More than half the world’s population still lacks access to essential health services.
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And a quarter of them face financial hardship when paying for health care out of their own pockets, often at the expense of food, education or housing.
On 12 December 2012, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed a resolution urging countries to accelerate progress toward universal health coverage (UHC) – the idea that everyone, everywhere should have access to quality, affordable health care.
Statement by Maureen Magee, Global Director of Field Operations, at the Norwegian Refugee Council, commenting on the Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) for 2026:
Halima Omar, a displaced mother of seven lives in a camp in Baidoa, Somalia. Halima has been directly impacted by aid cuts: “We had access to water and latrines, but those services are no longer available. The organisations that used to support us have stopped their programmes.” Photo: Abdulkadir Mohamed/NRC
“2026 is set to stretch humanitarian responses to their limit as they seek to support people with the most severe needs around the world.
“Next year, 239 million people will be in need of humanitarian assistance and protection. Humanitarians are aiming to reach just over half of them.
By Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights*
10 December 2025 (OHCHR)* — Human rights are underfunded, undermined and under attack. And yet. Powerful. Undeterred. Mobilizing.
UN Photo/Mark Garten | Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in an interview with UN News.
This year no doubt has been a difficult one. And one full of dangerous contradictions. Funding for human rights has been slashed, while anti-rights movements are increasingly well-funded.
Profits for the arms industry are soaring, while funding for humanitarian aid and grassroots civil society plummets.
Those defending rights and justice are attacked, sanctioned and hauled before courts, even as those ordering the commission of atrocity crimes continue to enjoy impunity.
Around 100 hectares of Palestinian land have been reportedly confiscated to make way for the new route.
This would mark another step towards the progressive fragmentation of the West Bank, warned the head of the OHCHR’s Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ajith Sunghay.
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“We are alarmed to hear that Israel has actually started building a new barrier and a road in the heart of the Jordan Valley,” he said on Friday [].
(UN News)* — Intensifying fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has claimed more than 70 civilian lives, displaced over 200,000 people and cut thousands off from food assistance, prompting UN warnings of a rapidly expanding humanitarian emergency spilling across borders.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the situation in South Kivu province has deteriorated sharply since 2 December due to heavy fighting across multiple territories, including Uvira, Walungu, Mwenga, Shabunda, Kabare, Fizi and Kalehe.
(Washington, DC) – Human rights groups on 8 December 2025 urged US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to end immigration detention at Camp East Montana, a massive tent camp at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas.
In their letter, advocates summarized accounts of horrific conditions, including beatings and sexual abuse by officers against detained immigrants, beatings and coercive threats to compel deportation to third countries, medical neglect, hunger and insufficient food, and denial of meaningful access to counsel, among other rights violations.
(UN News)* —Nahed was visiting Sudan’s capital Khartoum with her family to celebrate Eid, a major Islamic holiday, when the war broke out between the rival armies vying for control of her homeland.
(UN News)* — The ongoing emergency in northern Mozambique continues to worsen as prolonged attacks by non-state armed groups in Nampula trigger one of the largest displacement surges of the year, the UN warned on
According to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, 107,000 people have fled their homes in recent weeks, pushing total displacement in just the past four months to 330,000.
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“They barely had time to recover when they again had to leave, due to attacks or fear of attacks,” said Paola Emerson, OCHA Head of Office in Mozambique.
(UN News)* — The deadly legacy of conflicts old and new – from Gaza to Sudan and beyond – continues to kill and maim civilians on a near-daily basis, mine action workers said on 3 December 2025, as they appealed for greater support for their lifesaving work in the face of deep funding cuts.
Speaking on the sidelines of a key international meeting in support of landmine action taking place at UN Geneva, experts in the field explained how shrinking resources in Afghanistan and Nigeria have exposed civilians to unexploded ordnance.
(UN News)* — A spike in Israeli military raids and settler violence across the occupied West Bank is driving new displacement, shutting schools and disrupting essential services for tens of thousands of Palestinians, the UN relief coordination office, OCHA, said in its latest humanitarian update Friday [].
Between 25 November and 1 December, four Palestinians, including one child, were killed by Israeli forces, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank so far this year to 227. Nearly half of all fatalities in 2025 were recorded in the Jenin and Nablus governorates.
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Large-scale operations in Jenin and Tubas governorates alone affected more than 95,000 Palestinians last week.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 