Category: Blog

Africa Media Network reporter Ouma Wanzala writes that 7,000 new cases of obstetric fistula occur each year in Kenya alone. Dr. Hillary Mabeya, one of the country’s few specialists in obstetric fistula, explains that only 400 of these women receive treatment for the severe medical condition that often emerges after traumatic or failed childbirth. In order to avoid recurrence, all women who have experienced obstetric fistula in the past should…

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Villagers in the East Indian coastal state of Orissa are giving advocates of the human right to health something to think about. On July 19, the state high court upheld the Indian government’s decision to reject a massive expansion of the Lanjigarh alumina refinery. In its four years of operation, Lanjigarh’s owner, U.K.-based multinational corporation Vedanta Aluminium, Ltd., caused great harm to the health and well being of nearby communities,…

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In his June 20 article, Foreign Policy‘s Charles Kenny writes, “Citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo believe there’s hope for their war-torn country even if no one else does — and their optimism is starting to get results.” The history of bloodshed, exploitation, and poverty in the country is well-documented, and some of its deepest problems lie still unresolved. The civil conflict that followed the end of kleptocrat…

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A child born in sub-Saharan Africa is twenty-five times more likely to die in the first five years of life than one born in the United States. If she lives to child-bearing age, she is a two hundred times more likely to die in labor. Overall, she will die thirty years earlier than the American child. If this health gap is unfair and unacceptable, then how can the international community…

Continue reading “Reducing the health gap: A global plan for justice”

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recently issued a summary document that defines and explains the Human Rights-Based Approach to Health (HRBA). It can be downloaded here.

This guest post was written by Maria Alejandra Cardenas. Her bio and link to her American Comparative Law Review article on this topic is found at the end of the article Over the past eight years, the Constitutional Courts of Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, and Peru have issued decisions banning or highly restricting access to emergency contraceptive drugs. These decisions have all followed a similar pattern in their arguments as well…

Continue reading “Peru’s “right to life” for the zygote and ban on emergency contraception”

Monday, March 8 marked the celebration of International Women’s Day, a global tribute to the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In this guest post, Dr. Agnès Binagwaho, Permanent Secretary of Rwanda’s Ministry of Health, reflects on the human rights of women in Rwanda. Sixteen years ago, during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, perpetrated by Hutu extremists against Tutsis and the Hutu moderates, where one million…

Continue reading “The meaning of human rights for women working in the Rwandan health sector”

[Editor’s Note: This OpenForum op-ed was written by Abigail Hook, a Harvard College undergraduate currently volunteering with the FXB Center] The wealth of global response to Haiti’s January earthquake suggests a tremendous sense of global responsibility for a country whose current death toll is over 200,000. Now that Haiti is on the world’s central radar, how might those involved in rebuilding ensure that Haiti become a lasting center of global…

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[Editor’s Note: This two-part entry features a narrative and photo essay by Dan Schwarz. The entire photo series and Dan’s bio may be found below.] Founded on an unwillingness to accept the grave inequities and double standards that are tolerated every day within the world, Nyaya Health, a small NGO in rural Nepal, operates with a mission of health equity and social justice. Nyaya — which means “justice” in Nepali…

Continue reading “Developing a health system: The case of Nyaya Health in rural Nepal”

[Editor’s note: This is a guest post written by Meredith Baker. Her bio may be found at the end of the article.] This past winter break, I had the opportunity as part of my undergraduate program to travel to Nicaragua and participate in community development work. While I have witnessed considerable poverty before, the community of Nuevo Amanecer, Nicaragua, brought me to a new understanding of what abject poverty can…

Continue reading “Student’s view: A lesson of malnutrition in Nicaragua”