Israel: Hamas attack on Kibbutz Re’im
November 20, 2023
A recently released position paper by Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) sheds light on a series of targeted attacks on medical personnel and facilities during the October 7 raid near Kibbutz Re’im. Several physicians, nurses, and paramedics were killed or seriously wounded while they were attending injured victims. The...
Read more...
Israel-Gaza war: protect healthcare in Gaza Strip
November 15, 2023
IFHHRO is one of the signatories of a statement published today by Physicians for Human Rights Israel. In this statement, we urgently call for an immediate ceasefire and the immediate release of all hostages held in Gaza. Meanwhile, healthcare and rescue workers, patients and medical facilities must receive protection and...
Read more...
2022 Update Istanbul Protocol published
June 30, 2022
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has published the 2022 edition of the Istanbul Protocol: Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment with contributions from more than 180 anti-torture experts from 51 countries....
Read more...
IFHHRO | Medical Human Rights Network is deeply concerned about the war in Ukraine, and the brutal attacks by Russian military forces. The World Health Organization has confirmed several attacks on healthcare centres in Ukraine and is investigating other, the agency's chief said on Sunday. The attacks caused multiple deaths...
Read more...
Israel: criminalization of Palestinian human rights organizations
October 29, 2021
Our partner Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) has issued a statement in solidarity with Palestinian human rights organizations that have recently been criminalized by the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The decree outlaws six prominent Palestinian human rights organizations. PHR-Israel is calling upon health organizations and individuals around the world to...
Read more...
The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment
October 17, 2021
On 8 October 2021, the Human Rights Council recognized that having a clean and healthy environment is a basic human right. Resolution 48/13 on the "human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment" was adopted by the Council during its 48th regular session. Another resolution (48/14) prepares the...
Read more...
Vacature adviserend jurist voor bestuur IFHHRO (vervuld)
April 12, 2021
IFHHRO Medical Human Rights Network is een medische beroepsorganisatie die zich ten doel stelt om bewustwording en kennis over het raakvlak tussen mensenrechten en gezondheidszorg, inclusief het ‘right to health’, te bevorderen onder medische beroepsbeoefenaars. IFHHRO is een kleine organisatie en werkt zoveel mogelijk in samenwerking met andere organisaties. Het...
Read more...
Israel: End vaccine discrimination now!
April 9, 2021
IFHHRO has signed a petition issued by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel in support of its appeal to the Israelian Supreme Court to ensure vaccine access for all Palestinians. Two weeks ago, five Israeli & Palestinian Organizations including PHR-I urged the Court to immediately secure a uniform supply of vaccines to...
Read more...
Russia: release Dr. Anastasia Vasilyeva!
February 11, 2021
In Russia, Dr. Anastasiya Vasilyeva, the President of the Doctors Alliance, was put in isolation in her own house in January, following her arrest during a protest rally in Moscow in support of Putin opponent Alexei Navalny. IFHHRO sent a letter today to the General of Justice, Mr. Bastykin, and...
Read more...
COVID-19 vaccine producers have human rights responsibilities
February 11, 2021
By February 5, not a single dose of COVID-19 vaccines was administered in 130 countries with a combined population of 2.5 billion people, the World Health Organization reports. According to Human Rights Watch, inequitable access to vaccines is the reason for this alarming statistic. "Of the more than 131 million...
Read more...
Conversion therapy as a form of torture
January 22, 2021
In the 2021 New Year Report of the International Forensic Expert Group (IFEG), the group describes its activities and achievements in the past year. IFEG is an international body of independent forensic specialists who are recognized as global leaders in the medico-legal investigation of torture, ill-treatment, and unlawful killing. One...
Read more...
Belarus: Physicians detained
December 3, 2020
IFHHRO has sent a letter to the President of the World Medical Association (WMA), requesting the global association of doctors to take appropriate action in support of detained physicians in Belarus. Over 60 medical specialists have been arrested and detained in the midst of the serious repressive measures by the...
Read more...
New Special Rapporteur on the right to health
August 13, 2020
IFHHRO welcomes the appointment of Mrs. Tlaleng Mofokeng (South Africa) as the new Special Rapporteur on the right to health. Ms. Mofokeng is well-known internationally for her work on sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as gender equality. The Health and Human Rights Journal recently published an interview...
Read more...
Israel: Substandard prison health care
July 6, 2020
IFHHRO partner Physicians for Human Rights - Israel (PHRI) recently published the English translation of an important report (originally in Hebrew) on prison health care in Israel, titled ‘Health remanded to custody. The Future of the Prison Health Care System in Israel’. The report’s executive summary highlights that “morbidity among...
Read more...
Stop threatening Russian health workers!
May 27, 2020
IFHHRO has started a campaign in support of the Russian Alliance of Doctors, members of which have been harrassed for raising awareness about the lack of personal protective equipment in health facilities, among others. Yesterday, we sent letters to the World Medical Association, the International Council of Nurses and the...
Read more...
The Council of Europe has published a new report on human rights and people who use drugs in the Mediterranean region. It describes the current situation in 17 MedNET countries. The MedNET network consists of sixteen countries bordering the Mediterrean Sea and one landlocked one: Switzerland. According to the report,...
Read more...
The International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare has issued a call for papers on human rights in healthcare during COVID-19 and other pandemics. This special issue will be published early next year; the submission deadline for all papers is 1 September. Topics that might be covered include (but are not...
Read more...
COVID-19 and mental health
May 15, 2020
On 14 May 2020, the Health and Human Rights Journal published a short article by Dainius Pūras, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health on the mental health implications of COVID-19. In it, he calls for a major transformation and paradigm shift in mental health. He argues that the...
Read more...
Conversion therapy is unscientific and violates the global ban on torture and ill-treatment
May 14, 2020
IFHHRO is one of the members of the Independent Forensic Expert Group (IFEG). This group has published several statements on abuse of quasi-medical techniques that amount to torture and/or cruel, inhuman or degrading practice, such as forced ‘virginity testing’ and ‘anal examination to establish homosexuality. IFEG and the International Rehabilitation...
Read more...
Turkey: The case of Dr. Serdar Küni
March 19, 2020
Yesterday, IFHHRO sent a letter to the President of a local criminal court in Turkey and the Turkish Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Interior and Health about the ongoing court case against Dr. Serdar Küni. Dr. Küni has been in custody since October 2016 for providing medical treatment to members...
Read more...
Greece: A Right to Health assessment of a refugee camp on Lesbos Island
February 15, 2020
In 2019, IFHHRO Secretary and former physician Adriaan van Es worked as a medical volunteer in the Moria refugee camp on the island of Lesbos, Greece. Based on his experiences, he has made a human rights analysis of the situation in this camp, focusing on the Right to Health as specified in...
Read more...
Adriaan van Es, MD, Secretary IFHHRO 15 February 2020 At the end of my three-week involvement as a medical volunteer providing medical relief work in Moria refugee camp through the Dutch Boat Refugee Foundation, I felt the need to make an assessment of the situation through the lens of the...
Read more...
USA: Religious freedom versus the right to health
November 8, 2019
Fortunately, a federal judge in New York has struck down a Trump administration rule allowing healthcare providers to opt out of procedures to which they have religious or moral objections, a policy that threatened care for LGBTI people and others. “Everyone is entitled to their religious beliefs, but religious beliefs do not...
Read more...
Virginity testing, a harmful traditional practice
November 1, 2019
One year ago, the UN called on governments to ban virginity testing globally because it violates several "humanrights and ethical standards including the fundamental principle in medicine to do no harm. In an article in Marie Claire magazine, Sophia Jones of the Fuller Project documents which countries are making progress on...
Read more...
International guidelines on human rights, healthy diets and sustainable food systems
November 1, 2019
A group of 138 health and human rights experts from 38 countries has issued a call for international guidelines on human rights, healthy diets and sustainable food systems. They suggest that international human rights mechanisms provide important opportunities that are currently underutilised in the fight against both malnutrition and obesity. Read more
Read more...
Right to Health in the occupied Palestinian territory
October 10, 2019
Yesterday, WHO released its report Right to Health in the occupied Palestinian territory: 2018. The report examines obstacles to achieving the highest attainable standard of health for Palestinians living under occupation, including barriers to adequate healthcare provision, access to healthcare, determinants of health beyond healthcare and health attacks. Download the...
Read more...
Sierra Leone: Mental health and human rights
September 26, 2019
In Sierra Leone, mental health care is almost non-existent. There are only 2 psychiatrists, 2 psychologists and 19 mental health nurses in the whole country, where an estimated 700,000 people are suffering from severe mental health problems. Furthermore, a mental health patient can be detained in a mental health hospital...
Read more...
2019 Global Men’s Health and Rights Survey
September 23, 2019
MPact Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights has launched its fourth global survey on the health and human rights of gay men, bisexual men and other men who have sex with men. The 2019 Global Men’s Health and Rights Survey focuses on factors that impact the health of...
Read more...
Access to health information for deaf people
September 23, 2019
Today is the International Day of Sign Languages. Access to health information for deaf people is critical for their health and survival. Human Rights Watch documented in several countries that communications barriers have interfered with deaf people’s right to health, starting with the difficulty in getting health information in an accessible...
Read more...
Indigenous people’s right to health
August 9, 2019
On the occasion of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples (9 August), we published a new article on the right to health of indigenous peoples in the Topics section on our website, written by volunteer Andres Delgado. Go to the article
Read more...
Climate change and people with disabilities
July 17, 2019
Last Friday, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on climate change and the rights of persons with disabilities. These people, already affected by social and physical barriers are additionally affected by climate change. They may be more susceptible to diseases spread by climate change, in case of flooding...
Read more...
In the past few weeks, IFHHRO Secretary Adriaan van Es worked as a volunteer doctor in the Moria refugee camp on the island of Lesbos, Greece, where thousands of stranded refugees are living in very difficult circumstances. Appalled by the situation he encountered in the camp, he wrote a letter...
Read more...
USA: Guidelines for trans care and best practice
July 5, 2019
When transgender people seek healthcare, they face misunderstandings, harassment from staff, and other potential obstacles. In the 2015 NCTE Transgender Survey, 1 in 4 trans people in the USA reported avoiding medical care, and 1 in 3 reported experiencing healthcare discrimination. Policies like the "Title X gag rule” and the “moral conscience”...
Read more...
When transgender people seek healthcare, they face misunderstandings, harassment from staff, and other potential obstacles. In the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey of the NCTE (National Center for Transgender Equality), 1 in 4 trans people in the USA reported avoiding medical care, and 1 in 3 reported experiencing healthcare discrimination. Policies...
Read more...
The latest report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dainius Pūras, focuses on the human rights imperative to promote social and psycho-social determinants of health, and how these structural elements intersect with the right to mental health promotion. The Special Rapporteur presented this new report to...
Read more...
Each year on 19 June, the international community commemorates the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. The use of forms of sexual violence, including (gang) rape, forced prostitution and forced marriage, as a 'weapon of war' has severe consequences for those affected. Please see the new...
Read more...
New issue Health and Human Rights Journal
June 18, 2019
The June 2019 issue of the Health and Human Rights Journal appeared last week. In this edition, there are two special sections: one on ethical and human rights issues in global health fieldwork, and the other on health and human rights in the United States. Other topics discussed in the...
Read more...
DAFOH Newsletter
June 5, 2019
The latest issue of the DAFOH Newsletter has just appeared. This newsletter offers information on the issue of forced organ harvesting in China. Since 2006, a large amount of evidence on the practice of systematic government-sanctioned involuntary organ removals from incarcerated victims - who are primarily Falun Gong practitioners -...
Read more...
New Topic: Sustainable Development Goals
May 23, 2019
Today, we published a new article in the Topics section on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this article, our volunteer Somaya Bahji describes how the SDGs relate to the right to health, which SDGs are of particular importance for fulfilling the right to health, and which population groups are...
Read more...
Abortion, health and gender stereotypes
May 21, 2019
On 20 May 2019, Lucia Berro Pizzarossa obtained her PhD on the subject of abortion. Worldwide, countries have responded differently to abortion from a legal perspective, ranging from the complete criminalization of abortion to the regulation of the procedure as a health issue. What do these laws mean from a...
Read more...
IFHHRO is deeply concerned about the sentencing on 3 May of the leadership of the Turkish Medical Association, partner of IFHHRO, and joins Physicians for Human Rights’ call that the court’s decision be overturned and the charges be dismissed. https://phr.org/news/prison-sentencing-of-turkish-doctors-for-calling-war-a-public-health-problem-is-an-egregious-miscarriage-of-justice/ On 24 January 2019 the Council of the TMA issued...
Read more...
Each year, the UN Secretary General issues a report on the implementation of resolutions on sexual violence in conflict situations and to recommend strategic actions. The 2019 report, which appeared at the end of March, states with regards to health(care): "Survivors often require immediate, life-saving health care, including comprehensive clinical...
Read more...
On April 23, the Security Council adopted the most recent resolution (2467) on sexual violence in conflict. It calls for a victim-centred approach in all UN actions and stresses the importance of providing healthcare and psychological support to the victims and vulnerable groups. However, according to several NGOs working on...
Read more...
China: Abolish Arbitrary Detention for Sex Workers
March 5, 2019
Human Rights Watch is urgently requesting the Government of China to abolish the Custody and Education system used to detain primarily sex workers for up to two years without trial. This system is supposed to provide sex workers and clients with education, health monitoring, and work experience. However, Human Rights Watch research shows that in...
Read more...
Gaza: Female cancer patients affected by the blockade
March 5, 2019
A new report by our long-time partner Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) issued to mark International Women’s Day reveals how the closure of Gaza and the criteria for granting exit permits predominantly affect women patients. The report, titled Between the Hammer and the Anvil, is based on an analysis...
Read more...
New Topic: Detention
January 17, 2019
Recently, we published a new article in the Topics section on the right to health in detention facilities. This article, which was written by our volunteer Somaya Bahji from Morocco, mainly builds upon the 2018 report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health on detention and confinement. In this...
Read more...
In Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) is one of the signatories of an open letter to the government, urging it to start immediate negotations with doctors who have been on a six-week strike. They hold the Zimbabwean government accountable for the dire situation facing public hospitals...
Read more...
In India, a group of people with mental health problems were freed from a faith-based asylum in the state of Uttar Pradesh. They had been brought there by their relatives and were shackled to “cure them and rid them of spirits”. The Solicitor-General who informed the Supreme Court on Monday about this case,...
Read more...
New online course on Global Health, Conflict and Violence
December 28, 2018
A new MOOC on Global Health, Conflict and Violence will start on Monday 14 January. In this free online course conducted by the Medical Peace Work project you will learn about medical peace work in situations of conflict and violence, and you will consider the role of health professionals in the prevention of violence...
Read more...
Seventy years of human rights in global health
December 27, 2018
In a 23-minute podcast, health and human rights expert Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University (USA) reflects on 70 years of human rights in global health, and discusses the challenges ahead for governance on the path to Universal Health Coverage. In December it was 70 years ago that the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human...
Read more...
In Turkey, Dr. Gençay Gürsoy, founder and former president of the Turkish Medical Association (TMA), was sentenced by an Istanbul Court to two years and three months in prison on the charge of “disseminating propaganda for an armed terrorist organization." According to Physicians for Human Rights, which condemns the sentencing, Dr....
Read more...
An investigation by The Associated Press (AP) has found that women and their newborns in Slovakia are routinely, unjustifiably and illegally detained in hospitals. Especially Roma women, who are also more vulnerable to racist abuse and physical violence, are subject to this practice. In October, the AP reported that hospitals...
Read more...
In a report released last week, the United Nations Committee Against Torture officially recognized that sterilizing Indigenous women without consent is a form of torture. The Committee calls on Canada to ensure that all allegations of forced or coerced sterilization are impartially investigated, that the persons responsible are held accountable,...
Read more...
Yemen: Torture in rebel-controlled and government-controlled areas
December 11, 2018
Since the start of the civil war in Yemen, more than 18,000 people are believed to have been locked up by the Houthi fighters. Many of them have been tortured. But rights groups say that torture also takes place in prisons run by the Yemeni government and its Gulf allies, including the...
Read more...
Criminalization of HIV is counterproductive
December 10, 2018
In many countries, people living with HIV are still being prosecuted for HIV non-disclosure, exposure or transmission, even though civil society activists and public health experts have long warned that these laws and prosecutions violate human rights: they stigmatize people living with HIV and discourage people from learning their HIV status....
Read more...
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
December 10, 2018
Today, on Human Rights Day, we celebrate that 70 years ago, the General Assembly of the UN proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Adopted on 10th December 1948, the Declaration stipulates universal values and common standards for everyone. The Declaration consists of 30 articles affirming an individual's rights which, although not legally...
Read more...
Invitation IFHHRO meet-up, Thursday 17 January 2019
December 3, 2018
On 17 January 2019, we will organize a short meeting for people interested in further collaboration with IFHHRO | Medical Human Rights Network. We would like to invite you to brainstorm with us about our plans for the future and the way we could work together in realizing these. The...
Read more...
World AIDS Day 2018
December 1, 2018
Today, on World AIDS Day, we commemorate the progress made in the AIDS response in the past 30 years. According to UNAIDS, 75% of people living with HIV know their HIV status, and 59% (over 21 million people) have access to antiretroviral therapy. However, there are still many problems with the availability and affordability...
Read more...
UK: Access to healthcare for people seeking and refused asylum
December 1, 2018
Two recent reports published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission highlight the access to healthcare for people seeking and refused asylum in the UK. The research on which these reports are based was carried out by Imperial College London in collaboration with Doctors of the World UK. These reports,...
Read more...
US: Medical complicity of CIA health professionals
November 17, 2018
In the US, a legal victory by the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) has led to the publication of a top secret CIA report disclosing the role of the Office of Medical Services (OMS) in the CIA’s torture programme. According to our partner Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), the document provides a chilling...
Read more...
World Diabetes Day
November 14, 2018
Today is World Diabetes Day. Please check out this interesting article in the Journal of Diabetes, Metabolic Disorders & Control on the right to health and the right to food in relation to diabetes. This article published in 2017 discusses what are the most influential factors for achieving these rights for type 2 diabetic patients...
Read more...
Turkey: New law prohibits fired doctors to work in private sector
November 12, 2018
On 10 November 2018, IFHHRO sent a letter to the President of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Mr Binali Yildirim, urging the Assembly to withdraw a new bill approved on 6 November. The bill allows the exclusion of doctors who lost their jobs under the State of Emergency Law Decrees, from employment...
Read more...
Declaration of Astana
November 2, 2018
At the recent Global Conference on Primary Health Care in Astana, Kazakhstan, the UN Member States unanimously agreed to the Declaration of Astana to strengthen their primary healthcare systems as an essential step toward achieving Universal Health Coverage. The Declaration of Astana reaffirms the historic 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata. “Today, instead of health...
Read more...
Young people with disabilities excluded from healthcare
November 2, 2018
Young people with disabilities are largely excluded from education and health services, discriminated against in their communities and trapped in a cycle of poverty and violence. Especially girls with disabilities bear the brunt of these violations. According to a 2018 UNFPA report, they face up to 10 times more gender-based violence than those...
Read more...
Roma and access to healthcare
November 1, 2018
The latest issue of the European Journal of Health Law features an open access article titled "Ethnic Diversity and Access to Healthcare from a Human Rights Perspective: The Case of the Roma in Europe". This article by the Greek lawyer Elisavet Alexiadou, a Fellow at our partner Global Health Law...
Read more...
Neglecting quality in healthcare
October 19, 2018
An analysis of 20 high-level documents produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research shows that these documents have paid insufficient attention to quality healthcare. Since the quality of services is one of the four elements of the right to health (along...
Read more...
World Food Day: the right to food
October 16, 2018
Today is World Food Day. As the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) states on its website: "Zero hunger means working together to ensure everyone, everywhere, has access to the safe, healthy and nutritious food they need." Please read the new article on the right to food at our website...
Read more...
WMA resolution on migration
October 11, 2018
At the recent World Medical Association (WMA) Annual Assembly in Reykjavik, a resolution was passed on migration, urging members and the international health community to advocate for the necessary healthcare for migrants in countries that welcome and receive large numbers of migrants. "The WMA emphasizes the role of physicians to actively support and promote the rights of...
Read more...
The shared struggle of the HIV and safe abortion movements
October 11, 2018
Read this interesting article by Justice Edwin Cameron and the former Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Anand Grover: Criminalizing the right to health: The shared struggle of the HIV and safe abortion movements. "Every single year, more than 22,800 women and girls die due to complications from unsafe abortion - a stark reminder...
Read more...
In an article in BMJ Global Health, the authors argue that undocumented migrants are often overlooked in national health system planning and implementation. They often have access to fewer services and must cover larger out-of-pocket expenses . "Where human rights obligations seek to realise universal health coverage for everyone, national policies on universal health coverage, should...
Read more...
US/Israel: Planned US budget cuts for East Jerusalem hospitals may lead to total collapse
September 24, 2018
The US Administration plans to cancel subsidies to hospitals in East Jerusalem that provide specialised healthcare to Palestinians with serious illnesses. According to our partner Physicians for Human Rights Israel, “hospitals in East Jerusalem have been in financial distress for some time and closing the tap could lead to their...
Read more...
World Refugee Day
June 20, 2018
Each year on 20 June, we commemorate World Refugee Day, an expression of solidarity with people on the run. Like other human beings, they have a right to the highest attainable standard of health. Read in the Topics section on our website how this right is being threatened and what doctors, nurses and other health workers can...
Read more...
Today, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health presented his latest report (A/HRC/38/36) to the Human Rights Council, on the topic of detention and confinement. Read the English edition here: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/…/G…/101/42/pdf/G1810142.pdf
Read more...
Humanitarian Health Digest: a new quarterly bibliography of journal articles on humanitarian health
May 11, 2018
The Humanitarian Health Digest is a new quarterly bibliography of published peer-reviewed journal articles on humanitarian health. The Digest is compiled by the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health and The Lancet. It includes one or two new commentaries on peer-reviewed articles cited in the Digest. The objective of the Digest is...
Read more...
Argentina: Lawmakers propose bill to legalize abortion
March 20, 2018
Women’s reproductive rights are a global issue. Around the world, women in many countries have restricted access to sexual health services including abortion, which goes against a woman’s human right. Developed countries have been meeting the rights of women as a result of mass protest. Argentina and is lawmakers are...
Read more...
New Topics: Drug control, refugees, transgenders
February 26, 2018
Lately, we published three new articles in the Topics section on the right to health of several vulnerable population groups: refugees, transgenders, and drug users. Written by our volunteers Tara Ornstein and Gauri Deoras respectively, these articles shed some light on how societal attitudes, including those of health professionals, lead...
Read more...
The European Scientific Network on Law and Tobacco (ESNLT), coordinated by our partner the Global Health Law Groningen Research Centre, is calling for abstracts for the international conference Law and Noncommunicable Diseases. Subtitled "The cross-cutting role of law in NCD control and regulating risk factors", this event will take place on 31 May and...
Read more...
Australia: Abuse and neglect of prisoners with disabilities
February 12, 2018
People with disabilities in prisons across Australia are at serious risk of sexual and physical violence, and are disproportionately held in solitary confinement for 22 hours a day, Human Rights Watch said in a report released earlier this month. The 93-page report, “I Needed Help, Instead I Was Punished: Abuse and Neglect...
Read more...
Clinical care and complicity with torture
February 12, 2018
Recently, the BMJ (British Medical Journal) published an article by Len Rubenstein, Zackary Berger and Matthew DeCamp entitled “Clinical care and complicity with torture”. It states that release of previously classified guidelines from the CIA regarding medical practice in secret detention facilities shows that the CIA instructed health professionals to...
Read more...
The Netherlands: Hospital joins court case against tobacco industry
February 6, 2018
The Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (AVL) cancer hospital in Amsterdam has joined an ongoing legal action against four tobacco companies based in the Netherlands. The AVL is the first hospital or research institute in the Netherlands to take such a step against the tobacco industry. "At least 30% of all cancer...
Read more...
International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation
February 6, 2018
Today, February 6th, marks the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. Female genital mutilation (FGM) includes all procedures whereby the female genitals are modified or injured for non-medical reasons. This traditional practice is internationally recognized as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. It reflects deep-rooted inequalities...
Read more...
Turkey has arrested eleven executives of the Turkish Medical Association, including its chairman Dr. Rashit Tukel. They are being held on "terrorism charges" after the association condemned Turkey's military operations in Afrin, a region in Northern Syria. Earlier this month, the Turkish Air Force bombed more than 100 targets in Afrin. War...
Read more...
New Topics: Interpersonal violence and armed conflict
January 26, 2018
Interpersonal violence can take many forms and is not restricted to intimitate partner violence, usually of men against women. According to the World Health Organization, interpersonal violence "refers to violence between individuals, and is subdivided into family and intimate partner violence and community violence. The former category includes child maltreatment; intimate partner violence;...
Read more...
USA: Effects of recent policies on the right to health
January 24, 2018
Please see below two examples of how recent U.S. policies under the Trump administration seriously affect the right to health of American citizens: 1) A large number of legal immigrants from Latin American countries have dropped out of federally subsidized insurance plans and are avoiding health services. They fear their...
Read more...
Obituary Dr. Jonathan Fine
January 23, 2018
IFHHRO mourns for Dr. Jonathan Fine, who died at age 86 on Wednesday 17 January in his house in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Jonathan Fine had been one of the founders of Physicians for Human Rights in Boston in 1986, and was a very outspoken Director. He was convinced that medical testimonies...
Read more...
A quick scan of the latest annual report of Human Rights Watch reveals a number of health-related human rights violations that have taken place in 2017. Most infringements included in the report can be categorized into the following categories: Sexual and reproductive health and rights – e.g., a new law criminalizing...
Read more...
Kenya: Doctor demands legalization of female genital mutilation
January 18, 2018
A female doctor in Kenya has filed a court case to demand the legalization of female genital mutilation (FGM), as she claims the ban on FGM is discriminatory. Dr Kamau argues that the outlawing of female circumcision is against the culture of many African communities and should be reviewed. She said...
Read more...
Earlier this week, Mental Health Europe and the University of Kent-Tizard Centre (UK) launched a report on their extensive study on the state of mental health services across Europe (more than 35 countries). This report, entitled Mapping and Understanding Exclusion. Institutional, coercive and community based services and practices across Europe...
Read more...
Canada: Ruling on indefinite solitary confinement in federal prisons
January 18, 2018
Yesterday, the British Colombia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) and John Howard Society of Canada (JHSC) won their court case challenging the use of solitary confinement in Canada’s federal prisons. The B.C. Supreme Court’s decision means an end to the practice of indefinitely isolating inmates in federal prisons across Canada. Landmark...
Read more...
Lebanon: Authorities’ inaction to end open burning of waste is violating right to health
January 17, 2018
Human Rights Watch is drawing attention to the link between waste management and the right to health. Using the example of Lebanon, the organization states that the open burning of waste is a dangerous and unreported part of this country's waste management crisis. In December 2017, Human Rights Watch released the report "As If...
Read more...
UK: Undocumented migrants too scared to see a doctor
January 17, 2018
In the UK, a group of experts have informed the members of Parliament’s health select committee about the detrimental effects of a 2017 data-sharing agreement between the National Health Service (NHS) and the Home Office. A ‘memorandum of understanding’ between the NHS’s digital service and the government allows the Home...
Read more...
Volunteering opportunities
December 20, 2017
Would you like to learn more about the right to health and how it applies to everday situations in health care? Would you like to have up-to-date knowledge on recent developments and discussions in the field of health and human rights? If you have a medical or legal (health law)...
Read more...
Two Ebola survivors in Sierra Leone have filed a law suit at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), challenging the Sierra Leone government over its handling of the 2014 epidemic. ECOWAS is a regional economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. The survivors, who are supported by the...
Read more...
New issue of the Health and Human Rights Journal
December 13, 2017
The December issue of the Health and Human Rights Journal is now available online (full access). There are two special sections: 1) Roma and the Right to Health, and 2) HIV and Human Rights. You can either access the PDF of the full issue here or browse through the contents below. Special...
Read more...
Universal Health Coverage as a means to promote the right to health
December 12, 2017
Universal Health Coverage Day, commemorated each year on 12 December, is the anniversary of the first unanimous United Nations resolution calling for countries to provide affordable, quality health care to every person, everywhere. This resolution on Universal Health Care was passed in December 2012. Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is an important means...
Read more...
Medical ethics in times of conflict
December 11, 2017
Medical ethics has a key role in discussing the effects of conflicts and other violent human rights abuses, John Chisholm and Julian Sheather of the British Medical Association argue in a recent Comment in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics. Recent history has seen a closer relationship and interdependency between medicine and...
Read more...
Medical detention of patients
December 10, 2017
In parts of Africa and Asia, patients who cannot pay their medical bills are detained and abused by healthcare staff, a new research paper from Chatham House in the UK states. The report lists evidence of "medical detention" of patients, particularly women and babies, in countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe,...
Read more...
Discrimination in health care
December 10, 2017
Today, December 10th, is International Human Rights Day. On this day, the World Health Organization raises awareness to the issue of discrimination in healthcare settings as an important threat to the right to health: "The right to health means ending discrimination in all healthcare settings." Discrimination in health care takes many forms. Examples...
Read more...
Organizational changes in IFHHRO
December 8, 2017
After months of preparation and work, we are happy to inform you about some important changes in the way we work. From a federation of health and human rights organizations, we have changed into a web-based network of individuals and organizations concerned in health and human rights. The new name...
Read more...
Syria: Health workers and the weaponisation of health care
December 2, 2017
In an article published in the December 2nd issue of The Lancet, the authors address the "weaponisation of health care", defined as the strategy of using people's need for health care as a weapon against them by violently depriving them of it. As a result of these attacks on health...
Read more...
My Health, My Right. World AIDS Day campaign
November 28, 2017
This year’s World AIDS Day campaign focuses on the right to health. In the lead-up to this day, 1 December, the #myrighttohealth campaign has explored the challenges people around the world face in exercising their right to health. The campaign provides information about the right to health and what impact it has...
Read more...
Last week, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, signed an agreement to deepen collaboration between their agencies. The agreement – formally called a Framework for Cooperation – responds to the recommendations in the June 2017 report of the High...
Read more...
Tuberculosis: Fighting an old disease with an outdated approach
November 28, 2017
In a blog on the O’Neill Institute website, Drew Aiken writes that we are addressing tuberculosis (TB), one of the most ancient diseases, with approaches nearly as ancient. This includes over-hospitalization, use of involuntary isolation, and in some countries, use of discriminatory and punitive laws which violate human rights and...
Read more...
Unfulfilled healthcare needs of migrant women care workers
November 20, 2017
On November 21, a high-level panel at a meeting convened in Geneva will discuss a new WHO report entitled "Women on the Move: Migration, care work and health". Available data shows that a substantial and growing proportion of care work is being undertaken by migrants, the majority of whom are...
Read more...
New Topic: Adolescents’ right to health
November 20, 2017
Adolescents face a myriad of threats to their right to health including violence, sexual assault, exploitation, trafficking, and harmful traditional practices. At the same time, they face multiple barriers to health services, including restrictive laws, unavailability of contraception or safe abortions; failure to ensure privacy and confidentiality; judgemental service provision,...
Read more...
New open access course on non-communicable diseases and human rights
November 13, 2017
A new free online course addresses the links between non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and human rights. This short, self-paced course was developed by the Program on Global Health and Human Rights of the University of Southern California (USC). It is designed to boost literacy and support action to address these links among...
Read more...
Letter-writing campaign Amnesty to free Dr Ahmadreza Djalali
October 30, 2017
Iranian-born Swedish resident Dr Ahmadreza Djalali, a medical doctor and lecturer in disaster medicine, has been detained in Tehran’s Evin prison since his arrest on 25 April 2016. While in solitary confinement, he was subjected to intense interrogations, and forced under great emotional and psychological pressure to sign statements. He...
Read more...
UN Special Rapporteur: Healthcare among the most corrupt sectors
October 26, 2017
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Dainius Puras, has called on States to provide bold leadership to confront corruption and its severe impact on the right to health, including more protection for 'whistleblowers' and empowering the public to report corruption. "In many countries, health is among...
Read more...
Healthcare workers as human rights defenders
October 26, 2017
Health is a human right and healthcare workers are human rights defenders, the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kate Gilmore, said in an interview. Governments should provide healthcare for their citizens and protect professionals who deliver these services.“We see health not only as the absence of disease and not...
Read more...
Rights-related policies adopted at the latest World Medical Association General Assembly
October 20, 2017
Delegates from more than 50 national medical associations attended the annual General Assembly of the World Medical Association (WMA) in Chicago from 11 to 14 October. Some of the rights-related issues discussed were hunger strikes, armed conflict, access to health care, child abuse, and fair medical trade. Hunger strikes The...
Read more...
Complicity of doctors in forced anal examinations
October 19, 2017
Doctors, medical professionals, and national medical associations should heed the World Medical Association's October 2017 resolution to end forced anal examinations on people accused of homosexual conduct, Human Rights Watch states. The General Assembly of the World Medical Association (WMA) condemned the use of forced anal examinations to seek evidence...
Read more...
The World Health Organization recently published the tool Monitoring human rights in contraceptive services and programmes. This tool is intended for use by countries to assist them in strengthening their human rights efforts in contraceptive programming. It uses existing commonly-used indicators to highlight areas where human rights have been promoted, neglected or violated...
Read more...
UK: Discriminatory National Health System policies
October 9, 2017
Last week, thousands of NHS (National Health System) workers and activists marched in the cities of London, Newcastle and Manchester to protest against a health policy that has left migrants too scared to access care. The government’s so-called ‘hostile environment’ policy has been described as discriminatory and inhumane. This policy, which was...
Read more...
Ghana: Ban shackling and invest in mental health services
October 9, 2017
The government of Ghana should ensure adequate funding for mental health services in the country, a coalition of Ghanaian and international nongovernmental groups said. This is as a crucial step to eliminating the widespread practice of shackling and other abuses against people with psychosocial disabilities. The coalition includes several mental health and human...
Read more...
WHO condemns attacks on hospitals and health workers in Syria
September 22, 2017
Last week, WHO issued a statement on a series of recent attacks against health care in Syria. As the result of these attacks on health facilities and personnel in Idlib and Hama provinces on September 19th, several health workers were killed or injured. On that day, several ambulances and hospitals in...
Read more...
Understanding markets in order to improve access to essential medicines and other health products
September 22, 2017
PATH recently published the resource Markets Matter Advocacy Guide. This guide can be used by health advocates to learn how to strengthen markets to improve access to essential health products. The resource, which is part of PATH's Stronger Health Advocates Greater Health Impact series, contains an overview of market actors and identifies...
Read more...
Human rights law and access to abortion
July 30, 2017
The recently published Human Rights Watch Q&A on Human Rights Law and Access to Abortion discusses abortion as a human rights issue and the health consequences of unsafe abortions. It also shows that restrictive abortion policies do not reduce the rate of unsafe abortions, and highlights the positions of UN experts and...
Read more...
Intellectual property rights and access to medicines
July 25, 2017
Last week, on 17 July, UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines took place at the UN headquarters in New York. Sub-titled "Advancing Health-Related SDGs through Policy Coherence", the panel came together during the UN High Political Forum on Sustainable Development. William New of the news service Intellectual Property...
Read more...
A new publication of the Centre for Reproductive Rights analyses young people's access to sexual and reproductive health from a human rights perspective. It concludes that significant gaps remain in adolescents' knowledge about their sexual and reproductive health and rights and ability to access essential sexual and reproductive health services.
Read more...
Brazil: Gaps in response to Zika virus outbreak
July 18, 2017
In a recent Human Rights Watch report, the organization states that Brazil has not addressed longstanding human rights problems that allowed the Zika virus outbreak to escalate. As a result, the Zika threat in Brazil remains, even though the government declared an end to the national public health emergency related to the Zika...
Read more...
Israel: Right to health in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and for prisoners and detainees
July 18, 2017
IFHHRO member Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHRI) recently published a short report on the right to health in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and in the Israelian prison system. The report will serve as PHRI's submission to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review system.
Read more...
The United Nations have issued a joint statement this week on the elimination of discrimination in health care settings. Discrimination in hospitals and other health facilities is widespread across the world and takes many forms. It violates the most fundamental human rights protected in international treaties and in national laws and...
Read more...
Last week, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the right to health in relation to the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including a call for medicines and vaccines access for all. The resolution also requests the UN human rights commissioner to report on the right...
Read more...
According to a new report released today by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), recently declassified documents confirm that the CIA conducted experimental research to test an unsupported hypothesis that torture could break the resistance of detainees and aid interrogation. It confirms that health workers were involved in illegal and unethical...
Read more...
In the report Neither Justice nor Treatment, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) states that drug courts in the United States struggle to meet medical and human rights standards. According to the researchers, drug courts – designed to reduce incarceration and provide necessary treatment – routinely fail to provide adequate, medically-sound...
Read more...
Mental health as a global health priority
June 8, 2017
At the Thirty-fifth session of the Human Rights Council (June 6-23, 2017), the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health presented his latest report, focusing on mental health as a global health priority.
Read more...
New issue Health and Human Rights Journal
June 8, 2017
The latest edition of the Health and Human Rights Journal is now online. This edition contains two special sections: 1) abortion and human rights, and 2) drug control and human rights, as well as some general papers.
Read more...
In Chile, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) recently trained over 300 health sector officials to provide them with a detailed understanding and raise awareness about migrants’ human rights, migration and health, and trafficking in persons.
Read more...
Malaysia: Inadequate health care for prisoners
May 31, 2017
The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) has revealed that the right to health care in Malaysian prisons is still lacking. Recently, Suhakam conducted a nationwide survey on the right to health in prison, in which over 6,400 randomly selected individuals (5,482 prisoners, 886 prison staff, and 52 prison medical...
Read more...
New website: Medicines Law & Policy
May 29, 2017
The new website Medicines Law & Policy, launched recently by leading specialists on access to medicines and intellectual property law, provides policy and legal analysis, best practice models and other information that can be used by governments, non-governmental organisations, product development initiatives, funding agencies, UN agencies and others working to ensure...
Read more...
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) presented its Health and Human Rights Award to Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of the Nippon Foundation, at the 2017 ICN Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on May 27. The award was presented in recognition of Sasakawa's contribution to the fight against leprosy and leprosy-related discrimination, and...
Read more...
New report High-Level Group on the Health and Human Rights of Women, Children and Adolescents
May 23, 2017
Last Monday, May 22th, the High-Level Group on the Health and Human Rights of Women, Children and Adolescents published a report on realizing health-related human rights. It states that governments should invest in the integral relationship between human rights and health specifically for women, children and adolescents.
Read more...
Health Professionals’ Pledge Against Torture
May 20, 2017
IFHHRO strongly supports Physicians for Human Rights' (PHR) new "Health Professionals’ Pledge Against Torture," following political discussion in the US regarding a potential return to waterboarding.
Read more...
Turkey: The case of Dr. Serdar Küni
May 9, 2017
On April 24th, the Turkish medical doctor Serdar Küni was sentenced by a local court to over 4 years of imprisonment. In response, a coalition of organizations led by Physicians for Human Rights, sent a letter to the Regional High Court in Gaziantep (Turkey) and the Turkish Ministry of Justice....
Read more...
Voices in the Field project
April 28, 2017
Two board members of IFHHRO, i.e., secretary of the board Adriaan van Es and chair Robert Simons, were recently interviewed for the interview project Voices in the Field.
Read more...
Newsletter Right to Health (2017-)
March 28, 2017
Publisher: Public Services International (PSI)Bi-monthly newsletter of the PSI Human Right to Health Global Campaign, which started in December 2016 Access newsletter
Read more...
Over 4,000 community health workers in the Indian State of Bihar will be trained in human rights by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). This course was an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Amnesty International India. The three-month 'Self-Learning Human Rights Certificate Course' aims to...
Read more...
Ethical issues in tuberculosis control
March 23, 2017
On the occasion of World TB Day 2017 (24 March), the World Health Organization launched new tuberculosis (TB) ethics guidelines to help ensure that countries implementing the End TB Strategy adhere to sound ethical standards to protect the rights of all those affected.
Read more...
A rights-based approach to children affected by tuberculosis
March 23, 2017
On the occasion of World TB Day, which is celebrated each year on 24 March, IFHHRO would like to point to a recent paper in the journal BMC International Health and Human Rights on children with tuberculosis (TB). In this paper, the authors argue that doctors, academics, human rights specialists, and...
Read more...
Turkey: Medical doctor on trial
March 21, 2017
The third hearing in the trial of Dr. Şebnem Korur Fincancı (the President of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey - HRFT) and two journalists on charges of aiding terrorism was held on March 21, 2017 at the 13th Çağlayan Heavy Penal Court in Istanbul. Along with Dr. Fincancı, the journalists Erol Önderoğlu (Reporters...
Read more...
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 200 organizations based in the United States, strongly condemns the new health-care bill proposed by President Trump and his Republican Party, which will replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare). The president and...
Read more...
Voices in the Field: new interview series
March 17, 2017
Voices in the Field is a new multimedia interview series that shares the stories of experienced professionals in the field of health and highlights the role of human rights in their careers. Voices in the Field, a project of Global Health Law Groningen (The Netherlands) and IFHHRO, aims to capture the accounts...
Read more...
Holy See: Universal access to medicine is a moral obligation
March 13, 2017
Last week, the Holy See - the office of the Catholic Pope - issued an important statement with regards to universal access to medicines when Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič, the Vatican's representative to the United Nations in Geneva, addressed the Human Rights Council. He said that working for a just distribution...
Read more...
The United Nations Special Rapporteurs on the right to food and on toxics have called for a comprehensive new global treaty to regulate and phase out the use of dangerous pesticides in farming, and move towards sustainable agricultural practices. Chronic exposure to pesticides has been linked to cancer, Alzheimer's and...
Read more...
Gambia: The right to reproductive health
March 7, 2017
To commemorate International Women's Day, March 8th, we published a short article on the right to reproductive health in The Gambia, written by master's student Madi Jobarteh, who originates from that country but currently resides in The Netherlands.
Read more...
A quick scan of Amnesty International’s latest annual report reveals a number of health-related human rights violations that have taken place all over the world.
Read more...
Advancing the right to health: the vital role of law
February 23, 2017
In a recent report published by the World Health Organization, the autors highlight the vital role of law reform in advancing the right to health. What are the most effective tools for doing this? This report illustrates how countries have enacted and implemented a wide range of laws and regulations with a...
Read more...
Colombo Statement on Migrant Health
February 23, 2017
Health leaders of 40 countries adopted the "Colombo Statement" in order to address health challenges posed by increasingly mobile populations. The statement was adopted on February 23th, the closing day of the 2nd Global Consultation on Migrant Health, which was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Read more...
The right to access adequate contraception, including abortion
February 13, 2017
In light of the recently reinstated Mexico City Policy, which prohibits non-governmental organizations that receive U.S. funds from providing or promoting abortions overseas, IFHHRO would like to recall that the recent General Comment 22 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2016) calls upon States "to liberalize restrictive...
Read more...
Iran: Inhumane treatment of prisoners
February 10, 2017
IFHHRO is deeply concerned about our colleague Dr Ahmadreza Djalali (45), a resident of Sweden who has been detained in Iran since 25 April 2016. He has been on hunger strike since 26 December 2016 in protest against his detention. This week, Amnesty International initiated an urgent action on his...
Read more...
Egypt: Rehabilitation centre for torture survivors shut down
February 9, 2017
On February 9th, the El Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence was raided by police and shut down. According to Amnesty International, the centre had suffered from harassment by the authorities for a full year before it was closed by the police.
Read more...
Following the release of draft executive orders under consideration by President Donald Trump, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has warned that any attempts to undermine the absolute prohibition against torture, the ban on secret and unlawful detention, and U.S. obligations to protect refugees would be illegal, immoral, and harmful.
Read more...
The war on drugs and human rights
January 18, 2017
The war on drugs has had devastating effects on human rights and public health worldwide, experts argue in the BMJ. In three articles published online, key players in this debate discuss the harms of prohibition and criminalisation and outline their reasons for drug policy reform.
Read more...
According to Human Rights Watch, asylum seekers with disabilities are not properly identified and do not enjoy equal access to services in reception centres in Greece. The Greek government is operating several reception centres and refugee camps on the Aegean islands and the mainland. Asylum seekers and other migrants with disabilities have particular difficulties...
Read more...
Netherlands: Doctors support lawsuit against tobacco companies
January 12, 2017
Dutch doctors will help pay for a criminal case being brought against four tobacco companies that are active in the Netherlands. The association behind the production of the Dutch Journal of Medicine (NTvG) is providing financial support to the lawsuit.
Read more...
Syria: 2016 was the most dangerous year for health workers
January 12, 2017
The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) has released a new report on the health situation in Syria. Titled The Failure of UN Security Council Resolution 2286 in Preventing Attacks on Healthcare in Syria, this report documents 172 attacks on medical facilities and personnel from June through December 2016, using first-hand...
Read more...
Universal Health Coverage and Human Rights
December 13, 2016
Last week, a few days before Universal Health Coverage Day (12 December), the Health and Human Rights Journal published a special section on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and Human Rights. In the editorial, guest editor Audrey Chapman explains why UHC can be termed "a practical expression of the right to...
Read more...
The High Court in Nairobi has on 7 December 2016 declared unconstitutional a presidential directive seeking to collect names of school-going children living with HIV. The case was filed by KELIN (Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV & AIDS), Children of God Relief Institute, and two individuals.
Read more...
India: Court rule in favour of unnecessary and costly drugs
December 6, 2016
Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), the Indian circle of the People's Health Movement in Haryana, has expressed concern and shock at a recent Delhi High Court verdict. The court has lifted the ban imposed on 344 fixed dose combinations (FDCs) of drugs by the government a few months ago. According to...
Read more...
World leaders advocate ending all penalties for drug consumption and possession for personal use
November 28, 2016
In the new yearly report from the Global Commission on Drug Policy, the Commission advocates ending all penalties for drug consumption and possession for personal use. The report, Advancing Drug Policy Reform: a new approach to drug decriminalization, details the destructive and harmful consequences of punitive drug policies and the...
Read more...
Slovenia: The right to clean drinking water constitutionalized
November 22, 2016
The Central European country of Slovenia has amended its constitution to make access to drinkable water a fundamental right for all citizens. The Parliament adopted an amendment to the Constitution that declares the country's abundant clean water supplies "a public good managed by the state" and "not a market commodity".
Read more...
Even though there has been recent attention to the role that human rights experts can play in developing and applying human rights standards in the context of maternal mortality and morbidity, the issue of mistreatment during facility-based childbirth remains relatively inexplored. A recent systematic review of the scientific literature documented an extensive...
Read more...
Access to adequate water, sanitation and hygiene in schools
November 20, 2016
The good health, well-being, education and dignity of schoolchildren cannot be guaranteed without access to adequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in schools. In a booklet published by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, this issue is explored from a pan-European perspective.
Read more...
The link between drug policy and access to medicines
November 20, 2016
On the Open Society Foundations website an explanatory article was published recently on the link between drug policies and access to medicines. The organization argues that drug control policies lean too heavily towards limiting access to medicines for which patients have a legitimate and urgent need. Especially access to opioid medicines, such as...
Read more...
Australia: Controversial law amended
October 24, 2016
Medical Doctors in Australia have forced the federal government to back down on controversial laws banning health practitioners from publicly revealing abuse and medical negligence in Australia’s offshore detention centres for refugees. Just days before the federal government was due to respond to a High Court challenge from the local...
Read more...
The right to health and the Sustainable Development Goals
October 18, 2016
In his annual report to the UN General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dainius Puras, assesses the opportunity for the improvement of the right to health and human rights to contribute to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We have written a summary of...
Read more...
The Framework Convention on Global Health and WHO
October 16, 2016
In an online comment in The Lancet, a group of health and human rights experts led by Lawrence O. Gostin argues that the next Director-General of WHO should bring human rights to the forefront of this international organization. According to the authors, a Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH) should be the...
Read more...
Right to health of refugees
October 12, 2016
A focal point at this year's World Health Summit, which ended on October 11th, was refugee mental health. This issue is arguably more important now than ever in light of the ongoing refugee crisis, whereby individuals suffering psychological consequences as a result of living in a war-torn region are not receiving...
Read more...
Neoliberalism versus the right to health
October 9, 2016
Earlier this year, the book Global Health, Human Rights and the Challenge of Neoliberal Policies was published by Cambridge University Press. This book, written by Audrey Chapman, has now been reviewed by the Health and Human Rights Journal. In this book, Chapman presents an in-depth examination of the conflicts between neoliberalism, the dominant...
Read more...
The right to health and indigenous peoples
September 28, 2016
In its resolution 30/4, the Human Rights Council requested the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to prepare a study on the right to health and indigenous peoples with a focus on children and youth and to present it to the Council at its thirty-third session. The present...
Read more...
Access to medicines and international trade rules
September 28, 2016
Recently, the report of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Access To Medicines was published. Entitled 'Promoting innovation & access to health technologies', this report focuses on the discrepancies between international trade agreements such as the patent system, and international human rights law, which includes the right to health. In an...
Read more...
Latest report Special Rapporteur to the UN General Assembly
September 11, 2016
The Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health recently issued his second report to the UN General Assembly. The report focuses on the links between the Sustainable Development Goals and health and human rights.
Read more...
Mozambique: Opposition group raids hospitals
August 29, 2016
Armed men linked to Mozambique’s main opposition party, the Mozambique National Resistance (RENAMO), have raided at least two hospitals and two health clinics over the past month. The attacks on the medical facilities, which involved looting medicine and supplies and destroying medical equipment, threaten access to health care for tens...
Read more...
Participatory action research on health and human rights
August 29, 2016
Recently, the Centre for Health Policy at the University of Strathclyde (Scotland, UK) published the report of a participatory action research on the right to health. Titled "What do you mean, I have a right to health?", the report focuses on two main groups of marginalized people in Scotland, namely homeless people...
Read more...
HIV, TB and human rights in Southern and Eastern Africa
August 26, 2016
In its HIV, TB & Human Rights in Southern and East Africa 2016 Report, the international network ARASA (AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa) examines the legal and regulatory framework for responding to HIV, AIDS and tuberculosis in countries in Southern and East Africa.
Read more...
Ivory Coast: 10th anniversary of the ‘Probo Koala incident’
August 26, 2016
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the so-called Probo Koala incident, a group of United Nations human rights experts,including the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, have sent an open letter to the government of Côte d’Ivoire urging it to address the ongoing human rights impacts of the incident, which involved...
Read more...
Targeting hospitals in Kashmir
August 16, 2016
Recently, Indian police and paramilitary personnel barged into a hospital in northern Kashmir and allegedly threatened the volunteer groups serving the wounded and their attendants there. The incident took place in Sopore Sub-District Hospital on the night of August 8th 2016.
Read more...
India: Statement condemning the persecution of the Lawyers Collective by the Home Ministry
June 28, 2016
Earlier this month, the Government of India suspended the FCRA registration of the internationally well-known Lawyers Collective for 6 months, for alleged violations of FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) norms. Senior lawyers Indira Jaising (former member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women), and Anand Grover (former Special Rapporteur on...
Read more...
Following an IFHHRO Health and Human Rights course in Taiwan, two medical students from India, Nishtha Khatri and Neha Masrani, investigated the position of human rights within the medical curricula in medical schools across Asia, as well as what the ideas of medical student are regarding this subject.
Read more...
In his latest report to the UN Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Dainius Puras, focuses on the right to health of adolescents. He calls upon States to remove all legal barriers to access health facilities, goods and services that interfere with the rights of adolescents...
Read more...
Turkey: Forensic expert Dr. Fincancı arrested
June 25, 2016
IFHHRO has signed a letter drafted by our member Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) calling for the immediate, unconditional release of Şebnem Korur Fincancı, chair of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey and a forensic expert. Recently, Mrs. Fincancı was detained by the Turkish authorities, along with author Ahmet Nesin and Erol...
Read more...
Ireland’s abortion laws subjected a woman to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, according to a landmark decision from the United Nations Human Rights Committee. This ground-breaking ruling marks the first time that, in response to an individual complaint, an international human rights court or committee has recognized that by criminalizing abortion a...
Read more...
For the first time, The Lancet has published a Series on the health needs of transgenders and how these are being neglected. Due to stigma and prejudice, transgender people in many parts of the world have to face discrimination, harassment, and abuse - also in health-care facilities - with alarming...
Read more...
High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines
June 20, 2016
In November 2015, the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, convened a High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines, which goal would be to "review and assess proposals and recommend solutions for remedying the policy incoherence between the justifiable rights of inventors, international human rights law, trade rules and public health in the...
Read more...
At the 32nd session of the Human Rights Council (13 June - 1 July), the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice will present its latest annual report, focusing on health and safety issues of women. The present report aims to clarify the meaning of...
Read more...
In conflict zones around the world, health care workers and facilities are under relentless attack, according to the May 2016 report 'No Protection, No Respect' from the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition. This Coalition of more than 30 nongovernmental organizations found that during 2015 and the first three months of 2016, deliberate or...
Read more...
Attacks on civilians
June 14, 2016
Column: Civilians have once again become a military targetCarolien Roelants During a recent meeting, organised by Dutch lobby organisation CIDI (Centre for Information & Documentation Israel), I heard the American lawyer Alan Dershowitz advocate revising the Geneva Conventions regarding the protection of civilians during wartime. Basically his point is that civilians...
Read more...
Bangladesh: Failing response to arsenic in drinking water
April 24, 2016
New research from Human Rights Watch shows that drinking water supplies in rural areas are widely contaminated with naturally occurring arsenic, affecting some 20 million people. An estimated 43,000 Bangladeshis die each year from arsenic-induced illnesses like cancer, cardiovascular disease and lung disease.
Read more...
A missed opportunity to end the war on drugs
April 24, 2016
In a blog on the Human Rights Watch website, Diederik Lohman of the Health and Human Rights Division expresses his disappointment with the outcomes of the United Nations summit on drugs. He wrote: "While there are signs many countries are stepping back from the destructive 'war on drugs' approach to drugs, it’s hard not...
Read more...
The longstanding provider-patient confidentiality relationship is quietly eroding as an alarming number of medical staff across Latin America are reporting women and girls to the police for having abortions. Many countries now require, protect or encourage medical providers to breach their confidentiality duties when they treat women seeking post-abortion care. This...
Read more...
Health, human rights and people who use drugs
April 22, 2016
At the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs, which took place earlier this week, UNAIDS published the report Do no harm – Health, human rights and people who use drugs. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS is one of several UN bodies that call for...
Read more...
Health consequences of crowd-control weapons
April 10, 2016
Police and other law inforcement agencies throughout the world are increasingly responding to popular protests with so-called crowd-control weapons, which include tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons. These weapons are regularly used to disperse protesters, which has resulted in injuries, disability, and death. The report Lethal in Disguise published by Physicians for Human Rights and the...
Read more...
In India, a medical doctor in Chhattisgarh State was arrested on March 16th, and released on bail ten days later. Dr. Saibal Jana, the chief physician of Shaheed Hospital at Dalli Rajhara, was picked up late at night by Chhattisgarh police. He was arrested for "absconding" in a 24-year-old court case related to...
Read more...
Earlier this month, an important commentary was issued by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), containing experts’ guidelines (known as a General Comment), on Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which refers to the right to the highest attainable standard of...
Read more...
Indonesia: People with mental disabilities in chains
March 28, 2016
Human Rights Watch recently published a report on the inhuman and unlawful manners in which people with mental health conditions are treated in Indonesia, in institutions, faith-based healing centres and at home. Despite a 1977 ban on shackling - known as pasung - in Indonesia, the practice continues. More than 18,000 people with perceived psychosocial...
Read more...
Last week, The Lancet and Johns Hopkins University in the USA launched a report on the effects of the so-called War on Drugs on the health, wellbeing and human rights of drug users. The authors, members of the Johns Hopkins-Lancet Commission on Public Health and International Drug Policy, call for the decriminalization...
Read more...
Deliberate attacks on health care
February 25, 2016
On February 15, a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)-supported hospital in Idlib Province in northern Syria was destroyed in an attack. Some 25 people were killed - 9 of them staff members - and 11 wounded, among whom 10 staff members. According to surviving staff, the hospital in Ma’arat Al Numan was hit by...
Read more...
Australia: Health workers’ role in the prevention of mistreatment or abuse of asylum seekers
February 24, 2016
IFHHRO has endorsed a statement by the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) concerning the role of care takers (including health-care professionals) in reporting on the condition of refugees in detention centres. According to this statement, medical professionals are compelled by ethical standards and by international humanitarian laws "to take all necessary steps...
Read more...
Right to health of indigenous people
February 15, 2016
On 21 and 22 February, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and McGill University are organizing an Expert Seminar on the Right to Health and Indigenous Peoples, which will take place in Montreal, Canada. The objective of the Expert Seminar is to inform the Expert Mechanism on the...
Read more...
Turkey: Access to medical care in conflict region in the Southeast
February 11, 2016
Recently, IFHHRO signed an open letter issued by the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) to the Turkish government, urging it to respect the right to health and life of civilians in the Southeast of Turkey.
Read more...
Trans-Pacific Partnership
January 15, 2016
Human Rights Watch recently published an online Q&A (Questions and Answers) list on the human rights implications of TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership). The TPP is an economic and trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries.
Read more...
UN experts: Governments should guarantee access to services for all migrants, regardless of migratory status
December 18, 2015
On the occasion of International Migrants’ Day, 18 december 2015, United Nations experts on the rights of migrants have called on governments across the world to guarantee access to services for all migrants, regardless of their migratory status.
Read more...
Blogs on global health law
December 15, 2015
The Global Health Law Research Centre of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, has been running a blog on the links between health issues and the law. The latest blog was added by Marlies Hesselman of the University of Groningen. On the occassion of the United Nations Conference on Climate...
Read more...
New issue Health and Human Rights Journal: Evidence of impact of human rights-based approaches
December 15, 2015
The latest issue of the Health and Human Rights Journal is now available online. This special issue, which was guest-edited by Paul Hunt, Alicia Ely Yamin and Flavia Bustreo, focuses on the evidence of impact of human rights-based approaches. All full-text articles on this theme can be accessed through our website.
Read more...
UN Special Rapporteur: Lack of attention to rights in current debates on illegal drugs
December 12, 2015
This week, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dainius Puras, released an open letter to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Commission on Narcotic Drugs expressing concern about the lack of meaningful and explicit attention to human rights in the current negotiations around...
Read more...
Universal Health Coverage and the right to health
December 12, 2015
Today, 12 December, is Universal Health Coverage Day. Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is a critical component of the new Sustainable Development Goals, which include a specific health goal: Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages. Within this health goal, a specific target for UHC has been...
Read more...
New report PHR on providing medical services in times of war
November 26, 2015
Since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, Physicians for Human Rights has documented the deaths of almost 700 medical personnel and over 300 attacks on medical facilities. In a new case study published by the organization, the city of Aleppo was singled out to illustrate what a dedicated and resilient...
Read more...
Blog series on climate change and the right to health
November 25, 2015
The Health and Human Rights Journal is currently running a series of blogs on the United Nations Conference on Climate Change and the right to health. The series was introduced by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and current UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change.
Read more...
WHO call to action to protect health from climate change
November 25, 2015
Leading up to the United National Conference on Climate Change (COP21) from 30 November to 11 December, the World Health Organization has issued a call for action, asking all health professionals to do everything they can to reduce climate change and its negative impact on health.
Read more...
Open access article: Imagining Global Health with Justice
November 20, 2015
In an open access article published in the December issue of the journal Health Care Analysis, Eric Friedman and Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University (Washington DC, USA), provide arguments for the adoption of an international Framework Convention on Global Health.
Read more...
Access to opioids for pain relief in developing countries
October 26, 2015
A new report issued by the Global Commission on Drug Policy states that drug control systems have been a major barrier to access to opioids for pain relief in low and middle income countries. The Commission calls for a new global initiative to ensure access to controlled drugs by removing domestic and...
Read more...
Solidarity vigil for Syrian health professionals in danger
October 21, 2015
On October 29, 2015, IFHHRO member Physicians for Human Rights and the Syrian American Medical Society are organizing a vigil or "die-in" in New York to call attention to the crimes affecting health care and medics in Syria. So far, more than 670 medical professionals have been killed in the Syrian crisis; over 95% of...
Read more...
Australian health workers oppose detention of refugee children
October 21, 2015
Doctors at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, have refused to discharge a female asylum seeker and her child because the immigration department would have sent them back to detention at the expense of their health. The woman was suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and post-natal depression, which also affected her infant child's development.
Read more...
Right to Food and Nutrition Watch
October 21, 2015
The right to health is closely interlinked with the right to food. In 2002, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food defined this latter right as follows: "the right to food is the right to have regular, permanent and unrestricted access, either directly or by means of financial purchases, to quantitatively...
Read more...
El Salvador: Wrongful imprisonment of women who had a miscarriage
October 21, 2015
Last week, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held a hearing on the wrongful imprisonment of Salvadoran women who miscarry. At the hearing, reproductive rights advocates testified in Washington, USA, about the human rights violations women in El Salvador suffer due to the country's severe abortion ban. This law has...
Read more...
Summary Health and Human Rights Journal SDG series
October 1, 2015
The Health and Human Rights Journal has posted a summary of the SDG series blogs that appeared in September on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the right to health. The blogs consistently lament the lack of cohesion and lack of rights-based approaches in the goals and targets of the 2030...
Read more...
LGBTI people’s health and human rights
September 30, 2015
In February 2015, a Regional Dialogue on LGBTI Rights and Health in Asia-Pacific was held in Bangkok, Thailand. It brought together more than 200 representatives of governments, development partners, national human rights institutions, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people and other civil society members. The report, which is...
Read more...
Resource: Human Rights Readers for health and human rights activists
September 29, 2015
Over the last twenty years, Dr. Claudio Schuftan has written hundreds of articles on human rights from a health perspective. A number of these Human Rights Readers can now be found on the website imaxi.org, which has been set up by the IMAXI Cooperative.
Read more...
Annual report Special Rapporteur to the UN General Assembly
September 23, 2015
The Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Mr. Dainius Puras, has prepared a report on the right to health in early childhood for the UN General Assembly. The report will be presented in October 2015 at the 70th session of the Assembly. In this report, the Special Rapporteur focused...
Read more...
Sustainable Development Goals and the right to health
September 23, 2015
From 25 to 27 September 2015, the United Nations summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda will be held in New York. During this high-level plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly, the Millennium Development Goals will be replaced with 17 new, broadly discussed, global goals.
Read more...
Forced organ harvesting in China
August 28, 2015
The international association DAFOH (Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting) is fighting unethical and illegal organ harvesting. Forced organ harvesting, the removal of organs from a donor without obtaining prior free and voluntary consent, is not only a gross violation of medical ethics but also a violation of the rights to life, health and...
Read more...
The right to health in the post-2015 agenda
August 28, 2015
The Millennium Development Goals expire at the end of 2015 and global negotiations are underway to finalise the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals. An article in BMC International Health and Human Rights examines why it appears the right to health, so far, is not gaining direct expression in the post-2015 discussions.
Read more...
The report Move or die. Migratory Routes from Sub-Saharan Countries to Europe summarises the information and testimonies collected by IFHHRO member Medici per i Diritti Umani (Doctors for Human Rights - MEDU) during the first six months of activities of the project 'ON TO: Stopping the torture of refugees from Sub-Saharan countries along the migratory route...
Read more...
Around the world, human rights violations compromise public health. Sexual violence, unlawful discrimination, land dispossession, police harassment, forced medical interventions, and denial of essential services threaten health and wellbeing. This is especially true for people who are socially marginalized and disempowered. Programmes that improve these communities’ access to justice can play...
Read more...
American Psychological Association apologizes for involvement in the US torture programme
July 13, 2015
In the beginning of July 2015, the American Psychological Association (APA) released a 542-page report produced by attorney David Hoffman of the Sidley Austin law firm, detailing the relationship between various activities of the APA and Bush Administration policies on interrogation techniques. Mr. Hoffman was asked by the APA Board of...
Read more...
This year marks the end of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In the near future the health-related MDGs will be replaced by one overarching health goal in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, challenges remain, notably in keeping health high on the global agenda.
Read more...
Today, IFHHRO issued an open letter to the World Medical Association asking it to try to prevent the legalization of force-feeding of hunger-striking prisoners in Israel. The Bill was first introduced in the Israelian parliament, the Knesset, in 2014. Now it is being put on the agenda again.
Read more...
USA: The Affordable Care Act and the right to health
June 29, 2015
In a blog on the website of Human Rights Watch (HRW), Megan McLemore, Senior Researcher on Health and Human Rights at HRW urges the US government to finally ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Read more...
World Medical Association appeals to Israeli Prime Minister to reconsider force feeding bill
June 29, 2015
The World Medical Association has appealed to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reconsider Government legislation that would explicitly allow the force-feeding of detainees on hunger strike. In a letter to the Prime Minister, the WMA states that doctors should not be involved in any way in torture or inhumane...
Read more...
The World Health Organization recently published a report on the relationship between sexual health, human rights and the law. Drawing from a review of public health evidence and extensive research into human rights law at international, regional and national levels, the report shows how states in different parts of the world...
Read more...
The latest issue of Health and Human Rights Journal (Volume 17, Issue 1) was published online recently. The issue features a special seciton on 'Bioethics and the Right to Health', as well as articles on Human Rights Impact Assessment, antiretroviral medicine, sex work and human trafficking, reproductive rights, etc. Individual articles...
Read more...
New Australian legislation forbids health staff in immigration detention to report substandard care
June 18, 2015
From July 2015, under the new Australian Border Force Act 2015, contracted workers including doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals face a prison sentence of up to two years for blowing the whistle on substandard medical care given to asylum seekers in detention centres. Since several years, Australia has been transferring asylum...
Read more...
New WHO Health inequality monitoring eLearning module
June 18, 2015
The Health inequality monitoring eLearning module released by the World Health Organization is an overview of health inequality monitoring, aiming to build theoretical and technical capacity for health inequality monitoring across diverse settings and health topics.
Read more...
Syria: Attacks on medical personnel and facilities
April 27, 2015
Since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011, our member Physicians for Human Rights - USA (PHR) has documented attacks on medical personnel and facilities in Syria. In a new report, the organisation states that at least 610 medical personnel have been killed in the past four years and that...
Read more...
Global Health Watch report now freely accessible
April 21, 2015
The fourth edition of Global Health Watch, the alternative World Health Report published by the People's Health Movement, is now available for free download.
Read more...
On a typical day, several Red Cross/Red Crescent workers in the Middle East may lose their lives while trying to save others. On the 3rd of April for instance, two brothers working for the local branch of the Yemen Red Crescent Society were shot dead in the southern port city...
Read more...
New book on doctors who torture
April 8, 2015
This week, a new e-book appeared called "Doctors who Torture: The Pursuit of Justice". In this book, author Steven Miles, Professor of Medicine and Bioethics of the University of Minnesota, describes the history of "torture doctors" after World War II.
Read more...
Intimidation of human rights organisations in Turkey
April 8, 2015
In support of our longtime collaborator Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT), IFHHRO recently sent a letter to the President, the Prime Minister and several Ministers of the Republic of Turkey calling for an immediate end to oppression against HRFT. HRFT was sentenced to pay a high administrative fine for...
Read more...
The European Parliament recently published a report on the effects of the economic crisis and resulting austerity measures on various rights. With regards to the right to health, the report shows that the reforms have negatively affected the right to health. Excerpt All of the observed Member States introduced measures...
Read more...
Forced sterilisation of hiv-positive women in South Africa
March 23, 2015
Three women’s rights advocacy groups in South Africa have lodged a formal complaint with the South African Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) protesting the "ongoing forced/coerced sterilisation of women living with HIV in South Africa".
Read more...
A recommendation by the Pentagon’s independent health advisors states that medical personnel should be excused from duties that violate professional ethics.
Read more...
UK: Deaths of mentally ill detainees preventable
February 23, 2015
A study conducted in the United Kingdom concluded that many mentally ill detained persons died in the past few years due to neglect by medical staff of their mental health and other needs.
Read more...
Complicity of health workers in female genital mutilation
February 6, 2015
February 6th is the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting. On this day, organisations worldwide pay attention to the harmful practice of 'girl circumcision', which is an old tradition in many countries, mainly in Africa and the Middle East.
Read more...
An editorial in the Lancet analyses the annual Human Rights Watch (HRW) World Report 2015 from a health and human rights perspective. The writer concludes that the report offers an important call to arms to protect health as a fundamental human right, even though HRW did not identify health as a core element...
Read more...
Discrimination of people with leprosy
January 25, 2015
On the occasion of World Leprosy Day, 25 January, the International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations (ILEP) has raised awareness on the continuous existence of discrimination against people affected by leprosy. According to the organisation, worldwide discrimination still exists, despite the adoption in 2010 of a resolution against it by the UN General Assembly.
Read more...
Key trends in sexual and reproductive health and rights
January 25, 2015
The January 2015 edition of the Reproductive Rights Rundown highlights key trends over the course of 2014, followed by a more comprehensive review of the Treaty Monitoring Bodies’ recommendations from the second half of the year.
Read more...
New global health law initiative in the Netherlands
January 25, 2015
On Monday, January 26th, the Global Health Law Groningen (GHLG) initiative was launched at a meeting in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. GHLG is aimed at researching international or 'global' health law as an emerging field of public international law.
Read more...
In July 2014, Israel initiated a military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Questions arose regarding violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in the course of the conflict. Thus IFHHRO member Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) commissioned a fact-finding mission to Gaza, the report of which has just become available.
Read more...
Overcoming the Health Workforce Gap
January 7, 2015
With the publication of the 4th Global Health Watch report (GHW4), the People's Health Movement also issued some articles about topics covered in the report. One of these is the following article introducing the section on the health workforce crisis.
Read more...
The International Forensic Expert Group (IFEG) has issued a statement on virginity testing, to which IFHHRO contributed. Virginity testing (also called virginity examination) is practiced in many countries to establish "proof" of sexual activity of females.
Read more...
Medical and Psychological Analysis of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report on torture
December 18, 2014
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) recently published an analysis of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) report on use of torture by the CIA. This analysis of the 500-page SSCI executive summary was conducted by a team of PHR experts and published under the title "Doing Harm: Health Professionals’...
Read more...
New United Nations General Assembly resolution on the protection of health workers from violence
December 18, 2014
Recently, a landmark United Nations General Assembly resolution was passed calling for the protection of health workers from violence. This is the first time the UN General Assembly has addressed attacks on health workers, facilities and patients.
Read more...
India: Women dying after surgical sterilisation not uncommon
December 15, 2014
In an Open Access article in the British Medical Journal, Priyanka Pulla from India reports on the recent deaths in India's female tubectomy camps. In November, 13 women died after surgical sterilisation at a camp in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.
Read more...
The latest issue of the Health and Human Rights Journal has just been published. This issue examines the topic of health rights litigation from various perspectives.
Read more...
Last week, the American Nurses Association issued a statement supporting a nurse who refused to force-feed Guantánamo detainees based on his professional ethical obligations. Following the statement, IFHHRO member Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) urged the US Navy to end any disciplinary actions against the nurse, who has been charged...
Read more...
Ebola, human rights and poverty
November 21, 2014
In a blog for Open Global Rights, Alicia Ely Yamin argues that the Ebola crisis shows the necessity of a human rights approach to public health. Ms Yamin is Lecturer on Global Health, and Policy Director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University.
Read more...
From Risk to Rights: Realizing States’ Obligations to Prevent and Address Maternal Mortality
November 21, 2014
The Center for Reproductive Rights recently launched the resource From Risk to Rights: Realizing States’ Obligations to Prevent and Address Maternal Mortality.
Read more...
Global Health Watch 4 – Alternative World Health Report released
November 21, 2014
Published by Zed Books and now in its fourth edition, the Global Health Watch (GHW) report is widely perceived as the definitive voice for an alternative discourse on health.
Read more...
Forced sterilization case will be reviewed by Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
October 10, 2014
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will examine a case on the forced sterilization of a Chilean woman living with HIV, which was brought to its attention by the Centre for Reproductive Rights.
Read more...
The World Health Organization has published a booklet entitled 'Monitoring health inequality: An essential step for achieving health equity' in order to promote the prioritization of health inequality monitoring, and the practice of disaggregating data.
Read more...
The Health and Human Rights Journal has made available online several papers on the topic of health rights litigation that will be published in December 2014. Guest editor of this Special Issue is Alicia Ely Yamin, Lecturer on Global Health at Harvard University and Policy Director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health...
Read more...
Using new technology to assist doctors in fighting sexual violence in conflict situations
October 6, 2014
IFHHRO member Physicians for Human Rights has developed a mobile app to allow clinicians to document evidence of sexual violence and submit medical-legal proof to the justice system. In a blog on the PHR website, Dr. Thierry Nasibu Ntumba, physician in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, explains how this...
Read more...
USA: Stop force feeding of Guantanamo Bay inmates
October 6, 2014
A US federal judge has ordered the disclosure of videotapes that show the force feeding of an inmate on hunger strike at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility by medical personnel, which is commonly regarded as a form of torture.
Read more...
Medical organizations protest against trial Turkish Medical Assocation
September 30, 2014
Nine leading medical organizations including the Word Medical Assocation and IFHHRO have asked for the dismissal of a lawsuit against the Turkish Medical Association (TMA) for running healthcare services illegally during the May 2013 demonstrations in Istanbul.
Read more...
Ebola and human rights
September 24, 2014
IFHHRO member Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) issued a statement last week about the Ebola outbreak in Western Africa. They said that an urgent response to the Ebola outbreak is not just an option, but a legal obligation, and outlined immediate actions states must take, including assuring safe conditions for...
Read more...
Educational quizzes on HIV and human rights
July 24, 2014
On the occasion of the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia, the Human Rights Networking Zone developed a series of interactive educational quizzes on a variety of human rights topics.
Read more...
Last week, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights delivered a ruling in the Câmpeanu versus Romania case, which relied greatly on an expert opinion issued in 2012 by IFHHRO. Valentin Câmpeanu (18) died in a psychiatric hospital in Romania in early 2004. The Court ruled that the Romanian government had breached...
Read more...
In its latest session, the Human Rights Council appointed Mr. Dainius Puras from Lithuania as the third Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
Read more...
The independent United Nations experts dealing with torture and the right to health urged the Israeli parliament yesterday not to authorize the force-feeding and medical treatment of prisoners on hunger strike against their will.
Read more...
In many countries, laws, regulations and policies are not always consistent with human rights standards and may represent a barrier for people achieving the highest attainable standard of health. A new WHO toolbox on reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) enables countries to use a human rights framework to identify...
Read more...
Letter to the WMA: Address complicity of doctors in force-feeding of detainees on hunger strike
June 18, 2014
Today, 18 June 2014, Physicians for Human Rights - Israel sent a letter to the World Medical Association, urging this worldwide body of doctors to take action against doctors' complicity in force-feeding practices around the world. The letter is supported by numerous other organizations, including IFHHRO and several of our...
Read more...
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has released a new guidebook encouraging low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to make greater use of competition law and policy to increase access to HIV treatment and other health technologies.
Read more...
In May 2014, IFHHRO member Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) released the most comprehensive map to date tracking attacks on medical personnel and facilities in Syria over the past three years. PHR's interactive map indicates that government forces have overwhelmingly been responsible for these war crimes.
Read more...
Hundreds of attacks on health workers have occurred in dozens of countries around the world since 2012, Human Rights Watch and the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition said in a joint report released today. The report calls on governments to do more to protect patients, health workers and facilities from...
Read more...
Effects of violence on health care
April 24, 2014
Between January 2012 and December 2013, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) studied the effects of violence on health care during armed conflict and other emergencies in 23 countries. Information was collected, through various sources, on 1809 violent incidents that involved the use or threat of violence against health-care personnel, the...
Read more...
Putting human rights at the heart of health and care
April 24, 2014
The guide The Difference it Makes: Putting Human Rights at the Heart of Health and Care aims to take human rights out of the law books and into the world of health-care. This resource published by the British Institute of Human Rights explains the links between human rights, health and...
Read more...
The Philippine Supreme Court’s decision earlier this month to uphold a landmark reproductive health law as constitutional is an important victory for millions of Filipino women and girls, Amnesty International said.
Read more...
Palestinian doctors recently won a court case against the Ministry of Health, which had denied them access to exams necessary to obtain a medical licence for practicing as a doctor in East Jerusalem.
Read more...
Iran: Denying medical treatment to political prisoners
April 21, 2014
A group of independent UN human rights experts has recently urged the Iranian government to provide medical treatment to two political prisoners who are said to be at risk of dying due to Iranian prison conditions.
Read more...
Torture in health-care settings
March 31, 2014
One year ago, in March 2013, the Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan E. Méndez presented his thematic report on abusive practices in health-care settings to the Human Rights Council. A new publication released by the Center of Human Rights & Humanitarian Law (Washington College of Law, American University, March 2014) compiles...
Read more...
In November 2013, the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health brought together some 20 experts on the issue of attacks on health workers and health care. They convened in Bellagio, Italy to take stock of the current situation and identify improvements. A...
Read more...
UN Human Rights Council urged to address lack of access to contraceptives and family planning
March 30, 2014
The governments of Argentina, Denmark, Ethiopia, and Morocco are leading a group of more than 60 states in an effort to draw attention to insufficient access to contraceptives and family planning services with the submission of a cross-regional statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council. These countries are urging...
Read more...
Uganda: President signed law against homosexuality
February 25, 2014
With great concern IFHHRO received the news dat Mr Museveni, the President of Uganda, signed a bill against homosexuality. We also learned that Ugandan medical doctors were involved in a commission that advised in favour of this bill, arguing that homosexuality is learned behaviour and a danger to public health.
Read more...
Realizing the right to water and sanitation
February 21, 2014
Access to water and sanitation is intrinsically linked to the right to health: without clean drinking water and hygienic human waste disposal, people are more likely to suffer from infectious diseases. Especially baby's and young children are vulnerable to water-borne diseases. An e-discussion is currently taking place to assist the...
Read more...
Ukraine emergency medical care: Call for support
February 21, 2014
Over the past few weeks, the violence in Ukraine has increased and many people have been killed or wounded during the fights in the centre of Kiev. So far, IFHHRO has received several reports and communications regarding the deplorable situation in the country.
Read more...
WHO resolution on pain relief and palliative care
January 25, 2014
On January 23, 2014, the Executive Board of the World Health Organization adopted a resolution urging countries to ensure access to pain medicines and palliative care for people with life-threatening illnesses.
Read more...
Transgender people, health and human rights
January 20, 2014
Recently, UNDP’s HIV, Health & Development Group launched a Discussion Paper on Transgender Health and Human Rights, prepared by Jack Byrne, an expert on trans health and human rights issues.
Read more...
Turkey: Breach of medical neutrality
January 20, 2014
In the beginning of January 2014, the parliament of Turkey passed a bill that criminalizes doctors and other health workers who provide first aid in emergency situations without state authorisation.
Read more...
Ghana: Human rights of people with mental disabilities violated
November 25, 2013
The recent visit to Ghana by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture highlights the need to end abuses against people with mental disabilities in that country, Human Rights Watch says.
Read more...
US physicians, psychologists, and other health professionals aided in the harsh interrogation and torture of prisoners held in overseas detention centres operated by the US military and the CIA as part of the United States’ war on terror, says a new report.
Read more...
IFHHRO member Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) recently reaffirmed its call to the Bahraini government to immediately release medical professionals who have been wrongfully imprisoned and to stop the ongoing targeting of the medical community.
Read more...
Attacks against health workers and services
October 29, 2013
The United Nations General Assembly and Human Rights Council should act on the recent report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health about attacks against health workers and services, the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition states. The report was presented to the General Assembly on October 24, 2013. It describes a...
Read more...
The right to health under the African human rights system
October 29, 2013
The Community Law Centre and the University of the Western Cape (South Africa) have issued a document on the right to health under the African human rights system.
Read more...
South Africa: Discrimination of foreign patients in Gauteng
October 20, 2013
In August 2013, a number of notices appeared in hospitals in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Apparently sent by the Gauteng Department of Health, they urge hospital staff to demand full, up-front payment from patients without permits or refugee documents, or who are asylum seekers. A clear example of a dual...
Read more...
Growing number of attacks on health workers
October 6, 2013
According to the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, a group of human rights, health professionals and other nongovernmental groups, the UN Human Rights Council should strengthen documentation and accountability for the growing number of attacks on health workers.
Read more...
New human rights education guidelines for health workers and human rights activists
September 26, 2013
At a meeting in Warsaw on 25 September 2013, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) presented two new sets of guidelines on human rights education for health workers and for human rights activists. The guidelines were produced to promote effective human rights education and to support...
Read more...
Rights-based approaches to health: three papers
September 26, 2013
Recently, three papers have been published that present a human rights analysis of specific health-related issues. The first one focuses on health care in conflict, the second on intellectual property rights and access to medicines, and the third on maternal health.
Read more...
USA: Doctors concerned about continued use of indefinite detention
September 24, 2013
IFHHRO member Physicians for Human Rights (USA) recently submitted a shadow report to the Human Rights Committee (HRC) for its review of the United States’ compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Read more...
Global Health and Human Rights Database
September 24, 2013
The Global Health and Human Rights Database is a free online database of law from around the world relating to health and human rights. This database offers an interactive, searchable, and fully indexed website of case law, national constitutions and international instruments.
Read more...
Zimbabwean doctors issue call to their new government to prioritize health
September 23, 2013
Last month, IFHHRO member ZADHR (Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights) wrote an open letter to the new government of Zimbabwe to prioritize the right to health care and to clean water.
Read more...
The Netherlands: Not enough done to prevent ill-treatment of people deprived of their liberty in health settings
September 23, 2013
In the framework of the Open Society Foundations campaign Stop Torture in Health Care, the University of Groningen conducted a study on the implementation of the torture convention with regards to health care in the Netherland. The results will be shared at an afternoon meeting (in Dutch) at the University of...
Read more...
New resource: Mental Health Advocacy & Human Rights, UK
August 14, 2013
The resource Mental Health Advocacy & Human Rights: Your Guide was published by the British Institute of Human Rights as part of its Human Rights in Healthcare project. The guide is designed to assist advocates in Britain working with people with mental health problems, as well as their clients.
Read more...
Physicians for Human Rights-USA has started a petition urging President Obama to stop force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay. Currently, 46 of the 166 detainees being held at the prison are being force-fed.
Read more...
The WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research has released the report 'Global and regional estimates of violence against women. Prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence'. New WHO estimates have found that physical or sexual violence affects more than one third of all women...
Read more...
Greece: Forced HIV testing
July 18, 2013
The Greek government should repeal a regulation that has been used to justify forced HIV testing, Human Rights Watch says. Greece recently reinstated a controversial health regulation that had been used to forcefully test people for HIV.
Read more...
Women’s and children’s health and human rights
July 18, 2013
The research report 'Women’s and Children’s Health: Evidence of Impact of Human Rights' demonstrates plausible evidence that a human rights-based approach contributes to health improvements for women and children. The report was compiled by a group of experts led by Flavia Bustreo of the World Health Organization, and Paul Hunt, former UN Special...
Read more...
New book: Advancing the human right to health
July 18, 2013
Edited by Jose Zuniga, Stephen Marks and Lawrence Gostin, the new book 'Advancing the Human Right to Health' features writings by experts on health and human rights. According to the publisher, the book brings clarity to many of the complex clinical, ethical, economic, legal, and socio-cultural questions raised by injury,...
Read more...
Violations of medical neutrality and attacks on health workers in Istanbul by the Turkish police
June 25, 2013
IFHHRO expresses its deep concern about the attacks on health workers, medical volunteers and emergency medical units during the violent suppression of the recent Gezi park protests in Istanbul.
Read more...
At its latest session (6-31 May 2013) the Committee against Torture (CAT) discussed the implementation of the UN Convention against Torture by the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its concluding observations can now be downloaded.
Read more...
Turkish doctors have been actively protesting the use of excessive force, including tear gas, against protesters during the latest social unrest in several Turkish cities. The Turkish Medical Association has called for an immediate end to uncontrolled police violence, the British Medical Journal reports.
Read more...
Medact, a British charity, drafted a petition addressed to President Obama urging the US Administration to allow hunger strikers in custody in Guantanamo Bay access to external independent medical advice. Medact is seeking as many doctors and nurses as possible to sign the letter.
Read more...
The right to health of migrant workers
June 3, 2013
The Special Rapporteur's latest report to the Human Rights Council focuses on the right to health of migrant workers. The rapporteur, Anand Grover, presented his findings to the Council at its 23rd session in May 2013.
Read more...
Petition on the global right to palliative care
June 3, 2013
Online campaigning community Avaaz.org urges everyone to sign a petition on access to palliative care. The Prague Charter was drafted recently by the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC), the International Association for Palliative Care (IAHPC), the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WPCA) and Human Rights Watch (HRW). These organisations are...
Read more...
Forced feeding in Guantanamo Bay
May 22, 2013
Since February 2013, over 20 people held in custody in Guantanamo Bay have been in hunger strike. There are reports that the US has sent in doctors and nurses, who assist in forced feeding, a recogniced violation of human rights and a breach of medical ethics.
Read more...
A report released by an indepented task force in the US confirms that the interrogation and treatment of many detainees in US custody since 9/11 amounted to torture.
Read more...
Health workers under threat in Pakistan
April 21, 2013
Since December 2012, over 20 health workers involved in a polio vaccination campaign have been killed in Pakistan, presumably by the Taliban.
Read more...
Physicians for Human Rights - Israel recently published a new report exposing numerous medical ethics violations committed by the Israeli Prison Service.
Read more...
Bahrain: 21 medics acquitted
April 3, 2013
Twenty-one medics arrested at a hospital during anti-government protests in Bahrain two years ago have had their convictions annulled. They had been found guilty in November 2012 of misdemeanours after treating protesters injured by police.
Read more...
The Georgian Centre for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation (GCRT) published a short report on torture and inhuman treatment in the Georgian penitentiary system in March.
Read more...
Global maps on the right to health in constitutions
April 2, 2013
On the website childrenschances.org, global maps can be found that show which countries have created constitutional protections of health. These maps demonstrate whether governments guarantee the rights to health, public health, and/or medical services in their nations’ constitutions.
Read more...
On Thursday 28 March, the book Access to Medicines as a Human Right: Implications for Pharmaceutical Industry Responsibility was launched in Toronto, Canada. This interdisciplinary collection focuses on corporate responsibility for the provision of medicines in low- and middle-income countries.
Read more...
The Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and the Organization of American States (OAS) are sponsoring the first virtual course on the Right to Health and Parliamentary Activity in Latin America.
Read more...
In an article on the Open Society Foundations website, Daniel Wolfe of the OSF Public Health Program shares five weaknesses, or failures, of the International Narcotics Control Board, the UN’s drug watchdog.
Read more...
Torture and other forms of abuse in health-care settings
March 26, 2013
The latest annual report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, to the Human Rights Council focuses on torture and other forms of crual, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment in health-care settings.
Read more...
The Committee on the Rights of the Child has published a General Comment (No. 15) on the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health (Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child). The General Comment was adopted during the Committee's 62nd...
Read more...
In the United Kingdom, over 20 bodies representing health professionals have pledged to do more to tackle health inequalities through direct action on the social determinants of health. The health professionals have committed themselves to develop action on inequalities in healh.
Read more...
A UK-based Iraqi doctor has been suspended for one year for complicity in acts of torture. The doctor, Mohammed Al-Byati (47), carried out medical procedures on brutalised detainees at camps in Iraq between 1992 and 1994.
Read more...
Sudan: Doctors involved in court-ordered amputation
March 8, 2013
On February 14th, doctors in Al-Ribat University hospital in Khartoum executed a court sentence of amputation of a man who was convicted of highway armed robbery. His right hand and left foot were cut off by doctors in the hospital.
Read more...
Monitoring the prevention of torture in the Netherlands
February 28, 2013
IFHHRO has accepted an invitation to participate in the advisory board of a research project of Groningen University (the Netherlands). The study will focus on the functioning of the OPCAT (Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture) National Preventive Mechanisms in the Netherlands.
Read more...
Mobile app helps doctors to document incidents of torture and violence
February 25, 2013
IFHHRO member PHR-USA has developed an app that will help preserve forensic evidence of mass atrocities, including sexual violence and torture, that can be used in courts. Health care providers will be able to use the app to compile medical evidence, photograph survivors’ injuries, and securely transmit the data to...
Read more...
In the Netherlands, the National Ombudsman will start an investigation into the medical care for asylum seekers and people whose applications have been rejected. The Ombudsman received a complaint from a physician who provided medical assistance to rejected asylum seekers living in a camp in the village of Ter Apel...
Read more...
India: Unnecessary removal of uteruses for profit
February 24, 2013
In a web article on www.globalhealthcheck.org, an Oxfam GB global campaigner describes the misleading practices of private sector doctors in parts of India, in particular the case of unnecessary womb removals from poor rural women.
Read more...
Optional Protocol into force in May 2013
February 24, 2013
On 5 May 2013, the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights will enter into force. For the first time in history, a Protocol to an international treaty will enable individual complaints on economic, social and cultural rights.
Read more...
Best practices from the Human Rights in Healthcare Programme, UK
December 20, 2012
In the past two years, the Human Rights in Healthcare Programme has produced several interventions in the United Kingdom. The programme recently published a report highlighting the activities of four health organisations with regards to adopting a rights-based approach in their organisations.
Read more...
UN adopts ‘momentous’ resolution on affordable universal healthcare
December 17, 2012
The UN's adoption of a resolution on affordable universal healthcare as momentous, the British newspaper <em>The Guardian</em> states. It was adopted by consensus in the UN General Assembly on Wednesday 12 December. The resolution urges member states to develop health systems that avoid user fees and promote risk-sharing in order...
Read more...
WMA adopts resolution on forced/coerced sterilization
November 30, 2012
For over two years IFHHRO has campaigned against forced and coerced sterilisation of women. We are pleased to announce that the World Medical Association has now adopted a resolution on this issue.
Read more...
Bahrain: health workers convicted to prison sentences
November 29, 2012
On 21 November, 23 health professionals in Bahrain were sentenced to three months in prison on charges of illegally gathering during Arab spring protests in 2011. Five others were acquitted.
Read more...
Health financing in the context of the right to health
November 29, 2012
The Special Rapporteur's annual report to the UN General Assembly focuses on health financing in the context of the right to health. According to the Rapporteur, Anand Grover, full realization of the right to health is contingent upon the availability of adequate, equitable and sustainable financing for health, at both...
Read more...
The right to family planning
November 29, 2012
The UNFPA State of World Population Report 2012 focuses on people's human right to family planning. Due to lack of appropriate information and services, a large portion of the world's population cannot choose if and how many children they will have. Also, many women still die carrying their baby or...
Read more...
India: Patients’ group manages to prevent patent on Hepatitis C drug
November 8, 2012
In the beginning of November, the Bench of Intellectual Property Appellate Board in India set aside a product patent by Roche for Pegasys (a medicine used to treat Hepatitis C) on an appeal filed by a patients' group.
Read more...
Yemen: Gunfights in hospitals
October 29, 2012
In the past months, state security forces in Yemen have repeatedly attacked hospitals in the southern port city of Aden and removed wounded alleged militants, Human Rights Watch reported.
Read more...
Recently, IFHHRO member AmanSaulyk in Kazachstan published a practical guide in Russian on basic human rights in health care and research.
Read more...
Legal aspects of palliative care: new resource
October 5, 2012
In 2009, the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa published the book Legal Aspects of Palliative Care. This book has now been updated with new case studies, more resources, templates for drafting a will and training exercises.
Read more...
Ruling on coerced sterilisation of HIV-positive women in Namibia
August 14, 2012
In a landmark judgment, the High Court in Windhoek (Namibia) ruled that the Namibian government had coercively sterilised three HIV-positive women in violation of their basic rights.
Read more...
Bahrain: report on the use of chemical weapons against civilians
August 14, 2012
IFHHRO member Physicians for Human Rights USA recently published a report on the use of chemical weapons by the Bahraini govenrment. For this report, more than 100 Bahraini citizens were interviewed.
Read more...
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Human rights essential in fight against HIV/AIDS
July 23, 2012
At the eve of the 19th International AIDS Conference (Washington, 22-27 July), the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights wrote a short article about the links between AIDS and human rights.
Read more...
The human right to pain relief in the context of the international fight against illicit drugs
July 18, 2012
In over 150 countries proper pain and palliative care treatment is the exception rather than the rule. Hence over 80 per cent of the world's population has either no or poor access to pain relief services, including the prescription of morphine and other opioids.
Read more...
Cape Town Call to Action
July 17, 2012
The People's Health Assembly, a conference organized by IFHHRO's observer People's Health Movement (PHM), gathered over 800 health activists from over the world in Cape Town, South Africa. At the Assembly, which took place from 6 to 11 July, various issues were discussed in relation to improving the health status...
Read more...
On 4 July 2012, the European Parliament (EP) rejected the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a multinational treaty for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement. The EP's refusal to ratify the ACTA has been warmly welcomed by many health and development agencies.
Read more...
Violence against healthcare: a global concern
June 20, 2012
On the occasion of the 65th World Health Assembly in May 2012, the inaugural edition of Global Health was published. This issue includes short articles written by leaders in various health-related organisations, including UN agencies, ministries of healh and major NGOs.
Read more...
The World Health Organization recently released the QualityRights Tool Kit, which supports countries in their assessment and improvement of the quality and human rights of their mental health and social care facilities.
Read more...
Proposed Framework Convention on Global Health
June 20, 2012
In an article in the June 2012 edition of Health and Human Rights, Eric Friedman & Lawrence Gostin propose a four-part approach to accelerating progress towards fulfilling the right to health. They propose a new global health treaty that could help construct these four pillars.
Read more...
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Anand Grover, urged the Government of Tajikistan to raise health expenditure up to international standards, and "urgently develop a progressively funded, comprehensive healthcare package to ensure universal access to health care for all."
Read more...
Obituary Peter Kandela
May 31, 2012
IFHHRO received the sad news that Peter Kandela died on 30 April. He was one of the founders of Physicians for Human Rights UK and in that capacity played an important role in the foundation of IFHHRO.
Read more...
World Health Assembly adopts resolution on WHO’s role in documenting attacks on health workers and facilities
May 30, 2012
At the 65th session of the World Health Assembly last week, an important resolution was adopted on WHO leadership in collecting and disseminating data on attacks on health care in complex humanitarian emergencies.
Read more...
The 2012 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health focuses on occupational health. It includes a section that highlights the special concerns of women at work.
Read more...
Bahrain: Ongoing assaults on the health system
May 22, 2012
Physicians for Human Rights recently launched a report showing the devastation on Bahrain's health system that has resulted from the government's continued assault on doctors, patients, and the healthcare system.
Read more...
Doctors Without Borders urges Syria to prioritise safety of health workers and wounded people
May 19, 2012
Wounded people and medical workers remain targeted and threatened in parts of Syria, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) states. This may prevent people from receiving life-saving emergency medical care.
Read more...
Israel: End to hunger strike of prisoners
May 16, 2012
More than 1,600 Palestinian prisoners have agreed to end their hunger strike in exchange for concessions by Israel, including a modification to its practice of detention without charge or trial.
Read more...
Kenyan HIV activists say a recent ruling by the High Court will save millions of lives and protect the right to life of citizens.
Read more...
Debate on drug users policies in Thailand
April 26, 2012
On Monday 23 April, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health attended a national seminar in Thailand on the country's policies with regards to drug users.
Read more...
Forced sterilisation of women in Uzbekistan
April 13, 2012
BBC Radio 4 brought a story about forced sterilisation in Uzbekistan on April 12th. Reporter Natalia Antelava of BBC World Service researched the issue and talked to doctors and women sterilised without their knowledge or consent.
Read more...
Health and Human Rights in Europe
April 11, 2012
There is still very little understanding of the various and multiple legal interfaces between ‘health’ and ‘human rights’, and of the implications of this approach for legal research and practice. To fill this gap, the new book Health and Human Rights in Europe seeks to draw the legal contents and implications...
Read more...
Access to medicines in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
March 24, 2012
An article published recently in the Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal (WHO/EMRO) reviews the current situation concerning access to medicines in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
Read more...
Recently, the Czech Government’s Human Rights Council issued a recommendation to the government to compensate forcibly sterilised women.
Read more...
Joint UN statement calls for the closure of compulsory drug detention and rehabilitation centres
March 9, 2012
A joint statement issued by twelve UN agencies* yesterday (March 8, 2012) calls for closure of compulsory drug detention and rehabilitation centres.
Read more...
Children’s right to health
February 28, 2012
Urbanisation leaves hundreds of millions of children in cities and towns excluded from vital services, UNICEF warns in its annual report The State of the World’s Children. The 2012 issue focuses on children living in cities.
Read more...
British Medical Association urges British doctors to oppose new Bill
February 28, 2012
The British Medical Association has launched an e-lobbying campaign for members to contact Members of Parliament before further debate in March in the House of Commons on the proposed Health and Social Care Bill. Opposition to the reforms among medical royal colleges and faculties is growing. Health workers fear that the bill...
Read more...
Syria: Allow access of humanitarian aid to sick and wounded
February 28, 2012
Amnesty Internation recently urged the Syrian government to allow immediate and unhindered access of humanitarian aid agencies to Homs and other affected areas. The Bab 'Amr district of the city has come under intensive shelling for more than three weeks. Hundreds of people have been killed and many more wounded.
Read more...
South African doctor charged with blatantly violating medical ethics
February 18, 2012
A South African cardiologist, Wouter Basson, is facing charges of violating medical ethics for running the Apartheid government's chemical and biological warfare programme. He was interviewed recently after a Health Professions Council Disciplinary hearing, claiming that the hearing is politicallty motivated.
Read more...
Was it wrong to use medical care as a reason to track down Bin Laden?
February 18, 2012
In a forum on the doc2doc website, an interesting debate is running on the question: Was it wrong to use medical care as a reason to track down Bin Laden?
Read more...
Access to free health information and images
February 18, 2012
Hesperian Health Guides, publisher of the well-known book Where There Is No Doctor, is launching a new set of digital tools designed especially for community health workers and trainers. The Hesperian Digital Commons provides free access to health information in 26 languages, and allows health workers to produce their own...
Read more...
Special issue Social Science & Medicine on the Right to Health
January 30, 2012
The journal Social Science & Medicine recently published a (part) Special Issue on the Right to Health. All the articles in this issue are freely available.
Read more...
India: Unethical sterilisation camps run by NGO
January 28, 2012
In the beginning of January, a group of 53 women underwent surgical sterilisation in the village of Kaparfora in the Indian state of Bihar.
Read more...
European Court of Human Rights ruling on detained Bulgarian national in mental institution
January 20, 2012
On 17 January 2012, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a Bulgarian national suffering from mental health problems had been unlawfully detained in a mental health institution.
Read more...
The right to health in Russia
January 10, 2012
Recently, IFHHRO published a report written by Natalya Pestova, on the Right to Health in Russia as part of the 'Monitoring the Right to Health' project.
Read more...
The right to health and community monitoring for accountability
December 5, 2011
The Accountability and Monitoring in Health Initiative (AMHI) of the Open Society Foundations' Public Health Program recently published the proceedings from a meeting on community monitoring for accountability in health.
Read more...
Israel: Prison doctors and complicity in torture and ill treatment
November 29, 2011
A new report of IFHHRO member Physicians for Human Rights - Israel together with the Public Committee against Torture in Israel accuses doctors in Israeli prisons of complicity in torture. The report is based on over 100 cases of ill treatment of Palestinian detainees since 2007.
Read more...
New visual teaching tool on health and human rights
November 21, 2011
The Health Sciences Faculty of the University of Cape Town developed a visual teaching tool on health and human rights. This Human Rights Key serves as an infographic to guide students to connect their classroom learning with the reality of local, regional and international health and human rights issues.
Read more...
New forums for discussion on healthy drug policies
November 10, 2011
International Doctors for Healthy Drug Policies has launched a new website with two discussion forums, one for members only and a public one.
Read more...
The Syrian government has turned hospitals into instruments of repression in its efforts to crush opposition, Amnesty International said in a new report.
Read more...
Along with a group of national and international NGOs, IFHHRO signed a statement supporting the latest report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health.
Read more...
World Medical Association adopts new resolution urging for end to unnecessary pain for millions
October 18, 2011
At its annual General Assembly in Montevideo, Uruguay, the World Medical Assocation (WMA) put forward a series of proposals to improve patients' access to adequate pain treatment.
Read more...
Amnesty calls on ASEAN states to reduce maternal mortality
October 18, 2011
Amnesty International urges the governments of the ASEAN region to remove barriers to women and girls’ sexual and reproductive health which put their lives at risk, in particular discriminatory laws and policies, and attitudes and practices amongst health workers.
Read more...
New fact sheet on forced or coerced sterilisation
October 7, 2011
A new Open Society Foundations fact sheet provides information on instances of forced sterilisation of racial and ethnic minorities, poor women, women living with HIV, and women with disabilities.
Read more...
Bahrain: Doctors receive long prison sentences
October 4, 2011
A military court in Manama, Bahrain, found a group of doctors and other health workers guilty of attempting to topple the government during protests earlier this year, in what Amnesty International said was a travesty of justice.
Read more...
Resolution Human Rights Council on preventable maternal death
October 4, 2011
The Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Wednesday September 28, 2011 that reaffirms the international community’s commitment to mainstreaming human rights into efforts to prevent maternal mortality and morbidity.
Read more...
Human Rights Watch: Dutch laws violate rights transgender people
September 16, 2011
The Dutch Civil Code violates the human rights of transgender people, and the government should amend it without delay, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on 13 September.
Read more...
The role of doctors in preventing torture
September 16, 2011
Last week, the new Medact report Preventing Torture: the role of physicians and their professional organisations: principles and practice was launched, accompanied with a Comment in The Lancet.
Read more...
Study on the Right to Health of older persons
September 8, 2011
The Human Rights Council requested the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Mr. Anand Grover, to prepare a thematic study on the realisation of the right to health of older persons.
Read more...
Maternal mortality and the Right to Health
September 8, 2011
The 2011 OHCHR (the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) report on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity offers a compilation of effective practices to eliminate maternal mortality and morbidity, drawing upon 77 contributions from States and other stakeholders.
Read more...
A new Human Rights Watch report claims cashew nuts and other Vietnamese exports are produced by drug addicts detained in forced-labour camps across the country.
Read more...
Global bodies call for end to forced sterilisation
September 5, 2011
The World Medical Association (WMA) and IFHHRO, today condemned the practice of forced and coerced sterilisation as forms of violence that severely harm physical and mental health and infringe human rights.
Read more...
Gaza Strip: Access to health services at outside hospitals
August 22, 2011
Each year thousands of Palestinians residing in the Gaza Strip are referred by their physicians to hospitals outside of Gaza in order to access necessary, often life-saving, medical services that are unavailable locally. A recent WHO report analyses how the situation in the Gaza Strip affects the Right to Health of the population...
Read more...
UN Advocacy on Palliative Care as a Human Right
August 22, 2011
On June 6, LAHI, the Open Society Foundations’ International Palliative Care Initiative, Human Rights Watch, and the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance organised a side meeting at the UN Human Rights Council on 'Access to Palliative Care: A Neglected Component of the Right to Health'. Additional sponsors included Brazil and Uruguay missions,...
Read more...
Human rights violations and medical professionalism
August 16, 2011
Last week, health and human rights specialist Leonard Rubenstein published a blog on the website of Open Society Foundations about the relationship between human rights and medical professionalism in day-to-day clinical practice. The full text can be found here.
Read more...
According to a new Human Rights Watch report, a lack of oversight and accountability for recurrent problems in the health system and abuses committed by health personnel contributes to South Africa's substandard maternity care.
Read more...
Obituary Peter Iliff
July 27, 2011
In February 2011, Peter Illiff died, the secretary and one of the founders of ZADHR, IFHHRO's member organisation in Zimbabwe. Recently, an obituary was published in The Lancet (Vol. 378, No. 9787), which we will share below.
Read more...
This week, The UN Security Council adopted resolution 1998, adding recurrent attacks on schools and hospitals to the violations that may subject an entity to the listing and “naming and shaming” requirements of the mechanisms to protect children in armed conflict.
Read more...
The East African Court of Justice (EACJ) recently ruled that the Kenyan government has failed to take legal action against the perpetrators of crimes against humanity during a military operation in the Mount Elgon region. Although the EACJ is not a criminal tribunal, it does have the power to order payment of...
Read more...
On 28 June 2011, a group of leading forensic experts including IFHHRO's Executive Director Adriaan van Es issued a strong condemnation of the practice of 'hooding', a form of interrogation practised among others by UK intelligence officers on detainees overseas.
Read more...
IFHHRO has signed a letter to members of the UN Security Council endorsing Germany’s effort to strengthen accountability mechanisms regarding attacks on hospitals in connections with the mechanisms it has established on protection of children in armed conflict.
Read more...
DRC: Health and human rights activist under threat
June 28, 2011
SAVE CONGO is an IFHHRO member based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its Executive Director, Mr. Kitwe Mulunda Guy, has been receiving anonymous phone calls since two weeks, demanding him to immediately stop providing legal aid for victims of torture.
Read more...
Israel: Position paper on solitary confinement
June 27, 2011
At the occasion of the UN International Day Against Torture (26 June), Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and two other organisations published a position paper on solitary confinement in Israeli prisons.
Read more...
Medical staff on trial in Bahrain
June 27, 2011
Dozens of doctors and nurses accused of undermining Bahrain's government during mass protests earlier this year, are currently on trial.
Read more...
Report: Health effects of indefinite detention
June 21, 2011
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today released a report which examines the harmful health effects of indefinite detention.
Read more...
Report: Global State of Pain Treatment
June 20, 2011
In a report on the global state of pain treatment, Human Rights Watch states that tens of millions of people worldwide are denied access to inexpensive medications for severe pain.
Read more...
New FIGO guidelines on sterilisation of women released
June 16, 2011
FIGO, the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, has released new guidelines on sterilisation of women.
Read more...
Tens of thousands of patients with advanced cancer in Ukraine unnecessarily suffer from severe pain every year because they cannot get effective, safe, and inexpensive pain medications, Human Rights Watch said in a report released in May.
Read more...
On May 26, 2011, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Poland violated a woman's human rights when she was repeatedly denied a prenatal genetic examination after a doctor discovered fetal irregularities during a sonogram.
Read more...
The Learning Network for Health and Human Rights launched its Toolkit on the Right to Health on May 26th in South Africa.
Read more...
The new tool 'Human Rights and Gender Equality in Health Sector Strategies: How to Assess Policy Coherence', was designed to support countries to strengthen national health strategies by applying human rights and gender equality commitments and obligations.
Read more...
On Friday 27 May, hundreds of activists in Kampala, Mityana and Arua will mark the first day of an historic Constitutional Court Petition against the Government of Uganda on maternal mortality.
Read more...
Mid-May 2011, IFHHRO and the World Medical Association sent out a news release on the issue of compulsory drug detention. On 25 May, IFHHRO issued its position statement, which can be downloaded from our website.
Read more...
New publication: Human rights and gender equality in health sector strategies. How to assess policy coherence
May 20, 2011
This tool, developed in collaboration between WHO, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)
Read more...
Medical doctors and mental health personnel at Guantánamo neglected and/or concealed evidence of torture and ill treatment, IFHHRO member Physicians for Human Rights claims.
Read more...
USA: State of Vermont Vermont passed the first-ever universal health care bill in the country
May 16, 2011
In the beginning of May 2011, the US state of Vermont passed the first-ever universal health care bill in this country, creating a path toward a publicly financed system that will provide health care as a public good for all.
Read more...
World Health Organization urged to act over assaults on health personnel and facilities
May 13, 2011
The World Health Organization has been urged by a number of health and non government organizations to take action on the growing number of assaults on health personnel and facilities in areas of conflict and civil unrest.
Read more...
PHR and prominent medical associations call for Bahrain to cease attacks on hospitals, patients, and medical professionals
April 29, 2011
Proposed Framework Convention on the Right to Health
April 16, 2011
In March 2011, health and justice activists gathered in Johannesburg to debate strategies to achieve the Right to Health in Southern Africa. A short report of the meeting is now available.
Read more...
Planned sterilisation campaign in South Africa condemned
April 13, 2011
Several South African newspapers paid attention to the news that an American organisation is planning to offer sterilisation to women living with HIV in South Africa.
Read more...
Uganda: Underfunded health care
April 11, 2011
In the beginning of April a coalition of Ugandan civil society organizations under the umbrella name 'Voices for Health Rights' issued a statement condemning government expenditure on military hardware when the health sector in the country is still underfunded.
Read more...
IFHHRO is pleased to share with you the Position Statement on Access to Adequate Pain Treatment.
Read more...
Launch campaign Stop Torture in Health Care
March 30, 2011
The Campaign to Stop Torture in Health Care in which IFHHRO is one of the partners was officially launched on March 29th 2011. The campaign seeks to hold governments accountable for abuses perpetrated against citizens in the name of health care.
Read more...
Bahrain: Doctors and patients under siege
March 22, 2011
Inside the Salmaneya Hospital, the main hospital in Bahrain, several doctors and other health workers are de facto being held captive. The hospital is being besieged by the army and health workers are not allowed to get in nor leave the hospital.
Read more...
Resources on HIV testing and human rights
March 12, 2011
HIV testing is an important part of a comprehensive approach to HIV prevention and treatment, if it is provided in a way that respects basic human rights. However, there is growing evidence from several countries that pregnant women are being tested for HIV without their consent, adequate counseling, or links to...
Read more...
India: Coerced sterilisation?
March 8, 2011
Press stories in Indian newspapers suggest that Adivasi (aboriginal) tribal people in southern India are soft targets for sterilisation. The government of Kerala is actively organising sterilisation camps.
Read more...
The Right to Health in Canada
March 8, 2011
Recently, IFHHRO published a report written by Rhonda Ferguson on the Right to Health in Canada as part of the 'Monitoring the Right to Health' project.
Read more...
New report PHR on Burma
February 28, 2011
In 2010, doctors and staff from IFHHRO member Physicians for Human Rights (PHR-USA) worked with local human rights activists in Burma to uncover the government's treatment of the isolated and vulnerable population of Chin State.
Read more...
Thailand: Forced drug treatment in rehabilitation centres
February 23, 2011
The Thai Ministry of Interior has started a special week of action to get all drug addicts across Thailand clean.
Read more...
Update: Namibian women suing the State over forced sterilisation
February 22, 2011
Three Namibian women are suing the government over alleged forced sterilisations, in landmark cases being heard before the Namibian High Court. The women allege they were sterilised without their full and informed consent after being diagnosed HIV positive.
Read more...
Meeting report health and human rights in Africa
February 8, 2011
HEPS Uganda and the Learning Network for Health & Human Rights (South Africa) co-convened a regional meeting in Kampala, Uganda on 8 October 2010 in the framework of the Regional Network for Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa (EQUINET).
Read more...
Migration of health workers and the Right to Health
February 8, 2011
The Dutch Alliance for Human Resources for Health, of which IFHHRO is a member, recently published the report Chances for Change. Dutch measures to improve the global distribution of health personnel.
Read more...
In November 2010, a group of civil society organisations including IFHHRO member AGHA distributed a report on health care in Uganda at the country's annual National Health Assembly. The electronic version of this report is now available.
Read more...
Ghana: Human rights education for nursing students
January 14, 2011
The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in Ghana is piloting human rights education programmes in some selected nurses and midwives training colleges in the country, aimed at reducing the abuse of patients' rights in accessing health care.
Read more...
The Right to Health and Equitable Healthcare Systems
August 30, 2010
Respecting, protecting and fulfilling the right to health necessarily requires accessible and effective health systems. If a country is to deliver basic health care to its people, it requires a fully functional equitable health system. However, health systems have suffered much neglect in recent decades despite their critical and constructive...
Read more...
Health as a Bridge to Peace in the Middle East meeting
August 30, 2010
From 27 to 30 October 2009, IFHHRO, the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, the Norwegian and Turkish Medical Associations and the World Medical Association hosted a meeting on Health as a Bridge to Peace in the Middle East. The meeting, which is seen as the exploratarory phase of a project with...
Read more...
Neglected diseases – a human rights analysis
August 25, 2010
The World Health Organization recently published a report on the human rights aspects of neglected diseases. It was commissioned by the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases and written by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health in collaboration with others. Neglected diseases...
Read more...