On the basis of an analysis of popular and medical texts which address a debate over the ethics of clinical drug trials designed mainly for sub-Saharan Africa, this paper argues that the international public health discourse about infant HIV infection in Africa reflects and legitimates a anti-reproductive justice ideology. The author argues that the texts most commonly advance the view that biomedicine, funded from outside Africa with medicines from outside the continent, is the magic bullet that addresses mother and child HIV, avoiding issues of domestic advance in reproductive and sexual rights. This dominant focus is argued to give greater control over HIV to biomedical perspectives and to strengthen right-wing movements against advances in reproductive rights.
Values, Policies and Rights
The goal of this methodology is to assist in the creation of valid, useful and ultimately meaningful human rights impact assessments. This followed the United Nation’s Special Representative on Human Rights and Business Professor John Ruggie's presentation to the Human Rights Council with a framework for delegating human rights and responsibilities between governments and companies. The process of creating and using HRIA is still in its early phases. Their relevance will depend on a continuing improvement of method, capacity and result which can only be accomplished through the sharing of experience and information between companies and assessors. The methodology looks at HRIA assessment sources, goals, and types. It covers basic concepts and looks provides five steps for implementation: gather project contexts and company information; drawing up a preliminary list of impacted rights; drawing up a preliminary list of impacted right holders; special topics; and inquiry guided by topic catalogue. The methodology offers recommendations for policies, procedures, structures and action. It also provides an appendix of other tools and selected best practices.
Data presented at the United Nations Summit in September in New York has revealed that many countries are unlikely to achieve all the health targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The simultaneous and interrelated challenges of poverty, health, food security, energy, the global economic crisis and climate change should be viewed by the global community as a unique opportunity to develop innovative approaches to achieve sustainable growth without compromising health equity. One such innovative approach is the concept of working across many sectors to improve governance for health and well-being. The 2010 Adelaide Statement on Health draws on the increasing body of knowledge on “joined-up” government to propose a new way for governments to engage multiple sectors in the joint goal of improving health and well-being. The article calls for an accountability mechanism between governments and their citizens, to ensure that global commitments on health are honoured. The shortfalls in progress towards the MDGs have occurred not because they are unreachable, it argues, but rather due to unmet commitments, inadequate resources, lack of focus and insufficient interest in sustainable development.
For the empowerment of women to make a real difference in the promotion of peace, the discussion needs to shift from one of competing forces to one of cooperation and collaboration, according to this article. Feminist scholars argue that both men and women possess characteristics that are considered, for lack of more refined language, masculine as well as feminine. The difference lies in the way we are socialised. We grow up being taught to behave in a particular way due to what society perceives gender differences to mean and to require. Social norms compel us to reinforce these perceptions and expectations, and then to undermine them when we use those very perceptions and expectations to blame one gender for being collaborative rather than competitive, accommodating rather than uncompromising, submissive rather than aggressive, gentle rather than violent. This article argues that it is in peace education and peace studies that a more meaningful perspective on gender equality has been developed. Such a perspective might enable leaders to promote uMunthu (belief that all humans are connected and therefore deserve respect), peace and social justice at the local and global level, making them much more relevant to the majority of people around the world.
The World Health Organization is establishing the Joint Learning Initiative (JLI) on National and Global Responsibilities for Health to articulate an overarching, coherent framework for sharing the responsibility for health that goes further than the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The Initiative forges an international consensus around solutions to four critical challenges: defining essential health services and goods; clarifying governments’ obligations to their own country’s inhabitants; exploring the responsibilities of all governments towards the world’s poor; and proposing a global architecture to improve health as a matter of social justice. The first challenge for the JLI is to determine essential health services and goods that every person has a right to expect. The JLI aims to launch a wide participatory process involving all major stakeholders, including international organizations, governments, industry, philanthropists and civil society, and emphasises a bottom-up approach to decision making.
New sections of the Children’s Act and the Children’s Amendment Act in South Africa came into effect on 1 April 2010. The Children’s Act dealing with the capacity of children to consent to HIV testing and to access contraceptives have been in effect since 1 July 2007 and the new sections now allow children of 12 years of age to consent to medical treatment, and to surgical operations with the assistance of their parent or guardian. The provisions allowing consent to termination of pregnancy by girls of any age in the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act are not affected by this Act.
Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has described as ‘a very significant advance’ the outcome document of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) summit, but noted a number of gaps in some aspects of the global plan of action to eradicate poverty and end social-economic inequality. During the summit, she emphasised that States should take a human rights-based approach to the MDGs, which would mean that development and aid policies should explicitly prioritise the needs of the poorest and most excluded people. But she stressed that, with their emphasis on global average targets, the MDGs often neglect large segments of the world’s population, and may unwittingly exacerbate existing inequalities. The principle of participation, for example, is reflected strongly in relation to the empowerment of women, but there is no explicit recognition of participation as a right, and no specific commitments to guarantee freedom of expression and association or other human rights guarantees necessary for active, free and meaningful participation. Issues of accountability, good governance and the rule of law are referred to in a number of contexts, she said, but in relation to MDG 8, which mandates a global partnership for development, there is still a critical accountability defect because it lacks time-bound targets.
Kenyan human rights activists have filed an appeal for the release of two men imprisoned for defaulting on their tuberculosis (TB) treatment, and are warning that the arrests could discourage other patients from seeking treatment. The appeal has been filed at Kapsabet court in Rift Valley Province. Arrested in August 2010, the two men have been held in police remand in Kapsabet for ‘posing a risk to the health of the wider community’. Under the Public Health Act, they can be held until the district medical officer who ordered their arrest decides they are no longer a public health threat. According to Nelson Otwoma, national coordinator of the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya, the two men have not been isolated, posing a health risk to other inmates. He warned that the arrests could act as a deterrent to patients needing treatment. ‘This is a negative consequence of the government's action’, he added, denouncing criminalisation of the disease. ‘Counselling of those on treatment will have better outcomes,’ he noted.
The Botswana government has passed an amendment to its Employment Act that will bring an end to dismissal based on an individual's sexual orientation or HIV status, but rights groups believe the legislation needs to go further. Civil society organizations in Botswana welcomed the move but said legislation to protect the rights of people living with HIV in the workplace was necessary. The Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA) noted that ‘tolerance and acceptance of sexual minorities will ensure universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support - crucial for Botswana to achieve its ... goal of zero new HIV infections by 2016’. Gadzani Mhotsha, Secretary General of the Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) warned that the legislation was not comprehensive enough in dealing with the serious issues of HIV at the workplace and called for comprehensive legislation, not piecemeal amendments. BONELA also added that a specific HIV Employment Act should be passed that attends to matters of reasonable accommodation for those who are HIV-positive, ensuring they have a safe and supportive environment to access treatment, care and support. Civil society has also called on the government to enact laws prohibiting private sector employers from testing potential employees for HIV and subsequently disqualifying them on the basis of an HIV-positive status.
The criminal use of firearms in South Africa is widespread and a major factor in the country having the third-highest homicide rate in the world. Violence is a common feature of South African society. A firearm in the home is a risk factor in intimate partner violence, but this has not been readily demonstrated in South Africa because of a lack of data, according to this paper. The paper drew on several South African studies including national homicide studies, intimate partner studies, studies with male participants and studies from the justice sector, to discuss the role of gun ownership on gender-based violence. It concludes that guns play a significant role in violence against women in South Africa, most notably in the killing of intimate partners. Although the overall homicide data suggest that death by shooting is decreasing, data for intimate partner violence are not readily available. It was unclear if the overall decrease in gunshot homicides applies to women in relationships. In view of the general role guns play in violence against women, the paper urges the government to keep gun control high on the legislative agenda.