Migration Category: news-5001-10000-global

The World Health Organization (WHO) appointed Margaret Chan, a doctor from China, to the Director-general position on Wednesday. In Dr. Chan’s acceptance speech, she noted, “I want us to be judged by the impact we have on the health of people of Africa, and the health of women… Improvement in the health of people in Africa and the health of women are key indicators of the performance of WHO,” according to a release by WHO. Dr. Chan has pledged to work hard to improve the health of people all around the world. “The work we do together saves lives and relieves suffering. I will work with you tirelessly to make this world a healthier place.”

Dr. Chan has been a key leader in fighting the avian flu and SARS outbreaks. She received her medical degree from the University of Western Ontario and also has a degree in public health from the National University of Singapore. Dr. Chan’s appointment follows the sudden death of her predecessor, Dr. Lee Jong-Wook.

A Saudi victim of gang rape was sentenced to 90 lashes for being alone in a car with a male friend who was not her husband prior to her rape. Seven men reportedly followed the victim and her friend to their car, kidnapped them, and took them to a farm where they raped the woman, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports. Four men, all married, were convicted of the crime and received sentences ranging from one year in prison and 80 lashes to five years in prison and 1,000 lashes. A fifth man who videotaped the rape on his cell phone still faces investigation, and two other men alleged to have participated in the kidnapping and rape escaped arrest, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

The victim and her male friend both received 90 lashes for being alone together. The victim’s husband and family are not disputing these sentences, but announced that they will appeal for harsher penalties for the assailants, FOX reports.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are revealing and attempting to address the growing problem of HIV-positive street children in Senegal and Zambia. Street children in both of these countries are often orphans whose parents died from AIDS or who ran away from an abusive family situation; frequently, they turn to prostitution to earn money, the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) reports.

According to IRIN, a survey of 30 street children in Dakar, Senegal‘s capital city, found that 70 percent had engaged in sex with multiple partners. When asked about AIDS, the report found that half of the respondents did not know how HIV is transmitted and 40 percent did not know how to prevent transmitting the virus, IRIN reports. Le Samu Social Senegal is the only NGO that provides Senegalese street children with medical care, but they often encounter problems. Isabelle de Guillebon, who runs Samu, told IRIN that the street children are often under the influence of drugs, which inhibits their ability to connect with Samu’s staff, and that Senegalese legislation does not allow children to be tested for HIV without parental consent, making it impossible for street children to determine their status.

NGOs in Zambia, which has a 16.5 percent rate of HIV infection (compared with Senegal’s relatively low rate of 0.9 percent), are making progress in addressing the problem of sexually active street children. To provide an alternative for street children, who often are exposed to HIV/AIDS as a result of prostitution, Zambian Monica Eisenberg founded the Back to School Project, an NGO that provides education, food, counseling, and health services, including HIV tests. The organization encourages them to find productive ways to spend their time, such as taking photographs to create an exhibit explaining the ways HIV cannot be transmitted or broadening their vocabulary to create rap songs.

Catherine Sozi, the head of UNAIDS in Zambia, spoke to IRIN about the importance of community involvement in addressing the problem of street children and HIV/AIDS, saying, “Winning the fight against HIV/AIDS will ultimately come down to what individuals can do, what religious leaders can do to help remove the stigma, and about what the private sector can do to help its workersÉ Most important is the task of changing people’s behavior, and that is not a job any one group or the government can do alone, it’s up to everybody to help, the whole society.”

Women’s rights advocates in Iraq and Saudi Arabia have been the target of misogynistic violence and political oppression, respectively, in the past week. In Iraq, Halima Ahmed Hussein Al Juburi, the head of the human rights organization Maternity and Childhood, was killed in her home. According to Kirkuk Police Captain Imad Khudhir, 10 unidentified attackers broke into Juburi’s home in the northern town of Hawijah and shot her in front of her children, AFP reports. The motive for and perpetrators of Juburi’s murder are still not known, but conservative Islamist groups that believe that women should not participate in public life often target women’s rights advocates, AFP reports.

Also in the Middle East, a women’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia has been forced to sign an oath, pledging not to protest or participate in any human rights activities, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports. HRW reported that Wajeha al-Huwaider was harassed by mabahith, Saudi Arabia’s secret police force, for organizing a women’s rights protest. In late September, she was detained and interrogated for six hours and then forced to sign a statement surrendering her freedom to participate in human rights protests. HRW is calling on the Saudi government to stop harassing al-Huwaider, void her forced pledge, and allow independent activists and organizations to monitor and promote human rights in Saudi Arabia.

Poland’s parliament introduced a constitutional amendment last week that would ban all abortions in the country, but both the President and Prime Minister have expressed their disapproval of the ban. Right-wing, Catholic members of parliament, known as the League of Polish Families (LPF), introduced the law, which is similar to Nicaragua’s recent abortion ban, that would further limit Poland’s strict abortion laws, which only allow abortion in cases of rape, incest, or a threat to a woman’s health. Supporters of the ban want to include the right to life “from the moment of conception” in the constitution, according to AFP. Marek Kotlinowski, deputy director of LPF said about cases of rape, “A child should not be punished for the crimes of his father… It’s a tragedy for the women, but the fate of the child interests me more,” Reuters reports.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his brother Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski have both announced their intent to reject the proposed amendment. “I am for keeping the status quo,” President Kaczynski said, according to Reuters. “The compromise reached on abortion 13 years ago is good.” The bill is currently in committee and a vote in the lower house is expected in the next few months, but without the support of the president and the prime minister, the bill is likely to fail, Reuters reports.

Many feminist organizations in Poland argue that a complete ban will only lead to more back-alley abortions, a practice which is not uncommon in Poland. “Nobody will force a woman to have children if she does not want [them]. It is total hypocrisy to put a complete ban on abortions when everyone knows the black market exists,” said Wanda Nowicka, president of the country’s family planning federation, reports AFP.

The Nicaraguan legislature voted yesterday to outlaw all abortions, making it the third country in the Western Hemisphere to outlaw abortion without exception. The legislation was approved 52-0, with nine abstentions and 29 legislators not voting. The legislation must still be signed by Nicaraguan president Enrique Bolanos, who is strongly against abortion rights and favors increasing penalties for illegal abortions; without his veto, the ban will take effect in 30 days. Nicaragua currently allows abortion if a woman’s life is in danger or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

Legislators may have feared opposing the bill so close to the upcoming election on November 5 because of the strong influence of the Roman Catholic Church, which pushed heavily for the passage of the legislation, according to Reuters. While church leaders were able to sit in on the vote, women’s rights activists were physically barred from entering. Hundreds of protestors gathered outside the National Assembly the day of the vote, and legislators were asked by the international community to consider the ramifications for women’s human rights.

“We are outraged that leaders who claim to stand for the poor and marginalized would vote in favor a law that condemns women to die like this. Women’s live[s] are worth more,” said Marta Mar’a Bland—n, director of Ipas Central America, an organization working to end unsafe abortion practices around the world. It is estimated 32,000 women undergo illegal abortion every year in Nicaragua, most unsafe, according to the New York Times. According to Ipas, the Nicaraguan Women’s Autonomous Movement plan to file a suit challenging the constitutionality of the extreme ban.

Despite a major anti-rape law implemented in Liberia early this year, a United Nations report found that progress has been slow in abolishing sexual and gender-based violence due to flaws in the judicial system. The Rape Amendment Act, implemented when Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf came into office January 2006, strengthened consent laws, redefined rape as a felony, and imposed a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for first-degree rape. A human rights report issued by the United Nations Missions in Liberia (UNMIL), however, found that only a fraction of cases are actually heard, some suspects are being released without facing trial, and many cases are inefficiently investigated.

According to the report, “rape suspects are regularly released on bail even when there is significant evidence indicating guilt” and as of July 2006, “only one accused had been convicted of an offense under the Act since it came into force six months ago.”

President Johnson-Sirleaf is now working with UNMIL and the Government of Liberia Rule of Law Task Force to ensure that the laws mandating fundamental rights for women and children are being upheld.

The United Kingdom has granted asylum to Zainab Fornah, 19, who fears she would be subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) if she returns to Sierra Leone, her home country. Under refugee law, an individual can be granted asylum if she belongs to a “particular social group” that is in danger of persecution. In Fornah’s case, her status as a woman puts her at risk of FGM, also known as female genital cutting. The procedure, which is practiced on about 90 percent of all women in Sierra Leone, involves the partial or complete removal of the clitoris, resulting in reduced or no sexual feeling, pain, long-term illness, mental disorders, and sometimes death BBC writes.

This decision makes persecution based on gender a valid basis for qualifying for asylum, in addition to race, religion, nationality, and political opinion, The Guardian reports. Lord Bingham of Cornhill, one of the Law Lords who granted Fornah asylum, told Times Online, “I think it clear that women in Sierra Leone are a group of persons sharing a common characteristic which, without a fundamental change in social mores, is unchangeable; namely a position of social inferiority as compared with men.”

Sierra Leone officials have condemned the British ruling, BBC reports. Septimus Kaikai explained to BBC that, while people should have the freedom to decide where to live, “What we are opposed to is the deliberate and conscious and premeditated attempt by individuals to malign and besmear the reputation, integrity, and character of a government and its people.”

Lord Bingham said that Sierra Leone authorities have done little to curb the widespread practice, Times Online reports.

Lateefa al-Geeod has become the first woman elected to parliament in the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain this week, a country in which women only won the right to vote in 2001. Al-Geeod registered to run for the seat and officially won after registration closed on Tuesday and she remained without opposition, according to the Khaleej Times. In the 2002 municipal and parliamentary elections, 31 women ran for positions but failed to be elected. In upper parliament, six women hold appointed positions.

“I am very proud as a Bahraini woman to reach this point, and I hope more than one female candidate reaches the parliament,” said al-Geeod, according the the Associated Press. Al-Geeod currently works at the Bahrain’s Ministry of Finance and holds a Master’s degree in financial management. She says that she is focused on the “economy, unemployment and discrimination against women in the management field,” reports the Associated Press.

A proposed law in Nicaragua banning all abortions, even when a woman or girl’s life is at risk, is currently under review by the country’s judicial commission and may be voted on soon. Current law in Nicaragua permits “therapeutic abortions” for situations in which a woman or girl’s life is endangered by a pregnancy, but remains vague, Spero News reports. Despite the restrictive law, a 1996 study found that about 36,000 abortions are performed every year, and that unsafe, illegal abortions were a leading cause of death for women in the 1980s, according to CBS.

The predominately conservative country engaged in an explosive debate about abortion rights in March 2003 when a 9-year-old rape victim became pregnant and underwent an abortion. Despite medical opinions that the pregnancy was a risk to her health, government officials, Catholic church representatives, and anti-abortion activists opposed the abortion.

In an effort to promote safe sex and reduce the infection rate of HIV, the Botswana government has launched an initiative to promote the female condom. The Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, has estimated that 140,000 of Botswana’s 1.8 million citizens are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. While the government has provided free antiretroviral drugs to HIV positive individuals, the unpopularity of the female condom and power imbalances between the sexes have hampered the success of prevention efforts.

A marketing team has brightly packaged the condoms and renamed them “Bliss” in the hopes that it will persuade more women to use the condom. An art director of the condom’s redesign, Derick Muchena noted, “The earlier product’s packaging was dull and did not stand out much, so we decided to use brighter colors and a sexy name,” IRIN reports. The Ministry of Health and the marketing agency have distributed leaflets promoting Bliss and will also launch a television ad.

David Ngele, the national coordinator of Botswana Network of People Living with AIDS, expressed hopes that, by popularizing female condoms, women would be able to initiate safe sex with a male partner. Ngele told IRIN that female condoms would hopefully “help change the current mindset of men and help empower women.”

The Indonesian government announced this week that it is prohibiting doctors and nurses from performing female genital cutting. According to Reuters, some Indonesian groups encourage families to perform female genital mutiliation, allegedly to maintain chastity and virginity before marriage and to ensure faithfulness in the women’s marriage.

Sri Hermiyanti, head of the Indonesian health ministry’s family health directorate, said, “Hurting, damaging, incising and cutting of the clitoris are not permitted under the ban, because these acts violate the reproductive rights of these girls and harm their organs,” reports Kaiser Daily Women’s Health Policy Report. However, there are no punishments in place for those who violate the ban, and it is expected that it will take time for traditional communities to stop performing female genital mutilation.