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	Hungary’s new anti-NGO law further undermines democratic governance by HRW, EU Observer, agencies   21 May 2025   Hungary: Bill Threatens To Eviscerate Democracy. (Human Rights Watch)   A bill introduced by a member of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party is designed to gut civil society and strangle freedom of expression and democratic governance, Human Rights Watch said today.   The proposed law, which should be rejected, gives sweeping powers to a government-appointed body to label foreign-funded civil society and media organizations as threats to national sovereignty and subject them to draconian, punitive measures.   The bill “On the Transparency of Public Life,” empowers the Sovereignty Protection Office, a government-appointed body, to recommend any legal entity receiving foreign support, including European Union funds, be placed on a government-maintained watchlist.   These organizations would be prohibited from receiving donations through the 1 percent income tax designation, a common source of funding, and would be required to obtain legal declarations from every donor that the funds are not of foreign origin.   All foreign support funds must be pre-approved by Hungary’s anti-money laundering body (part of the tax authority). This applies to existing foreign grants which would be frozen and could take months to be reviewed.   “The Hungarian government is escalating its campaign to silence dissent and dismantle independent civil society ahead of next year’s elections,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The European Union has to recognize the grave threat to the rule of law the Hungarian government poses, and act firmly before the flame of democracy is snuffed out.”   This is the latest in a long line of assaults on rule of law and democratic governance in Hungary. Since 2010, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has used his parliamentary supermajority to systematically erode democratic checks and balances.   The bill requires civil society and media organizations' leaders, founders, and oversight board members to submit asset declarations and be designated “politically exposed persons,” currently applied mainly to parliament members and government officials, subjecting them to further scrutiny, including tax audits, asset investigations, and financial inspections.   The anti-money laundering body can issue fines of up to 25 times the amount received. Failure to comply can result in the organization’s dissolution, with its assets transferred to the state. This effectively ends foreign funding as a viable source of revenue for Hungarian civil society and media groups.   The Sovereignty Protection Office would be able to conduct on-site inspections and search homes. The office could seek police assistance to conduct the inspections, raising serious concerns about privacy and due process.   The 2023 Sovereignty Protection Act gave the office the power to investigate anyone the authorities deem to be pursuing vaguely defined “foreign interests.” A case over this law initiated by the EU Commission in October 2024 against Hungary before the Court of Justice of the EU is pending.   The bill provides no meaningful legal recourse, raising potential violations of the right to a fair procedure and effective legal remedy. A decision by the tax authority to refuse to allow foreign funding can be challenged but only directly to the Supreme Court and even a reversal would not address the other more significant harm.   The bill treats all foreign funding – including from the EU – as potentially harmful to Hungary’s sovereignty. Any activity capable of influencing public opinion is deemed a potential threat, particularly those that could affect voter intent or democratic debate.   This means work by any organization – including media organizations, political parties, and intergovernmental bodies – that highlights abuses by the Hungarian government could be potentially liable to sanctions.   By framing public debate and criticism of the government as existential threats to the state, the Hungarian government is attempting to crush the pluralism that sustains democracy with a bill that bears the hallmark of the infamous Russian foreign agent legislation, Human Rights Watch said.   The bill comes on the heels of problematic fundamental law and other law changes adopted in April, which pose serious threats to (LGBT) people, the freedom of assembly, and the rights of some Hungarians with dual citizenship.   Orban’s government has undermined judicial independence, restricted independent media and civil society, vilified migrants and asylum seekers, continued unlawful border pushbacks, limited access to asylum, targeted LGBT people with discriminatory laws, and rolled back protections for women and girls. Over the past six years, Orbán has increasingly governed by decree, invoking successive states of danger or emergency to bypass parliamentary oversight and consolidate executive power.   Efforts by EU institutions to hold the Hungarian government accountable – through infringement proceedings, European Union Court rulings, and the suspension of EU funds –have so far had limited effect.   In 2018, the European Parliament triggered the article 7 procedure against Hungary, citing a systemic threat to the EU’s core values as set out in the Treaty on European Union. If upheld, such a breach could lead to the suspension of Hungary’s voting rights in the EU Council.   EU member states should take this most recent attack on the rule of law and democratic governance as a clear signal and use the upcoming General Affairs Council meeting in May 2025 to immediately move article 7 proceedings forward to a vote, Human Rights Watch said.   If the bill is adopted by parliament, the European Commission should immediately open new infringement proceedings against Hungary for the rights abusive and anti-democratic law. In the meantime, the commission should seek interim measures to suspend the effect of the earlier Sovereignty Protection Act given the role of the Sovereignty Protection Office as an instrument against civil society and media and potentially to be vested with further powers under the new bill.   “Hungary is being dragged deeper into authoritarianism by a government that has shown blatant disregard for the fundamental values of the European Union.” Williamson said. “The EU Council has to stop stalling on article 7 and take robust action on Hungary before it is too late.”   15 May 2025   Hungary’s new anti-NGO law is a full-frontal assault on the EU Commission, by Daniel Hegedus. (EU Observer)   Europe has been facing illiberal, authoritarian challenges to pluralist democracy with growing intensity and frequency since the inauguration of the second Trump administration.   Emboldened by both the retreat of US democratic leverage and the disturbingly familiar aspirations of the current US government, Europe’s illiberal actors are increasingly willing to deploy authoritarian tactics to maintain their grip on power — often amid mounting domestic opposition and eroding legitimacy.   Following the introduction of Slovakia’s anti-CSO law on 16 April, a Hungarian MP from the ruling Fidesz party submitted a draft bill on 13 May that may soon become the fifth piece of anti-NGO legislation in Hungary since 2017.   This time, however, the bill’s design surpasses all previous efforts in its open attack on basic democratic norms and fundamental rights in Hungary, as well as on the core principles of EU law and the authority and competences of the European Commission.   If the draft law titled On Transparency in the Public Sphere enters into force, it will make it outright impossible for civil society organisations (CSOs) that are critical of the government or advocate for women’s and LGBTQI+ rights to receive any form of support from abroad — including dedicated EU funding under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme.   According to the draft legislation, the country’s Sovereignty Protection Office — a state authority established in December 2023 to intimidate civil society and independent media in Hungary — will be empowered to propose that the government place organisations it deems as allegedly threatening Hungary’s sovereignty on a special list.   Once listed, these organisations will lose their tax-benefit status, including the right to receive one percent of Hungarian citizens’ income tax donations, and will be barred from receiving any form of financial support from foreign sources.   If they do, they will be fined up to 25 times the original grant amount, which must be paid within 15 days of the relevant authority’s decision.   With severely restricted rights to appeal in court and their bank accounts subject to monitoring and even suspension of transactions, the law effectively eliminates the ability of critical CSOs and independent media outlets to receive grants and donations from abroad. This further amplifies the already significant resource advantage held by government-controlled NGOs (GONGOs) and media outlets.   Even Hungarian supporters of these organisations must attach a “private deed with full evidentiary force” to their donations, proving the domestic origin of the funds. Should the Sovereignty Protection Office accuse them of channelling foreign funding, they risk facing criminal charges for alleged forgery.   The domestic political logic behind the law is more than evident. Any critical act that may cast doubt on the democratic or constitutional character of Hungary — or question the primacy of marriage, family, and a person’s biological sex at birth — is deemed a threat to the country’s sovereignty if allegedly supported by foreign funding aimed at influencing public opinion or voting behaviour.   The clear goal is to suffocate what remains of Hungary’s critical civil society and to intimidate independent media ahead of the highly contested 2026 elections — elections that, according to all available independent polling data, the incumbent Fidesz party would lose if held today.   This is an explicitly authoritarian piece of legislation, surpassing even Russia’s foreign agent law in its lack of legal remedies, and it serves unambiguously anti-democratic purposes.   However, the challenge posed by the law to the authority of EU law and institutions is equally serious. Labelling entire EU policy fields — such as anti-discrimination — and specific commission programmes — like CERV — as threats to a member state’s sovereignty goes far beyond the typical infringement on the free movement of capital, as seen with Hungary’s 2017 anti-CSO law.   This new legislation directly challenges the primacy of EU law and the legitimacy of the European Commission’s policy agenda.   Furthermore, introduced in close proximity to Slovakia’s anti-CSO law and set against a political backdrop in which both European radical-right groups and MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) are attacking EU funding provided by the commission to civil society organisations — including through the CERV program — the Hungarian government is attempting to exploit the commission’s divided attention and its potentially limited capacity to respond robustly amid this wave of coordinated political attacks.   Despite these complicating factors, the EU Commission must recognise the unprecedented nature of this attack, not only on the last remaining bulwarks of pluralist liberal democracy in an increasingly authoritarian Hungary, but also on the EU legal order and the commission’s own institutional prerogatives.   If the commission fails to respond with equal determination, the damage to the integrity of the EU legal order could be far-reaching. It must recognise the urgency of the situation and the fact that it cannot allow this law to enter into force and unleash its destructive impact.   Instead of pursuing separate approaches to the Slovak and Hungarian anti-CSO laws, the commission must recognise their shared roots and characteristics — and respond with a unified approach: by immediately requesting interim measures from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to suspend their implementation following the initiation of the respective infringement procedures.   Based on past infringement proceedings and ECJ case law concerning previous Hungarian legislation, there is no doubt that the draft law constitutes a fundamental violation of EU law, nor that the damage it would cause will be impossible to remedy if its implementation is not suspended.   In an era of increasingly emboldened would-be EU autocrats, the commission must step up its game and respond with determination and vigour.   http://euobserver.com/rule-of-law/ar96012839 http://euobserver.com/the-eus-unsung-heroes/ar8f388ae7 http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/21/hungary-bill-threatens-eviscerate-democracy http://www.transparency.org/en/press/transparency-international-hungarys-new-bill-threatens-to-end-civil-society-empower-government-persecute-with-impunity http://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/21/eu-urged-to-act-over-hungarian-legislation-which-could-restrict-free-press http://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/14/hungary-considering-law-to-monitor-and-ban-groups-seen-as-threat-to-national-sovereignty http://publications.civicus.org/publications/2025-state-of-civil-society-report/ http://www.civicus.org/index.php/media-resources/op-eds   14 May 2025   Mali abolishes multiparty politics across the country. (Human Rights Watch/Amnesty International)   This week, Mali’s National Transition Council adopted a bill that effectively abolishes multiparty politics across the country. The new law officially bans opposition political meetings, speeches, and organizations. The action unfortunately came as no surprise given the ruling military junta’s recent attacks on the political opposition.   The law formalizes a political atmosphere in Mali in which freedom of expression is increasingly restricted. Days earlier, the country’s media regulatory body, Haute Autorite de la Communication (HAC), suspended TV5, an international French-language television network, because the authorities deemed its reporting of the May 3, 2025, anti-junta protests in the capital, Bamako, to be “biased” and “unbalanced.” The HAC also accused TV5 of “defamation of the armed and security forces.”   The new law coincides with the junta’s recent jailing and enforced disappearance of several political opponents, activists, and dissidents.   On May 8, two political opposition leaders, Abba Alhassane and El Bachir Thiam, went missing, sparking fears they may have been forcibly disappeared. Neither have been located, raising concerns for their safety.   Three days later, Abdoul Karim Traore, the youth president of the opposition party Convergence pour le developpement du Mali (CODEM), went missing in Bamako. Like Alhassane and Thiam, Traore took part in the May 3 protests. He was a witness to and publicly denounced Alhassane’s abduction. International media has reported that Traore is being held by state security officers.   A day before Traore disappeared, unidentified men in Bamako assaulted democracy activist Cheick Oumar Doumbia, who also took part in the protests. Pro-junta activists have increasingly called for violence against democracy activists and those who participated in the protest.   And on Monday, Abdrahamane Diarra, the communication secretary for the opposition party l'Union pour la Republique et la Democratie (URD), was detained and interrogated by security forces in Bamako. Diarra, a vocal opponent of the dissolution of Mali’s political parties, was later released, but the authorities’ message has become undoubtedly clear: the space for voicing dissent is closing.   These past few weeks have marked dark days in Mali as the military authorities again raise the stakes for activists advocating a return to democratic civilian rule. The junta should instead release those unjustly held and uphold the right to free expression.   http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/14/malis-junta-further-shutters-political-space http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/05/mali-dissolution-political-parties-step-wrong-direction-warn-un-experts http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/05/mali-curbs-political-rights-risk-further-deepening-human-rights-concerns http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/04/mali-dissolution-political-parties/ http://www.fidh.org/en/region/Africa/mali/mali-is-sinking-into-authoritarianism http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/12/2025-human-rights-roadmap-african-union http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/15/rising-food-prices-deepen-nigerias-poverty-crisis http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/20/prosecutions-insulting-president-continue-turkiye http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/18/un-general-assembly-should-act-north-korea http://www.ipsnews.net/2025/05/hide-numbers-control-message/   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/04/approval-amendments-apci-law-seriously-affects-freedom-association-peru-un http://www.fidh.org/en/region/americas/peru/serious-threat-to-civic-space-in-peru-organizations-condemn-law-that http://www.fidh.org/en/region/americas/peru/the-peruvian-state-attacks-civil-society-ngos-and-international http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/03/20/peru-veto-anti-ngo-law http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/06/12/peru-congress-ramps-assault-democratic-system http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/05/el-salvador-profundiza-el-asedio-a-la-sociedad-civil/ http://cristosal.org/EN/2025/05/21/ruth-lopez-a-life-committed-to-transparency-and-the-defense-of-human-rights/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/05/el-salvador-un-experts-demand-protection-ruth-lopez-after-enforced Visit the related web page
	Foreign Aid cuts threaten human rights globally by Amnesty International USA, MSF, agencies   May 2025   The Trump administration’s abrupt, chaotic and sweeping suspension of U.S. foreign aid is placing millions of lives and human rights at risk across the globe.   In its research briefing Lives at Risk, released today, Amnesty International examines how the cuts have halted critical programs across the globe, many of which provided essential health care, food security, shelter, medical services, and humanitarian support for people in extremely vulnerable situations, including women, girls, survivors of sexual violence, and other marginalized groups, as well as refugees and those seeking safety.   The cuts have come in response to the executive order ‘Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid’ issued by President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025, as well as other executive orders that targeted specific groups and programs for cuts.   In his testimony on May 21 and 22 in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, Secretary of State Marco Rubio provided weak or incomplete answers about the grave human rights impact of the implementation of this order contrary to the evidence gathered by Amnesty and other organizations. He even erroneously asserted there have been no deaths associated with these cuts.   Given the scale of the cuts, the number and extent of robust modeling predicting substantial mortality, and the fact that deaths have been documented already, the assertion that there has not been any death stemming from these cuts defies logic.   “This abrupt decision and chaotic implementation by the Trump administration is reckless and profoundly damaging,” said Amanda Klasing, national director of government relations and advocacy with Amnesty International USA. “The decision to cut these programs so abruptly and in this untransparent manner violates international human rights law which the U.S. is bound by and undermines decades of U.S. leadership in global humanitarian and development efforts.   While U.S. funding over the decades has had a complex relationship with human rights, the scale and suddenness of these current cuts have created a life-threatening vacuum that other governments and aid organizations are not realistically able to fill in the immediate term, violating the rights to life and health, and dignity for millions.”   Two areas in which the cuts have caused significant harm globally are the forced cutbacks to – or complete closing of – programs that ensured health care and treatment to marginalized people and those supporting migrants and people seeking safety in countries around the world.   The rights to life and to health under grave threat   The U.S. government has long been a key funder of global health, investing in HIV prevention, vaccine programs, maternal health, humanitarian relief and more. Since President Trump’s abrupt suspension of aid across multiple countries, many vital health services have been suspended or shut down. For example:   In Guatemala, funding cuts disrupted programs supporting survivors of sexual violence, including nutritional support for pregnant girls who had been raped and medical, psychological, and legal support to help survivors of violence rebuild their lives after abuse. Other cuts were to key HIV services, including prevention and treatment.   In Haiti, health and post-rape services have lost funding including for child survivors of sexual violence. Cuts to HIV funding has left women and girls, and LGBTI people, with reduced access to prevention and treatment.   In South Africa, home to the world’s largest HIV epidemic, funding for HIV prevention and community outreach for orphans and vulnerable children, including for young survivors of rape, was terminated, leaving people without care.   In Syria, some essential services in Al-Hol – a detention camp where 36,000 people, mostly children, are indefinitely and arbitrarily detained for their perceived affiliation with the Islamic State armed group – were suspended. Some ambulance services and health clinics were among the first services cut.   In Yemen, some lifesaving assistance and protection services, including malnutrition treatment to children, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, safe shelters to survivors of gender-based violence, and healthcare to children suffering from cholera and other illnesses have been shut down.   In South Sudan, projects providing a range of health services including rehabilitation services for victims of armed conflict, clinical services for victims of gender-based violence, psychological support for rape survivors, and emergency nutritional support for children, have been stopped.   People seeking safety left without support around the world   Funding cuts to shelters and groups that provide essential services for migrants, particularly those in dangerous or difficult situations, including refugees, people seeking asylum and internally displaced persons, have been widespread and devastating.   In Afghanistan, 12 out of 23 community resources centers, which provided approximately 120,000 returning and internally displaced Afghans with housing, food assistance, legal assistance and referrals to healthcare providers, have been shut down. Key aid organizations have suspended health and water programs, with disproportionate impacts on women and girls.   In Costa Rica, local organizations helping asylum seekers and migrants, many from neighboring Nicaragua, are forced to scale back or close food, shelter, and psychosocial programs. The funding cuts come as Costa Rica is receiving increased numbers of people seeking safety pushed back from the U.S.-Mexico border.   Along the Haiti–Dominican Republic border, service providers assisting deported individuals have been forced to cut back on aid including food, shelter, and transportation. With Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians in the U.S. set to expire, a likely spike in deportations will overwhelm an already diminished support infrastructure.   In Mexico, funding cuts have led to the suspension of food programs, shelter, and legal support for people seeking safety who are now stranded following the end of asylum at the US-Mexico border. Some shelters and organizations fear they will be shut down completely.   In Myanmar and Thailand, U.S.-funded health and humanitarian programs supporting displaced people and refugees have been suspended or drastically reduced. Clinics in Thai border camps closed abruptly after the stop-work orders, reportedly resulting in preventable deaths.   “The right to seek safety is protected under international law which the United States is bound by,” said Klasing. “These abrupt cuts in funding put that right at risk by undermining the humanitarian support and infrastructure that enables people around the world who have been forcibly displaced to access protection, placing already marginalized people in acute danger. We call on the U.S. government to restore funding immediately.”   The unilateral action to stop funding existing programs and refrain from spending appropriated funds made by the Trump administration bypassed congressional oversight contrary to U.S. law and came alongside a broader rollback of U.S. participation in multilateral institutions, including announcements to defund or withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the UN Human Rights Council, and reassess membership in UNESCO, and UNRWA.   Recommendations   Amnesty International urges the Trump administration to restore foreign assistance, through the waiver process or otherwise, to programs where the chaotic and abrupt cut in funding has harmed human rights and ensure that future aid is administered consistent with human rights law and standards.   Amnesty calls on Congress to continue robust funding of foreign assistance and reject any requests by the administration to codify foreign assistance cuts through rescission and ensure that all U.S. foreign assistance remains consistent with human rights and humanitarian principles and is allocated according to need.   Congress should use all available oversight levers to ensure the administration’s use of foreign assistance does not contribute to human rights harms.   Further, the Trump administration and Congress should work together to ensure that any changes to foreign assistance must be carried out transparently, in consultation with affected communities, civil society, and international partners, and must comply with international human rights law and standards, including the principles of legality, necessity, and non-discrimination.   All states in a position to do so should fulfill their obligations under UN General Assembly Resolution 2626 and subsequent high-level fora by committing at least 0.7% of gross national income to overseas aid without discrimination.   As part of aiming to meet this target, donor states should increase support where possible to help fill critical funding gaps left by the abrupt U.S. aid suspensions and ensure continued progress in realizing economic, social, and cultural rights and effective humanitarian response around the world.   “It is a false choice that the U.S. government has to choose between addressing the economic needs of Americans or the rising cost of living here in the U.S. and development and humanitarian assistance abroad,” said Klasing.   “Foreign assistance represents about one percent of the U.S. budget, and the U.S. has a global responsibility and interest in providing support to the most marginalized. As one of the world’s wealthiest nations with a history of providing the largest amount of foreign assistance, our analysis shows that this chaotic withdrawal from multilateral cooperation is in practice cruel and endangers the lives and rights of millions of people, especially people like women and girls in Afghanistan or refugees on the border of Thailand and Myanmar, children survivors of sexual violence in Haiti, and other marginalized populations already facing crisis. The U.S. government can – and must – do better.”   http://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/lives-at-risk-chaotic-and-abrupt-cuts-to-foreign-aid-put-millions-of-lives-at-risk/ http://reliefweb.int/report/world/lives-risk-chaotic-and-abrupt-cuts-foreign-aid-put-millions-lives-risk http://www.interaction.org/statement/statement-on-the-latest-wave-of-foreign-assistance-terminations/ http://www.mercycorps.org/blog/human-cost-of-foreign-aid-cuts http://www.wfp.org/news/tens-millions-risk-extreme-hunger-and-starvation-unprecedented-funding-crisis-spirals http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/statement-unicef-executive-director-catherine-russell-globalforeign-aid-reductions http://www.acaps.org/en/us-funding-freeze http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/biggest-ever-aid-cut-g7-members-death-sentence-millions-people-says-oxfam   May 2025   How US Aid Cuts are putting millions of Lives at Risk.   A catastrophe is unfolding in clinics, refugee camps, and conflict zones worldwide, says Farhat Mantoo; Executive Director of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders in South Asia writing in The Diplomat.   In a remote health facility in Afghanistan, a young mother clutches her newborn, desperately waiting for the care she and her child so urgently need. But the clinic’s doors may soon close. Like hundreds of other health centers across Afghanistan, this facility is caught in the fallout of abrupt U.S. foreign aid cuts. For this mother, and millions like her in crisis-affected regions, the consequences are immediate and tragic — losing access to essential care at the very moment it is needed most.   In Afghanistan, several international NGOs have been forced to suspend critical health services, from maternal care to tuberculosis (TB) treatment, due to the abrupt termination of U.S.-funded programs. Therapeutic feeding centers in provinces like Badakhshan and Kabul have shut down, leaving malnourished children without care. Key services such as TB treatment, maternal health, mental health, mobile clinics, and vaccination programs have been suspended in multiple provinces, leading to reduced patient care, increased referrals to private (often unaffordable) facilities, and gaps in disease surveillance.   This is not an isolated story. Over the past 100 days, we have witnessed a growing, human-made disaster. The abrupt termination of U.S. foreign aid is dismantling critical health and humanitarian services across the globe, as the United States alone accounted for nearly 40 percent of global humanitarian funding.   While the scale of the U.S. cuts is shocking, it is a part of a wider shift. In the last few months, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands have all made significant cuts to their aid budgets.   Programs addressing diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, which have saved millions of lives, are now at risk of collapse. The resulting gaps will be felt most severely by those who already face the greatest challenges to their survival.   At Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders, we do not accept U.S. government funding, and we continue to run medical humanitarian programs in more than 70 countries. However, we cannot do this alone. We work closely with other health and humanitarian organizations to deliver vital services, and many of our activities involve programs that have been disrupted and, in some contexts, dissipated due to funding cuts.   In our operations across regions where these funding cuts are most profound, we are already witnessing the devastating effects.   The United States has historically been a key contributor to humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan, accounting for 43.9 percent of all reported aid in the country, according to the United Nations. Following the recent aid suspension announced by the Trump administration, over 200 World Health Organization-supported health facilities — previously serving 1.84 million people — have either closed or halted operations. These closures have cut off access to vital services such as vaccinations, maternal care, and child health programs.   The impact is especially severe in northern, western, and northeastern Afghanistan, where more than one-third of clinics have shut down, and an additional 220 facilities are projected to close by June due to ongoing funding gaps. The crisis extends beyond the WHO. Save the Children has shuttered 18 of its 32 clinics, and the Norwegian Refugee Council has closed two community resource centers supporting displaced populations, with two more on the brink of shutting down. Action Against Hunger was forced to halt all U.S.-funded operations in March when the funding was abruptly cut.   In Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, home to one of the world’s largest refugee camps with 1 million Rohingya refugees, the United States has typically contributed nearly half of the total humanitarian aid allocated to support the refugees, amounting to approximately $300 million in 2024. Around 48 health facilities, including 11 primary care centers, have been affected by aid cuts, resulting in many refugees being left without access to essential healthcare services, according to the International Rescue Committee. As per the Inter-Sector Coordination Group, which oversees NGO activities in Cox’s Bazar, disruptions in healthcare services have impacted roughly 300,000 refugees.   MSF teams in more than 20 countries have reported concerns with disrupted or suspended sexual and reproductive health (SRH) programs, which MSF relies on for referrals for medical emergencies, supplies, and technical partnerships. These include contexts with already high levels of maternal and infant mortality. In Cox’s Bazar, MSF teams report that other implementers are not able to provide SRH supplies, like emergency birth kits and contraceptives. Referrals for medical emergencies, like post-abortion care, have also been disrupted, increasing urgent needs for SRH care in the region.   In Pakistan, the pause on U.S. foreign assistance would affect 1.7 million people, including 1.2 million Afghan refugees, who would be cut off from lifesaving sexual and reproductive health services with the closure of over 60 facilities, according to the U.N.   Cuts to President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and USAID have led to suspensions and closures of HIV programs in countries, including South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe — threatening the lives of people receiving antiretroviral (ARV) therapy. South Africa’s pioneering Treatment Action Campaign — which helped transform the country’s response to HIV/AIDS — has had to drastically reduce its community-led monitoring system that helps ensure that people stay on treatment. The monitoring is now only happening on a small scale at clinics.   The reported decision of the U.S. government to end its support for Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, which was set up 25 years ago to increase access to vaccines for the world’s poorest countries, will have devastating consequences for children across the globe. As per Gavi’s own estimates, the loss of U.S. support to Gavi is projected to deny approximately 75 million children routine vaccinations in the next five years, with more than 1.2 million children potentially dying as a result.   The United Nations has warned that these funding cuts are disrupting global childhood immunization efforts almost as severely as the COVID-19 pandemic did. Millions of children are now missing routine vaccinations, heightening the risk of outbreaks of preventable diseases such as measles, polio, and diphtheria.   For more than 50 years, we have been vaccinating children who live in some of the world’s hardest-to-reach areas, including war zones, refugee camps, and rural areas cut off from health care. This decision will risk leaving these children unprotected. While we do not accept Gavi funding and will not be directly affected by cuts to the program, more than half of the vaccines we use in our projects come from ministries of health and are procured through Gavi.   We are standing at a perilous crossroads where political agendas and funding decisions are dismantling lifelines for millions. The erosion of humanitarian aid is not a future threat — it is a present catastrophe unfolding in clinics, refugee camps, and conflict zones worldwide. We cannot allow narrow national interests and harmful narratives to dictate who lives and who is left to suffer.   The international community — governments, donors, and citizens alike — must reaffirm an unwavering commitment to humanity. This means urgently restoring and protecting funding for essential health and humanitarian services, shielding vulnerable communities from the fallout of political decisions, and upholding the principles of impartiality, dignity, and care. Silence and inaction will cost lives. Now is the time to stand in solidarity, to demand that humanitarian aid remains a beacon of hope, not a tool of politics. The world must not turn its back on those who need us most.   http://www.msf.org/after-first-100-days-us-aid-budget-cuts http://msf.org.au/event/navigating-global-pressures-humanitarian-aid-impacts-msf-and-our-response/recording http://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/news/2025/04/105810/millions-will-die-funding-cuts-says-un-aid-chief http://humanitarianaction.info/document/us-funding-freeze-global-survey http://reliefweb.int/report/world/children-facing-extreme-hunger-crisis-put-risk-aid-cuts-clinics-close http://views-voices.oxfam.org.uk/2025/05/two-drops-of-life-for-me-aid-gamechanger/ http://www.one.org/us/stories/cost-of-cuts/ http://www.wvi.org/publication/world-refugee-day/report-ration-cuts-2025 http://www.justsecurity.org/114839/us-foreign-aid-cuts-world-must-respond/ Visit the related web page
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