care in their state.

Fact-Finding Brief: Introduction The Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) was enacted by Congress in 1986 to ensure patients’ access to emergency services regardless of a person’s ability to pay. EMTALA requires hospitals with emergency departments (EDs) to take a range of measures when presented with a person who comes to the department, including […]

Nearly 1,000 reported attacks on health care workers, facilities, and other infrastructure in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) since October 7 warrant immediate investigations and accountability, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said today.   The World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations agency, reports 804 attacks on health care in OPT since October 7. Insecurity […]

The Physicians for Human Rights Gala honors the work of health professionals working on the front lines to defend human rights. Join us to support PHR’s work advocating for persecuted health workers and health facilities under attack, preventing torture, sexual violence, and mass atrocities, and holding those who violate human rights accountable. Thursday, May 9, […]

The Academy Award best documentary film win tonight for “20 Days in Mariupol” highlights how Russian forces have attacked Ukrainian hospitals and health workers as a barbaric war strategy, said Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).  The documentary depicts the deadly aftermath of the Russian bombing of Maternity Hospital No 3 in Mariupol, Ukraine on March […]

Since the beginning of the Syrian uprising in March 2011 – 13 years ago this week – the Syrian government and its Russian allies have systematically targeted health care in an attempt to break the resilience of the Syrian people and deprive them of their right to safely access medical care.  “As we mark 13 years since […]

Map of Attacks on Medical Personnel and Facilities in Syria When hospitals or health clinics are destroyed, the loss is far greater than the bricks and mortar of the buildings. Safe and protected spaces to seek routine and urgent medical attention are also lost. When medical workers are killed, the human toll is not just […]

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.

The U.S. government should immediately and publicly commit to ending the use of solitary confinement in U.S. immigration detention, demanded a coalition of 194 medical, academic, faith, human rights, civil rights, and immigration groups in a letter to U.S. President Biden, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).   The coalition mobilized […]