The National Lawyers Guild, led by Martha Schmidt, co-chair of the Human Rights Framework Project of the International Committee, filed a shadow report for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United States by the UN Human Rights Council, which will take place in November 2025.

Entitled “The Rights to Life and Health: How financing affects the right to health care in the U.S.”, the shadow report details how the United States’ private health care system leads to ongoing violations of the human right to health across the country.

The shadow report was co-sponsored by the Connecticut Citizen Action Group, the Hawa’ii Institute for Human Rights, National Center for Law and Economic Justice, National Conference of Black Lawyers, National Single Payer, Poor People’s Campaign, People’s Action Institute and the Rights and Democracy Institute.

The UPR is a unique process through which the human rights record of a country is reviewed by other United Nations member States. Countries are reviewed every 4-5 years. The member States then make recommendations to the country under review, which the country should in theory accept and implement. Watch this video in which NLG members explain the UPR process.

Download the PDF of the report