All over the world, young people are stigmatised and discriminated against in relation to their sexual and reproductive health. Stigma, discrimination and the violation of human rights are intimately connected, reinforcing and
legitimising each other. Their manifestations are varied, occurring in families and communities, in health services, at places of work, and in schools.
Values, Policies and Rights
Stigma, discrimination and human rights
Wood k, Aggleton P: Thomas Coram Research Unit
Little done to counter rising abuse of schoolgirls
IRIN News
Violence against girls in Southern African schools is steadily rising, but not enough is being done to prevent and censure abuse in educational institutions. The incidence seems high because more girls are reporting cases of abuse in schools, founder and director of the Girl Child Network (GCN), a Zimbabwean rights NGO. But there are other reasons as well, such as the increasing incidence of poverty: girls from poor homes are lured by teachers with promises of cash. Even the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS is another reason - the myth that sex with a virgin can cure the disease is still very prevalent, and desperate men will do anything. One of the sobering realities highlighted at the gathering, organised jointly by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa and ActionAid International to focus on the problem, was that girls in African schools are repirted to be three times more likely to be abused than boys.
Mainstreaming child rights in the UN system: What will it take for NGO child rights coalitions?
Eldis: Allen D
This report presents the results and analysis of a survey conducted to develop understanding of what NGOs and child rights coalitions would need in order to mainstream children's rights into the UN treaty body system. The survey found that NGO and child rights coalitions that report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child have not, for the most part, made purposeful ventures into the reporting processes of other treaty bodies. The research also illustrates that mainstreaming means different things in different contexts.
Right to health campaign in South Africa
People\'s Health Movement, 14 May 2006: Reynolds L, London L, Sanders D
PHM would like to invite civil society organizations, interested individuals and groups to participate in discussing the possibility of hosting such a campaign in South Africa. It would also contribute to building civil society for the Third People’s Health Assembly, planned for 2010 at an African venue (to be determined). This edition of Critical Health Perspectives sketches the background to the campaign and some of the thinking behind it.
Effectively linking MDGs and human rights in development work?
e-CIVICUS 288
The link between Human Rights and the MDGs is embodied in the Millennium Declaration. Through the Millennium Declaration, governments commit to the core values of freedom, equality, solidarity, peace, security and the rule of law. The MDGs, which serve as outcome indicators for the Declaration, are about realising human rights within a broader development framework. An e-discussion on these issues is now open and contributions are encouraged.
How human rights can support proposals for a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) development agenda
3-D
Aimed at policy makers and advocates this briefing examines proposals for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Development Agenda from a human rights perspective. Drawing on the Friends of Development and Africa Group's original submissions it makes recommendations in 6 key areas.
Research governance: ethical issues
Slowther A, Boynton P, Shaw S: J R Soc Med 2006; 99:65-72
Healthcare research is haunted by a history of unethical studies in which profound harm was caused to vulnerable individuals. Official systems for gaining ethical approval for research, designed to prevent a repetition of these shameful examples, can prove bureaucratic and inflexible in practice. The core ethical principles of respect for autonomy, prevention of harm, promotion of benefit, and justice (which form the basis of professional codes of research conduct) must be applied flexibly to take account of contextual, methodological, personal and practical considerations. Ensuring that the design and conduct of all research is ethically sound is the responsibility of all involved—including researchers, research institutions, ethics review committees and regulatory bodies.
Resolutions of the 42nd regional health minister’s conference
East, Central and Southern African (ECSA) Health Community
The 42nd Regional Health Ministers' Conference with the theme “Scaling up Best Practices in health care in East, Central and Southern Africa” took place at the Sun n Sand Hotel in Mombasa, Kenya from the 6th to the 11th of February, 2006. The conference was ttended by Health Ministers from the ECSA Region, representatives of regional and international organizations as well as developmental agencies. Resolutions were passed at the conference in twelve major areas of health in the region.
Further details: /newsletter/id/31448
South African child guage 2005
Eldis news: Jacobs M, Shung-King M, Smith C
This publication examines the links between the practical situation of children in South Africa, South Africa’s commitments to child rights, and society’s progress in this regard. The document discusses the country’s response to different aspects of the challenge of realising children’s rights, and presents a set of broad-based indicators aimed at gauging improvements in the situation of children over time. This issue focuses on children and policy; HIV and AIDS and children, and the number of children with access to social assistance and basic services.
Status of national research bioethics committees in the WHO African region
Kirigia JM, Wambebe C, Baba-Moussa A: BMC Medical Ethics 2005, 6:10
The Regional Committee for Africa of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2001 expressed concern that some health-related studies undertaken in the Region were not subjected to any form of ethics review. In 2003, the study reported in this paper was conducted to determine which Member country did not have a national research ethics committee (REC) with a view to guiding the WHO Regional Office in developing practical strategies for supporting those countries. In the current era of globalized biomedical research, good ethics stewardship demands that every country, irrespective of its level of economic development, should have in place a functional research ethics review system in order to protect the dignity, integrity and safety of its citizens who participate in research.