The war in Ukraine has had devasting impact on women and girls
worldwide, widening gender gaps and increasing rates of food insecurity, malnutrition and energy poverty. This brief reviews the available evidence
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of that impact, recommending urgent attention to its consequences for women and girls. Its findings underline the global impacts on gender equality and women’s rights that have been compounded by climate change, environmental degradation and the COVID-19 pandemic,
demonstrating further entrenched inequalities and human rights violations.
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Background
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are one of the global leading causes of concern due to the rising prevalence and consequence of mortalit
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y and disability with a heavy economic burden. The objective of the current study was to analyze the trend in CVD incidence, mortality, and mortality-to-incidence ratio (MIR) across the world over 28 years.
Methods
The age-standardized CVD mortality and incidence rates were retrieved from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2017 for both genders and different world super regions with available data every year during the period 1990–2017. Additionally, the Human Development Index was sourced from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) database for all countries at the same time interval. The marginal modeling approach was implemented to evaluate the mean trend of CVD incidence, mortality, and MIR for 195 countries and separately for developing and developed countries and also clarify the relationship between the indices and Human Development Index (HDI) from 1990 to 2017.
Results
The obtained estimates identified that the global mean trend of CVD incidence had an ascending trend until 1996 followed by a descending trend after this year. Nearly all of the countries experienced a significant declining mortality trend from 1990 to 2017. Likewise, the global mean MIR rate had a significant trivial decrement trend with a gentle slope of 0.004 over the time interval. As such, the reduction in incidence and mortality rates for developed countries was significantly faster than developing counterparts in the period 1990–2017 (p < 0.05). Nevertheless, the developing nations had a more rather shallow decrease in MIR compared to developed ones.
Conclusions
Generally, the findings of this study revealed that there was an overall downward trend in CVD incidence and mortality rates, while the survival rate of CVD patients was rather stable. These results send a satisfactory message that global effort for controlling the CVD burden was quite successful. Nonetheless, there is an urgent need for more efforts to improve the survival rate of patients and lower the burden of this disease in some areas with an increasing trend of either incidence or mortality.
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This third edition of the National Gender Statistics Report provides the updated sex-disaggregated data in twelve fields: Population and Youth; Education; Health and Nutrition; Economic Activity and time use; Poverty & Social Protection; Justice &
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Human rights; Environment and Natural Resources; Decisionmaking and Public life; Infrastructure, ICT and Media; Trade and Business and Industry; Agriculture, Livestock and Forestry, and lastly the Income and Access to Finance. It should be noted that this report takes into account almost all quantitative indicators of the United Nations Minimum Set of Gender Indicators (UNMSGI) as developed by the United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD) and some of the approved quantitative SDGs gender related indicators.
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One of the principles underpinning the delivery of all essential services and coordination of those services is the “survivor-centered approach
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, which places the human rights, needs, and wishes of women and girl survivors at the centre of service delivery.
A key challenge faced by many entities working to end violence against women is ensuring that survivors’ voices and inputs are incorporated into policies, practices, and procedures on response. Survivors have diverse needs and face different risks. Not all women and girls experience violence in the same way. An effective intervention takes into account the realities of their unique circumstances, addresses individual needs, and reduces the risk for further harm and suffering.
UN Women, together with Global Rights for Women, have developed “Safe consultations with survivors of violence against women and girls”, which is designed to provide practical steps, safety measures, and actions that government agencies, civil society and survivor organizations, and United Nations’ entities can take to incorporate survivors' voices into systemic reform efforts, through safe and meaningful consultations.
This guidance is intended to help policymakers develop survivor-centered programming on ending violence against women and girls that meets the needs of diverse groups of women and girls, including those who are at higher risk of experiencing violence and discrimination. It is applicable to programming across the health, justice and policing, and social services sectors, as well as coordination of these sectors, and will help improve the standard and delivery of essential services for women and girls who have experienced violence.
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Putting Human Rights at the Heart of the Response
Topic in Focus: COVID-19 and Women’s Human
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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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Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment
Contraception and Family Planning, Preventing Unsafe Abortion and Accessing Postabortion Care, and Maternal Health
African countries, like many regions of the world, are affected by the legacy of atrocity crimes. Genocide, the transatlantic slave trade and slavery, colonialism and post-independence violence comm
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itted during dictatorships, not to mention civil war and violent extremism, have severely violated human rights and left devastating marks on societies across the continent. The way in which societies deal with violent pasts has profound implications for the present and the future, as well as their chances of building sustainable peace.
Strengthening education about atrocity crimes, including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, is an essential part of addressing violent pasts and preventing future atrocity crimes. Echoing a series of United Nations resolutions on the importance of educational measures for genocide prevention,1 in 2013, the Secretary-General’s annual report Responsibility to protect: State responsibility and prevention included the recommendation: “Education curriculums should include instruction on past violations and on the causes, dynamics and consequences of atrocity crimes” as an important means to promote societal resilience to atrocity crimes.
This recognition is in line with the Education 2030 Agenda and, more specifically, target 4.7 of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on Education. This target calls on countries to promote education that fosters sustainable development, human rights, gender equality, a culture of peace, global citizenship and an appreciation of cultural diversity.
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Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Adolescents Sexual and Reproductive Health
In its resolution 34/16, the Human Rights Council decided to focus its next full-day meeting on “Protecting the rights
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of the child in humanitarian situations” and invited the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare a report on that issue, in close collaboration with relevant stakeholders. The report is to be presented to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-seventh session to inform the annual day of discussion on children’s rights.
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While the COVID-19 pandemic threatens all members of society, persons with disabilities are disproportionately impacted due to attitudinal, environmental and institutional barriers that are reproduced in the COVID-19 response.
Although the COVID-19 crisis is, in the first instance, a physical health crisis, it has the seeds of a major mental health crisis as well, if action is not taken. Good mental health is critical to the functioning
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of society at the best of times. It must be front and centre of every country’s response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The mental health and wellbeing of whole societies have been severely impacted by this crisis and are a priority to be addressed urgently.
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In the region, it is estimated that there are over 650 million persons with disabilities. However, without accurate, timely and disaggregated data, countries are unable to develop effective policies and programmes, monitor the wellbeing of persons w
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ith disabilities and evaluate the equity and impact of development efforts. This endangers country commitments to ‘leave no one behind’ and undermines their obligations to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
This groundbreaking report demonstrates the importance of ensuring data is inclusive and provides recommendations for immediate action in order to improve the collection, analysis and reporting of disability data. We hope this report will be used as a tool for future advocacy and ultimately better data for all.
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Listening to what children in crisis have to say is not only a moral and ethical responsibility for donor and humanitarian actors, it is also a humanitarian obligation. Children’s right to participation is recognised in the United
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Nations Convention on the Rights of the
Child (UNCRC), which provides rights for children to express their views and ‘be heard and taken seriously’.
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Policy Brief, Updated in March 2017
Key messages
• Sex workers have the right to equal protection under the law, regardless of the legal status of sex work.
• Sex workers have the
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right to access HIV, sexually transmitted infection (STI) and other health services free from the threat of violence, intimidation, incarceration, and stigma and discrimination.
• Justice and law enforcement sectors, together with the health sector and sex worker communities, should work in partnership to reform relevant legislation, policies and practices.
• Capacity development of all partners is critical to the success of the HIV response among sex workers.
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Botswana CPD.
The 6th Government of Botswana/UNFPA Country Programme (2017-2021) is focusing on a transformative development agenda that is universal, inclusive, human
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rights-based, integrated and anchored in the principle of equality and leaving no one behind, while reaching the furthest left behind first. The country programme will contribute directly to the three outcomes of the United Nations Sustainable Development Framework (2017-2021).
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Five years into a conflict that has left 80% of Yemen’s population in need of humanitarian aid, the UN has issued a broad and scathing report detailing violations
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of international human rights and humanitarian law by all sides in the conflict.
A year of investigations by the Group of International and Regional Eminent Experts on Yemen found a disturbing pattern of violations ranging from arbitrary detention to sexual violence to child recruitment—and “a pervasive lack of accountability” for these violations.
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