As COP 17, the latest round of UN climate talks in South Africa, drew to a close Greenpeace declared that it was clear governments across the world listened to the carbon-intensive polluting corporations instead of listening to the people - people who want an end to global dependence on fossil fuels and real and immediate action on climate change. Negotiators blocking the imperative to set concrete goals, led by the United States, have succeeded in inserting a vital get-out clause that could easily prevent the next big climate deal being legally binding, according to Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International Executive Director. And the deal is due to be implemented 'from 2020' leaving almost no room for increasing the depth of carbon cuts in this decade when scientists say we need emissions to peak. Naidoo said that the global climate regime amounts to nothing more than a voluntary deal that’s being put off for a decade. Greenpeace campaigners decried the failure of political leadership to prosecute polluters and provide a fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement, thereby ignoring the poor in Africa and other parts of the world that stand to be most severely affected by climate change.
Values, Policies and Rights
This presentation of the ECSA strategic plan provides a situation analysis of the trends in health affecting the region, and health services trends, including a continued inadequacy of human resources for health and high level of out-of-pocket expenditure on health, above 30% of total health expenditure in most countries in the region. The strategic plan seeks to contribute to the health status in the ECSA region by providing leadership towards attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The plan covers six strategic areas. It includes measures to support and promote efforts to build human resources for health and human capacity development; to strengthen health systems towards Universal Health Coverage and to assist countries to develop capacity to implement reproductive and maternal and child health strategies. It seeks to reduce communicable and non-communicable diseases, chronic conditions, injuries and all forms of malnutrition, and to promote the generation, management and utilisation of knowledge to inform decision making and programming in health. A final objective for the ECSA health community in the plan is to set a regional health policy agenda and foster strategic partnerships and collaboration towards achieving of international commitments, including of the SDGs. Several enabling factors are identified, including continued support from the member states as shown through ownership of ECSA resolutions and activities and the remittance of subscriptions; and a diversified funding base through securing new funders and income generation activities such as training.
The 52nd East, Central and Southern African (ECSA) Health Ministers Conference was held in Zimbabwe from 25-29 October 2010, with the theme ‘Moving from Knowledge to Action: Harnessing Evidence to Transform Healthcare’. A number of resolutions were passed, calling for governments to promote evidence-based policy making, engage with the international community/global movement towards achieving universal health coverage, develop training programmes and monitoring mechanisms for improved maternal child health and reproductive health/family planning, establish and/or strengthen a national gender commission for dealing with gender-based violence and child sexual abuse, develop and monitor strategies for retaining health workers in the region and support strategic leadership in global health diplomacy. Further resolutions call for ECSA countries to prioritise nutrition interventions, strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems, strengthen the response to multi-drug resistant and extremely drug resistant tuberculosis, and strengthen partnerships for health by ensure that partner involvement in health programmes is aligned and harmonised with national health policies, plans and priorities. The countries should develop mechanisms for tracking health care investment and evaluating the outcomes of partnerships.
The link between Human Rights and the MDGs is embodied in the Millennium Declaration. Through the Millennium Declaration, governments commit to the core values of freedom, equality, solidarity, peace, security and the rule of law. The MDGs, which serve as outcome indicators for the Declaration, are about realising human rights within a broader development framework. An e-discussion on these issues is now open and contributions are encouraged.
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.
On the occasion of Human Rights Day 2006, the African Public Health Rights Alliance launches the "15% Now!" Campaign and opens for signature the global petition calling on African leaders to without further delay implement their 2001 Abuja AU Summit pledge to commit fifteen percent of annual national budgets to health in order to end the tragic loss of an estimated 8 million lives annually to preventable, treatable and manageable diseases, illnesses and maladies.
Widespread HIV-related stigma and discrimination in the health-care sector impedes access to services and impairs the quality of health-care delivery for people living with HIV and other key populations. It also undermines efforts to achieve the highest attainable standard of health for everybody. At a two-day meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 10 and 11 November 2015, key stakeholders came together to discuss ways to eliminate all forms of discrimination in health-care settings, using the lessons learned from the AIDS response as an entry point. The event, organised by UNAIDS and the Global Health Workforce Alliance, also focused on the UNAIDS 2016–2021 Strategy and the upcoming Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030. Stigma and discrimination in health takes many forms—the denial of health care and unjust barriers to service provision, inferior quality of care and a lack of respect. Abuse and other forms of mistreatment, violation of physical autonomy, mandatory testing or treatment and compulsory detention are other forms of stigma and discrimination encountered by people living with HIV. The meeting concluded with a clear call for more coordinated action. UNAIDS and the Global Health Workforce Alliance were asked to develop a plan before next year’s Zero Discrimination Day, on 1 March 2016, to work towards ending discrimination in health-care settings. Priorities include political advocacy, strengthening accountability mechanisms, sharing existing evidence and best practices and building evidence-informed policy for implementation and scale-up of programmes to reduce stigma and discrimination at all levels.
The World Health Organization (WHO) dedicated International Human Rights Day, 10 December, to people with mental disorders and the all-too-prevalent violations of their basic human rights. People with mental disorders face an alarming range of human rights abuses in countries throughout the world, yet there are proven ways to dramatically improve the situation. Misunderstanding and stigma surrounding mental ill health are widespread. Despite the existence of effective treatments for mental disorders, there is a belief that they are untreatable or that people with mental disorders are difficult, not intelligent, or incapable of making decisions.
A multi-pronged approach is needed to end female genital mutilation (FGM) in one generation. This includes prevention, protection, provision of services, partnerships and prosecutions. States must live up to their international obligations to protect women and girls. Over the last 12 months, the campaign against FGM has received renewed support from different actors committed to ending the practice. According to UNICEF, Kenya has led the way with falls in prevalence from middle-aged women to adolescent girls from 49% to 15%, albeit with an increase in the percentage of FGM performed by health personnel. 2014 also saw a significant increase in the prosecution of FGM cases globally and verdicts in a few countries. This article discusses the global challenges and successes of addressing FGM and makes recommendations towards eliminating FGM in a generation.
This paper addresses interventions to address intimate partner violence (IPV) against women and girls by engaging with faith communities and their leaders. Two community surveys were conducted, one before and one after the intervention, in three health areas in Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Questionnaires were interviewer-administered, with sensitive questions related to experience or perpetration of violence self-completed by participants. The study showed significantly more equitable gender attitudes and less tolerance for IPV after the interventions. Positive attitude change was not limited to those actively engaged within faith communities, with a positive shift across the entire community in terms of gender attitudes, rape myths and rape stigma scores, regardless of level of faith engagement. There was a significant decline in all aspects of IPV in the communities who experienced the intervention. This intervention was premised on the assumption that faith leaders and faith communities are a key entry point to influence an entire community. The research affirmed this assumption.