The World Council for Equality and Physicians for Human Rights have filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the State Department over PEPFAR-related data and documents.
The groups, represented by Democracy Forward, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
In 2003, then-President George W. Bush signed legislation creating PEPFAR. UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said in March last year that PEPFAR had saved 26 million lives around the world.
The Trump-Vance administration in January 2025 froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending for at least 90 days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio subsequently announced a waiver allowing PEPFAR and other “lifesaving” programs to continue during the freeze.
The Washington Blade previously reported that PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to suspend or close due to a lack of U.S. funding. HIV/AIDS activists have also harshly criticized the Trump-Vance administration over its plan to defund PEPFAR in full this fiscal year.
The lawsuit notes that the World Council for Equality and Physicians for Human Rights have “filed several FOIA requests” to the State Department seeking PEPFAR-related data and documents. The groups submitted their latest requests on January 30th.
“On January 30, 2026, Plaintiffs, through their attorneys, sent a letter to the State requesting a commitment to promptly produce the requested records,” the complaint states. “The state responded that the request was being processed, but did not commit to a production schedule.”
“Plaintiffs have received no further communication from the state regarding this FOIA request,” the report notes.
“Transparency and inclusivity have been hallmarks of PEPFAR’s success over the past decade,” said Beirne Ruth Snyder, senior policy fellow at the World Equality Council, in a press release announcing the lawsuit. “This unprecedented withholding of data, coupled with the ideological misdirection of foreign aid to exclude LGBTQI+ people and those in need of inclusive programs, could have devastating and asymmetrical effects on already marginalized communities.”
“This data is essential to understanding who has access to care and who is being left behind,” Ruth Snyder added.
“We filed this lawsuit to demand transparency. The administration’s PEPFAR data blackout withholds the information that the public, health care providers, and affected communities need to track the HIV epidemic and prevent avoidable illness and death, obscuring the true human costs of these policy decisions,” said Payal Shah, director of Physicians Human Rights Research, Legal Affairs, and Advocacy.
The State Department has not yet responded to the Blade’s request for comment on the lawsuit.
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
