Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to health, used a press briefing at U.N. headquarters in New York to present her thematic report “Health and Care Workers: The oath takers and defenders of the right to health” and to describe what she said were widespread, often lethal, attacks on health and care workers in recent conflicts.

Mofokeng said the mandate’s work over six years shaped the report and that the document is intended both to recognize health and care workers as human-rights defenders and to provide tools for accountability. “Health and care workers are key defenders of the right to health,” she said, adding that treating them as human-rights defenders creates specific obligations for states and other actors.

The rapporteur gave example figures and locations to illustrate the scale of attacks. She said, “In Gaza, from 07/2023 to 05/2025, 1,722 healthcare workers have been killed.” She also described attacks in Sudan, saying 13 attacks on health facilities in the city of El Fasher were documented between September and November 2024, and that “between January and 2025, at least 30 humanitarian and health workers were killed.” Mofokeng said health workers have been targeted on duty, abducted, tortured and killed, and that perpetrators have not been held accountable.

Mofokeng urged an anti‑racist and anti‑colonial analysis of the right to health and criticized what she called the commercial and political determinants that limit states’ ability to realize the right to health. She linked the destruction of health systems and the criminalization or exclusion of marginalized populations to deeper structural injustices, saying the right to health is interconnected with other civil, economic and social rights.

Reporters asked the rapporteur about Gaza, including who was responsible for violence there and whether her office had formally communicated with Israeli authorities about detained health workers. Mofokeng said she had issued urgent appeals and more than 30 statements on Gaza over the past two years and said she first described the situation there as genocide in 2023. “I called it a genocide,” she said, adding that professional medical bodies and some states had been slow to act and that the international community had failed to provide timely resources and protection for health workers.

She also described personal risks and harassment she has faced while carrying out the mandate, saying communications and other intimidation have crossed a line. She recounted an unsolicited parcel sent to her office that contained racist and sexist material and feces, and said those actions are intended to intimidate and to undermine the work of mandate holders.

Mofokeng said her reports were written to be justiciable tools for advocates and states, and she urged member states and other stakeholders to use them to pursue accountability and to strengthen primary care and protections for health and care workers. The briefing concluded with a handover to the next rapporteur for the subsequent briefing.