With over-consumption of alcohol on the rise, governments are struggling to find suitable legislation to control the marketing of alcohol. The increase in the market for branded alcohol in Africa has been attributed to demographic shifts, including the growth of the middle-class and an increase in self-dependent women. Both law and education are needed to avert the risk of alcohol related disease, injury and death, for both illegally produced local liquor and the big brands of beverage giants. Among the major concerns are the impact of prolific advertising campaigns on young people, particularly in new markets where attitudes. Unethical advertising is also a major concern, with companies suggesting alcohol consumption is a timeless part of African culture, or could lead to a better life and or even sporting achievements.
Values, Policies and Rights
WHO international guidelines for the control of tuberculosis (TB) in relation to air travel require – after a risk assessment – tracing of passengers who sat for longer than eight hours in rows adjacent to people with pulmonary TB who are smear positive or smear negative. A further recommendation is that people with active TB should not carry out commercial air travel until the person has two consecutive negative sputum smears for drug-susceptible TB or two consecutive cultures for multidrug-resistant TB. This review examines the evidence put forward to support these recommendations and assesses whether such an approach is justifiable. A systematic review identified 39 studies of which 13 were included. The majority of studies found no evidence of transmission. Only two studies reported reliable evidence of transmission. Various factors made the screening process highly inefficient, including time and money spent on tracing and investigating passengers who tested positive and contacting different national authorities in the course of investigations. The analysis suggests that there is reason to doubt the value of actively screening air passengers for infection with TB and that the resources used might be better spent addressing other priorities for the control of the disease.
The conference gathered Ministers of Finance and Health and/or their representatives from 54 African countries, African parliamentarians as well as over 400 participants from the public and private sectors, academia, civil society and media globally. The conference recommended:
1. Intensified dialogue and collaboration between ministries of finance and health and with technical and financial partners; 2. Concrete measures to enhance value for money, sustainability and accountability in the health sector to reach universal health coverage; 3. Integrating socio-economic, demographic and health factors into broader development strategies and policies in an effective manner especially in the formulation of medium term strategic plans; 4. Designing effective investments in the health sector, based on evidence-based strategies leading to the prioritization of high impact interventions, which lead to results; 5. Promoting equitable investment in the health sector; ensure that health financing is pro-poor benefiting disadvantaged areas; strengthening regulatory capacity and developing of a strong African pharmaceutical sector as a growth and job creating sector in Africa; 6. Laying out the path to universal health coverage for each country; 7. Improving efficiency in health systems, including equitable access to skilled health workers; 8. Solidifying sustainable health financing systems; 9. Strengthening accountability mechanisms that align all relevant partners, build on the growing citizens’ voice and 10. Increasing domestic resources for health.
In this article, the author reflects on the emergence and contemporary practice of health diplomacy, exploring in particular the potential of niche areas within health diplomacy to become constructive focal points of emerging middle powers’ foreign policies. Middle powers like South Africa often apply niche diplomacy to maximise their foreign policy impact, particularly by pursuing a multilateral agenda. The literature on middle powers indicates that such foreign policy ambitions and concomitant diplomacy mostly act to affirm the global status quo. Instead, the author argues here that there may well be niches within health diplomacy in particular that can be used to actually challenge the existing global order. Emerging middle powers in particular can use niche areas within health diplomacy in a critical theoretical manner, so that foreign policy and diplomacy become a project of emancipation and transformation, rather than an affirmation of the world as it is. The author reviews South African foreign policy and diplomacy, before situating these policies within the context of emerging mechanisms of South-South multilateralism. He advocates for a South African AIDS diplomacy, emphasising its potential to galvanise a global project of emancipation.
Mental disorders affect one person in four in their lifetime, and can be found in 10 per cent of the adult population. It has been estimated that mental disorders and problems will increase by 50 per cent by the year 2020. Yet, according to the WHO: "All countries have to work with limited resources. Too often, prejudice and stigma hamper the development of mental health policies, and are reflected in poor services, low status for care providers and a lack of human rights for mentally ill people." This essay examines the elements of international human rights law directly linked to persons with mental disabilities that are crucial in National mental health legislations. It critically considers the Uganda Mental Health Treatment Act as an example subjecting it to the test of human rights standards as spelled out in the United Nations Human Rights Instruments. The further examines the provisions of this Act from a public health perspective and concludes with recommendations on how the Act can be made better in light of human rights.
This report provides the summary findings of a team of expert scientists constituted by the Director General Health Services Uganda at the request of the Minister of Health to review research data, deliberate and advise him on key questions about homosexuality. The conclusions of the report as presented by Pambazuka were that there is no definitive gene responsible for homosexuality; that homosexuality is not a disease or an abnormality; that in every society, there is a small number of people with homosexual tendencies; that homosexuality can be influenced by environmental factors (e.g. culture, religion, information, peer pressure); that the practise needs regulation like any other human behaviour, especially to protect the vulnerable and that there is need for studies to address sexualities in the African context.
Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill and HIV Prevention and Control Bill are likely to be carried over to the new session of parliament, despite international and local pressure. David Bahati, the Member of Parliament who introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in 2009, said he fully intended to re-introduce the bill into the next session. The new parliament was sworn in on 16 May 2011. Men who have sex with men (MSM) are considered by the Uganda AIDS Commission to be a "most at-risk population", but because homosexual acts are illegal, there are no policies or services targeting HIV interventions towards them. AIDS activists say the bill would only drive an already stigmatised population further underground, leaving them even more vulnerable to HIV. Amid international condemnation in 2010, President Yoweri Museveni said he would not back a bill with either death penalty or "aggravated homosexuality" provisions. Nevertheless, activists say a weaker version of the bill would retain the illegal nature of homosexuality and keep homosexual people in the closet while encouraging dangerous stigma against them in society.
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.
Uganda's parliament will, before Christmas, pass a highly controversial bill which seeks more stringent punishments for people engaging in homosexual acts and those perceived to be "promoting" homosexuality, says the speaker of the house. Rebecca Kadaga told hundreds of petitioners in Kampala on 9 November that she would ensure the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which has been before parliament since 2009, would be passed before the end of 2012. The punishment for “aggravated homosexuality” is life imprisonment. Activists have decried the bill, saying it is a violation of human rights that would make men who have sex with men (MSM) even less willing to access health services. Gay people in Uganda say they face discrimination and are stigmatised by health workers when they seek care in the public and private health system. MSM are considered by the Uganda AIDS Commission to be a "most at-risk population", but because homosexual acts are illegal, there are no policies or services targeting HIV interventions towards them. Legal experts in Uganda have challenged the constitutionality of the bill, arguing it infringes on the right to privacy and freedom of expression and choice.
Instead of being locked in crowded camps surrounded by barbed wire, the 1.2 million refugees in Uganda are given large plots of land in sprawling settlements to build homes or, if they like, small farms. If agrarian life isn’t for them, they can move freely around the country, traveling to towns or to the bustling capital of Kampala, which 95,000 refugees call their home. The distinguished scholar and humanitarian activist Noam Chomsky characterizes European attitudes towards refugees “[as] among the signs of the severe moral-cultural crisis of the West that is mislabeled a ‘refugee crisis.’” The five wealthiest countries [the U.S., China, Japan, the U.K. and Germany]— which make up half the global economy — are hosting less than 5 percent of the world’s refugees, while 86 percent of refugees are in poorer developing countries that are often struggling to meet the needs of their own people. The authors argues that Uganda points the way forward and that the country is a good model for compassionate hospitality towards refugees. It is however noted that the country is reaching a breaking point due to increasing demands for accommodation of the large numbers of refugees. What was promised for Uganda from external funders at the 2016 high level summit in New York has not been forthcoming. Supporting viable resettlement programs and working towards durable solutions is argued to be the only way to resolve the crisis. This involves using leverage to promote human rights and good governance in refugee producing countries.