Two hundred and five African and global organisations and networks have called on the Assembly of Heads of State of the African Union to ensure the Implementation Plan of the AU Africa Health Strategy is urgently and adequately funded, and for the AU Abuja 15% Commitment to health to be implemented by all member states. The Implementation Plan was adopted by African Ministers of Health on the 17th of May 2008 following presentation of the Health Strategy in 2007 by the AU Commission Social Affairs Division. It provides guidelines for implementing various African health frameworks, health MDGs and global Universal Access targets including on TB, HIV and AIDS, Malaria, Child and Maternal Health. The Health Strategy Implementation Plan will be presented for final approval to the Assembly of Heads of States meeting in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt on the 30 June and 1 July. In a statement on the eve of the Assembly, Rotimi Sankore Coordinator of the Africa Public Health 15% Now Campaign stated:
"The AU Africa Health Strategy is a landmark document. But without funding for its Implementation Plan from our Heads of State and Finance Ministers, it will be reduced to an empty gesture resulting in even more deaths than the current 8 million African lives lost annually to mainly five health conditions being TB, HIV and AIDS, Malaria, Child and Maternal Mortality."
Values, Policies and Rights
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were ‘top-down’ goals formulated by policy elites drawing from targets within United Nations (UN) summits and conferences in the 1990s. Contemporary processes shaping the new post-2015 development agenda are more collaborative and participatory, markedly different to the pre-MDG era. This study examines what would the outcome be if a methodology similar to that used for the MDGs were applied to the formulation of the post-2015 development goals (Post-2015DGs), identifying those targets arising from UN summits and conferences since the declaration of the MDGs, and aggregating them into goals. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) list of major UN summits and conferences from 2001 to 2012 was utilised to examine targets. The DESA list was chosen due to the agency’s core mission to promote development for all. Targets meeting MDG criteria of clarity, conciseness and measurability were selected and clustered into broad goals based on processes outlined by Hulme and Vandemoortele. The Post-2015DGs that were identified were formatted into language congruent with the MDGs to assist in the comparative analysis, and then further compared to the 12 illustrative goals offered by the UN High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development (High-Level Panel) Agenda’s May 2013 report. Ten Post-2015DGs were identified. Six goals expressly overlapped with the current MDGs and four new goals were identified. Health featured prominently in the MDG agenda, and continues to feature strongly in four of the 10 Post-2015DGs. However the Post-2015DGs reposition health within umbrella agendas relating to women, children and the ageing. Six of the 10 Post-2015DGs incorporate the right to health agenda, emphasising both the standing and interconnection of the health agenda in DESA’s summits and conferences under review. Two Post-2015DGs have been extended into six separate goals by the High-Level Panel, and it is these goals that are clearly linked to sustainable development diaspora. This study exposes the evolving political agendas underplaying the current post-2015 process, as targets from DESA’s 22 major UN summits and conferences from 2001 to 2012 are not wholly mirrored in the HLP’s 12 goals.
The challenge for human rights academics, activists, and advocates is to make human rights relevant to the issue of privatisation of basic services. The human rights framework must be used to ensure that privatising basic services does not result in the denial of rights. This was identified as one of the challenges at a seminar hosted by the Socio-Economic Rights Project and the Local Government Project of the Community Law Centre on 2–3 October 2003, at the University of the Western Cape. The seminar looked at the privatisation of basic services, democracy and human rights. The need for collaborative efforts with social movements and community organisations for effective use of legal strategies in challenging ill-planned privatisation policies was emphasised.
The South African cabinet has approved a new policy prohibiting discrimination against soldiers and would-be recruits on the basis of their HIV status. Previously, HIV-positive members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) could be excluded from recruitment, international deployment and promotion, but a 2008 high court decision declared such policies unconstitutional and gave the SANDF six months to amend them. The AIDS Law Project (ALP) expressed disappointment about the length of time the SANDF took to comply with the court order and the persistence of unfair discrimination against HIV-positive soldiers and recruits, but in October one of the men, Sergeant Sipho Mthethwa, became the first known HIV-positive soldier to be deployed on international service. The SANDF had argued that people living with HIV were unfit to withstand the stress and physical demands of foreign deployments. An estimated 25% of SANDF employees are HIV positive, higher than the national adult prevalence of 18%.
This report is the fourth in a series of annual reports published by Plan examining the rights of girls around the world throughout their childhood, adolescence and as young women. The short section regarding the health of girls is based on Plan’s cohort studies in Togo, Benin and Uganda. Their research find that nutritional deficiencies in early childhood are linked to learning difficulties and lower educational attainment. Girls not only faced a daily challenge of poor nutrition, but were more vulnerable to illness and disease. Despite immunisation coverage rates of above 90% of girls, many still face persistent illness. Malaria, for example, continues to affect many girls in Uganda, with the children treated at various times over the year either at the local health centre or the nearest hospital. Plan calls for governments to increase their investment in prevention and treatment of the range ofillnesses that affect girls, like malaria.
Mandatory human rights due diligence (HRDD) requirements can serve to promote the adoption of a strong international framework of corporate accountability and remedy for human rights violations in the context of business activities. This paper identifies the elements of a human rights due diligence and their implementation through analysing current regional and State practice in the adoption of mandatory HRDD legislation in different sectors. It discusses the principles that characterize the approach taken by the United Nations Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on the adoption of a Legally Binding Instrument on transnational corporations and other business enterprises and how it could serve as an important cornerstone for modern rule making on the issue of business and human rights.
This article poses questions about what will be achieved at Rio+20. The author argues that all global environmental problems—from climate change to hazardous waste—have separate agreements. International rules of engagement and cooperation are being discussed in parallel processes and institutions. Rio+20 has raised the green economy rather than 1992’s concept of sustainable development, but without clarifying what this is. Does it mean the world will invest in technologies to green the current economy? Or will it seriously reinvent growth so that it is not driven by cheap consumption that is costing us the earth?
This article is concerned with the lack of integrated healthcare services for expectant mothers in developing nations. For example, mothers-to-be have may have to visit up to five different healthcare providers for services that could be provided by one clinic. The article identifies the need for women to take control of their own bodies and for their choices to be respected as the main issue facing maternal health in the world's poorest countries. Women should be able to decide when to have children, how often to have children and if they want children at all. The article also argues for empowering young women to pursue whatever life they choose for themselves, noting that a woman should be more than just a ‘baby factory’ but should also be able to pursue a career and other options. Reducing maternal mortality requires the unmet needs for family planning and reproductive health to be addressed alongside the other unmet needs of pregnant women. The article expresses disappointment that, at the 2010 Women Deliver Conference, held from 7–9 June 2010 in the United States, there was little talk of the millions of vulnerable and marginalised adolescent girls who are failing to access reproductive and maternal services. Whether this inequality is to be addressed or entrenched was apparently unclear from the Conference’s discussions.
A landmark ruling on 12 October 2012 by Gaborone's High Court found that gender discrimination based on Botswana's customary law is unconstitutional. The court ruled on a case brought by three sisters, all over 65 years old, challenging a Ngwaketse customary law that holds the right of inheritance to the family home belongs to the youngest son. Critically, the judge made it clear that discrimination cannot be justified on cultural grounds before rejecting out of hand the argument put forward by the Attorney General that Botswana society was not ready for gender equality, said the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), which supported the sisters' case.
The Botswana government has passed an amendment to its Employment Act that will bring an end to dismissal based on an individual's sexual orientation or HIV status, but rights groups believe the legislation needs to go further. Civil society organizations in Botswana welcomed the move but said legislation to protect the rights of people living with HIV in the workplace was necessary. The Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA) noted that ‘tolerance and acceptance of sexual minorities will ensure universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support - crucial for Botswana to achieve its ... goal of zero new HIV infections by 2016’. Gadzani Mhotsha, Secretary General of the Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) warned that the legislation was not comprehensive enough in dealing with the serious issues of HIV at the workplace and called for comprehensive legislation, not piecemeal amendments. BONELA also added that a specific HIV Employment Act should be passed that attends to matters of reasonable accommodation for those who are HIV-positive, ensuring they have a safe and supportive environment to access treatment, care and support. Civil society has also called on the government to enact laws prohibiting private sector employers from testing potential employees for HIV and subsequently disqualifying them on the basis of an HIV-positive status.