Proposed reforms to Angola's Penal Code have divided opinion in the country about whether HIV-positive people who intentionally infect others with the virus should be punished.The law under discussion calls for a sentence of between three and 10 years in prison for those who knowingly pass on infectious diseases, including HIV. Some argue that the law will act as a deterrent; others say it will bring more problems than benefits.
Values, Policies and Rights
Should intentional infection be a crime?
PlusNews, 26 May 2008
A rights-based approach for advocacy on access to essential medicines
Cepuch, C
In Kenya, access to essential medicines is ensured legislatively for HIV, TB and malaria specifically, but delivery is patchy. The situation is improving, but not universally, and there is a continued assault on the IP Act and generic procurements by those who want to profit from selling essential drugs for the poor. Access to medicines is an issue that needs a balance between political will and public involvement/civil society demands. Civil society can demand their rights are realised through campaigns to implement the WTO rules that were designed to protect peoples' access to essential medicines and by stopping the assaults on the procurement of generics, increasing the availability of essential medicines, funding research and development for the medicines we need and abolishing taxes on essential medicines. Providing free essential medicines is the only affordable option for most of the population. This report was presented at the Africa Regional Civil Society meeting on the IGWG on Public Health, Innovation and Access, in Nairobi, Kenya, 28–29 August, 2007.
Call to Action and Youth Statement
Third African Conference on sexuality health and rights, Abuja, Nigeria, 4-7 February 2008
Participants at the Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights affirm that Sexual Rights are an integral and inalienable part of basic Human Rights. This requires that African states be accountable to their citizens for their sexual health and rights. Participants also called for increased accountability across the African continent at all levels – governments, institutions, civil society, communities, families and individuals.
Changing gendered norms about women and girls at the level of household and community: a review of the evidence
Keleher H, Franklin L: Global Public Health 3(S1):42-57, 2008
Gendered norms are embedded in social structures, operating to restrict the rights, opportunities, and capabilities, of women and girls, causing significant burdens, discrimination, subordination, and exploitation. This review, developed for the Women and Gender Equity Knowledge Network of the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, sought to identify the best available research evidence about programmatic interventions, at the level of household and community, that have been effective for changing gender norms to increase the status of women. The focus was on developing countries. Key themes were identified: education of women and girls; economic empowerment of women; violence against women, including female genital mutilation/cutting; and men and boys. A key finding is, that targeting women and girls is a sound investment, but outcomes are dependent on integrated approaches and the protective umbrella of policy and legislative actions.
Gender, health, and human rights in sites of political exclusion
Laurie M, Petchesky RP: Global Public Health 3(S1):25-41, 2008
In this paper, authors investigate the intersections of gender, health and human rights in sites of political exclusion. The paper presents how the recent 'war on terror' is driving health outcomes in refugee and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. The evidence presented reveals a number of contradictions of refugee and IDP camps, further highlighting the need for a more rights based humanitarianism. The authors conclude that foregrounding states of exception, as a way of understanding current gender dynamics in the social determinants of health, is both epidemiologically necessary and conceptually useful. In these sites of exclusion, the indispensability of a human rights approach to gender and health equity issues is revealed most directly.
Regulatory issues focus: Registration and artesunate amodiaquine
Amuasi, JH
This presentation given at the second regional meeting of the African Civil Society Coalition on the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property in Arusha, Tanzania, 3-4 April 2008 provides an introduction to the workings of the IGWG and gives international context for its operations. Drug development and application processes are explained and much of the report is devoted to an evaluation of the IGWG's fixed-dose artsunate-based combination therapy (FACT) project for the treatment of malaria.
Is the declaration of Alma Ata still relevant to primary health care?
Gillam S: British Medical Journal 336:536-538, 8 March 2008
After years of relative neglect, the World Health Organization has recently given strategic prominence to the development of primary health care. This year sees the 30th anniversary of the declaration of Alma Ata. Primary health care 'based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible through people’s full participation and at a cost that the community and country can afford' was to be the key to delivering health for all by the year 2000. Primary health care in this context includes both primary medical care and activities tackling determinants of ill health.
UNAIDS starts Task Team on HIV related travel restrictions
Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, 11 March 2008
Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, governments and the private sector have implemented travel restrictions with regard to HIV positive people wishing to enter or remain in a country for a short stay (e.g. business, personal visits, tourism) or for longer periods (e.g. asylum, employment, immigration, refugee resettlement, or study). UNAIDS has set up an international task team to heighten attention to the issue of HIV-related travel restrictions (both short-term and long-term) on international and national agendas and move towards their elimination.
Women and the Right to Food: International Law and State Practice
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2008
In the light of Millennium Development Goals No.1 – to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger – and No.3 – to promote gender equality and empower women – the present study provides a cross-cutting analysis of the right to food from a gender perspective, examining relevant international instruments as well as State practice. The analysis of these documents will give an idea of what is today’s level of awareness of women’s right to food and related issues, how much is covered by law and how much is missing.
Gates Foundation’s Influence Criticized
McNeil DG: The New York Times, 16 February 2008
The chief of malaria for the World Health Organization has complained that the growing dominance of malaria research by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation risks stifling a diversity of views among scientists and wiping out the world health agency’s policy-making function. In a memorandum, the malaria chief, Dr. Arata Kochi, complained to his boss, Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of the W.H.O., that the foundation’s money, while crucial, could have “far-reaching, largely unintended consequences.”