As the G8 Summit comes to a close, international agency Oxfam criticized the leaders for their failure to deliver on their promises and for trying to divert attention by cobbling together a small initiative for maternal and child health. “No maple leaf is big enough to hide the shame of Canada’s summit of broken promises,” said Mark Fried, spokesperson for Oxfam. “The G8’s failure will leave a sad legacy of kids out of school, denied medicines for the sick, and no food for the hungry.” With total G8 aid frozen, their five billion dollar commitment to maternal health will likely be taken from vital areas such as education and food, cautioned Oxfam. Oxfam also urged the G20 to adopt a financial transaction tax to raise the funds necessary to fight poverty and climate change.
Values, Policies and Rights
This statement was made by parliamentarians who attended the Women Deliver Conference, which was held from 7–9 June in Washington, DC, United States. The statement addresses a number of areas: creating laws and policies with and for women and girls; giving women and girls their fair share of funding (budget and oversight responsibilities); advocating for a women’s and girl’s agenda everywhere by advancing Millennium Development Goal 5 locally, nationally, regionally and globally; and raising awareness and building knowledge on women’s and girls’ issues. The Parliamentarians pledge to carry out these actions and to systematically and actively monitor their progress. They commit to communicate the results achieved in working with their respective authorities and work in close co-operation with civil society and other key stakeholders to support national action plans to be presented during the United Nations High Level Review meeting on the Millennium Development Goals.
This resolution from the World Health Assembly calls on member states to implement recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children, while taking into account existing legislation and policies, as appropriate. Governments should identify the most suitable policy approach and develop new policies and strengthen existing policies that aim to reduce the impact of marketing unhealthy foods on children, as well as to establish a system for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children. They should take active steps to establish intergovernmental collaboration to reduce the impact of cross-border marketing and co-operate with civil society and with public and private stakeholders in implementing the set of recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children.
In this open letter, the Solidarity Community Care Organisation condemns the sterilisation of HIV-positive women without their consent in Namibia as discriminatory. It identifies other forms of discrimination against HIV-positive Namibians, such as a medical aid scheme that accepts HIV-positive clients who are on anti-retroviral therapy, while excluding those who are not. The Solidarity Community Care Organisation urges all HIV-positive persons in the country to unite and fight for their rights while fulfilling their obligations, such as restraining from spreading the virus. It also calls for all HIV-positive Namibians to denounce all forms of discrimination wherever they manifest themselves in Namibia.
The World Health Organisation Secretariat has produced a draft strategy to reduce harmful use of alcohol through an inclusive and broad collaborative process with stakeholders in member states. The draft strategy is based on existing best practices and available evidence on effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of strategies and interventions to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. The document describes the strategy, which includes: increasing global action and international cooperation; ensuring intersectoral action; according appropriate attention; balancing different interests; focusing on equity; considering context in recommending actions; and strengthening information systems.
This report provides an analysis of research on cases of sterilisation of HIV positive women in Namibia. A series of focus groups and interviews produced evidence that the authors report suggesting that a number of HIV positive women were being forced into sterilisation by hospital staff. The research was conducted between 21 January 2008 and 22 of April 2008 with a total of 230 HIV positive women. Women participated in focus groups and interviews about their experiences. The analysis takes a rights-based approach and presents a detailed account of Namibia’s obligations under international and regional human rights law. The evidence from the focus groups is argued to indicate that these rights have been violated. The report uncovered many types of discrimination against HIV-positive mothers, such as being coerced into using injectable contraceptives, failure to obtain consent for sterilisation and obtaining consent under duress. The authors call on all relevant parties, especially the Ministries of Health and Justice, address this violation of human rights immediately.
Much to the frustration of gender activists, Swaziland's Supreme Court has reversed a February 2010 High Court ruling that allowed a married woman to register property in her own name. Activist Mary-Joyce Doo Aphane wished to register a house in her own name and challenged the country's 1968 Deeds Registry Act. She was granted a High Court order declaring the section unconstitutional. Yet three months later, the Supreme Court suppressed the High Court judgment. Although the Constitution grants men and women equal rights, in practice the old laws on the statute books still define gender relations in this absolute monarchy. According to the authors, not having property rights means many women are not able to leave abusive husbands because it would mean they have nowhere to live, no money and no family support. The Attorney General's office, which drafts legislation for parliamentary consideration, would not comment on its timeframe for revising the property law, and most gender activists remain sceptical that the deadline set by the Supreme Court will be met by parliament.
The AIDS Law Project, one of South Africa's leading HIV and AIDS rights campaigners, has ceased to exist in its present form. Instead it has become part of Section27, a non-profit organisation that will focus on all 'the socio-economic conditions that undermine human dignity and development, prevent poor people from reaching their full potential and lead to the spread of diseases that have a disproportionate impact on the vulnerable and marginalised'. Section27 gets its name from the section in the country’s Constitution that states everyone has the right to access to health care services, enough food and water and social security. The organisation faces a potential legal battle over the right to use the name, Section27, as the Companies and Intellectual Properties Registration Organisation (CIPRO) claims that this name is the preserve of government only. Director Mark Heywood explained the change: 'To sustain the response to HIV, reduce new infections and ensure sustained access to treatment, it is necessary to campaign for equity, equality and quality in the health system.' Head of litigation services Adila Hassan said the new organisation will still focus on HIV/AIDS but also on the 'underlying determinants of health, and to do this we will be focusing on education and sufficient food as two such determinants'. Section27 will also defend the Constitution and its foundational values.
According to this article, World Health Organization (WHO) member states are responsible for directing and enabling WHO to undertake its normative and standard-setting functions effectively in facing the increasingly transnational nature of health threats, to be a trusted repository for knowledge and information, and to act as an effective convener of multiple players and stakeholders that can drive appropriate convergence, innovation, and effective decision making for health in a diverse landscape. In support of effective health governance, it states that better evidence and best practices are needed on how foreign policy can improve policy coordination at all levels and create an improved global policy environment for health. Foreign policy practitioners need to become more aware of positive and negative impact of policy options and decisions on health outcomes. This is how foreign policy can make a difference to health.
Children under 18 are legal minors who, in South African law, are not fully capable of acting independently without assistance from parents/legal guardians. However, in recognition of the evolving capacity of children, there are exceptional circumstances where the law has granted minors the capacity to act independently. This paper describes legal norms for child consent to health-related interventions in South Africa, and argues that the South African parliament has taken an inconsistent approach to: the capacity of children to consent; the persons able to consent when children do not have capacity; and restrictions on the autonomy of children or their proxies to consent. In addition, the rationale for the differing age limitations, capacity requirements and public policy restrictions has not been specified. The paper argues that these inconsistencies make it difficult for stakeholders interacting with children to ensure that they act lawfully.