Human Rights & Justice

Afghanistan’s healthcare system continued its sharp deterioration through 2025, driven by major donor aid cuts and Taliban restrictions, resulting in the closure of 422 health facilities by year-end and cutting off primary care to 3 million people. Earlier in March 2025, WHO reported 167 facilities closed as of March 4, affecting 1.6 million across 25 provinces, with 80% of WHO-supported facilities at risk of shutdown by June, potentially impacting an additional 1.8 million; northern, western, and northeastern regions saw over a third of centers shut. Outbreaks escalated with over 16,000 suspected measles cases and 111 deaths in early 2025, amid critically low immunization (51% first measles dose, 37% second), alongside malaria, dengue, polio, and Crimean-Congo fever; mental health crises affected half the population, with 2 million seeking treatment in 2025. Humanitarian needs surged to 22-23.7 million people requiring aid in 2025, disproportionately impacting women and girls due to Taliban bans on education, employment, and movement, exacerbating workforce shortages and access barriers. Over 300 nutrition points closed, leaving 1.1 million children without services and 1.7 million at risk of death; funding covered only 31% of UN plans by late 2024, with further shortfalls stretching responses. Record 2.6 million refugee returns in 2025 overwhelmed fragile systems.

Myanmar remains in a severe, multi-front civil war following the 2021 military coup, with the junta facing sustained resistance from the People’s Defence Force (PDF), the National Unity Government (NUG), and multiple ethnic armed organizations. Recent reporting indicates the military government controls only about 21% of the country’s territory, while rebel forces and ethnic armies hold roughly 42%, with the rest contested. The conflict has caused more than 3 million internally displaced people and tens of thousands of deaths, while the military continues to rely heavily on airstrikes and shelling against civilian areas, including hospitals and schools. The humanitarian crisis continues to worsen in 2026. Refugees International reported in February 2026 that nearly 4 million people have been internally displaced, 1.5 million have fled to neighboring countries, and about one-third of Myanmar’s population needs humanitarian assistance. The armed conflict remains especially intense in Rakhine, Shan, Kachin, Sagaing, Magwe, Mandalay, Karen, and Chin regions, and in areas around the Bangladesh border where the Rohingya crisis remains unresolved. More than 1 million Rohingya refugees remain in Bangladesh, with little prospect for safe repatriation amid ongoing violence in Rakhine State. Recent developments include continued junta airstrikes in early 2026, the military’s push to stage restricted elections to legitimize its rule, and continuing territorial gains by anti-junta forces in parts of Rakhine and Shan States.

Sudan’s health system remains in a severe state of collapse amid the ongoing conflict that began in April 2023. WHO reported in July 2025 that 38% of health facilities were non-functional and only 14% of hospitals remained operational, with Khartoum’s health infrastructure heavily damaged or repurposed for military use. The UN reported in January 2026 that more than one third of facilities nationwide were still non-functional, while WHO said the conflict had driven the system to the brink of collapse and left millions without access to essential care. The crisis is being compounded by repeated attacks on healthcare, mass displacement, hunger, and disease outbreaks. WHO said it had verified 201 attacks on healthcare since the conflict began, causing 1,858 deaths and 490 injuries; MSF separately reported more than 2,000 deaths and 720 injuries in 213 attacks on health facilities across Sudan, and said Sudan accounted for 82% of global deaths from attacks on healthcare in 2025. The humanitarian situation remains dire: the UN says 33.7 million people will need humanitarian assistance in 2026, with more than 20 million needing health assistance and 21 million facing acute food insecurity. Recent reporting also points to ongoing outbreaks and overcrowding in conflict-affected and displaced communities, particularly in Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum, Al-Jazira, Sennar, and eastern Sudan.

The United States is experiencing an escalating immigration enforcement crisis marked by expanded detention, accelerated deportations, and sharply restricted access to asylum. Recent reporting from rights groups says the Trump administration has widened immigration detention and enforcement beyond prior levels, with Vera Institute analysis saying more than 290,000 people had been detained since the start of Trump’s second term through mid-October 2025, a 19% increase from the same period a year earlier. NASW reports ICE detention facilities were holding about 41,500 people per day in early 2025, while Vera reported 68,442 people in ICE detention as of December 13, 2025. These figures indicate sustained pressure on detention capacity and due process protections. The crisis is also affecting asylum access and legal status protections. The American Immigration Council says the administration has effectively shut down asylum access at the U.S.-Mexico border and layered on additional restrictions, while Vera reports the administration halted all asylum decisions in November 2025, leaving thousands in legal limbo. Vera also states the administration revoked temporary protected status for migrants from certain countries and pursued denaturalization policies, further increasing the risk of detention and deportation. The documented effects include family separation, prolonged confinement, and heightened fear in immigrant communities, with spillover impacts on children, mixed-status families, and people seeking humanitarian protection. The crisis is concentrated in the United States, especially at the U.S.-Mexico border, ICE detention sites nationwide, and high-enforcement metropolitan areas. Vera also cites concerns about the use of military force in immigration enforcement and detention-related deaths, noting 2025 held the grim distinction of having the most people die in ICE custody in decades.

Nicaragua's government under President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo continues its systematic crackdown on human rights defenders, political opponents, journalists, Indigenous communities, and civil society, marked by arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture, and mass closure of NGOs. Between November 2024 and May 2025, authorities revoked the legal status of at least 75 civil society organizations, including Plan International, Save the Children International, and the Union of Journalists of Nicaragua, under Law No. 1115. Over 2,000 arbitrary detentions have been documented since the 2018 protests began, with more than 30 critics still detained as of early 2025; four journalists remained in detention by March 2025 without judicial guarantees. Constitutional reforms have concentrated power in the presidency, enabling citizenship stripping—over 500 Nicaraguans denationalized, including 135 expelled to Guatemala in September 2024—leaving many stateless. Repression extends to religious leaders, Indigenous defenders amid land disputes, and exiles through threats and extraterritorial measures. UN OHCHR reported a severe repressive climate in December 2024, with Nicaragua opposing UN human rights mechanisms. Human Rights Watch notes thousands of NGOs shuttered and tens of thousands exiled due to fear, eroding judicial independence and freedoms of expression, assembly, association, and religion. Over 150 human rights defenders detained since 2018 face torture and isolation.

Since late 2023 and through 2024–2025, restrictions on Palestine advocacy have expanded across the United States and parts of Western Europe, with governments, universities, and other institutions using counterterrorism, anti-discrimination, and public-order rules to penalize speech and protest linked to Palestine. Reporting in April 2025 described the Trump administration’s university and visa actions as closely mirroring Heritage Foundation guidance that called for deporting some pro-Palestinian activists, revoking visas, and cutting off funding to organizations viewed as supportive of the movement. Documented repression has included campus discipline, protest restrictions, legal threats, and employment consequences. Palestine Legal said it received 1,037 requests for legal support in the first three months after Oct. 7, 2023, including 908 reports from people targeted for Palestine advocacy. FIRE cited 138 documented attempts to deplatform Palestine-related campus events and discipline faculty/students, plus at least 11 faculty terminations. In the U.K., a 2025 academic analysis described escalating scrutiny, monitoring, and criminalization of Palestine solidarity activism through measures such as the Public Order Act and Prevent, while CIVICUS also reported wider clampdowns on civic freedoms linked to the Gaza war. The overall pattern remains one of intensifying restrictions on speech, protest, and organizing in the U.S. and Western Europe.