Physicians for Human Rights

Physicians for Human Rights Through evidence, change is possible. We believe that medical ethics are deeply bound to the protection of human rights.

Since 1986, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has used medicine and science to document and call attention to mass atrocities. PHR has come to occupy an important position in the human rights movement. We focus on the critical role of forensic science, clinical medicine, and public health research in ensuring that human rights abuses are properly documented using the most rigorous scientific metho

dologies possible. Our experts use epidemiology, medical and psychological evaluations, autopsies, forensic anthropology, and crime scene analysis to document serious abuses, including murder, torture, r**e, starvation, forced displacement, and civilian attacks. PHR’s human rights training and mentoring emphasize medicine and science as the foundation of every aspect of evidence collection, documentation, and implementation of international norms and standards. We provide credible evidence, data, and research to corroborate allegations of human rights violations not only to prevent future abuses, but also to ensure the prosecution of perpetrators by courts, tribunals, and truth commissions.

🚨Ten years after the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2286, attacks on health care in conflict continue at an ...
05/28/2026

🚨Ten years after the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2286, attacks on health care in conflict continue at an alarming scale.

⚕️ The 2025 in Conflict Coalition (SHCC) report “Care in the Crosshairs”, drawing on data collected by Insecurity Insight, documented 2,546 incidents of violence against or obstruction of health care across 33 countries and territories in 2025. The findings are stark:

🏥790 incidents involving damage or destruction of health facilities
🥼 455 health workers killed
⛑️ 218 kidnapped
🚑 263 arrested or detained

This year’s report highlights three critical trends:

🚨Rising attacks by state actors operating beyond their own territories
🚨The rapid expansion of drone warfare
🚨Humanitarian funding cuts driving system collapse

The report also documents the impact on maternal health, mental health services, disease outbreaks, emergency care, and frontline health worker wellbeing.

From Ethiopia to Gaza, from Syria to Ukraine, PHR documents illegal attacks on health care workers and facilities and gathered evidence of these crimes to support justice. ⚖️ Our investigations help expose the reverberating, long-lasting health harms when critical health care systems are compromised.

📢 Health care must never be a target. Together with our SHCC partners, we call for:

✅ Respect for international humanitarian law
✅Accountability for attacks
✅Sustained humanitarian funding
✅Protection mechanisms for health workers
✅Stronger monitoring and documentation efforts

Read the full report: https://shcc.pub/SHCCAnnualReport2025

The Trump administration’s renewed use of Title 42 in response to Ebola is not grounded in public health science – it is...
05/22/2026

The Trump administration’s renewed use of Title 42 in response to Ebola is not grounded in public health science – it is a dangerous attempt to weaponize fear to deny people the right to seek asylum.

The WHO does not recommend blanket travel bans to contain outbreaks. Public health experts know what works: supporting health workers, strengthening surveillance systems, and ensuring humanitarian access – not shutting borders to people fleeing persecution.

Reviving Title 42 sets a dangerous precedent that any infectious disease can be used to suspend human rights.

Public health must be guided by science and human rights, not xenophobia or politics.

🚨 is spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo – and the world is looking away. Cuts to U.S. global health funding...
05/22/2026

🚨 is spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo – and the world is looking away.

Cuts to U.S. global health funding, ongoing conflict in eastern , and the dismantling of critical public health systems have left communities dangerously vulnerable to a preventable crisis. Health workers are sounding the alarm: delayed detection, weakened surveillance, and collapsing infrastructure are costing lives.

Abandoning and defunding frontline health systems in crisis doesn’t just fail communities – it threatens everywhere.

“Physicians for Human Rights has documented how abrupt U.S. foreign aid cuts disrupted frontline health services and infectious disease programs in conflict-affected eastern DRC, leaving communities more vulnerable at precisely the moment sustained international public health engagement when it is needed most,” said Thomas McHale, PHR Public Health Director.

05/21/2026

🏥 From Ethiopia to Gaza to Ukraine, attacks on health care in conflict are on the rise, with devastating consequences for patients, health workers, and entire communities.

🚑 The urgent need to protect health care in conflict was the focus of a special Arria formula session of the UN Security Council, where PHR’s Executive Director Sam Zarifi stressed that protecting health care is not only a matter of international humanitarian law, but also a human rights and public health imperative.

Drawing on PHR’s research, Zarifi highlighted:

🔹 The need for accountability through international investigations and justice mechanisms
🔹 The long-term impacts of attacks on health care, including rises in infectious and chronic diseases
🔹 The importance of proportionality and precaution in assessing attacks on health facilities
🔹 The reality that attacks on health care disrupt access to care for pregnant people, patients with chronic diseases, and entire communities

⚖️ As attacks on health care continue globally, protection for medical workers and health facilities cannot remain optional. We join health care workers around the world in demanding justice.

U.S. law enforcement agencies increasingly deployed three crowd-control weapons in dangerous ways to crack down on immig...
05/18/2026

U.S. law enforcement agencies increasingly deployed three crowd-control weapons in dangerous ways to crack down on immigration protests over the past year, according to a new visual investigation by Physicians for Human Rights.

These under-recognized “less-lethal” weapons have been used against protesters, journalists, medics, and bystanders:

⚠️ Scattershot impact projectiles, which can blend in with conventional single-shot impact munitions
⚠️ PBDRs, aka 'Muzzle Blast' rounds, sometimes confused with pepperball rounds
⚠️ Chemical obscurants, such as smoke grenades, often mistaken for more dangerous chemical weapons

These weapons can cause serious injury and long-term health consequences. Yet many people attending protests may not recognize them or understand their risks.

PHR’s new visual investigation calls out these weapons for what they are: tools of repression.

Congress must act to regulate the use of these weapons by law enforcement and, for some weapons, prohibit their use altogether. PHR also calls for accountability: law enforcement agents who misuse these weapons against protesters should be held to account.

🔎 Explore the videos, factsheets, and more in the “Tools of Repression” visual investigation: https://phr.org/our-work/resources/tools-of-repression/

Breaking update from our legal team: PHR has joined reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations in filing an ...
05/13/2026

Breaking update from our legal team: PHR has joined reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations in filing an emergency amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court to defend access to medication abortion nationwide.

We welcome SCOTUS temporarily halting enforcement of the dangerous 5th Circuit Court decision to block doctors from prescribing mifepristone – a key medication used for abortion – via telehealth across the country until May 14th. We urge SCOTUS to overturn the 5th Circuit’s unjustified order and ensure that pregnant patients across the country can continue to access telehealth abortion care.

Mifepristone is safe. It is evidence-based. And it is essential health care.

Judges should not stand between physicians and patients or override established medical science. Everyone deserves access to safe, timely abortion care – no matter where they live.

Read more about PHR's work to defend reproductive rights: https://phr.org/issues/when-doctors-harm/dual-loyalty/reproductive-justice/

In a new Washington Post letter-to-the-editor, PHR medical experts write that they were “appalled but not surprised” by ...
05/11/2026

In a new Washington Post letter-to-the-editor, PHR medical experts write that they were “appalled but not surprised” by the Post’s front-page story “ICE’s use of force in facilities accelerates.” The investigation details how ICE is increasing using force – from dangerous crowd-control weapons to solitary confinement – against people in their custody.

These measures are supposed to be used by ICE only as a “last resort” – but the Post’s reporting and PHR’s research shows that these abusive practices are all too common.

PHR’s Drs. Katherine Peeler and Rohini Haar call for immigration detention to be massively curtailed. They also note that state-level laws such as California’s AB 103, which allows its attorney general to inspect ICE facilities, are crucial oversight mechanisms in our current environment, where federal oversight has been gutted. All states should enact similar laws. Departments of public health, fire marshals and other stewards of safety must be allowed to frequently inspect ICE facilities.

Read our experts' letter: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/05/11/whats-stake-us-measles-cases-climb/

05/07/2026

🪧 What happens when law enforcement deploys dangerous crowd-control weapons against people protesting immigration raids?

🔎 In a new visual investigation, Physicians for Human Rights analyzed open-source footage, eyewitness videos, and expert medical evidence to document how dangerous crowd-control weapons were used against demonstrators across the United States during immigration protests over the past year.

PHR expert and emergency physician Dr. Rohini Haar breaks down three alarming weapons increasingly used against crowds:

▪️ Scattershot kinetic rounds
▪️ “Muzzle blast” rounds
▪️ Chemical obscurants

These weapons are difficult to identify, poorly regulated, and capable of causing serious injury – especially when used indiscriminately against crowds, journalists, and bystanders.

Across dozens of cities, their use creates real risks to the rights to protest, speak, and assemble.

📺 Watch Dr. Haar explain what our investigation uncovered, and explore the full visual investigation: https://phr.org/our-work/resources/tools-of-repression/

From Syria and Yemen to Ukraine and Gaza, health care is under attack – despite being protected under international law....
05/05/2026

From Syria and Yemen to Ukraine and Gaza, health care is under attack – despite being protected under international law.

A new Just Security Just Security article from PHR and our partners Insecurity Insight, medecinsdumonde, and Truth Hounds explores how the law of war falls short in addressing the full impact of these attacks – not just the immediate damage and casualties, but the long-term harm to communities and health systems.

This year marks 10 years since UN Security Council Resolution 2286, which condemned attacks on health care. Yet decade later, attacks on health care are surging.

That’s where PHR’s work begins.

From destroyed facilities to detained and killed health workers, PHR helps expose patterns, preserve evidence, and push for accountability. Because the impact ripples outward – limiting access to care, weakening health systems, and putting lives at risk long after.

Documentation is a step toward justice. And through evidence, change is possible.

🔗 Read the article here: https://www.justsecurity.org/137470/law-of-war-attacks-healthcare/

Ten years after UN Security Council Resolution 2286 promised to protect health care in conflict, the reality is stark: a...
05/02/2026

Ten years after UN Security Council Resolution 2286 promised to protect health care in conflict, the reality is stark: attacks on hospitals, health workers, and patients are surging – not declining.

With more than 18,000 documented attacks globally over the past decade and record-breaking violence in just the past year, health care is increasingly being weaponized as part of modern warfare. From Gaza to Ukraine to Sudan, impunity remains the norm, not the exception.

As Sam Zarifi of Physicians for Human Rights warns, we are at “an inflection point where international law is respected less and less.”

Countries must act urgently to:

🔴 Enforce accountability for attacks on health care

🔴 Strengthen protections for health workers and facilities

🔴 Address the full, long-term impacts on health systems and civilian populations

🔴 Deliver on the promises made under Resolution 2286

Protecting health care in conflict is not optional – it is a legal and moral obligation. The cost of inaction is measured in lives lost, systems destroyed, and communities left without care when they need it most.

The time for rhetoric has passed. The UN and UN Member States must ensure accountability and concrete action now. Read more: https://phr.org/news/with-hospitals-and-medics-increasingly-under-fire-countries-must-implement-un-resolution-to-protect-health-care-in-conflict-phr/

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