In January 2015, a few days before he would feature as Applicant No 1 in a groundbreaking High Court application for the right to an assisted death, Avron Moss ended his life using medication he had smuggled into South Africa from Mexico. Diagnosed with melanoma, Moss knew when he offered to act as the applicant that it would be a race against time. This article discusses the history and legal and social implications of assisted dying for the terminally ill in South Africa.
Values, Policies and Rights
Assisted dying: Avron Moss – another casualty of legal uncertainty
Thamm M: Daily Maverick, 10 March 2015
Gender-responsive HIV programming for women and girls
UNAIDS: UNAIDS Geneva 2014
This document guides countries on how to include a gender perspective and promote equality and human rights for women and girls in their national HIV responses, drawing upon the latest technical developments, guidelines and investment approaches. This is relevant as women and girls continue to be profoundly affected by HIV. The brief seeks to support a gender-responsive HIV response, as a first step towards the application of key tools and resources that help integrate gender considerations into concept notes, proposals, and national strategic plans.
Multisectoral Action Framework for Malaria
Roll Back Malaria Partnership; UNDP: UNDP New York, 2015
This Multisectoral Action Framework for Malaria makes a clear case for re-structuring the way countries address malaria. It presents a menu of concrete, implementable processes and actions to transform malaria
responses—from being a concern of the health sector only, towards a coordinated multi-pronged effort that harnesses expertise across a range of sectors and institutions. The Framework calls for action at several levels and in multiple sectors, globally and across inter- and
intra-national boundaries, and by different organizations. It emphasizes complementarity, effectiveness and sustainability, and capitalizes on the potential synergies to accelerate both socio-economic development and malaria control. It involves new interventions as well as putting new life into those that already exist, and coordinates and manages these in new and innovative ways. It is a guide for policymakers and practitioners and a stimulus for innovation.
World Malaria Day 2015: Invest in the Future, Defeat Malaria
Mosca D; Motus N: International Labour Organisation for Migration, April 2015
In 2013, there were about 198 million malaria cases in the world and an estimated 584,000 deaths from the disease. The countries endemic for malaria are also some of the poorest countries in the world. The burden of malaria on the poor, including migrants and displaced populations in these countries further fuels the cycle of poverty. IOM works with governments and partners, mostly in Africa and Asia, to ensure universal access to health care, including malaria prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment services among migrants and hard-to-reach populations. This year’s theme for World Malaria Day on April 25th was 'Invest in the Future: Defeat Malaria'. It focused on reaching 2015 malaria targets in all malaria-endemic countries, as well as scaling up efforts in malaria elimination and control beyond 2015.
Breaking the Rules 2014: Evidence of Violations of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent resolutions compiled from January 2011 to December 2013
International Baby Food Action Network: May 2014
Breaking the Rules 2014 (BTR) is a 237-page monitoring report which describes evidence of 813 Code violations, from 81 countries, collected between Jan 2011 and Dec 2013. The Rules are the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent World Health Assembly resolutions (the Code), which are the yardstick to measure compliance by all companies in all countries. Following the request for clarification of ‘inappropriate promotion’ of foods for infants and young children, BTR: in Brief provides examples of marketing tactics that should not be allowed. The emphasis is on toddler milks or growing up milks (GUMs), a product which has been generating huge profits for the baby food industry over the past decade or more. The inappropriate promotions reported are Code violations. This abridged report is meant to show how the 16 largest baby food companies continue to ignore international recommendations adopted to protect infants and young children the world over so the public and investors can hold them to account.
Global malaria eradication and the importance of Plasmodium falciparum epidemiology in Africa
Snow RW: BMC Medicine 13(23), February 2015 doi:10.1186/s12916-014-0254-7
The global agenda for malaria has, once again, embraced the possibility of eradication. The author argues that as history has shown, there will be no single magic bullet that can be applied to every epidemiological setting. Africa has a diverse malaria ecology, lending itself to some of the highest disease burden areas of the world and a wide range of clinical epidemiological patterns making control with our current tools challenging. This commentary highlights why the epidemiology of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Africa should not be forgotten when planning an eradication strategy, and why forgetting Africa will, according to the author, once again, be the single largest threat to any hope for global eradication.
Health in the sustainable development goals: ready for a paradigm shift?
Buse K; Hawkes S: Globalization and Health 2015, 11(13), 2015 doi:10.1186/s12992-015-0098-8
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) galvanised attention, resources and accountability on a small number of health concerns of low- and middle-income countries with unprecedented results. The international community is presently developing a set of Sustainable Development Goals as the successor framework to the MDGs. This review examines the evidence base for the current health-related proposals in relation to disease burden and the technical and political feasibility of interventions to achieve the targets. In contrast to the MDGs, the proposed health agenda aspires to be universally applicable to all countries and is broad in encompassing both communicable and non-communicable diseases as well as emerging burdens from, among other things, road traffic accidents and pollution. The authors argue that success in realising the agenda requires a paradigm shift in: 1) ensuring leadership for intersectoral coherence and coordination on the structural drivers of health; 2) shifting the focus from treatment to prevention through locally-led, politically-smart approaches to a far broader agenda; 3) identifying effective means to tackle the commercial determinants of ill-health; 4) further integrating rights-based approaches; and 5) enhancing civic engagement and ensuring accountability. The authors are concerned that neither the international nor the global health community truly appreciates the extent of the shift required to implement this health agenda which is a critical determinant of sustainable development.
South Africa's new food and nutrition policy fails to address constitutional right to food
Moyo B: Pambuzuka News 716, 4 March 2015
The author argues that the proposed food policy in South Africa shies away from confronting capital interests within the food value-chain. Apart from acknowledging that the emerging agricultural sector is in need of assistance, the policy is reported to be silent on the influence of big-business in the food system.
Strengthening the protection of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the African Region through human rights
Ngwena C; Durojaye E: Pretoria University Law Press, 2014
Strengthening the protection of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the African region through human rights uses rights-based frameworks seeks to address some of the serious sexual and reproductive health challenges that the African region is currently facing. The authors provide human rights approaches on how these challenges can be overcome. Human rights issues addressed by the book include: emergency obstetric care; HIV/AIDS; adolescent sexual health and rights; early marriage; and gender-based sexual violence.
Fighting the scourge of female genital mutilation in Kenya
Mmaka V: Pambuzuka News 762, 18 February 2016
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is outlawed in Kenya. In this interview, Kenyan activist John Wafula holds the view that: “FGM is not a culturally enriching choice but rather a tool to isolate women and girls for disempowerment, domination and stagnation. If FGM negates girls’ right to education and healthy bodies then it ceases to be tenable as a cultural identity”. Prior to interventions to address FGM, he reports undertaking a baseline study to establish the prevalence of FGM in refugee camps, survivors, practitioners. The reasons why FGM was practiced, mostly among refugees of Somali descent, included perceptions that uncircumcised women would otherwise be unfaithful and ineligible for marriage. Their efforts to prevent FGM entailed creating awareness about its health, social and psychological consequences at the community level. They also invited religious scholars to engage the community on religion-based myths that were peddled to justify FGM. They sensitized school children on human rights, which also encompassed protection against any form of violence, FGM included. They targeted refugee community leaders for sensitization because of their visible position as community gatekeepers. The 2014 Kenya Demographic Health Survey indicated a nation-wide prevalence of 23%, down from 27% in 2008-09 and 32% in 2003. After enactment of the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act in 2011, an Anti-FGM Board was established that is reviewing a FGM policy with vigorous media campaigns to sensitize the public on the Act, supported by insights from research.