The fifty-sixth session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ended with the adoption of seven resolutions aimed at scaling up action in critical areas that are key to improving the health and socio-economic situation in Africa. Three of the resolutions endorsed three health strategy documents developed by the Brazzaville-based WHO Africa Regional Office on health financing, the renewal and acceleration of HIV prevention, and the optimal survival, growth and development of African children.
Values, Policies and Rights
2006 WHO Regional Committee for Africa adopts seven resolutions
World Health Organisation Regional Committee for Africa, 1 September 2006
Brochures on critical analysis of right to health
People\'s Health Association (PHA)
The CETIM (Europe-Third World Centre) has just published the fourth number of its series of didactic brochures and critical analysis about the Right to Health. This brochure is available for free in French, English and Spanish and can be downloaded/printed from the CETIM website.
Compass - HLSP newsletter
HLSP, October 2006
HLSP is a professional services firm specialising in the health sector both in the UK and globally. Compass newsletter aims to promote debate in the development world and to keep our staff, colleagues and clients in touch with changes and advances in HLSP’s work. The latest edition includes articles on rights based approaches to Maternal Health, the official launch of HLSP’s Kenya office, the case for Sector Wide Approaches, and an interview with HLSP Institute director Dr Ken Grant.
Efforts of Iran, Sudan and Uganda global rights defenders recognised
Human Rights Watch, 19 October 2006
Human Rights Watch will present its highest honors, the Human Rights Defender Awards, to three courageous human rights activists from Iran, Sudan and Uganda on November 7. This year’s three honorees challenged the limits of freedom of expression in the Middle East, the massive 'ethnic cleansing' and injustice in Darfur, Sudan, and the treatment of HIV/AIDS affected women in Africa. Human Rights Watch staff work closely with the Human Rights Defenders as part of our human rights investigations in more than 70 countries around the world. The 2006 Human Rights Watch Annual Dinners where the defenders will be honored will take place in London, Munich, Zurich and Geneva.
Human trafficking on the rise
Msosa PS: Southern Africa Social Forum, 15 October 2006
A Malawian human rights organization has disclosed that human trafficking has drastically increased following high demand of prostitutes in European countries. Radek Malonwski, project officer for Centre for Social Concern said the recent estimates indicate that four million people are being traficked from Africa to Europe annually on pretext that they would find them jobs by the foreigners, describing the figure as worse than the times of slavery. The article further describes human rights violations in the handling of these individuals.
Regaining control: Realising women's rights to control their own sexuality, well-being and reproductive health in Africa
Houghton I: Oxfam GB Background Policy Briefing for the Special Session of the Conference of African Ministers of Health, 18-22 September 2006, Maputo, Mozambique
Since 2001, Africa’s leaders have committed the African Union and their Governments to promote and protect the right to health in a series of international and continental legal protocols and declarations. Thes commitments provide a comprehensive package for addressing the challenges of maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS, violence and disease. However, the urgent action needed to address what African Governments have described as a 'continental state of emergency' can only be achieved by ensuring firm policy and programme linkages between Sexual and Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS and Gender Based Violence.
Access to health for people with disability: A right or a favour?
Berry S: Geneva Health Forum, 1 September 2006
Although the estimated 600 million people with disabilities have formally been recognized, in reality they are still often being overlooked and by no means enjoy the same rights as the rest of the world's population. The goal is to ensure that all people, disabled and able bodied alike, have the same access to all kinds of services in society, in particular health care.
Global rights for disabled close
Murray H: Monsters and Critics, 28 August 2006
For 650 million people with disabilities - roughly 10 percent of the world’s population - a new UN treaty which would extend international human rights to this traditionally marginalised sector of society is finally within reach. After four years and eight sessions of negotiations, the United Nations‘ Convention to Protect the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was recently finalised by the UN General Assembly’s Ad Hoc Committee. The UN disability convention guarantees persons with disabilities non-discrimination and equal recognition before the law; security, mobility and accessibility; the right to health, work and education; and participation in political and cultural life.
Regaining control: Realising women’s rights to control thier own sexuality, well-being and reproductive health in Africa
Oxfam GB background policy briefing for the Special Session of the conference of African Ministers of Health, 18-22 September 2006
Since 2001, Africa’s leaders have committed the African Union and their Governments to promote and protect the right to health in a series of international and continental legal protocols and declarations. These commitments provide a comprehensive package for addressing the challenges of maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS, violence and disease. However, the urgent action needed to address what African Governments have described as a “continental state of emergency” can only be achieved by ensuring firm policy and programme linkages between Sexual and Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS and Gender Based Violence. The article encourages African Health Experts and Ministers of Health meeting in Maputo to ensure that the draft Action Plan contains targets and indicators that enshrine on key components of the Abuja Declaration.
The human right to food in Malawi: Report of an international fact-finding mission
Rights and Democracy in collaboration with Foodfirst Information and Action Network, 2006
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has in 2004 developed guidelines as a practical tool to assist States to both understand and fulfill their obligations on the right to food. The guidelines were adopted in September 2004. This report and fact-finding mission by Rights and Democracy in collaboration with Foodfirst Information and Action Network in 2006 is an effort to apply the FAO Guidelines in a practical context in Malawi and in doing so, to illustrate the distinct advantages a human rights framework provides for policy and program development in relation to food security. The report identifies a number of legal, policy, institutional and economic constraints to the right to food and makes recommendations to address these.