Summary. Amnesty International reports & statements

Transcription

1 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL NEWS FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS AI Bulletin Vol. 7, No.19, 24 September 2004 AI Index: ACT 84/019/ Contents of external sites are not the responsibility of Amnesty International. Links are provided for the convenience of readers. Some sites may require registration or only be available to subscribers. Summary AI reports & statements Children Death penalty Female genital mutilation HIV/AIDS Human rights Organ trade Prisoners Right to health Torture Courses Lectures Study opportunities Meetings Vacancies Publications Amnesty International reports & statements See the following recent AI news releases [dates given in day/month/year format]. 23/09/2004 International Criminal Court: Burundi and Liberia - Ratification is an important commitment towards ending impunity IOR 51/010/ /09/2004 Jamaica: Alleged extrajudicial killings by the army must be fully investigated AMR 38/012/ /09/2004 Syria: Amnesty International welcomes Syria's accession to the UN Convention Against Torture MDE 24/069/ /09/2004 UK: An inquiry into Finucane but what kind? EUR 45/023/ /09/2004 Greece: Professional soldier Giorgos Monastiriotis is a prisoner of conscience and must be released EUR 25/011/ /09/2004 Iraq: Hostage-taking and killing must end immediately MDE 14/049/ /09/2004 Nigeria: Amnesty International seeks to intervene in case reviewing asylum granted to former Liberian President Charles Taylor AFR 44/029/ /09/2004 Zimbabwe: Ten dead following police misuse of tear gas AFR 46/027/ /09/2004 Sudan: Distress, denial and disappointment in Darfur Findings of Amnesty International visit to Darfur AFR 54/127/ /09/2004 Anti-death penalty activists speak out POL 30/036/ /09/2004 Indonesia: Editor's jail sentence threatens press freedom ASA 21/037/ /09/2004 Iraq: Urgent inquiry needed into civilian killings by US troops MDE 14/047/2004 1

2 These and other links to news and reports can be found at: Children UNICEF -- report reveals abuse of millions. An estimated 1.2 million children worldwide are trafficked each year, two million work in the commercial sex trade, more than 13 million are estimated to be AIDS orphans and 250 million are involved in child labour. Delegates from 58 countries are attending the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect conference on child protection at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. See News.com.au 21 September. Death penalty Canada-World Congress. The Second World Congress against the Death Penalty will take place in Montreal, 6-9 October The congress will cover all aspects of the death penalty and the movement for abolition. Details of the program and events are available at On Thursday 7 October there will be a roundtable on doctors and the death penalty. Speakers will include Dr Jonathan Groner, Dr Mark Health, Dr Abraham Halpern and Dr Anant Bhan. James Welsh will chair. Japan. A man who stabbed to death eight school children in 2001 has been executed. But the speed with which he was executed has raised concern reports the BBC, 14 September. USA. The Death Penalty Information Center has issued a new report, Innocence and the Crisis in the American Death Penalty, cataloging 116 cases of former death row inmates who have been exonerated in 25 states since DPIC,15 September. USA. An autopsy of the last man executed in Kentucky, Edward L. Harper, found only 3 to 6.5 mg/l of barbiturate in Harper's blood -- a level leaving a high chance that Harper was conscious throughout the execution according to prosecution expert Dr Mark Dershowitz. See: DPIC, 21 September: Uzbekistan. Deploring the reported execution in Uzbekistan of people allegedly tortured into confessing and the government's disregard of United Nations pleas for a stay, a senior UN human rights official has called for a moratorium on the death penalty and urged the government to consider abolishing it. UN News service 13 September. Female genital mutilation Kenya. Participants at the International Conference on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Kenya have urged African governments to introduce and enforce tough laws to stamp out the harmful traditional practice and protect the women and children of their countries. China View 18 September. See also: allafrica com, 22 September : HIV/AIDS 2

3 Kenya. A woman, who says she was sacked for being HIV-positive, has won the right to sue for alleged discrimination - the first such case in Kenya. She also wants compensation from the doctor and the hospital which allegedly revealed her test result without her consent. BBC 17 September. WHO. Expanding access to tuberculosis treatment, combined with introducing HIV testing and anti-retroviral (ARV) delivery into TB programmes, could save the lives of as many as Africans living with HIV every year and is one of the most costeffective ways to ensure the survival of HIV-positive people, according to international health experts meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. WHO News release 21 September. Human Rights Brazil. Two Brazilian policemen have been arrested on suspicion of murder following a wave of attacks on homeless people in Sao Paulo. BBC 17 September. Cote d'ivoire. People-trafficking has now become the biggest crime racket in Africa after drugs, according to information released at a conference in Cote d'ivoire this week. See allafrica.com, 17 September. Netherlands - doctor shot for "terrorism" (in 1944). A Dutch doctor shot in Arnhem in 1944 for helping injured British soldiers was remembered on the 60th anniversary of the "battle of Arnhem". See BMJ (24 September) UK - doctors and crime prevention. The head of Scotland Yard's murder squad has urged a review of the law to make it easier for doctors to identify mentally ill patients who could kill, reports the BBC (24 September). Mental health Peru - mental health. Peru is only now starting to come to terms with two decades of civil war that formally ended in and the entire population is suffering the consequences writes Barbara Fraser in the Lancet (25 September): pretation Peru - mental health rights. Mental Disability Rights International and Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos (APRODEH, Association for Human Rights) publish this month a report on mental health and human rights in Peru. See: Prisoners Iraq/USA. Revelations that US forces hid dozens of Iraqi detainees from the International Committee of the Red Cross require an independent investigation, Human Rights Watch said 10 Sept 3

4 Prison medicine. A new course is intended to raise physicians' awareness about their role in identifying prisoner abuse and to assist doctors in dealing with human rights violations. It also helps nonmedical military personnel to learn what ethical lines physicians should not cross. Amednews.com, 27 September. See also: BBC News Online: (19 September) Right to health China. Up to 75 percent of urban Chinese suffer from bad health, defined as a person being sick, with reduced energy and fitness, but not diagnosed with a specific disease, reports China Daily, 20 September Torture Afghanistan. An Afghan court has found three Americans guilty of torturing Afghans in a private jail. Jonathan K. Idema received a 10-year jail term. Brent Bennett, an Idema associate, got a 10-year jail term and Edward Caraballo, a journalist, received an eight-year-term. The court sentenced four Afghan accomplices to lesser terms. CNN com, 15 September. Council of Europe. The CPT has published its 14th annual report. See 'Anti-Torture Committee urges States not to tolerate ill-treatment (14th General Report on the CPT's activities covering the period 1 August 2003 to 31 July 2004)' The report is available at: Pakistan. A 20 year old man has died in police custody. City morgue officials told a daily paper that there were multiple torture marks on his body and that his feet were badly infected. Daily Times, 23 September Sudan. Sudanese authorities have arrested and tortured at least two members of an Islamist opposition party during a search for rebels from its western Darfur region, a senior party official says. Reuters, 12 Sept 7&section=news Turkey. Inadequate supervision of police officers allows torture and ill-treatment to continue in Turkey despite the country's introduction of comprehensive legal safeguards, Human Rights Watch said 22 September. USA/Iraq. Mark Danner reviews the Schlesinger and Fay reports of August 2004 on torture in Abu Ghraib prison. See New York Review of Books (cover date: 7 October) Lecture London: Annual Public Lecture - Saturday 9 October "To Understand Does Not Mean To Forgive. Violence and traumatic attachments by Dr. Felicity de Zulueta. Venue: The Guild of Psychotherapists, 47 Nelson Square, London SE1 0QA, UK. Registration and coffee from 10:00 to 10:30am. For further information call The Guild of Psychotherapists on

5 Study opportunities Colby College, Waterville, Maine, USA 2005 Fellowship OAK HUMAN RIGHTS FELLOWSHIP SEARCH FOR 2005: HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS: For the fall/autumn of 2005, the Oak Institute seeks a human rights practitioner working on health-related human rights issues. Possible areas of expertise may include, but are not limited to: HIV-AIDS, the rehabilitation of torture victims, the treatment of refugees or the victims of landmines, forensic anthropology, combating unsafe health and sanitary conditions, women's health issues, and infant malnutrition and mortality. The successful candidate should have some background in the health sciences or related fields, and will work with the College's Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Program more information visit or write to oakhr@colby.edu. The 2004 Oak Human Rights Fellow is Chanthol Oung, the founder and executive director of the Cambodian Women's Crisis Center. Meetings The 10th Annual Conference on Prison Health: "Drugs, harm reduction and prisons" De Leeuwenhorst, the Netherlands, Thursday 21 October 2004 For more information see : Vacancies FIGO - The International Federation of Gynaecology & Obstetrics is seeking an Executive Director to work with FIGO Officers and the current secretariat.. Full details and Applications, accompanied by a full CV, should be sent to: Professor S Arulkumaran, Secretary General FIGO, FIGO House Suite 3, Waterloo Court 10 Theed Street London SE18ST United Kingdom ( figo@figo.org) Closing date for applications 29 October Save the Children UK -- HIV/AIDS Adviser For more information please access Christina D'Allesandro HIV/AIDS Policy Officer, Save the Children UK 1 St. John's Lane London EC1M 4AR Phone: Mobile: c.dallesandro@savethechildren.org.uk Publications Arrigo JM. A utilitarian argument against torture interrogation of terrorists. Sci Eng Ethics 2004 Jul;10(3): ract&list_uids= Devi S. Health under fire. Lancet 2004; 364, 18 September pretation Fenton L. Preventing HIV/AIDS through poverty reduction: the only sustainable solution? Lancet 2004; 364: n

6 Giacaman R, Husseini A, Gordon NH, Awartani F. Imprints on the consciousness: the impact on Palestinian civilians of the Israeli Army invasion of West Bank towns. Eur J Public Health 2004 Sep;14(3): ract&list_uids= Lane M. Bioethics, health, and inequality. Lancet 2004; 364, 18 September pretation Public Health: The Trinity papers Richard Horton, Global health and moral values Sabina Alkire Lincoln Chen, Health and social justice Jennifer Prah Ruger, Rediscovering human dignity Richard Horton, Bioethics, health, and inequality, Giovanni Berlingue, Ethics of the social determinants of health Jennifer Prah Ruger. Lancet 2004; 364, 18 September n Hemenway D. Private Guns, Public Health. University of Michigan Press, Reviewed in NEJM 2004; 351: September Spritzer D. Ban on cage beds premature: Czech officials. CMAJ September 14, Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Florence Nightingale by Gillian Gill, Ballantine, 535 pp, reviewed in CSMonitor.com, 14 September. ================================================================= === This newsletter may be freely distributed. For a free subscription or to unsubscribe please write to medical@amnesty.org Health and Human Rights Team Amnesty International - International Secretariat Tel: Fax: AI web-site: AI Health Professional web-site: 6