This paper suggests that the extent to which conflict restricts women’s freedom of movement depends on a number of factors, including the stage of conflict, whether the women are displaced, whether they are directly or indirectly affected by the conflict and the cultural norms of the conflict-affected area. In times of political, economic and social uncertainty, there is a strong tendency to revert to traditional values, which appear to offer protection for women and girls, but which restrict their mobility. Some of the negative impacts of conflict on women‘s health and education include: lowered access to reproductive health care facilities; lack of access to education because of conflict, household and domestic tasks or cultural norms and higher teenage pregnancy rates. Girls who are disabled, disfigured or severely mentally affected by the crisis are also likely to be kept at home.
Values, Policies and Rights
This paper reviews the literature on the association between polygyny and women's health in sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that polygyny is an example of ‘co-operative conflict’ within households, with likely implications for the vulnerability of polygynous women to illness, and for their access to treatment. Polygyny is associated with an accelerated transmission of sexually transmitted infections, because it permits a multiplication of sexual partners and correlates with low rates of condom use, poor communication between spouses, and age and power imbalances, among other factors. The paper also examines areas that have so far received only cursory attention: mental health and a premature ‘social’ menopause. Although data is scarce, polygyny seems to be associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression. The examples reviewed here should help build a framework for mixed method quality research to inform policy makers better.
The United States has announced that it will seek a seat this year on the United Nations Human Rights Council. The decision to run reflects the US commitment to helping the Human Rights Council play its intended role as a balanced, credible, and effective forum for the advancement of human rights. Elections to the Human Rights Council are scheduled for 12 May in the UN General Assembly in New York. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the US decision to join the UN Human Rights Council saying, ‘Full US engagement on human rights issues is an important step toward realising the goal of an inclusive and vibrant intergovernmental process to protect rights around the globe.’
The Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development (WWG on FfD), recognize that the financial and economic crisis represents a critical political opportunity to make significant structural changes in the global development macroeconomic and financial architecture that reflect rights-based and equitable principles. This statement reflects on the actions to respond to the current crisis with alternative policy approaches that harmonize with international standards and commitments to gender equality, women’s rights and human rights and empowerment.
This pack assesses how it might be possible to move towards a world that recognises and values the importance of different forms of care, but without reinforcing care work as something that only women can or should do. Drawing on diverse examples of initiatives taking place in countries across the world, it considers what strategies offer the best prospects for change. It recommends that donors should fund capacity building of grassroots care-givers, women’s organisations and networks, and organisations and networks of people living with HIV and AIDS, to enable care givers to advocate for their rights and represent themselves in local, national and international decision-making forums. Governments should ensure that gender-sensitive care provision is an integral and budgeted aspect of HIV and AIDS policies and programmes.
This report discusses the University of Pennsylvania African Human Genetic Diversity Project, and the filing of patent claims in October 2007 over genetic material collected from communities in Africa. It questions the staking of legal claims over the natural genetic resources of Africans. Such patents not only allow exclusive rights to such resources, but also enable profit from future medical applications. the report notes that the patent is possible, because US patent law extends patent protection to life forms. This new trend has enabled research institutions and corporations to secure patents for almost 5% of the entire human genome. The report seeks to contribute to stopping the exploitation of African genetic resources.
The mountain kingdom of Lesotho faces a number of unique hurdles with regard to HIV and AIDS. The country is landlocked within South Africa, the epicentre of the pandemic and, because of limited job opportunities and high unemployment rates within Lesotho, many of its citizens work as migrant labourers in South Africa. In addition, Lesotho has a particularly weak public health infrastructure due to rural isolation, lack of skilled health workers and high poverty rates. Migrant labourers, particularly all those working in South African mines, are a huge concern because they pose a high risk of having multiple concurrent partnerships and of taking HIV infections across the border. The health departments of Lesotho and South Africa should come up with cross-border health policies to deal with this public health problem.
Government is responsible for the failures in South Africa's public healthcare system, and needs to address them so that every citizen's right to access healthcare services is realised, the South African Human Rights Commission has said. The Commission released its report on an inquiry into the country's public healthcare services, based on visits to about 100 facilities across the country and submissions from the public during May 2007. It identified poverty as a major barrier to accessing healthcare services in South Africa. As of 2007, 88% of South Africans are dependant on public healthcare services. The poor make up the majority of this figure, but the report found that their access to these services is severely constrained by transport costs and unacceptably long waiting times at clinics or hospitals. 'These constraints amount to a denial of the right to access healthcare,' said the Committee's deputy chairperson.
This guide is intended to aid civil society actors in becoming more involved in the work of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, with a specific focus on the valuable role that health workers can play. The appointment of the first Special Rapporteur on the right to health in 2002 and the resulting body of work on the right to health has proven to be a valuable catalyst for further action within the health and human rights movement. At the same time there remains much unawareness and misconception concerning the work of the Special Rapporteur and the ways in which civil society actors can be involved. The guide provides general information on the Special Rapporteur, and presents possibilities for contribution and follow-up to the three main areas of his work. It offers concrete assistance on how the annual reports, country missions, and the individual complaints mechanism of the Special Rapporteur can be used by civil society.
In a strongly worded letter to the president of Zambia, the country's Catholic bishops called on the government not to ratify an African Union protocol with articles that would threaten the sacredness of life and the sanctity of marriage. They demand amendments to Article 7 on separation, divorce and the annulment of marriage and to Article 14 on the protection of reproductive rights of women by authorising medical abortion in cases of assault, rape and incest. The bishops said the Catholic Church holds in high esteem the sanctity of marriage and the sacredness of human life from birth to death. 'It is in this light we find it immoral, unjust and out of context to sign this protocol without making changes to the two articles to agree with the divine and natural law,' they said. The government has not yet reacted to the bishops' appeal.