The Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance[2] has expressed disappointment that SADC leaders failed to sign the Protocol on Gender and Development at the August 2007 summit in Lusaka. Representatives of sixteen regional and national NGOs working to promote the rights of women in the region said they were at a loss as to why heads of state failed to seize the moment of the 2007 summit after the draft had successfully passed through all the preparatory stages. This included endorsement by ministers of gender; justice ministers and the Council of Ministers that generally comprises finance ministers from the region. From their perspective the targets in the Protocol for the achievement of equality between women and men are non-negotiable. The failure this year will only increase their pressure for implementation when the Protocol is finally signed.
Values, Policies and Rights
More than one in three men surveyed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's war-torn east admits committing sexual assault, and three in four believe that a woman who "does not dress decently is asking to be raped", according to this study. Some 61.4% of men interviewed said women sometimes deserve to be beaten; 42.7% think that if a woman doesn't show physical resistance when forced to have sex, it's not rape; and 27.9% believe that sometimes women want to be raped. Well over 40% of the men polled asserted that a man should reject his wife when she has been raped. The study was carried out in Congo's North Kivu province. A total of 708 men and 754 women aged between 18 and 59 took part in individual interviews and focus group discussions. The self-reporting of men revealed that 34% admit having carried out some form of sexual violence in conflict, homes or other settings. The study, part of the International Men and Gender Equality Survey, also suggests that many men are themselves victims of violence, including sexual violence, and shows a clear association between exposure to violence and increased likelihood of subsequent perpetration. The authors make recommendations including far greater promotion of gender equality in schools and public policy and a massive campaign of psycho-social care for boys and girls exposed to multiple forms of violence at a young age.
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.
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.
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.
A problem peasant women face is invisibility in the feminist and women’s movements. A second problem is the weakness with which the food sovereignty concept has dealt with the challenges of feminism. Latin America has assumed the struggle for food sovereignty as an alternative to the neoliberal economic model. Food sovereignty is based on the conviction that each people has the right to make decisions about its own food systems: about its own eating habits; about its production, marketing, distribution, exchange, and sharing; and about keeping food and seeds in the public sphere. This interview report presents the views from a feminist point of view on how people make decisions, who decides how power is organised and how to turn food sovereignty into a tool to strengthen and empower peasant women.
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.
This study found that globally, 38% of all women who were murdered were murdered by their intimate partners, and 42% of women who have experienced physical or sexual violence at the hands of a partner had experienced injuries as a result. Partner violence was found to be a major contributor to women’s mental health problems, women experiencing intimate partner violence are almost twice as likely as other women to have alcohol-use problems and 1.5 times more likely to acquire certain sexually transmitted infections In some regions like sub-Saharan Africa, they are 1.5 times more likely to acquire HIV. Both partner violence and non-partner sexual violence were associated with unwanted pregnancy, as the report found that women experiencing physical and/or sexual partner violence are twice as likely to have an abortion than women who do not experience this violence. Women who experience partner violence also have a 16% greater chance of having a low birth-weight baby. The study highlights the need for all sectors to engage in eliminating tolerance for violence against women and better support for women who experience it, and was launched with new World Health Organisation’s clinical and policy guidelines (also included in this newsletter).
The June newsletter of HEPS Uganda outlines civil society poitions on HIV and AIDS fundings, on health rights and on public health policy regarding counterfeit medicines.
Health has long been intertwined with the foreign policies of states. In recent years, however, global health issues have risen to the highest levels of international politics and have become accepted as legitimate issues in foreign policy. This elevated political priority is in many ways a welcome development for proponents of global health, and it has resulted in increased funding for and attention to select global health issues. However, this paper argues that there has been less examination of the tensions that characterise the relationship between global health and foreign policy and of the potential effects of linking global health efforts with the foreign policy interests of states. The paper reviews the relationship between global health and foreign policy by examining the roles of health across four major components of foreign policy: aid, trade, diplomacy and national security. For each of these aspects of foreign policy, the paper reviews current and historical issues and discuss how foreign policy interests have aided or impeded global health efforts. The increasing relevance of global health to foreign policy holds both opportunities and dangers for global efforts to improve health.