Cambodia is considered one of the few success stories in the global fight against AIDS. Yet, the positive achievements of government health authorities and their partners have been outmatched in the past year by the negative actions of the police, Ministry of Social Affairs and municipal authorities.
I gave birth in the developing world, in South Africa, to be precise. South Africa was in the spotlight recently when a government-commissioned report showed a 20 per cent increase in the number of deaths from pregnancy-related causes between 2005 and 2007 over the previous three-year period. The report said that nearly 40 per cent of these deaths were avoidable.
After almost a decade of dismay at U.S. policy, it was wonderful for those of us in Europe who work on women's rights to witness the U.S. Secretary of State stand up in Congress and say, "We happen to think that family planning is an important part of women's health," and, "Keeping women and men in ignorance and denied access to services actually increases the rate of abortion."
In 2004, a teenage girl incarcerated at the Illinois Youth Center in Warrenville was sexually abused by a male employee at the facility. The abuse consisted of repeated acts of oral sex and sexual intercourse. There was no doubt that the abuse occurred, and the employee ultimately pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal sexual assault.
On Aug. 4, a panel of three federal judges ordered California to reduce its prison population to address grossly deficient medical and mental healthcare systems behind bars. The ruling makes for harrowing reading.
A year ago I interviewed the mother of a young woman from Wisconsin who had been raped by a man she met at while visiting her cousin in Los Angeles. It had been eight months since the rape, and the rape kit - the physical evidence -- in her daughter's case still had not been sent to a crime laboratory. The mother had two simple questions for me: "Why is her kit still unopened?" and, "When will they test her kit?" I didn't have good answers for her then. It's been over a year and I still don't have good answers for her.
On June 26th, which marks both the “International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking” and the “International Day in support of the victims of torture," Rebecca Schleifer writes of the many countries that continue to use torture, pure and simple, in their war against drugs.
For years, we have been shocked by stories of the abuse — much of it sexual — of security detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. But prisoners are not just abused overseas. Rape and sexual violence are all too frequent here in our own backyard. If America is to reclaim its moral authority as a defender of human rights and dignity, it must start at home.
In an Op-Ed published in the Puerto Rico Daily Sun, Human Rights Watch researchers describe their impressions from a recent visit to the Medication Assisted Therapy program at Camp Zarzal, a minimum-security prison in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.
Sex-selective abortion raises a multitude of overlapping ethical concerns regarding eugenics, population control, and provider privilege or knowledge. It was also, until recently, an issue we linked mostly to China, Korea, and India. Not anymore. Recent news coverage indicates that the son-preference that has led to sex-selective abortions abroad is alive and well in some ethnic communities within the United States.
Cambodia is considered one of the few success stories in the global fight against AIDS. Yet, the positive achievements of government health authorities and their partners have been outmatched in the past year by the negative actions of the police, Ministry of Social Affairs and municipal authorities.
I gave birth in the developing world, in South Africa, to be precise. South Africa was in the spotlight recently when a government-commissioned report showed a 20 per cent increase in the number of deaths from pregnancy-related causes between 2005 and 2007 over the previous three-year period. The report said that nearly 40 per cent of these deaths were avoidable.
After almost a decade of dismay at U.S. policy, it was wonderful for those of us in Europe who work on women's rights to witness the U.S. Secretary of State stand up in Congress and say, "We happen to think that family planning is an important part of women's health," and, "Keeping women and men in ignorance and denied access to services actually increases the rate of abortion."
In 2004, a teenage girl incarcerated at the Illinois Youth Center in Warrenville was sexually abused by a male employee at the facility. The abuse consisted of repeated acts of oral sex and sexual intercourse. There was no doubt that the abuse occurred, and the employee ultimately pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal sexual assault.
On Aug. 4, a panel of three federal judges ordered California to reduce its prison population to address grossly deficient medical and mental healthcare systems behind bars. The ruling makes for harrowing reading.
A year ago I interviewed the mother of a young woman from Wisconsin who had been raped by a man she met at while visiting her cousin in Los Angeles. It had been eight months since the rape, and the rape kit - the physical evidence -- in her daughter's case still had not been sent to a crime laboratory. The mother had two simple questions for me: "Why is her kit still unopened?" and, "When will they test her kit?" I didn't have good answers for her then. It's been over a year and I still don't have good answers for her.
On June 26th, which marks both the “International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking” and the “International Day in support of the victims of torture," Rebecca Schleifer writes of the many countries that continue to use torture, pure and simple, in their war against drugs.
For years, we have been shocked by stories of the abuse — much of it sexual — of security detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. But prisoners are not just abused overseas. Rape and sexual violence are all too frequent here in our own backyard. If America is to reclaim its moral authority as a defender of human rights and dignity, it must start at home.
In an Op-Ed published in the Puerto Rico Daily Sun, Human Rights Watch researchers describe their impressions from a recent visit to the Medication Assisted Therapy program at Camp Zarzal, a minimum-security prison in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.
Sex-selective abortion raises a multitude of overlapping ethical concerns regarding eugenics, population control, and provider privilege or knowledge. It was also, until recently, an issue we linked mostly to China, Korea, and India. Not anymore. Recent news coverage indicates that the son-preference that has led to sex-selective abortions abroad is alive and well in some ethnic communities within the United States.