At the 56th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, held in April 2012, the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development report that the Commission failed to adopt agreed conclusions protecting women’s rights for reasons of ‘safeguarding traditional values’. This failure comes at the expense of human rights and fundamental freedoms of women, according to this statement of a number of feminist and women's rights organisations in the Forum. These organisations reject any proposed re-opening of negotiations on the already established international agreements on women's human rights and call on all governments to demonstrate their commitment to promote, protect and fulfil human rights and fundamental freedoms of women. Customs, tradition or religious considerations must not be tolerated to justify discrimination and violence against women and girls, whether committed by State authorities or by non-state actors. In particular, the statement urges governments to ensure that the health and human rights of girls and women are secured and reaffirmed at the upcoming 2012 Commission on Population and Development and the International Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). Any future international negotiations must move forward implementation of policies and programmes that secure the human rights of girls and women.
Values, Policies and Rights
While the sixth World Water Forum took place in Marseille in March 2012, an Alternative World Water Forum (FAME) also took place in parallel in the French city. Promoting a motto of ‘Water belongs to everyone’, the trade unions, corporate watchdog groups and environmentalists behind FAME accused the World Water Forum of failing to adequately address issues of universal water access and sustainability, and of rather promoting expensive private sector technologies for safe water. The World Water Forum declaration did include commitments to speed up access to safe drinking water and sanitation for all, focusing on the most vulnerable. The Alternative Forum argued, however, that the Forum declaration failed to reflect a full commitment to the rights to water and sanitation, according to the United Nations special rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation.
The author of this article hails the 2012 World Development Report (WDR) as a watershed moment: it is the first time that the World Bank has devoted its flagship publication to gender. But she argues that the report leaves the Bank failing to face up to its role in perpetuating policies that harm women, and is seriously limited in its approach to women’s movements, markets and households. Although the report cites self-identified feminist work liberally, its own understanding of feminism as a transnational social movement is poor. The report also fails to mention the historical background of the Bank in gender and development, a convenient oversight given its inconsistent role in the struggle for gender equality in the past. Another key omission in the WDR argued by the author is any sustained analysis of gender and the current financial crisis, and the author casts doubt on the Bank’s assumption that free market capitalism brings about gender transformation. While the report advocates for women’s social networks and for women’s independent control of income, it defines gender equality as ideally achieved within sharing partnerships in nuclear male-headed families. This leads to serious tension over the meaning of gender empowerment.
According to this article, recent studies suggest that women stuck in financially dependent relationships are at greatest risk for HIV infection in African countries. Women afraid of violence and abuse, stigmatisation, being labelled adulterous or being abandoned may be too frightened or intimidated to pursue testing and treatment. Also, the extra costs - US$2 or more - to travel to clinics are prohibitive. In effect, poor and unemployed women have been forced by men to forfeit their reproductive rights in issues pertaining to sex and protection from HIV. Women who are dependent on men for their livelihood are forced to have unprotected sex with their husbands or partners, even if they know they have cheated on them. Sex workers allege that married men especially from the middle class and the upper classes are willing to pay more for sex without a condom. The author concludes that silence on this topic in the media and the research community is a powerful ally in male domination of women economically and socially, and a driver in the spread of HIV.
Uganda’s notorious 'Anti-Homosexuality' Bill - proposed first in 2009 – has been re-tabled at a parliamentary session in Kampala. The Bill contains harsh provisions arguing for the death penalty for homosexuals and stiff prison sentences for their supporters which, if introduced, would threaten the safety of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people and human rights activists in the country. It is reported that both government and opposition members of parliament clapped in support of reintroduction of the Bill, which comes a few days after the first anniversary of the murder of prominent LGBTI rights defender David Kato, killed on 26 January 2011. Front Line Defenders reiterates its grave concern in this article that the passing of the Bill would further hamper the work of public health workers and human rights defenders who work with LGBTI people. the article also raises concern that rhetoric and media coverage around the Bill could incite further violence against human rights defenders working on LGBTI issues.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has denied claims that partial guidelines for the implementation of Articles 9 and 10 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) on Regulation of the contents of tobacco products and tobacco product disclosures will have a negative effect on burley tobacco producers. The International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA), has fought against the adoption of the guidelines, arguing that reducing the demand for burley tobacco could shrink economies, employment and incomes, such as in Malawi where tobacco contributes about 13% to the Malawi economy and accounts for 60% of foreign currency earnings. [Contrary to tobacco industry claims, the guidelines do not recommend a ban on burley tobacco or any other type of tobacco but do regulate flavourings that would attract target grioups such as young people to smoke. Cigarettes containing burley continue to be sold in jurisdictions where strong restrictions on flavourings are in place].
This brief aims to explain the context of the landmark petition the Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) on the right to health and maternal mortality. CEHURD and other partners have filed the petition in the Ugandan Constitutional Court to secure a declaration that non-provision of essential maternal health commodities in government health facilities, leading to the death of some expectant mothers, is an infringement on the right to health of the victims. CEHURD argues that these maternal deaths were preventable if the state had taken its human rights obligations seriously and the state should be held accountable. Reproductive health is argued to be a human right protected by both international and domestic law. The petition has generated public debate on maternal health and rallied civil society advocates behind the cause of reproductive health. However, litigation of human rights standards has two significant challenges. First, in situations where the judicial system has a huge case backlog it may take a long time before the case is disposed of. Second, litigation per se may not lead to change, unless followed by deliberate advocacy and lobbying. The authors argue that the case will be useful in identifying other areas of human rights warranting litigation, and lever efforts to build the capacity of various actors to take on litigation as an advocacy strategy.
The authors of this study draw on the experience of a Learning Network for Health and Human Rights (LN) involving collaboration between academic institutions and civil society organisations in the Western Cape, South Africa. The network aimed at identifying and disseminating best practice related to the right to health. The LN's work in materials development, participatory research, training and capacity-building for action, and advocacy for intervention illustrates lessons for human rights practice. Evidence from evaluation of the LN is presented to support the argument that civil society can play a key role in bridging a gap between formal state commitment to creating a human rights culture and realising services and policies that enable the most vulnerable members of society to advance their health. Through access to information, the creation of space for participation and a safe environment for learning to be turned into practice, the agency of those most affected by rights violations can be redressed, supported by civil society.
In this interview with Adrienne Germain, President Emerita of the International Women’s Health Coalition, she talks about her experiences promoting women’s health in developing countries. She argues that there are many reasons why there is widespread resistance to integrating HIV and reproductive health services, including disease control models that emphasise risk, not vulnerability; competition for scarce resources; narrow disciplinary training that encourage health professionals to work separately rather than collaborate across subjects and services; and gender bias. She pointed out that research shows that women’s health has definitely suffered from the separation of HIV information and services from other components of sexual and reproductive health care. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, most HIV services fail to provide contraceptives, safe abortion, treatment and referral following sexual coercion or violence, or human papillomavirus (HPV) screening to women living with HIV. She also noted that political commitment has improved, but most politicians act only in their own interests or when they are pressed to do so. In most countries, women and children don’t have a strong political voice, although in some they have gained considerable ground over the last decade or so. We must invest in both local and international advocates whose main task today is to persuade those with power and resources to transform their rhetoric into action.
The aim of ths paper was to examine the use of contraception in 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa; to assess changes in met need for contraception associated with wealth-related inequity; and to describe the relationship between the use of long-term versus short-term contraceptive methods and a woman’s fertility intentions and household wealth. The analysis was conducted with Demographic and Health Survey data from 13 sub-Saharan African countries. Researchers found that the use of contraception has increased substantially between surveys in Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia but has declined slightly in Kenya, Senegal and Uganda. Wealth-related inequalities in the met need for contraception have decreased in most countries and especially so in Mozambique, but they have increased in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia with regard to spacing births, and in Malawi, Senegal, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia with regard to limiting childbearing. After adjustment for fertility intention, women in the richest wealth quintile were more likely than those in the poorest quintile to practice long-term contraception. In conclusion, family planning programmes in sub-Saharan Africa show varying success in reaching all social segments, but inequities persist in all countries.