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.
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.
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.
Jacob Zuma was inaugurated as the new president of South Africa on 9 May, with his party, the African National Congress, having achieved a resounding victory in the recent elections. In what has been described as the most competitive election yet to take place in a post-apartheid South Africa, the ANC and Mr. Zuma clearly retain the support and trust of the vast majority of voters, men and women.
In a letter to the Editor of the New York Times, Human rights Watch researcher, Megan McLemore explains why New York Gov. David A. Paterson is wrong to propose cutting in-prison drug treatment programs out of the drug law reform bill to save money.
South Korea's restrictions on entry, stay and residence for people living with HIV broadly violate international human rights law provisions banning discrimination and upholding equality.
The news of the opening of a hospital-based crisis center in Kabwe, Zambia, to address the complex needs of women survivors of sexual and gender-based violence was music to my ears; given that in 2007 I listened to heart-wrenching accounts by Zambian women, including women living with HIV. Gender-based violence devastated the lives of many of those women.
Located in the region of the world that has been hit the hardest by the AIDS epidemic — southern and eastern Africa — Kenya made antiretroviral treatment for AIDS free of charge in 2006, and has been lauded for its prevention measures. Yet research that Human Rights Watch conducted there last year shows that the government is not doing nearly enough to treat HIV-positive children, the most vulnerable patients.
For years now, women’s groups in Southern Africa have campaigned tirelessly to ensure that the Southern African Development Community adopt the Protocol on Gender and Development. Yesterday, the SADC finally took that historic step. Member states will be obliged to amend their laws to ensure equal rights for women across a wide range of issues, from provisions that require member states to enshrine equality in their constitutions, to firm commitments to reduce maternal mortality by 75 per cent. But while that’s a cause for celebration, the Protocol still does not refer explicitly to domestic violence, and it still doesn’t oblige states to introduce legal provisions that criminalise marital rape.
The Human Rights Council reviewed Zambia’s report under its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism in Geneva last Friday, and adoption of the report took place this week on Wednesday. Here in Lusaka, women, including those who describe themselves as “living positively,” are struggling to come out of the shadows that still obstruct the government’s efforts to fight HIV/AIDS.
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.
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.
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.
Jacob Zuma was inaugurated as the new president of South Africa on 9 May, with his party, the African National Congress, having achieved a resounding victory in the recent elections. In what has been described as the most competitive election yet to take place in a post-apartheid South Africa, the ANC and Mr. Zuma clearly retain the support and trust of the vast majority of voters, men and women.
In a letter to the Editor of the New York Times, Human rights Watch researcher, Megan McLemore explains why New York Gov. David A. Paterson is wrong to propose cutting in-prison drug treatment programs out of the drug law reform bill to save money.
South Korea's restrictions on entry, stay and residence for people living with HIV broadly violate international human rights law provisions banning discrimination and upholding equality.
The news of the opening of a hospital-based crisis center in Kabwe, Zambia, to address the complex needs of women survivors of sexual and gender-based violence was music to my ears; given that in 2007 I listened to heart-wrenching accounts by Zambian women, including women living with HIV. Gender-based violence devastated the lives of many of those women.
Located in the region of the world that has been hit the hardest by the AIDS epidemic — southern and eastern Africa — Kenya made antiretroviral treatment for AIDS free of charge in 2006, and has been lauded for its prevention measures. Yet research that Human Rights Watch conducted there last year shows that the government is not doing nearly enough to treat HIV-positive children, the most vulnerable patients.
For years now, women’s groups in Southern Africa have campaigned tirelessly to ensure that the Southern African Development Community adopt the Protocol on Gender and Development. Yesterday, the SADC finally took that historic step. Member states will be obliged to amend their laws to ensure equal rights for women across a wide range of issues, from provisions that require member states to enshrine equality in their constitutions, to firm commitments to reduce maternal mortality by 75 per cent. But while that’s a cause for celebration, the Protocol still does not refer explicitly to domestic violence, and it still doesn’t oblige states to introduce legal provisions that criminalise marital rape.
The Human Rights Council reviewed Zambia’s report under its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism in Geneva last Friday, and adoption of the report took place this week on Wednesday. Here in Lusaka, women, including those who describe themselves as “living positively,” are struggling to come out of the shadows that still obstruct the government’s efforts to fight HIV/AIDS.