People with disabilities experience significant health inequalities. In Malawi, where most individuals live in low-income rural settings, many of t...hese inequalities are exacerbated by restricted access to health care services. This qualitative study explores the barriers to health care access experienced by individuals with a mobility or sensory impairment, or both, living in rural villages in Dowa district, central Malawi. In addition, the impact of a chronic lung condition, alongside a mobility or sensory impairment, on health care accessibility is explored.
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The COVID-19 pandemic and in fact all crises – acute or prolonged – remind us that human rights need to be central in all recovery and development efforts. The Sustainable Development Goals will only be achieved if we are able to create equal op...portunities for all, address failures exposed and exploited by COVID-19, and apply human rights standards to tackle entrenched, systematic, and intergenerational inequalities, exclusion and discrimination.
We also share examples from Dorcas’ practice and formulate recommendations based on good practices of other organisations as well as our own. With this report, we aim to inform and inspire policy makers and humanitarian and development practitioners on inclusion of the rights of Older People in the current COVID-19 crisis, as well as others yet to come.
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Rural Women Peace Link (RWPL) is a grassroots women-led organization
working in rural areas in the west of Kenya to promote local women’s
involvement in peace building, governance and development.
The report discusses the epidemiological and social aspects of ageing, health and functional changes experienced with ageing, the impact of physica...l activity, assessment of the nutritional status of older persons, and nutritional guidelines for healthy ageing.
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Children in Kabwe are especially at risk because they are more likely to ingest lead dust when playing in the soil, their brains and bodies are still developing, and they absorb four to five times as much lead as adults. The consequences for children who are exposed to high levels ...bute-to-highlight medbox">of lead and are not treated include reading and learning barriers or disabilities; behavioral problems; impaired growth; anemia; brain, liver, kidney, nerve, and stomach damage; coma and convulsions; and death. After prolonged exposure, the effects are irreversible. Lead also increases the risk of miscarriage and can be transmitted through both the placenta and breastmilk.
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The study collected data on the impact of HIV-related diseases on income, revenues, economic dependency, consumption, education, health, food security, stigma, discrimination, quality of life, and m...igration. The study also assessed people living with chronic diseases in order to compare the impact of living with HIV/AIDS with the impact of living with a chronic disease.
Stigma, discrimination, and socio-economic exclusion continue to affect the rights and socio-economic opportunities of people living with HIV in Myanmar. Households with a family member who has HIV, have lower incomes, fewer assets and lower home-ownership, compared to households that are not affected by HIV. They also have more household debt, and their families pay a higher rate of interest compared to families not affected by HIV.
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mnesty International’s annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2021, published in March 2022, shows that promises to “build back better” after the Covid-19 pandemic were li...ttle more than lip service. Hopes of global cooperation withered in the face of vaccine hoarding and corporate greed.
Governments suppressed independent and critical voices, with some even using the pandemic as a pretext to shrink further the civic space. New and unresolved conflicts erupted or persisted. Those forced to flee were subjected to a litany of abuses, including pushbacks by countries in the Global North. But hopes for a better post-pandemic world were kept alive by courageous individuals, social movements and civil society organizations.
The report is available in different languages
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Putting Human Rights at the Heart of the Response
Topic in Focus: COVID-19 and Women’s Human Rights
15 April 2020
Stay-at-home restrictions... and other measures restricting the movement of people contribute to an increase in genderbased violence, a finding confirmed by media reports, official statements and information received from OHCHR field presences and human rights defenders in many countries.
Women and girls already in abusive situations are more exposed to increased control and restrictions by their abusers, with little or no recourse to seek support. Hotlines receive reports of women being threatened with being thrown out of their homes, exposed to the infection, or having financial resources and medical aid withheld.
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The Catholic Church maintains that the Imago Dei is the ground for human dignity. The secular world, too, endorses human dignity as the foundation for human rights without referring to Imago Dei. The Catholic Church and the secular worl...d both agree on the importance of human dignity, even though they differ on their views about the source of human dignity. In this paper, we shall examine if human dignity can be the basis of a fruitful dialogue between the Catholic Church and the secular world in order to make our world a better place to live. The primary resources for our study are the Church documents on human dignity, and the opinions of distinguished thinkers on the need to promote a culture of dialogue between religions and secular world.
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The Global Movement for Mental Health has brought renewed attention to the neglect of people with mental illness within health policy worldwide. The maltreatment ...medbox">of the mentally ill in many low-income countries is widely reported within psychiatric hospitals, informal healing centres, and family homes. International agencies have called for the development of legislation and policy to address these abuses. However such initiatives exemplify a top-down approach to promoting human rights which historically has had limited impact at the level of those living with mental illness and their families.
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The International Forum of Indigenous Women (IIWF) has prepared this report in order to have a
document for analysis and systematization of the impacts o...f the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives
of Indigenous Women, and to identify the strategies promoted by them. This document is expected
to serve as a political tool for advocacy. The methodology used in this analysis is a gender and
Indigenous Women’s collective and individual human rights approach. The results are mainly based
on a global, participatory survey, conducted in English, French and Spanish languages, aimed at
indigenous women’s organizations and leaders.
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This report includes six case studies from 12 individuals with lived experience of diverse health conditions. These case studies explore the topics of...an> power dynamics and power reorientation towards individuals with lived experience; informed decision-making and health literacy; community engagement across broader health networks and health systems; lived experience as evidence and expertise; exclusion and the importance of involving groups that are marginalized; and advocacy and human rights.
It is the first publication in the WHO Intention to action series, which aims to enhance the limited evidence base on the impact of meaningful engagement and address the lack of standardized approaches on how to operationalise meaningful engagement. The Intention to action series aims to do this by providing a platform from which individuals with lived experience, and organizational and institutional champions, can share solutions, challenges and promising practices related to this cross-cutting agenda. The Intention to action series also aims to provide powerful narratives,inspiration and evidence towards the Fourth United Nations High Level Meeting on NCDs in 2025 and achieving the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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With about 24 million of Yemen’s 30 million people in need of some form of assistance, the Uni...ted Nations calls Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Cholera and other disease outbreaks are common, malnutrition is widespread, water is scarce, and the healthcare system is crumbling, with only half of the country’s 5,000 or so health facilities fully operational and with massive medical supply and staff shortages. In August 2020, the UN warned the country was again on the brink of full-scale famine.
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It is the policy of the GoR to ensure that children’s rights are met through the provision of basic needs and services for all children in the co...untry, and protect them from abuse and exploitation. Children are defined as persons below the age of 18 years and the ICRP covers children from the time before their birth until they complete the age of 18 years. The Integrated Child Rights Policy of Rwanda is based on seven key themes: Identity and Nationality; Family and Alternative Care; Survival, Health and Standards of Living; Education; Protection; Justice; and Child Participation.
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This practical guidance is designed to assist programme specialists to implement COVID19 RCCE activities for and with refugees, IDPs, migrants and host communities vulnerable to the pandemic. The guidance highlights key challenges and barriers faced... by these people in accessing COVID19 health-related information and presents key considerations and recommendations for planning and implementing RCCE activities. The document can be adapted to countries’ specific context and aligned with national response plans for COVID-19 and national RCCE plans.
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This report aims to estimate the economic cost of providing regular access to healthcare for migrants in an irregular situation, compared with the cost of... providing treatment in emergency cases only. Two specific medical conditions – hypertension and prenatal care – were selected as examples, and their associated costs were calculated using an economic model. This model was then applied to three EU Member States: Germany, Greece and Sweden. The testing suggests that providing access to regular preventive healthcare for migrants in an irregular situation
would be cost-saving for governments.
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The revision of the SRHR Policy is based on the results of the analysis of the implementation process o...f the past policy, which has provided evidence to
ensure that the revised policy is relevant and effective. The revision has also been done with the participation of all national stakeholders who have
also international experience on SRHR issues. The Ministry urges all public and private institutions to use this policy as a guide in the implementation of
SRHR services in the country.
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The 65-page report names more than 15 commanders and officials from both the government Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the rebel SPLA-in Opposition and their allies who have used child soldiers. The report is based on interviews with 10...1 child soldiers who were either forcibly recruited or joined forces to protect themselves and their communities. They said they lived for months without enough food, far away from family, and were thrown into terrifying gun battles in which they were injured and saw friends killed. Children also expressed deep regret that they had lost time they should have spent in school.
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Impact of EU policies on accessing protection. The report highlights the tragedy hundreds of thousands of people face when seeking protection in Eu...rope. Women, men and children escaping war, repression and violation of human rights often turn to Europe in the hope of finding a safe haven. But many are instead confronted with bureaucratic hurdles, denial of protection and inconsistent reception standards across Europe.
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