Amnesty International warns of devastating consequences as abrupt U.S. Foreign Aid cuts threaten human rights globally

30 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 marginalised 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 organisations.

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,"

"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 marginalised 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 have 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 organisations 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. 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."

"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,"

"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."

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