AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL NEWS FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS AI Bulletin Vol. 7, No. 22, 5 November 2004 AI Index: ACT 84/022/2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Death penalty HIV/AIDS Human rights Mental health Organ trade Prisoners Right to health Torture Publications Amnesty International reports & statements See the following recent AI news releases [dates given in day/month/year format]. 04/11/2004 Iran : Emaddedin Baqi: human rights defender at risk MDE 13/044/2004 03/11/2004 Reservations to CERD- Weakening the protection of women from violence in the Middle East and North Africa region IOR 51/009/2004 02/11/2004 Amnesty International: Open Letter to EU Heads of State and Government (Summary) EUR 01/007/2004 02/11/2004 Open Letter: On the occasion of the EU Summit 4-5 November 2004... EUR 01/006/2004 29/10/2004 Open Letter: Amnesty International's concerns regarding the Terrorism Prevention Bill 2003 AMR 38/011/2004 28/10/2004 Afghanistan: Women failed by progress in Afghanistan ASA 11/015/2004 27/10/2004 Thailand: Memorandum on Human Rights Concerns ASA 39/013/2004 27/10/2004 USA: Human dignity denied: Torture and accountability in the 'war on terror' AMR 51/145/2004 26/10/2004 Democratic Republic of Congo: Mass rape - time for remedies AFR 62/018/2004 26/10/2004 Democratic Republic of Congo: Surviving rape: Voices from the east AFR 62/019/2004 25/10/2004 Israel/Occupied Territories: Israeli settlers wage campaign of intimidation on Palestinians and internationals alike MDE 15/099/2004 18/10/2004 Déjà Vu : diamond industry still failing to deliver on promises : Summary... POL 34/008/2004 15/10/2004 Serbia: Official silence greets homophobic poster campaign EUR 70/023/2004 Death penalty Iran. A legislative bill opposing the death penalty and flogging for offenders under the age of 18 is expected to be approved by parliament, according to Turkish Press, 26 Oct http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=31921 1
Libya. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has called again for the death penalty to be banned in his country, where six foreign health professionals are currently under sentence of death for infecting hundreds of children with HIV/AIDS. Gaddafi said he has previously made similar pleas to the country's top executive and legislative body, but it had so far refused to accept them. Reuters, 2 Nov, http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsarticle.jhtml;jsessionid=n0pcducjoskducrb AEKSFFA?type=topNews&storyID=6686455 Poland. Polish lawmakers have narrowly voted against reintroducing the death penalty following a series of killings. President Aleksander Kwasniewski had threatened to veto the proposal if lawmakers chose to bring back capital punishment seven years after the country abolished it to meet European Union human rights standards. ABC News, 22 Oct, http://abcnews.go.com/international/wirestory?id=189397 USA. 450 attorneys participating in the Conference of Delegates of the California Bar Association have urged state lawmakers and Governor Schwarzenegger to impose a twoyear moratorium on executions and to create an independent committee focusing on race, the reliability of convictions and whether the condemned received adequate legal representation. It also requested an inquiry into the financial cost of capital punishment and whether capital punishment is imposed too often. Death Penalty Information Center, 25 Oct, http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=1191&scid=64 HIV/AIDS India. A woman in Orissa was allegedly burnt to death by her in-laws because they feared that she had been infected with the AIDS virus from her husband who died six months ago. Indo-Asian News Service 26 Oct, http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7242_1074583,00180008.htm South Korea. Concerns have been raised that the country's immigration law which bars foreigners infected with AIDS from entering the country and provides for the deportation of resident foreigners who have AIDS, is a a violation of human rights, forcing many to hide their condition. Chosun Ilbo, 24 Oct, http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200410/200410240003.html UK. An Aids-like virus has been found in African hunters who have eaten ape meat which is being sold illegally in the UK. BBC, 26 Oct, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/file_on_4/3954183.stm UN. Seventy-nine member governments of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) have signed an agreement in Belgium with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to work together to tackle problems of reproductive health, including HIV/AIDS. UN News Centre, 25 Oct, http://www0.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?newsid=12336&cr=population&cr1= Human rights Spain. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the Spanish government failed to carry out an effective, official investigation into the torture complaints of 15 Catalan independence sympathisers arrested before the start of the Barcelona olympic games in 1992. Berria, 3 Nov, http://www.berria.info/english/ikusi.php?id=950 Press release: http://www.echr.coe.int/eng/press/2004/nov/chamberjudgmentmartinezsala&others021104. htm 2
UN/Sudan. A United Nations human rights expert has said that it was likely that numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed during the conflict in Darfur. UN News Centre 29 Oct, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?newsid=12390&cr=sudan&cr1= UK. Courtney Angelica Brkic, an American forensic archaeologist of Croatian origin, who helped uncover mass graves at the site of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in the former Yugoslavia, has told the BBC of her harrowing experiences. BBC, 2 Nov http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3975599.stm Mental Health USA. Some 250,000 US Americans with mental illness live in prisons, the nation's primary supplier of mental-health services, reports the New York Times Magazine report (31 October) www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/magazine/31prisoner.html Organ trade USA. In the wake of a growing national transplant waiting list, experts are concerned that many patients are turning to websites,including commercial websites, which advertise for organ donors. CNN, 25 Oct,http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/10/25/organs.from.strangers.ap/index.html Prisoners Canada. Advocacy groups have called on the nation's prisons to immediately adopt needle exchange programs as a result of the alarming prevalence of HIV and hepatitis C infection among inmates. Winnipeg Sun 28 Oct, http://www.canoe.ca/newsstand/winnipegsun/news/2004/10/28/688259.html Thailand. At least 78 people died in southern Thailand after being arrested and loaded into army trucks after clashes with security forces. Officials said almost all the dead suffocated as they were taken to an army barracks several hours away. BBC, 25 Oct, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3954587.stm USA. A US judge has ruled that a Canadian teenager held in Guantánamo Bay does not have the right to a medical or psychiatric evaluation to determine if he is fit to help with his defence. BMJ, 6 Nov, http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/329/7474/1066- a?ck=nck Right to health Iraq. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the international humanitarian organisation, is closing its mission in Iraq due to the escalating risks towards international aid workers in the country. MSF, 4 Nov, http://www.msf.org/content/page.cfm?articleid=e5ec6a97-3036-4146-8195c52b16c4fd18 New Zealand. A wheelchair-bound brain damaged Christchurch man has been sent back to prison for cultivating cannabis which he claimed was for pain relief. N Z Herald 3 Nov http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3606315&thesection=news&thesubsectio n=general Sudan. A United Nations World Food Program report says that more than a fifth of children in Darfur are malnourished and nearly half of all families do not have enough food. The report says that a "basic minimum health package, including adequate supplies of clean water and 3
medicine, should accompany food and nutritional aid." http://www.wfp.org/country_brief/africa/sudan/assessments/041025_food_assessment.pdf USA. A US federal judge has ordered the Department of Defense to halt compulsory anthrax vaccination of soldiers, saying that the Food and Drug Administration violated its own rules by failing to seek public comment before approving the vaccine. The ruling came in the case of six military personnel who claimed that the vaccine's approval had not met legal requirements and was therefore an investigational drug requiring informed consent. BMJ, 6 November, http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/329/7474/1062-a?ck=nck USA. The US health care system falls short of international standards for the right to health, according to a new report. Center for Economic and Social Rights, 29 Oct,http://cesr.org/ushealthright Torture Argentina. A report by a government committee set up a year ago to combat torture in the Argentine province of Buenos Aires has revealed an appalling number of abuses committed in local prisons and police stations. Inter Press Service New Agency, 2 Nov http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=26108 UK. In a ruling which has been hailed by civil rights lawyers as a historic victory, the Court of Appeal has ruled that torturers in foreign countries can be sued for damages in the English courts. Guardian, 29 Oct, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1338491,00.html Publications Abbasi, Kamran. Should journals mix medicine and politics? BMJ 2004;329 (6 November)http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/329/7474/0-g Brettingham M. Prisoners held under England's antiterrorism legislation face psychological damage. BMJ 2004;329:940 http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/329/7472/940 Campbell CS. Harvesting the living?: separating "brain death" and organ transplantation. Kennedy Inst Ethics J. 2004 Sep;14(3):301-18. _uids=15497228 Campbell Solar, Susan Lee. No Justice: No Victory - The Death Penalty in Texas, http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=1193&scid=64 Daar AS. Paid organ procurement: Pragmatic and ethical viewpoints. : Transplant Proc. 2004 Sep;36(7):1876-7. _uids=15518681 Dayan, Joan. Cruel and unusual: The end of the Eighth Amendment, Boston Review (Oct/Nov)http://bostonreview.net/BR29.5/dayan.html Eaton Lynn. BMA says scientists should take part in bioterrorism debate. BMJ 2004;329:993 (30 October) http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/329/7473/993-a Fellerman Simon M. Palestinian health: the truth, the lies, and the statistics. BMJ 2004;329:1110 (6 November) http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/329/7474/1110?ck=nck Fost N. Reconsidering the dead donor rule: is it important that organ donors be dead? Kennedy Inst Ethics J. 2004 Sep;14(3):249-60 _uids=15495382 4
Gerberding Julie. Steps on the Critical Path: Arresting HIV/AIDS in Developing Countries. PLoS Medicine Vol1 Issue1 Oct http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=getdocument&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0010010 Jones JW, McCullough LB, Richman.BW. The military physician's ethical response to evidence of torture. Surgery. 2004 Nov;136(5):1090-3. _uids=15523407 Levav et al. Terrorism and Psychiatric Disorders. Am J Psychiatry. 2004; 161: 2136-2137. http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/161/11/2136-b Lundberg GD. Was there physician complicity in state-sponsored human torture in Guantanamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan? An invitation for military physicians to speak out. MedGenMed. 2004 Aug 20;6(3):39 _uids=15520663 Mayor Susan. AMA calls for inquiry into doctors' role in abuse of prisoners. BMJ 2004;329:993 (30 October). http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/329/7473/993 Roberts Les, Riyadh Lafta, Richard Garfield, Jamal Khudhairi, Gilbert Burnham. Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq:cluster sample survey. Lancet, 364, 9445, 30 Oct http://image.thelancet.com/extras/04art10342web.pdf Rowson Mike et al. Mobilising civil society around an alternative World Health Report. PLoS Medicine Vol1 Issue1 Oct. http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=getdocument&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0010003 Taket, Ann C, Nadine Wathen, Harriet MacMillan. Should Health Professionals Screen All Women for Domestic Violence? Plos Medicine Vol.1 No.1 October 2004; http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=getdocument&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0010004 Zwi, Anthony B. How Should the Health Community Respond to Violent Political Conflict? PLoS Medicine Vol1 Issue1 Oct http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=getdocument&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0010014 ==================================================================== 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: +44 20 7413 5522 Fax: +44 20 7956 1157 AI web-site: http://www.amnesty.org/ AI Health Professional web-site: http://www.amnesty.org/health 5