Keya Acharya
BANGALORE, Jun 3 2008 (IPS) – The People s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), a 32-year-old Indian human- rights group, has decried India s judiciary for refusing bail to jungle doctor and human rights activist Binayak Sen. Sen is widely-respected for his 30 years of healthcare work among tribals in the central Indian State of Chhattisgarh, and has criticised the State for the mass-eviction of thousands of tribal villagers.
Sen, who received the 2008 Global Health Council s Jonathan Mann award for his work in health and human rights, was jailed one year ago on charges of hatching a conspiracy and abetting terrorism. Sen denies the government s allegations, and was refused bail in a high-profile case that has reached the Supreme Court.
Human rights activist…
Kristin Palitza
DURBAN, Jul 1 2008 (IPS) – Refugees and migrants do not have adequate access to health care services in South Africa, aid organisations and NGOs say. This is particularly detrimental for those who are HIV-positive and in need of continuous antiretroviral (ARV) medication: interrupted treatment can mean illness, development of drug-resistance and ultimately death.
Migrants are at elevated risk for HIV/AI…
Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Jul 31 2008 (IPS) – Anuar Luna was diagnosed with HIV 17 years ago. I had to overcome feelings of guilt, fear and shame before I became a leader in the HIV-positive community, she said Thursday at the opening of Living 2008: The Positive Leadership Summit, in the Mexican capital.
Luna is now one of the leading activists in defence of the rights of people living with HIV and the fight against AIDS in Mexico.
But despite the influence and visibility gained by the movement over the last decade, people living with HIV continue to face discrimination, isolation, and criminalisation for HIV transmission.
Although success has been achieved in terms of access to medicine and treatment, stigma and discrimination continue to tarnish these accom…
Monika Manke
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 17 2008 (IPS) – Joyce and Tanya two women of different ages, nationalities, cultures and religions share something: both became victims of a missing goal.
Maria José Alcalá, senior advisor at UNIFEM Credit: UN Photo
Combating violence against women is what Inés Alberdi, executive director of the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), calls the missing goal, because it is not an issue addressed by the U.N. s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
But it is an issue with a lot of faces, like J…
David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Nov 13 2008 (IPS) – Funding from the European Union s Brussels headquarters for research into tuberculosis stands at about a fifth of what it should be given the EU s enormous wealth, a new study has found.
With TB killing 1.7 million people per year, health policy analysts estimate that 1.45 billion euros (2 billion dollars) needs to be devoted to research and development (R D) specifically targeting the disease every year. During 2007, however, the EU s executive arm, the European Commission, spent less than 19 million euros, according to the humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, MSF).
According to the organisation, the Commission should have given at least 101 million euros to TB research last year as its fai…
Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH, Jan 8 2009 (IPS) – An international chorus of condemnation has blasted Israel over its human rights abuses in Gaza. Operation Cast Lead, into its 12th day, has now claimed the lives of over 700 Palestinians.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) demanded safe access Thursday for ICRC officials and Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) ambulances to evacuate the wounded. It accused Israel of deliberately delaying ambulances.
Rescue teams made several attempts to rescue the wounded and retrieve bodies in several areas of Gaza city but were refused entry by Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers.
On Wednesday, however, after a week s intensive negotiations with Israeli officials, ICRC officials and PRC ambulance teams managed to reach …
Haider Rizvi
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 19 2009 (IPS) – Despite the heavy military presence of the United States and other Western powers, Afghanistan remains the world s largest illicit producer of opium, according to a new study released by experts who monitor the worldwide trade in narcotics on behalf of the United Nations.
Afghanistan is the source of over 90 percent of the illicit opium in the world, Mylven Levitsky, a member of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), told a news conference after releasing the board s latest study on the global trade in illicit drugs.
Levitsky, who thinks that lack of security is the main obstacle to halting opium production in Afghanistan, urged the U.S.-backed authorities in Kabul to take immediate measures to address the d…
Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Mar 26 2009 (IPS) – Despite repeated calls for integrated HIV and tuberculosis (TB) health services from medical experts and AIDS activists, most of South Africa s public health facilities continue to treat the diseases independently. Co-infection presents a major risk to the lives of people living with HIV.
Women protests against lack of TB services du…
Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Apr 29 2009 (IPS) – More than half of all children in Argentina are at risk of illness because of lack of access to clean, running water, while a large proportion are also threatened by polluting industries and the use of pesticides in agriculture, according to a study by the ombudsman s office.
Los efectos de la contaminación ambiental en la niñez. Una cuestión de derechos (The Effects of Environmental Pollution on Children: A Question of Rights) is the title of a report released this month by the national ombudsman s office, carried out with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations children s agency (UNICEF), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO).<…
José Adán Silva
MANAGUA, May 28 2009 (IPS) – The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) described the criminalisation of abortion under any circumstances in Nicaragua as a violation of human rights.
At its 42nd session in Geneva, the CAT expressed its profound concern about Nicaragua s strict ban on abortion, urging the government to repeal the 2006 law that banned therapeutic abortion and to make its legislation on abortion more flexible, especially in cases of rape or incest.
In October 2006, the Nicaraguan parliament approved a draft law to revoke article 165 of the criminal code, which had permitted abortion for medical reasons since 1893.
Under that law, therapeutic abortion had been legal in cases where the mother s life was in danger, the foet…