What are your thoughts on framing international health issues in terms of fairness and equity?

We can be inspired by both the work that these world leaders are accomplishing and by the fact that, in today’s modern society, a global list such as this exists to recognize and honor the work being done to improve girls’ and women’s lives throughout the world. Not only is this a reflection of what forward-thinking, hard-working, intelligent minds can accomplish, but it is also an indication of the progress which has been made in the recent decades towards acknowledging the injustice which exists amongst the world’s females and the vast potential which women and girls have to create positive change in the world.

Below are just a few of the 100 inspirational individuals, each with a unique story and an innovative approach to bettering the lives of females:

• Somaly Mam, Cambodia: as an orphan during the Khmer Rouge, Mam survived forced prostitution, later escaping to France before returning home to start a network of sanctuaries to aid other survivors of human trafficking across South East Asia.
• Chief Kwataine, Malawi: after learning of the high maternal death rate in 89 Malawian villages under his traditional authority, Chief Kwataine launched a community-wide, grassroots effort to educate women and assist them with getting to hospitals to give birth. The success of his efforts is reflected in a drastic change in statistics, with no local mothers dying in childbirth in the last three years.
• Christiane Amanpour, UK: as a prominent journalist at CNN, and more recently at ABC News, Amanpour brought attention to many injustices facing women globally in the past two decades.
• Melinda Gates, USA: as co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates has prioritized the wellbeing of girls and women around the world while advocating for the importance of investing in females, supporting practical solutions and much-needed funding.
• Michelle Bachelet, Chile: Bachelet a physician, the Executive Director of UN Women and the Former President of Chile, was the first woman in Latin America to be appointed as Minister of Defense and has been an ardent advocate of women’s political and reproductive rights worldwide. She has strove  to increase the UN’s efforts on gender equality and female empowerment worldwide.
• Tatiana Therosme, Haiti: Therosme is one of too few psychologists in Haiti. She has worked to help women recover from the trauma of the 2010 earthquake as well as the epidemic of physical and sexual abuse, depression and anxiety which occurred in the aftermath.
• Jill W. Sheffield, USA: Sheffield is the Founder and President of Women Deliver, and Co-founder of Family Care International and has worked as a champion of maternal health and rights. Her efforts have targeted the 350,000 lives lost each year during pregnancy and childbirth.
• Heads of State: Jens Stoltenberg, Norway – Prime Minister of Norway; José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain – Prime Minister of Spain; Tarja Halonen, Finland – President of Finland; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia – President of Liberia: these world-leaders are working to advance the cause of gender equality while leading their nations.

It is estimated that about 140 million women worldwide have been subjected to FGM and a further two million are at risk every year. FGM takes place in about 40 countries (28 of them in Africa) such as Egypt, Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Kurdistan, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Canada.

The procedure is not limited to a single religion and is heavily influenced by the desire to conform to tradition.    Many girls are compliant with the procedure because they believe they will be outcasts if they are not circumcised.   In Sudan for example, it is prevalent in Muslim communities while in Kenya, it is common among Christians. Neither the Qu’ran nor the Bible endorse the practice.  FGM predates both the Qu’ran and the Bible and possibly Judaism, appearing in the 2^nd century BC.

Typically, it is the parents of girls aged 5-14 who initiate the FGM process because they believe that it will preserve virginity, communicate status, and even protect them from rape. Despite the medical implications involved, many mothers believe that they are doing the best for their daughters.  It is also believed that FGM will decrease sexual desire in women, increase male pleasure during intercourse and maintain fidelity within a marriage.

The procedure is often done on the pretense that the child will be receiving a special gift, going on a vacation or will be “becoming a woman”.  A young girl would visit a trusted older female relative who lacks medical training in a different town or distant village. One day during that visit, she would be taken to a location where she would be restrained by adults who would hold her down to the ground as she endures the extremely painful procedure that is carried out using a knife or some other cutting tool. In some cases, instruments such as tin can lids are used to cut and thorns are used to stitch the victims up.  Only in rare cases is this carried out with anesthetic or in a clinical environment.

The medical consequences include extreme pain, shock, infection, hemorrhage, infertility, incontinence, HIV and death. Many girls who endure the procedure believe that it is normal to have their labia and clitoris cut off.  One woman described how it wasn’t until she came across articles and programs on sex and female anatomy that she realized just how much had been taken away from her and how much suffering she endured physically and emotionally because of it. Another woman was circumcised as an infant in Nigeria and realized in college during a biology class that she didn’t look like her textbook diagrams.

International response

In 1997, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) issued a joint statement against the practice of FGM.  Since 1997, great efforts have been made to counteract FGM through research, work within communities, and changes in public policy. In 2008, another statement was issued to support increased advocacy for the abandonment of FGM.  The 2008 statement documents new evidence collected over the past decade about the practice. It highlights the increased recognition of the human rights and legal dimensions of the problem and provides current data on the frequency and scope of FGM. It also summarizes research about why FGM continues, how to stop it, and its damaging effects on the health of women, girls and newborn babies.

SUDAN

The Sudan Council of Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA) is an NGO that was established in 1979 to serve as an umbrella for all the NGOs working in Sudan.  In Sudan, the most common type of FGM is infibulation and is performed by midwives after the girls reach the age of five.  Members of SCOVA are training both midwives and henna artists to cooperate using a secret code . Henna artist would communicate to the midwife through special henna tattoos designed to specify a mother’s wish to avoid genital mutilation on her daughter and indicates to a midwife to perform a fake circumcision. The technique used in the fake circumcision was invented by midwives from the eastern and Nuer region.  The idea of involving henna artists makes sense because unlike the midwife who is present only during birth and circumcision, the interactions with a local henna artist is more frequent. Henna is applied on the hands and feet not only for special occasions such as engagements, weddings and baby showers, but also is always worn in a basic design by married women.  Relationships developed over time make it more likely for a woman to confide her fear about circumcising her daughter to her henna artist, who can then refer the mother to a list of anti-FGM midwives.  Sometimes the mother may be to scared to communicate her wishes to the recommended midwife and so her henna tattoo can communicate her wishes without any verbal indication.

UNITED KINGDOM

In the United Kingdom, under the UK Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act of 1985, FGM is illegal and conviction can result in prison terms for up to 14 years.  The Female Genital Mutilation Act of 2003 protects British citizens even if they undergo the procedure abroad.  Even though it is illegal, the number of procedures is on the rise. London’s Metropolitan Police set up Project Azure which engages with the community and has set up 59 interventions in 2009, up from 38 in 2008.   A clinic run in Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital sees 350 women and children per year.

The summer holiday period is believed to be the most prevalent time for FGM to be carried out, when it is estimated that some 500-2,500 British school girls are genially mutilated.  This is due to the extended holiday providing time to recover from the physical effects. FGM is administered both in the UK and abroad by the perpetrators for what is considered in many cases to be cultural reasons.

VIDEO WARNING: SOME MAY FIND THE FOLLOWING IMAGES DISTURBING

FRANCE

Dr. Pierre Foldes is a surgeon and urologist who developed a surgical technique for restoring the clitoris.  In order to do this, he removes all of the scar tissue that has grown over the excised tip and snips the ligaments that support it, allowing more of the clitoral body to slip down so that it is exposed as a small tip like the original.  The ligaments are then repaired.  After six weeks it starts to look normal and patient report that it takes four to six months for them to feel anything. Usually patients have not had the entire clitoris removed. The surgery exposes what remains, uses remaining tissues to reconstruct the labia that may have been cut away, and clears scar tissue.

NORTH AMERICA, ASIA, AFRICA

Clitoraid offers a humanitarian program to restore damage done by FGM in North America, Asia and Africa and is currently in the final stages of building a hospital in Burkina Faso to treat all FGM victims free of charge.   It handles all post-surgical sexual therapy care under the guidance of a sex therapist.

One of Clitoraid’s volunteer physicians, Dr. Marci Bowers, has a restorative practice located in Colorado.  With over 20 restoration surgeries completed since beginning in 2009, she is one of the few US doctors trained to surgically restore the clitoris on women who have been circumcised.  She learned her techniques from Dr. Pierre Foldes in France and hopes to start a teaching program so other doctors can serve FGM victims. She plans on moving to California in the fall.

FGM has been banned in the United States since 1996. The American Academy of Pediatrics now opposes any form of female genital cutting , including the ritual nick that some doctors perform as an alternative to FGM as an effort to keep parents from seeking more dangerous methods. The nicking method is a tiny cut comparable to a poke by a needle, and produces a drop of blood.  Representative Joseph Crowley of New York and Mary Bono Mack of California are now sponsoring the Girls Protection Act of 2010 that would make it a felony to take a girl out of the country to have the procedure, punishing violators with fines and a five year prison term.  The CDC estimates that between 150,000 to 200,000 girls in the US are in danger of being taken overseas during their time off from school to have the procedure in another country.

Simple prohibition has obviously failed as the solution that will end FGM.  The ultimate effective solution will have to be culturally sensitive, such as replacing with other rituals to celebrate the birth or coming of age of girls. Dr. Nawal Nour, the director of the African Women’s Health Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts states that is important to not vilify the immigrant community.  It is better to empower the women showing them that there is a choice rather that blame them. Research shows that, if practicing communities themselves decide to abandon FGM, the practice can be eliminated very rapidly. The key to eradication is having a diverse response that is customized to local approaches.

For more information about FGM, please visit this NY Times FGM page.

As I have written previously, medical professionals, students, and human rights groups in New York State are teaming up for action to pass the nation’s first law holding medical professionals accountable for assisting torture and abuse of prisoners.  AMSA is proud to join the list of organizations putting their support behind the proposed legislation:

• National Physicians Alliance
• Committee for Interns and Residents
• American College of Physicians-NY
• NY State Nurses Association
• NY Civil Liberties Union
• Center for Constitutional Rights
• Human Rights Watch
• Amnesty International
• Physicians for Human Rights
• I Have A Dream Foundation
• Metro NY Religious Campaign Against Torture
• (full list and statements at whenhealersharm.org/)

ANTI-TORTURE LOBBY DAY in Albany: Join AMSA and PHR with medical students from across the state in our first Anti-Torture Lobby Day in Albany on May 18th!  This is our chance to meet with our local lawmakers and tell them that ending torture is important to us as ethical medical professionals and Americans.  We will meet at 9AM for a white-coat press conference and advocacy training with experts from the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, and follow up with advocacy meetings.  If you are a NY State resident and a medical or pre-medical student, don’t miss this chance for real-time local action for human rights!

Don’t forget to sign the petition: Stop Torture NY.org

Read AMSA’s statement of support after the cut:

From AMSA’s Letter of Support:

]]> http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2010/05/11/action-alert-amsa-anti-torture-ny-may-18th/feed/ 0 http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2010/01/24/banning-cluster-munitions-what-will-it-take/ http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2010/01/24/banning-cluster-munitions-what-will-it-take/#comments Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:48:25 +0000 Sujal Parikh http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/?p=625 [This article was originally posted on Open Forum, a blog supported by the community of Health and Human Rights: An International Journal]

On December 22, New Zealand and Belgium became the 25^th and 26^th nations to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). The convention needs only four more ratifications to achieve the 30-state minimum to enter into force. Once in force, it will enact a ban on the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of most cluster munitions, which include bombs, missiles, or rockets that open midair to scatter tens to thousands of small submunitions over a wide area. The CCM also requires that states destroy their stockpiles in eight years, clear contaminated land within ten years, and provide victim assistance.

This convention is necessary due to the wide, indiscriminate, and persistent effects of cluster munitions on civilians and communities. Ninety-eight percent of all recorded casualties of cluster munitions are civilians. In several countries, children account for roughly 60% percent of the victims. In 2007 alone, 5,426 casualties were reported due to cluster munitions. Conservative estimates suggest that unexploded submunitions have caused at least 55,000 casualties, though the number may be well over 100,000.

Victims of cluster munitions require medical, mental health, rehabilitation, and vocational services. They sustain burns and blast and shrapnel injuries, often to multiple limbs as well as their chest, abdomen, and face. Victims should also receive rehabilitation services, including mental health care, physical therapy, and prostheses if needed. Many of these services are unavailable or scarce in conflict zones, and the added burden of these patients can overwhelm an already strained health system, especially in post-conflict settings.

Victims of cluster munitions also need assistance with integration back into society. In many affected areas, people living with disabilities face stigmatization, marginalization, and a lack of economic opportunity. Efforts to promote the rights of the disabled — such as those spearheaded by Handicap International — are essential to any long-term approach to addressing the effects of cluster munitions.

Though cluster munitions are often compared to landmines in that they both litter areas after a conflict is over and pose a threat to the health and human rights of individuals and communities, there are notable differences in their effects. Cluster munitions are more likely than landmines to cause multiple injuries per incident, and they are more likely to kill or injure children under the age of 14 due to their small size and bright coloration.

Unexploded cluster submunitions slow humanitarian, recovery, and resettlement efforts after overt hostilities have ended. Humanitarian and relief workers may be unable to enter an area due to cluster munition contamination. In Kosovo, Laos, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Lebanon, casualties peaked as populations returned home after the conflict ended. Returning populations are injured while attempting to access their houses, farms, pasture land, water supplies, and health facilities. In Afghanistan, many people have been injured by explosive remnants of war (of which cluster munitions are one form) in the past decade, and these deadly devices have deterred people from accessing health services and from sending their children to school.

The short- and long-term effects of armed conflict and political violence continue to undermine the health and human rights of populations around the world. An international ban on cluster munitions will be an important step toward protecting and promoting health and human rights and toward allowing those whose lives are ravaged by wars to farm their fields and walk the streets of their communities without fear.

————–

Earthquake Crisis in Haiti

Original post by Wilnise Jasmin [01.14.2010 @ 6:53 AM EST]

As you may have already heard, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck about 10 miles southwest of Port-au- Prince, Haiti at about 5 pm Tuesday night. The quake ravaged the infrastructure of Haiti’s fragile government and destroyed some of its most important cultural symbols.

“Parliament has collapsed,” Mr. Préval told The Miami Herald. “The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed. There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.” He added: “All of the hospitals are packed with people. It is a catastrophe.”

President Obama promised that Haiti would have the “unwavering support” of the United States.

Haitian authorities and humanitarian aid organizations are struggling to respond amid devastation.

A Red Cross field team of officials from several nations had to spend Wednesday night in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to gather its staff before taking the six-hour drive in the morning across the border to the earthquake zone.

Here are some various ways to help with the recovery:

• American Red Cross
• Center for International Disaster Information
• On this website, there have been posts containing information about missing relatives. If anyone can possibly account for anyone please do.
• Partners In Health, and their partner organization in Haiti, Zanmi Lasante, are familiar to many of us from Tracy Kidder’s book Mountains Beyond Mountains.  They have been working in Haiti for over 20 years, in times of emergency as well as in a long-term commitment to improving the health infrastructure.  They are currently looking for qualified surgeons and nurses.
• More organizations
• Build a fundraising page with MercyCorps

————–

Updated [01.14.2010 @ 3 PM EST]: Key news items and op-eds:

• Barack Obama: “Unwavering support”
• U.S. grants temporary protection status to Haitians; sends troops
• Red Cross: 45,000-50,000 dead
• Tracy Kidder: Country Without a Net
• Bill Clinton: What we can do to help Haiti, now and beyond
• Nicolas Sarkozy: Time to end Haiti’s “curse”

Updated [01.14.2010 @ 11 PM EST]: US Military Plan of Action Established and Underway

Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates has shifted all of the resources of the US Department of Defense towards providing relief. General Douglas Fraser of the US Southern Command publically announced the Haiti relief plan on Thursday at a press conference held at the U.S. Southern Command Headquarters in  Doral, Florida. The main areas addressed by Douglas focused on improving life sustaining capabilities and to provide assistance  in the relief efforts in order  to mitigate the suffering as soon as humanly possible. Some of the areas discussed:

• An  initial Commander and  Control  has been set up until communication capability has been reestablished
• Opening the air field and making it operate on a  24/7 schedule
• 4 Coastguard cutters to provide helicopters and any additional support it can
• A navy destroyer will also be providing helicopter support as well as the fuel needed to keep all the helicopters running.
• A Threat and Disaster Relief assessment team has been organized in order to  get an accurate survey of the extent of the damage
• Paratroopers have been dispatched
• Carrier USS Carl Vinson is scheduled to arrive on the morning of the 15th to provide additional helicopters and serve as the platform that will alleviate the organization problems faced due to the poorly established infrastructure that currently exists in Haiti
• Marines are scheduled to bring the heavy equipment necessary to provide capacity and capability on the 19^th
• USNS Comfort hospital ship is is scheduled to arrive on the 22^nd

Updated [01.15.2010 @ 12:30 PM EST]: The Big Picture

Two days later, the extent of the damage is seen in these harrowing photographs at the Boston Globe.  Click on the image to see the photo-essay of devastation and rescue.

Updated [01.15.2010 @ 4 PM EST]:

• The U.S. military reopens the Port-au-Prince airport

Updated [01.15.2010 @ 8:30 PM EST]:

• Port-au- Prince is not the only area in Haiti that needs help.

Updated [01.16.2010 @ 10:30 AM EST]:

T-Mobile USA Waives Call Charges to and From Haiti

• T-Mobile USA is enabling phone calls for current customers to Haiti without charges for international long distance through January 31, 2010, and retroactive to the earthquake on January 12, 2010. Additionally, T-Mobile customers who may already be in Haiti will be able to roam on T-Mobile’s partner networks in Haiti (operated locally in Haiti under the names Voila and Digicel) free-of-charge through the end of the month.

• T- Mobile also pledge to assist in wireless restoration.

Updated [01.17.2010 @ 10:30 AM EST]: Prevention and Rebuilding

Many are asking if this tragedy that resulted from the earthquake could have been prevented. Back in 2008 two geophysicists who study fault lines in the Caribbean predicted that the fault line that Haiti sits upon called the Enriquillo fault could produce a 7.2 magnitude quake.  The plates of the fault had been slipping past each other at about 7 millimeters per year for the last 250 years and the geophysicists predicted that it was time to snap.

While the earthquake could not have been prevented, the scientists believe that there was enough forewarning to implement emergency plans for when the earthquake would occur.  While the limited resources of Haiti did not allow it to upgrade every single building standing, some buildings , such as hospitals and governmental buildings, could have been designated as critical and plans to strengthen these could been made.  These areas could have served as the base from which all rescue efforts could be organized.

Unfortunately these plans were not made and to dwell on the errors of the past will not resolve the current problems that exist today.   Once all rescue efforts have been exhausted, we can take learn from the errors that were made and not repeat them.  When the reconstruction phase begins, NGO’s like Architecture for Humanity can work to ensure that another tragedy like the one that occurred this week will not recur.

Updated [01.17.2010 @ 11:30 AM EST]: Earthquake on Ocean Floor

On Sunday morning, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake was detected by seismologists In the Drake Passage on Atlantic Ocean floor between South America and Antarctica.  The quake had no effect on nearby lands.

Updated [01.17.2010 @ 10:00 PM EST]

The CDC has deployed staff to Haiti to assist in the emergency response and guide the efforts to minimize public health impacts in the coming months.  It has also updated several relevant resources for health care providers and responders:

• Guidance for Relief Workers and Others Traveling to Haiti for Earthquake Response
• Emergency Wound Management for Healthcare Professionals
• After an Earthquake: Management of Crush Injuries & Crush Syndrome
• CDC’s Earthquake Webpage
• Health Recommendations for Relief Workers Responding to Disasters
• Public Health Issues and Priorities for the Haiti Earthquake
• Travel Health Warning
• CDC Emergency Twitter account
• Haiti Disaster Volunteering

Updated by Jennifer Weinberg [01.19.2010 @ 9:00 am EST]

Partners in Health (PIH) is one of many organizations from around the globe dedicating efforts to the earthquake victims in Haiti. As this organization has been working in Haiti for over 25 years, they are in a unique position to understand the multitude of factors contributing to this tragedy.

Watch a PIH Executive Director Ophelia Dahl discuss the importance of long term rebuilding efforts with CBS’s Katie Couric.

Read an op-ed by PIH co-founder Paul Farmer focusing on the importance of building back better.

Updated [01.20.2010 @ 2:20 PM]:

As inquiries about volunteering in Haiti keep pouring in, while after-shocks rattle the island and life-saving supplies are turned away for lack of logistics support, the World Journal of Surgery shares some thoughts on the “cardinal sins” of humanitarian medicine.

Updated [01.20.2010 @ 8:30 PM]: More ways you can help

• If you are a health professional interested in volunteering to help, the American Academy of Family Physicians can link you organizations that are in Haiti.

• The Pan American Health and Education Foundation’s is an independent philanthropic organization working to build public health expertise to be able to innovatively lead development of healthier generations of people in the Americas.  It has set up a  Disaster Relief Fund to help bring critically needed emergency supplies for affected families and to support recovery efforts in Haiti.

• Habitat for Humanity has worked with Haiti for over 26 years and will continue to serve the people there by helping to rebuild.

• Nine Medical Teams International volunteer physicians and nurses are hard at work at various hospitals in Port au Prince. At Kings Hospital, a 350 bed inpatient facility that survived the earthquake the physicians are providing  care to those who would have died without the help of the volunteers.

Updated [01.21.2010 @ 11:30 PM]: When Good Intentions Make Things Worse ;   Record Donations; and Mass Movements

Haitian government figures relayed by the European Commission put the death toll at 200,000, with 80,000 buried in mass graves. The commission now estimates 2 million homeless, up from 1.5 million, and says 250,000 are in need of urgent aid. The countless number of untreated injuries that many Haitians still have will continue to add to the earthquake’s death toll. Lack of food and water will also contribute to the death toll.  .”  Partners in Health, an organization that has been providing health care in Haiti for two decades, estimated that 20,000 Haitians were dying daily from lack of surgery.

In an effort to prevent the loss of more lives, health experts have arrived in Haiti from Israel, Cuba, Portugal and other countries, many with stocks of medicine and supplies as well as extensive experience in disaster conditions. And the United States Navy hospital ship Comfort pulled up off the Haitian coast to handle the worst-off patients.

One of the problems with the relief effort is that there is a lack of organization and communication between the various aid agencies. “Nobody knows how many doctors, how many nurses have come to Haiti,” said Dr. Henriette Chamouillet, head of the World Health Organization in Haiti. “No one is providing the government with the data it needs.

Disaster organizers say good intentions gone wrong are another hindrance to the recovery effort.” Some examples include volunteer medical teams who have gone to Haiti on their own, without the support of established organizations that have the prior experience in disaster relief and working in developing nations, may actually use up the resources that could have been used to help the victims of the earthquake.  Contacting one of the many organizations listed in the earlier updates of this post can help the individual healthcare worker allocate his or her skill sets in a way that will not take away from those that need aid.

For many organizations, donating money, rather than goods, is the better way to provide aid.  Jeff Nene, a spokesman for Convoy of Hope, a Springfield, Mo., agency that feeds 11,000 children a day in Haiti, urges cash donations that allow his group to buy in bulk from large suppliers and retailers. “When people give $1, it translates into $7 in the field,” he said. “If they spend $5 for bottled water, that’s nice and it makes them feel good, but probably it costs us more than $5 to send it. If they give us $5, we can get $35 worth of water.”

According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s recently released a survey, donations to relief groups working in Haiti are breaking fund-raising records. The survey was based on a tally on proceeds reported by the nation’s 22 largest charities and it showed that US charities raised more than $150 million in the four days after the quake. The Chronicle’s survey doesn’t include the sums raised by smaller charities, such as the $25 million by Partners in Health. Among the biggest recipients was the American Red Cross, which has raised $87 million for Haiti so far. Small texted donations account for $16 million of the $150 million raised so far.

Despite the slow progress in coordinating the communications between the organizations providing aid in Haiti, the Haitian government has been able to begin the process of moving 400,00 earthquake victims to new settlements outside of the haphazard camps in Port-au- prince that have been set up in the days following the earthquake. The United Nations supports this move because the consolidation of the nearly 450 homeless encampments in Port-au-Prince alone will help to streamline food distribution.

Updated [01.30.2010 @ 1:20 PM]:  Surveillance for Disease, and Advocacy for Investment

• Dr. James Wilson’s epidemiology surveillance of infectious disease outbreaks in Haiti: Operational Biosurveillance
• Dr. Paul Farmer’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Video | Transcript

Updated [02. 18.2010 @ 9:30 AM]:In President Preval’s Own Words

The president of the Haiti talks about his initial response to the crisis.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

“To some, human trafficking may seem like a problem limited to other parts of the world. In fact, it occurs in every country, including the United States, and we have a responsibility to fight it just as others do. ” - Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton (full article here)

Good afternoon, Global!

Today is National Global Human Trafficking Awareness day, and for those who are unfamiliar, human trafficking is “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.” (UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons)

It is one of several forms of slavery that exist today (click here to learn about modern slavery), and as our Secretary of State stated so clearly, it is not just an international issue, but a domestic one as well.

Here are some quick facts from freetheslaves.net and the US DOJ:

• there are more slaves now than ever before in human history – approximately 27 million around the world
• the cost of a slave has decreased from $40,000 in 1850, to $90 in 2008
• it would cost $40 per family to buy all bonded laborers in the world – Americans spend this much on chocolate each Valentine’s Day
• 17,500 slaves are brought into the United States every year
• sexual exploitation of minors is lawfully considered human trafficking – approximately 325,000 children in the United States are subjected to sexual exploitation every year
• the average age of entry into the commercial sex industry within the United States is 11-12 years old

So for those of you who want to learn/do more, here are a few things for today:

statement in the Global Pulse by our Hana Akselrod:
http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/27/human-trafficking-part-i-introduction/

some local events:
http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/national_human_trafficking_awareness_day_events_near_you

a poster to share:
http://www.bridgetofreedomfoundation.org/NGHTAD_Letter-1.pdf

a Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=209640181028&ref=mf

powerful article regarding chocolate slavery in the ivory coast: http://vision.ucsd.edu/~kbranson/stopchocolateslavery/atasteofslavery.html

Department of State 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report:
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/index.htm

an article on modern slavery:
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-2009-08-21-voa49-68706537.html

an organization working to end slavery:
http://www.freetheslaves.net

a great list of links/resources:
http://traffickfree.org/educate.html

Physicians for Human Rights National Conference
Health and Human Rights in 2010
Saturday, February 20^th, 2010
Boston University Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts

Register now at www.PHRStudentConference.org!

Physicians, nurses and public health specialists in the U.S. and abroad face a daunting task: building, and often rebuilding, health systems that are accessible to all; fighting infectious pandemics like HIV/AIDS; preventing and treating disease; providing humanitarian relief to people facing natural or man-made disasters; and more.

The last 20 years have shown the world that brilliant bio-medical advances cannot alone bring health to the world’s poorest people. Medicine must go hand-in-hand with human rights to eliminate health disparities and ensure a healthy population.

This year’s Conference aims to change the paradigm of medicine to one which embraces human rights by empowering student leaders to introduce human rights into their school curriculum. The Conference is the first of its kind to solely focus on bringing students and faculty together to discuss how to integrate human rights into medical education. This jam-packed day serve as a springboard for future health and human rights initiatives and support students to make lasting change at their university and in their profession.

Highlights include:

• Network with National Leaders: Renowned experts in the field of health and human rights who will share their knowledge and expertise with you.  This conference provides a rare chance to meet and network with health professionals interested in human rights from all over the US.

• Build Your Skills: A dynamic lineup of workshops, panels, and strategy sessions that will address the need to integrate human rights more completely in medical education and cover the best strategies for planning electives for credit and garnering faculty support.

• Take part in the Student Expo: An Education Expo when students who have designed courses for credit, created extracurricular activities and started clubs to further awareness will present their projects and provide advice and ideas for their peers hoping to spearhead similar initiatives.

• Change Policy: Hear from US Representative James McGovern (D-MA, Invited)—Chair of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and health reform expert— about human rights and health reform, and ask him the tough questions about how to make sure health is recognized as a human rights in the Us and abroad.

• Join us for a Jazz Reception: Join student leaders, faculty, and PHR staff and Board members for a jazz reception Saturday evening. Enjoy music, hors d’eourves, drinks and conversation overlooking Boston’s stunning skyline.

Attendees will leave with concrete guides to follow to help further their goals on campus, and will have the opportunity to meet personally with faculty from their schools to discuss future initiatives.

Join PHR at the National Conference – a unique opportunity for passionate health professional students and faculty to come together for a remarkable day to harness their knowledge for health and human rights.

Questions about the National Conference?  Email Hannah.

Conceived as a “Bill of Rights for Women,” CEDAW sets a common international definition for gender-based discrimination, and establishes an agenda for ending it. States ratifying CEDAW are required to institutionalize gender equality through domestic legislation, repeal and replace all discriminatory provisions in their laws, and establish public institutions of recourse for women who require protection against discrimination.

Discrimination is bad. Women should have equal rights. Surely this is something we can agree on? Not so fast. Read further for the controversial stuff.

CEDAW sets a universal standard as the most comprehensive international treaty addressing women’s equal political, civil, economic, cultural and social rights. Its ratification in the United States would strengthen US laws that ensure women’s equal rights as well as illustrate the United States’ commitment to serve as a global leader of human rights (PHR). As Nora O’Connell and Ritu Sharma put it in the Human Rights Brief:

CEDAW, like any treaty, is not a silver bullet. Just as the 1964 Civil Rights Act did not end racism in the United States of America, this treaty will not end human rights abuses against women and girls around the world. But like that landmark legislation, it will provide a roadmap for those countries that want to improve the status of women as well as legal recourse for victims when needed. By setting an international standard that countries have voluntarily agreed to, CEDAW serves as a powerful self-help tool for supporters of women’s human rights to urge their governments to do better. We have seen this work with other treaties. The U.S. ratification of the UN Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1994, for example, amplified the U.S. voice in the successful international drive to end racial apartheid in South Africa.

After its adoption by the U.N. General Assembly in 1979, the convention was introduced in the U.S. in 1980 and signed by President Carter. It then proceeded to stall in the Senate multiple times, and despite support from individual state legislatures and major public bodies, has not been ratified to this day — leaving the United States in the company of Iran, Somalia, Sudan, and three small Pacific Island nations who have also held out on CEDAW ratification. I am not informed about Somalia’s and Tonga’s reasons for rejecting CEDAW, but in the U.S. reasons for its controversy have included the following:

• General opposition to U.S. participation in international agreements on human rights, similar to that encountered by the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

• Concern that CEDAW reduces the sovereignty of nations and leads to over-reliance on international law
• Concern that “discrimination” is defined too liberally and could be used in frivolous lawsuits
• Concern that CEDAW de-values marriage and motherhood, and will impose culturally inappropriate practices backed by radical Western feminism
• The belief that CEDAW would sanction abortion and legalize prostitution
• For why these objections are unfounded, see: overview and detailed analysis. Mostly it boils down to the fact that CEDAW cannot impose any specific laws originating from outside a member country, is self-imposed, and aims to reconcile a universal recognition of women’ rights with culturally appropriate implementation.
• Other critics argue that CEDAW is, if anything, too weak and voluntary. However, in the 20 years since its introduction, it has been used in numerous and concrete ways to establish and protect women’s rights around the world.

To date, the United States remains the only developed country to have failed to ratify the convention — while countries where women’s rights are severely bound under religious law (Islamic countries), abortion is against the law (Ireland; Latin American countries), and women are repressed as a matter of tradition (pretty much everywhere else) have at least made the gesture of ratification. With President Obama’s reintroduction of CEDAW to the U.S. international treaty agenda in 2009, we have another chance to put our support behind this key agreement, and to show America’s commitment to the rights of women worldwide and at home.

Assuming, that is, that “we”, as a nation, actually have such a commitment — something I am personally in the habit of doubting. Although Americans individually donate millions of dollars to philanthropic efforts helping women around the world, discrimination against the interests of women — especially those in developing countries, or in urban minority neighborhoods — has been deeply entrenched in U.S. practices and policy. The striking down of the Global Gag Rule in early 2009 was a bright departure from years of backwards policies that shackled the real reproductive needs of women living in desperate circumstances and far away to American internal cultural politics. The current strength of the Stupak and Nelson “anti-abortion” amendments in the domestic struggle over health care reform is more or less a domestic extension of Mexico City Policy. If implemented, these amendments will disproportionately impact the health of poor and minority women — women who are already at tremendous disadvantage in the realm of sexual and reproductive health, as evidenced by current racial disparities in HIV/AIDS infections and maternal mortality. My personal opinion is that both the former endurance of the Global Gag Rule, and the current efforts to institutionalize nation-wide religious limitations on reproductive health care, are expressions of a tacit understanding that somehow, the reproductive health needs of women have little importance beyond that of a political token — especially if the women in question are poor or dark-skinned or both — because after all, sexual victimization and maternity-related suffering have been the lot of women in the natural course of things. And the idea of suffering being “natural” for certain people is an attitude that that ought to make any doctor’s blood boil.

Whether you believe the U.S. is a global leader on women’s rights and should stand up and say so, or that it has always been sadly behind most developed countries in its conceptualization of gender relations and needs to work harder, I urge you to sign the petition in support of CEDAW ratification. Please share your thoughts on gender, policy, and U.S. influence on reproductive health around the world.

New in this issue:

Featured interviews with leading thinkers on US torture practices, international licensing of AIDS drugs, and intellectual property policies for pharmaceuticals

Contributions from student writers across the country discussing public health ethics, reproductive rights, epidemic prevention, medical practice at home and abroad, and reflections on service and creativity in global health

A World AIDS Day letter from AMSA President Lauren Hughes on AMSA’s commitment to global health

All-new website design!

For information on contributing to the Global Pulse, see FAQ.
(Graphic by Dan Rhee)

]]> http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/12/01/new-improved-issue-of-gp-online/feed/ 0 http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/12/01/wad-the-world-bank-keeping-the-promise-investing-in-the-future/ http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/12/01/wad-the-world-bank-keeping-the-promise-investing-in-the-future/#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:24:53 +0000 Susan Lewis http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/?p=416 Today at the World Bank, a collection of 400+  leaders from organizations including the Global Fund and PEPFAR, as well as the Deputy US Secretary of State, Jack Lew, joined Bank Director, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to discuss the current state of HIV/AIDS and what remains to be done to curb the epidemic. Facts revealed today include the following stats:

+ mother-to-child transmission has increased from 10% to 45% since 2004

+ 2.7 million people newly infected with HIV in 2008

+ HIV infections have fallen 17% since 2001

+ according to the Haiti GHESKIO-Cornell evaluation by Jean Pape MD, without ART there are 80% deaths at  year, contrasted to with ART 80% survival at 2 years

+ GHESKIO-Cornell, there is a correlation between food insecurity and CD4 counts: CD4 counts decrease as food insecurity increases

+ Successful HIV containment in Bangladesh (except in Dhaka) due to preventive education efforts directed towards sex workers, injection drug users and MSM

+ Botswana’s anti-retroviral medicine program covers 80% of its population and has cut AIDS-related deaths by more than half in five years

Here is a statement from Ngoi Okonjo-Iweala, MD, director of the Bank, committing resources in the fights against HIV/AIDS: “The Bank stepped up boldly with the first billion dollars for HIV a decade ago when denial and inaction were widespread.  Now, the tide of the epidemic finally seems to be turning. But we are still in very deep water.  Especially with much of the world still grappling with the food and financial crises, the Bank is doing the right thing in reaffirming to countries, just as each Bank president has done since 2000, that we will continue to support effective efforts to prevent and cope with HIV for as long as it takes to succeed against this virus.”

For a more in-depth summary of today’s events at the World Bank, please redirect yourself here. For a ppt of Dr. Pape’s work in Haiti at Les Centres GHESKIO (Groupe Haitien d’Etude du Sarcome de Kaposi and des Infections Opportunistes) regarding Food Security and HIV/AIDS, click here.

]]> http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/12/01/wad-the-world-bank-keeping-the-promise-investing-in-the-future/feed/ 2 http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/12/01/world-aids-day-mother-to-child-transmission/ http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/12/01/world-aids-day-mother-to-child-transmission/#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:51:31 +0000 Jennifer Weinberg http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/?p=407 As part of World AIDS Day efforts to educate the public about the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Global Fund Ambassador for the protection of mothers and children against AIDS and first lady of France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy released a series of interviews “talking about and letting the world know that a woman who is expecting a child can make sure that this child can have a healthy life,” Ms Bruni-Sarkozy told the BBC. She recalled her experience meeting mothers in Burkina Faso and cited this experience as showing her that progress can and must occur in the fight against mother-to-child transmission of HIV. She renewed a call to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015 through a focus on educating women and increasing their access to means to fight and prevent the disease. This has been a focus area of the Global Fund, UNAIDS, UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA.

This is an important effort given the impact of mother-to-child transmission of the virus.

• Currently, over 45% of HIV-infected pregnant women receive ARV prophylaxis (up from 10% in 2004)
• Only 15% of children born to mothers infected with HIV in reporting low- and middle-income countries were tested for the virus within the first two months of life
• Only 38% of the over 730,000 children in low- and middle-income countries in need of ARV treatment in 2008 received these medications

For more on these efforts, see press coverage of the Global Fund’s World AIDS Day activities.

]]> http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/12/01/world-aids-day-mother-to-child-transmission/feed/ 0 http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/11/22/tamils-risk-all-to-flee-sri-lanka/ http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/11/22/tamils-risk-all-to-flee-sri-lanka/#comments Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:35:16 +0000 Julio Bracero http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/?p=377 From Al Jazeera (English version):

The United Nations has welcomed the decision by Sri Lanka’s government to announce the release of the remaining 130,000 Tamils kept in detention camps for the last six months.

About 250,000 people fled the final bloody phase of the civil war between the government and separatist Tamil Tigers.

They were ultimately housed in government-run camps in the district of Vavuniya.

Hundreds of thousands of Tamils’ have been displaced in the fighting and are now living in hastily put together refugee camps that have been largely shut off from the outside world.

]]> http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/11/22/tamils-risk-all-to-flee-sri-lanka/feed/ 0 http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/27/human-trafficking-part-i-introduction/ http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/27/human-trafficking-part-i-introduction/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:48:34 +0000 Hana Akselrod http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/?p=295 This is the start of another GP Blog series, inspired by a recent workshop in New York City addressing the implications of human trafficking and commercial sex exploitation in the clinical setting. It is my hope that this series can help increase awareness of the issue, and keep the conversation going.

Human trafficking is a subject that elicits strong visceral reactions when it chances into the spotlight. For good reason. Stomach-churning stories of children sold into forced labor, of young girls and boys entrapped into lives of rape and violence that the word “prostitution” doesn’t quite cover, and of adult men and women smuggled across borders to become indentured servants — they are found on the uncomfortable, dark underside of the global flow in trade, money, and labor, that underpins modern economics and society itself. They resonate as a nightmare version of the more familiar logic of supply and demand, legality and illegality. They constitute infuriating human rights abuses, and violate any number of laws and treaties — and because they happen to people whose very existence is undocumented, whose bodies are uncounted and whose faces and voices are hidden, they go on and are not discussed in polite company. It is the twenty-first century, and the trade in human beings accounts for the world’s third largest illegal market¹. It is probably small news that the United States is a big consumer. It is news to most people that the US is also a source of victims.

Human trafficking is defined as the crime of using force, coercion, or fraud to procure or detain another person for involuntary servitude or for commercial sex work². It often involves travel across borders, but doesn’t have to. The best available estimates pin the number of people trafficked across national borders for sexual or labor exploitation at 800,000 each year — and the number of people brought into the US for these purposes for 15,000 to 18,000 per year^3,4. Immigrants and refugees are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, and being an internally displaced person (IDP) has been shown to be an additional risk factor for becoming a victim of trafficking^2,5.

Some numbers from the Human Trafficking Reporting System set up by the US Department of Justice in 2007⁶:
- 83% of 1,200+ human trafficking incidents reported in the US involved sex trafficking
- Two-thirds of all victims were under age 24, and 27% of all victims were children and teens under age 17.
- Over 90% of victims in all reported trafficking incidents, and 99% of victims in sex exploitation cases, were female.
- Hispanic immigrants made up 37% of sex trafficking victims and 56% of labor trafficking victims in the US in 2007-2008
- More than half of all victims, and 63% of sex trafficking victims, were US citizens.

What does all this have to do with human rights or global health? Are you kidding?

No art or movie clips this time. Just incredibly depressing statistics and some imagination. Medical- and public-health-side interpretations coming next time.

In upcoming installments:
Part II: Guest post from AMSA Global’s Health and Human Rights coordinator.
Part III: Trafficking and the medical provider: What you need to know, what you can do to help.
Part IV: Guest post from the field.

Sources / Further Reading:
[1] Orhant M. Trafficking In Persons. Population Reference Bureau. 2002. Link.
[2] Logan TK, Walker R, and Hunt G. Understanding Human Trafficking in the United States. Trauma, Violence, and Abuse. 2009. 10(1): 3-30.
[3] U.S. Department of State. Trafficking in Persons Report. 2006. Link.
[4] Polaris Project. Human Trafficking Statistics. 2009. Link.
[5] Feller E. UNHCR’s role in IDP protection: Opportunities and challenges- Forced Migration Review. 2006. Link.
[6] U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Programs. More than 1,200 alleged incidents of human trafficking reported in the U.S. Press release. 15 Jan. 2009. Link.

——————————————————
In our previous themed series, Jennifer Weinberg writes about health care, HIV, and teledermatology in Botswana, where she spent the summer of 2009. Check out “Blogging from Botswana”, parts I, II, III, and IV, from this summer.

]]> http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/27/human-trafficking-part-i-introduction/feed/ 2 http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/09/10/guatemala-declares-calamity-as-food-crisis-grows/ http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/09/10/guatemala-declares-calamity-as-food-crisis-grows/#comments Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:31:46 +0000 Julio Bracero http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/?p=272

Sisters Vidalia, left, and Maribel Agustin, who suffer from malnutrition, sit at a shelter in Guatemala in August.

From CNN:

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has declared a state of national calamity because so many citizens do not have food or proper nutrition.

Speaking in a nationally televised address late Tuesday, Colom said his declaration will make it easier to get food to the thousands of Guatemalan families who are in dire need.

“This will help us access resources from the international community that are generously offered for this type of situation and to mobilize national resources more rapidly,” he said.

This is horrible, though not unexpected, news. The United Nations Food Program has Guatemala as the country with the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world. Of course, such problems did not just worsen overnight.

Colom said the nation’s food problems are the result of a drought this year, global warming and the effects of the international economic crisis. He also cited the Central American nation’s “history of unfairness that has made Guatemala live since long ago with high and shameful poverty levels, extreme poverty and undernutrition.”

[...] “This is the cause of the food and nutritional crisis that this country is going through,” Colom said. “There is food. What we don’t have are the financial means so that those who are affected can buy the available food. … Let’s not wait until we have a famine to act.”

The natural resources, at least thus far, are there, but ultimately, it is a financial problem. Years of neglect, shock capitalism, and the never-ending spiral of debt have taken its toll, and the current economic crisis has stripped all false illusions of prosperity. If the government cannot afford the basics, how much better do you think regular people are doing?

]]> http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/09/10/guatemala-declares-calamity-as-food-crisis-grows/feed/ 0 http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/08/12/congos-rape-epidemic-worsens-during-u-s-backed-military-operation/ http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/08/12/congos-rape-epidemic-worsens-during-u-s-backed-military-operation/#comments Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:13:48 +0000 Julio Bracero http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/?p=219 This is from the Washington Post (free subscription required):

For the women of eastern Congo, a U.S.-backed Congolese military operation meant to save them from abusive rebels has turned into a nightmare of its own.

An already staggering epidemic of rape has become markedly worse since the January deployment of tens of thousands of poorly trained, poorly paid Congolese soldiers, with people in front-line villages such as this one saying the soldiers are not so much hunting rebels as hunting women.

And so as the sun dropped behind the soaring jungle here one recent day, little girls, mothers and grandmothers began heading home, some closing curtains and padlocking wooden doors. It was time, they explained, to lock themselves indoors.

“To avoid getting raped, after 6 p.m., women are not allowed to go out of the house,” said Maria Bitondo, who said she was among three women attacked by a soldier last month. “With the soldiers here, no woman is safe to go out and walk. We do not even go to the bathroom at night.”

On Monday, a coalition of 88 aid groups called the operation, which is supported by the United Nations, “a human tragedy” and urged Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is to visit eastern Congo on Tuesday, to push for better civilian protection. Clinton has vowed to make the prevention of sexual violence a priority in Congo, where the United States pays about a quarter of the cost of U.N. peacekeeping efforts.

“We have to speak out against the impunity of those in positions of authority who either commit these crimes or condone them,” Clinton said at a town hall meeting in the capital of Kinshasa on Monday. She added, “There are even some cases of these terrible crimes committed by members of the Congolese military.”

The entire article is an interesting, yet devastating read. Though there is a policy of “zero tolerance” for sexual violence, the actual list of offenders taken to court is abysmally low.

One constant question while reading this article is, why do men rape women? An excerpt from the article is quite telling:

He and other soldiers interviewed expressed a deep frustration at their pay, which is usually late and only $50 a month; their rations, which were recently a single can of sardines for three soldiers for 15 days; and especially their long deployments, which often keep them away from their families for years.

“The truth is like this,” said one officer, sitting under a shed and sipping a powerful local brew. “What is making soldiers to do these bad things is their treatment by the army. Imagine, one can of sardines?! And you send a soldier away for 10 years?! So, I’m hungry, I’m in need of a wife and I have no money” to pay for a prostitute, he said. “If I see a woman walking on the road, and I love her, I will take her. I will help myself.”

The lieutenant, who did not give his name, is in charge of teaching his soldiers about human rights. “Now,” he said, “buy me a beer so I don’t have to rob you.”

]]> http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/08/12/congos-rape-epidemic-worsens-during-u-s-backed-military-operation/feed/ 0 http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/11/new-book-on-reproductive-health-and-human-rights/ http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/11/new-book-on-reproductive-health-and-human-rights/#comments Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:19:49 +0000 Hana Akselrod http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/11/new-book-on-reproductive-health-and-human-rights/ From the University of Pennsylvania Press, comes a new book titled Reproductive Health and Human Rights: The Way Forward.  Edited by Laura Reichenbach of the Population Council and Mindy Jane Roseman of Harvard Law School, the book reflects on the past fifteen years of international efforts surrounding health, poverty, and gender inequality, with special focus on the consequences of the 1994 United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and its resulting Programme of Action.

From the publisher’s website:

The book grapples with fundamental questions about the relationships among population, fertility decline, reproductive health, human rights, poverty alleviation, and development and assesses the various arguments — demographic, public health, human rights-based, and economic — for an against ICPD today.

A number of the chapters address institutional challenges to ICPD and consider how the challenging political, religious, academic, and disciplinary contexts matter.  Other chapters engage operational and conceptual issues and whether ICPD has been able to move the reproductive health agenda forward on topics such as maternal mortality, abortion, HIV/AIDS, adolescents, reproductive technologies, and demography.  Finally, several chapters examine how ICPD has been sidelined by emerging health and development agendas and what could be done in response.  Unlike any book yet published, Reproductive Health and Human Rights: The Way Forward examines the state of the arguments for reproductive health and rights from a multidisciplinary perspective that provides policymakers, scholars, and activists with a better understanding of how reproductive health and rights have developed, their place in the global policy agenda, and how they might evolve most effectively in the future.

To read an excerpt from the book, click here.

]]> http://www.globalpulsejournal.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/11/new-book-on-reproductive-health-and-human-rights/feed/ 0