Pax Gaea Human Rights World Post

PAX GAEA WORLD POST HUMAN RIGHTS HEADLINES 12/1

World AIDS Day: Renewed calls for strategies

LONDON, England (AP) -- Circumcision, microbicides and microfinance. These are some of the most promising options being examined as potential ways to prevent AIDS. As World AIDS Day is marked Friday, some public health experts are saying the current focus on universal access to lifesaving antiretroviral drugs has had an unintended effect: sidelining prevention. Without a vaccine, preventing HIV infections is key to controlling the pandemic. New strategies that attempt to change the very environment of AIDS transmission are now being considered. A study published online Thursday in the British medical journal The Lancet describes how a microfinance project in South Africa cut women's chances of domestic violence by more than half. There is a strong link between HIV transmission and abusive relationships, with abusive men more likely to have multiple partners or to become violent if asked to use condoms. "If you address the broader risk environment, women and communities can be quite creative in finding solutions," said Dr. Julia Kim, one of the Lancet study's authors. CNN.com (12/1)

South Africa ends long denial over Aids crisis
· New policy dumps diet as alternative to treatment
· Ministers to pledge drugs for all in need
by 2010 Chris McGreal in Johannesburg

South Africa is using World Aids Day today to launch a plan that turns away from years of denial and obfuscation over the disease by President Thabo Mbeki and his health minister, which critics say have cost hundreds of thousands of lives. The new strategy follows a shift in power that sidelined the health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who was accused of promoting pseudo-scientific policies while Aids claims nearly 1,000 lives a day in South Africa. The Guardian (United Kingdom) (12/1)

Discrimination still harms China AIDS fight--UN

BEIJING, Dec 1 (Reuters) - China is moving in the right direction in the fight against HIV/AIDS, a top U.N. official said on Friday, but needs more education to combat discrimination and stigma, particularly in the nation's vast interior. U.N. China Resident Coordinator Khalid Malik said there was "great unevenness" in the supply of health care and tools in the fight against AIDS at regional level. "There is no longer a big challenge at the central government level in China. The challenge is now firmly in the provinces," Khalid said. "Overcoming stigma and discrimination is really what we need to concentrate on." Reuters/ AlertNet (12/1)

WORLD AIDS DAY:
Mozambican Children Carrying the Burden of HIV and Stigma
Ruth Ansah Ayisi MAPUTO, Dec 1

(IPS) - Dressed in jeans and a sweater, Julia* watches cautiously as her mother talks on her behalf. But as the interview proceeds, she gains confidence and begins to speak for herself. "When the psychologist told me I was HIV-positive, I was angry," says Julia in a melodic voice, without a trace of bitterness. She has the composure of someone much older than her 13 years. "I never cried, even though I thought I would die. That was on December 12, 2005," she says without hesitation. Her mother smiles at her, putting her hands over Julia's clasped hands to give her encouragement. Her mother thinks that Julia probably became infected with the HI virus during a blood transfusion which she received almost 10 years ago when she was sick with malaria. Julia is the only HIV-positive family member. Inter Press Service News Agency (Africa) (12/1)

HIV 'afflicting global workforce'

HIV/Aids is having a crippling effect on the workforce of many countries, a report by the International Labour Organization for World Aids Day says. The ILO said HIV/Aids killed almost 3.5 million people of working age in 2005. South Africa, among the worst-affected nations, has announced a plan aiming to halve the infection rate by 2011 and to boost the use of antiretrovirals. BBC (12/1)

U.N. court jails Sarajevo general for life

THE HAGUE — The appeals chamber of the U.N. war crimes court on Thursday handed down an unprecedented life sentence to Bosnian Serb general Stanislav Galic for overseeing the bloody 44-month siege of Sarajevo. Presiding judge Fausto Pocar said the 20-year sentence a lower court had handed down in 2003 against Galic was "plainly unjust" and replaced it with life imprisonment, the maximum sentence the court can hand down.It was the first time a person before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) had been definitively sentenced to life imprisonment. Earlier life sentences handed down by the lower courts have all been reduced on appeal. Japan Today (12/1)

Tutu to head UN rights mission to Gaza Strip
By The Associated Press

GENEVA - Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu has been named to head a United Nations fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun, where 19 civilians were killed by an Israeli artillery barrage earlier this month, UN officials said yesterday. The South African anti-apartheid campaigner and former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town will travel to Gaza to "assess the situation of victims, address the needs of survivors, and make recommendations on ways and means to protect Palestinian civilians against further Israeli assaults," according to the president of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Luis Alfonso De Alba. Ha'aretz (Israel) (12/1)

Burma: Army Forces Thousands to Flee
Attacks and Abuses Displace Civilians in Eastern Burma

(New York, November 30, 2006) – Thousands of Burmese civilians forced to flee from army attacks in Karen state are trekking through free-fire zones in search of safety and food aid, Human Rights Watch said today. More than 200 civilians have reached camps near the Thai border, but another 3,000 are still on the move, according to credible recent reports received by Human Rights Watch. In Karen state, a year-long military offensive against Karen resistance fighters has displaced 27,000 civilians, with at least 45 civilians killed by government forces. Recent attacks have killed seven villagers and forced more than 1,450 to flee in Mon Township of Nyaunglebin District in eastern Burma. Across the country, more than 82,000 have been forced to flee conflict. Human Rights Watch (12/1)

Cost of treating children with HIV/AIDS to plummet
By Anand Giridharadas / International Herald Tribune

MUMBAI: The cost of treating children infected with HIV/AIDS is poised to plummet next year, under a deal announced Thursday between two Indian drug makers and the foundation of Bill Clinton, the former U.S. president. Cipla and Ranbaxy Laboratories agreed to make 19 different anti-retrovirals designed for children for an average price of 16 cents a day, or $60 a year, which is about 45 percent lower than the lowest current price, the foundation said in a statement. And because not everyone has access to the current lowest price, the Clinton announcement will actually translate into a four- to sixfold cost reduction for many children, said Stephen Lewis, the UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. International Herald Tribune (11/30)

U.S. Will Pay $2 Million to Lawyer Wrongly Jailed
By ERIC LICHTBLAUWASHINGTON,

Nov. 29 — The federal government agreed to pay $2 million Wednesday to an Oregon lawyer wrongly jailed in connection with the 2004 terrorist bombings in Madrid, and it issued a formal apology to him and his family. The unusual settlement caps a two-and-a-half-year ordeal that saw the lawyer, Brandon Mayfield, go from being a suspected terrorist operative to a symbol, in the eyes of his supporters, of government overzealousness in the war on terrorism. New York Times (11/30)

FEMA Ordered to Restore Evacuees' Housing Aid
By SHAILA DEWAN

FEMA has to restore housing assistance and pay back rent to thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees who had been deemed ineligible for long-term housing assistance, a federal judge ruled yesterday. The judge, Richard J. Leon of Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, wrote that the agency also had to improve an appeals process that evacuees had long said was confusing, contradictory and amounted to an arbitrary denial of help. New York Times (11/30)

The UN's rebel advocate on Aids

The first UN special envoy on Aids in Africa is stepping down in December. Daniel Cook spoke to the outspoken Canadian about the highs and lows of his five years in office. Despite working with a tiny - $200,000 (£106,000) - UN budget, Stephen Lewis has done much to open the world's eyes to one of history's worst human health disasters. He is also credited with influencing African governments' attitude to Aids, in particular in South Africa. BBC (11/30)

India seeks UN reforms to end inequities in Africa

UNITED NATIONS: India has demanded a thorough reform of international economic institutions and of the United Nations itself to help overcome the social and economic inequalities wrought by colonial exploitation of Africa. "The only way to redress the imbalance is to work for an equitable international economy and polity underpinned by fair and equitable rules," India's Permanent Representative Nirupam Sen said on Tuesday. The Times of India (11/30)

UN troops face child abuse claims

Children have been subjected to rape and prostitution by United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti and Liberia, a BBC investigation has found. Girls have told of regular encounters with soldiers where sex is demanded in return for food or money. A senior official with the organisation has accepted the claims are credible.The UN has faced several scandals involving its troops in recent years, including a DR Congo paedophile ring and prostitute trafficking in Kosovo. BBC (11/30)

AIDS-EUROPE:Immigrant Women Face Growing Threat
Julio Godoy

PARIS, Nov 30 (IPS) - Immigrant women are becoming some of the main victims of new HIV transmissions in several European countries, especially in France, according to official figures. The French Institute for Health Surveillance (InVS, after its French name) said in a report published this week that 6,700 people were diagnosed with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) in France last year. This included a substantial number of women from sub-Saharan countries. Inter Press Service News Agency (Africa)(11/30)

Darfur death toll subject of debate
By Alfred de Montesquiou
The Associated Press

KHARTOUM, Sudan — As violence in Darfur escalates, a debate is growing over how many people have died in what officials call the world's worst humanitarian crisis. A U.N. agency's survey cites at least 200,000 deaths, but other studies say the death toll could be closer to 400,000 or more. Sudan's government, however, contends the toll is inflated and fewer people have died. The dispute occurs in part because, ever since fighting began in early 2003, humanitarian workers have had limited and perilous access to Darfur. Seattle Times (11/30)

U.N. evacuates staff after south Sudan clashes
By Opheera McDoom/Reuters

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Heavy fighting between Sudan's army and former rebels in the south has forced the United Nations to evacuate staff. Frightened residents of the town of Malakal, where the fighting took place, spoke on Thursday of bodies lying in the streets, and of looting and sporadic gunfire because the withdrawal of one side's troops had left a security vacuum. Washington Post (11/30)

As India tops with world's largest number of HIV cases, new strategy targets drug users

NEW DELHI (AP) — It's the beginning of another workday in New Delhi's bustling Kotla Mubarakpur market, and among the busiest lanes is "Nashewali Gali" — "Addiction Alley" in Hindi. Men sidle down the lane, an infamous hangout for addicts, to a sparsely furnished whitewashed room that's become a front line in India's battle against the spread of the deadly HIV virus. There, protected from prying eyes by a striped curtain strung across the open door, addicts young and old exchange dirty needles for clean ones. Such programs are common, if controversial, in many parts of the world. But they are just beginning to take off in India, where most anti-HIV efforts largely focused on promoting safe sex among high-risk groups such as sex workers, truckers and migrant laborers, with an emphasis on distributing condoms and encouraging their use. USA Today (11/29)

New plan will buy US$200 million in vaccines for poorest countries

BERLIN: An international organization working to increasing vaccination in the developing world said Wednesday it would devote US$200 million to help poor countries protect children against pneumococcus and rotavirus — two leading causes of preventable childhood death. Officials of the Geneva-based GAVI Alliance said at a news conference in Berlin that they hoped to overcome barriers that often lead to years-long delays before new vaccines introduced in the wealthier parts of the world are put into use in the world's poorest countries. International Herald Tribune (11/29)

Outrage over child soldiers in Sri Lanka
A human rights group has accused government forces of aiding a militia in the kidnapping of children.
By Nachammai Raman Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

VAVUNIYA, SRI LANKA – The Tamil Tiger rebels have long been known to use child soldiers in their extended campaign against the Sri Lankan government. The average age of the Tigers' child soldiers, according to UNICEF, is 16 years old. But the disappearance of three children in this frontier town two weeks ago near a Tamil Tiger rebel stronghold has sparked a different kind of outrage. As large-scale hostilities return to this island nation, international human rights observers are now accusing the Sri Lankan Army of helping a militia group enlist children in fighting the Tamil rebels. Christian Science Monitor (11/29)

posted by Dave Carroll @ 12/01/2006 09:39:00 PM