Hannah van Kolfschooten and Angela Hefti All over the world, individuals are taking governments to court for their role in climate change, or rather, their “climate inaction”. The 2022 Global Trends in Climate Change Litigation Policy Report shows that strategic litigation cases to enforce climate laws and policies have doubled since 2015. On 29 March 2023, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) heard its first…
Women’s Health and Rights: Time to Recommit
Flavia Bustreo and Rajat Khosla According to the recently released Trends in Maternal Mortality 2000 to 2020, global progress in reducing maternal mortality stagnated between 2000-2015 and worsened in some regions between 2016 and 2020.[1] Overall only 69 countries show a reduction in the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) when comparing 2020 with 2000 data.[2] Worldwide in 2020 223 maternal deaths occurred per 100,000 livebirths, a rate equal to the death…
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Post-Roe and Women Under Carceral Surveillance
Ira Memaj and Robert E. Fullilove People with the capacity to get pregnant have benefited socially and economically from the legalization of abortion in Roe v. Wade.[1] Roe has allowed people to exercise their right to choose when, how, and under what circumstances they decide to become a parent. However, for incarcerated women and pregnant persons, the freedom to exercise that right has always been severely restricted and they have…
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Respectful Care for Women and Newborns in Crisis Settings: A Human Right
By Caroline Kinsella Maternal and newborn deaths must not be accepted as inevitable consequences of an armed conflict, natural disaster, or disease outbreak. This World Refugee Day, it is crucial that we listen to the displaced women and girls around the world demanding respectful and quality care in humanitarian settings. UNFPA anticipates that In the next three months more than 500 babies will be born to refugee mothers from Ethiopia’s…
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Gender Inequality, Health Rights, and HIV/AIDS among Women Prisoners in Zimbabwe
Volume 23/1, June 2021, pp. 225-236 PDF Nirmala Pillay, Dzimbabwe Chimbga, and Marie Claire Van Hout Abstract Zimbabwe has successfully reduced its HIV prevalence rate and AIDS-related deaths in recent years, but women, particularly those who are in prison, remain at high risk. Poor prison conditions, discrimination, stigma, and the neglect of the sexual and reproductive health of women prisoners living with HIV result in poor health outcomes for women…
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Advancing Women’s and Children’s Health: The Value of the Framework Convention on Global Health
Arachu Castro, Eric A. Friedman, Luiz Galvao, Martin Hevia, and Helia Molina Historically, women in most parts of the world have been subject to deep discrimination which also harms children’s health in multiple ways. In this blog we argue that the Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH), a proposed global treaty with human rights and equity as overriding goals and principles, could help address these harms. The FCGH is especially…
PERSPECTIVE Safe Abortion in Women’s Hands: Autonomy and a Human Rights Approach to COVID-19 and Beyond
Volume 23/1, June 2021, pp. 191-197 PDF Andrés López Cabello and Ana Cecilia Gaitán Introduction While SARS-CoV-2 containment measures transformed all spheres of social interaction, the COVID-19 pandemic has subjected national health systems to unforeseen strain, leading to their virtual collapse in many countries. The international health crisis has exacerbated social inequalities, with a disproportionate impact on traditionally neglected people; unfortunately, its socioeconomic impacts are likely only to deepen in…
COVID-19 and the Law: Framing Healthcare Worker Risks as Women’s Rights Violations
Kristin Bergtora Sandvik Today, public health is ‘delivered by women and led by men’, with a glaring absence of women and nurses at the decision making table.[1] Globally, though women only make up 25% of those in healthcare leadership they make up the majority of healthcare workers (70%) and nurses (90%).[2] This exclusion skews the agendas on health so the gender dimensions of research, diagnosis, treatment, and care are rendered…
Underreporting of Violence to Police among Women Sex Workers in Canada: Amplified Inequities for Im/migrant and In-Call Workers Prior to and Following End-Demand Legislation
Volume 22/2, December 2020, pp 257 – 270 PDF Bronwyn McBride, Kate Shannon, Brittany Bingham, Melissa Braschel, Steffanie Strathdee, and Shira M. Goldenberg Abstract Sex workers globally face high levels of violence. In Canada, im/migrant sex workers who work in indoor venues may be uniquely targeted by police due to immigration policies, racialized policing, and the conflation of trafficking and sex work. In 2014, Canada passed end-demand legislation that purportedly…
Community Mobilization to Promote and Protect the Sexual and Reproductive Rights of Women Living with HIV in Latin America
Volume 22/2, December 2020, pp. 213 – 226 PDF Tamil Kendall, Jimena Avalos Capin, Nazneen Damji, and Eugenia Lopez Uribe Abstract Between 2009 and 2014, the International Community of Women Living with HIV in Latin America and the Mexican feminist civil society organization Balance coordinated a five-country community-led intervention that brought together women living with HIV (WLHIV), trans women, sex workers, and feminist lawyers to document and respond to sexual…