In this article, the author takes a rights-based view of the current crisis of restricted access to the results of scientific and medical research. Such research is conducted in the interests of the public, and yet the results are largely kept out of the public domain by traditional corporate publishers who own them, subject them to extremely tight copyright restrictions and sell them in a market worth about US$5 billion annually. The results of biomedical research have unfortunately been privatised, monopolised, and concentrated in the hands of a tiny number of multinational corporations.
Values, Policies and Rights
Excluding the poor from accessing biomedical literature: A rights violation that impedes global health
Yamey G: Health and Human Rights 10(1), 2008
Property rights, food security and child growth: Dynamics of insecurity in the Kafue Flats of Zambia
Merten S and Haller T: Food Policy 33(5): 434-443, October 2008
This paper provides arguments for discussions about the role of property rights for food security and child nutrition in rural Africa. The results are drawn from a case study in the Kafue Flats of Zambia. They show that unclear jurisdictional boundaries and weak authorities facilitated re-negotiations of property rights related to natural resources in the context of the Southern African food crisis of 2002–2003. Access to natural resources was skewed towards the more powerful. On average, food intake was temporarily 50% lower than the annual mean, compared to a less than 10% decrease in the lean season of 2003–2004. Large inequalities existed between different clusters of villages, according to the history of immigration and ethnicity. Yet variability was greatest within villages. Households which reported increasing difficulties with access to natural resources had less diversified income-generating activities, lower food intake and more children showing impaired growth. Discussions addressing the growing disparities in rural areas should focus on a realistic implementation and enforcement of property rights in the context of local power-relations and the harmonisation of different tenure systems related to natural resources.
Sanitation: A Human Rights Imperative
COHRE, UN-HABITAT, SDC and WaterAid release, 12 August 2008
This booklet addresses the benefit of treating sanitation in human rights terms,the legal basis of the right to sanitation, state obligations and standards for differing environments, and priority actions for governments and other stakeholders. While there has been some progress on the recognition and implementation of the right to water, the same is not true of sanitation services. The current International Year of Sanitation presents an opportunity to address the lack of attention paid to sanitation and hygiene in human rights terms. This publication is a call to recognise sanitation as a crucial aspect of the right to an adequate standard of living, setting out the most important strategies and measures that stakeholders and decision-makers can prioritise in order to ensure that sanitation is accessible and affordable to all. It is an advocacy tool to encourage more funding for sanitation, more debate and more research into the barriers to accessing affordable sanitation and how to remove them.
Using human rights to improve maternal and neonatal health: History, connections and a proposed practical approach
Gruskin S, Cottingham J, Hilber AM, Kismodi E, Lincetto O and Roseman MJ: WHO Bulletin 86 (8), 2008
This paper describes how maternal and neonatal mortality in the developing world came to be seen as a public-health concern, a human rights concern, and ultimately as both, leading to the development of approaches using human rights concepts and methods to advance maternal and neonatal health. It describes the different contributions of the international community, women's health advocates and human rights activists.
13,915 reasons for equity in sexual offences legislation: a national school-based survey in South Africa
Andersson N and Foster AH: International Journal for Equity in Health 7(20), 29 July 2008
Prior to 2007, forced sex with male children in South Africa did not count as rape but as "indecent assault", a much less serious offence. This study sought to document prevalence of male sexual violence among school-going youth. Teams visited 5162 classes in 1191 schools, in October and November 2002. A total of 269,705 learners aged 10-19 years in grades 6-11. Of these, 126,696 were male. Schoolchildren answered questions about exposure in the last year to insults, beating, unwanted touching and forced sex. They indicated the sex of the perpetrator, and whether this was a family member, a fellow schoolchild, a teacher or another adult. Respondents also gave the age when they first suffered forced sex and when they first had consensual sex. Some 9% (weighted value based on 13915/127097) of male respondents aged 11-19 years reported forced sex in the last year. Of those aged 18 years at the time of the survey, 44% (weighted value of 5385/11450) said they had been forced to have sex in their lives and 50% reported consensual sex. Perpetrators were most frequently an adult not from their own family, followed closely in frequency by other schoolchildren. Some 32% said the perpetrator was male, 41% said she was female and 27% said they had been forced to have sex by both male and female perpetrators. Male abuse of schoolboys was more common in rural areas while female perpetration was more an urban phenomenon. This study uncovers endemic sexual abuse of male children that was suspected but hitherto only poorly documented. Legal recognition of the criminality of rape of male children is a first step. The next steps include serious investment in supporting male victims of abuse, and in prevention of all childhood sexual abuse.
AU Africa Health Strategy
African Union
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 17 May 2008 following presentation of the Health Strategy last year 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.
What can be done to accelerate progress against undernutrition?
id21HealthNews 73, July 2008
Many organisations work to eliminate undernutrition in children and pregnant and lactating women in developing countries. These organisations - international organisations, donors, academia, civil society and private sector - are loosely linked as an international nutrition system. However, this system is fragmented and dysfunctional. Individual organisations and the system as a whole must examine their strategies, resources and motivations. Organisations must significantly improve their links with national level processes, so that country level priorities are better reflected in international guidance, donor funding, research and training.
Angola: Should intentional HIV/AIDS infection be a crime?
IRIN Africa, 30 May 2008
Proposed reforms to Angola's Penal Code have divided opinion in the country about whether HIV-positive people who intentionally infect others with the virus should be punished. The law under discussion calls for a sentence of between three and 10 years in prison for those who knowingly pass on infectious diseases, including HIV. Some argue that the law will act as a deterrent; others say it will bring more problems than benefits.
AU Summit: 205 African & Global Organisations & Networks Call on African Leaders to Fund AU Africa Health Strategy
Egypt African Union Summit Media Statement, 28 June 2008
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."
Further details: /newsletter/id/33210
Compendium of key documents relating to human rights and HIV in Eastern and Southern Africa
Pretoria University Law Press, 2008
The Compendium of key documents relating to human rights and HIV in Eastern and Southern Africa is a collection, in five parts, of global, regional, sub-regional and national human rights instruments, policies, legislation and case law that are relevant to HIV and AIDS. In most instances, only excerpts pertinent to HIV and AIDS are provided. When applicable, reference is made to a source where the full text may be accessed.