Of human rights and women's health

The deeply rooted gender bias in India can be easily seen in the field of health care, as the society condones many forms of violence against women. Discrimination against women begins at birth, when baby girls are general breastfed last and least. Conditioning women to feel inferior, society attacks women's psyche. In a subordinate position, women usually forgo medical treatment in times of illness, and even if they do seek treatment, it is often not available. As one study indicated, 92% of the women in one community suffered for some form of gynecologic disease, yet the country does not have adequate diagnostic facilities or the drugs used for gynecologic needs. Even childbirth facilities are not readily available, evident in that 70% of all births take place at home. Without a place to treat complications, the rate of maternal mortality is high. And while poor women often suffer from the lack of basic services, rich women suffer from needless surgeries, such as unnecessary caesarian sections and hysterectomies, which end up costing the lives of many women. Unsafe surgeries also take many women's lives; unsafe abortions account for 20% of India's maternal deaths. Women undergo most sterilizations, even though vasectomies are easier to perform and have less complications. Additionally, the use of long acting injectable hormonal contraceptives (Depo Provera, Net En, and NORPLANT) should be treated with apprehension. Their long-term consequences are not yet known, and one only need to remember cases of Thalidomide and Diethyl Stibaestrol to realize that the new hormones could have disastrous consequences for women. And with the use of Amniocentesis which is sometimes followed by female feticide), gender discrimination now begins even before birth.     

Bioterrorism,public health,and human rights

It is unnecessary and counterproductive to sacrifice basic human rights to respond to bioterrorism. Constructive public health legislation, which must be federal, cannot be carefully drafted under panic conditions. When it is, like the "model act," it will predictably rely on broad, arbitrary state authority exercised without public accountability. Public health should resist reverting to its nineteenth-century practices of forced examination and quarantine, which will simply encourage people to avoid physicians, hospitals, and public health practitioners they now trust and actively seek out in emergencies. Upholding human rights is essential to public trust and is ultimately our best defense against the threat of terrorism in the twenty-first century.     

Mainstreaming social justice: human rights and public health

Our interest in a human rights and health discourse emerges from our efforts as social scientists to bring a meaningful social justice perspective to the realm of public health. In Canada, as in many countries, "health" is still firmly within the domain of the biomedical and the clinical. While considerable effort has been made to include more social, economic, and cultural perspectives, efforts to frame these issues as political phenomena have tended to be polarized into either a rich body of theoretical literature or case studies of interventions which have in varying degrees incorporated a social justice approach. What is still missing is a framework of discourse that allows various concepts of social justice to inform policy, intervention strategies, evaluation and evidence-based measures of effectiveness. This commentary examines the human rights discourse as conceptual space from which to build this framework.     

Homeless encampments: connecting public health and human rights

The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating longstanding issues related to homelessness, including lack of affordable housing, unemployment, poverty, wealth inequality, and ongoing impacts of colonization. Homelessness is often accompanied by narratives rooted in individual blame, criminalization, and reinforcement of substance use and mental health-related stigma. Visible homelessness, in the form of encampments, is a manifestation of government policy failures that neglect to uphold the human right to housing, and demonstrate eroding investments in affordable housing, income and systemic supports. Encampments make visible that some in our community lack basic determinants of health such as food, water, sanitation, safety, and the right to self-determination. In order for public health to effectively and equitably promote health and enact commitments to social justice, we argue that public health must adopt a human rights approach to housing and to homeless encampments. Embracing a human rights perspective means public health would advocate first and foremost for adequate housing and other resources rooted in self-determination of encampment residents. In the absence of housing, public health would uphold human rights through the provision of public health resources and prohibition on evictions of encampments until adequate housing is available.     

Lesbian and bisexual women's human rights, sexual rights and sexual citizenship: negotiating sexual health in England

Lesbian and bisexual women's sexual health is neglected in much Government policy and practice in England and Wales. This paper examines lesbian and bisexual women's negotiation of sexual health, drawing on findings from a small research project. Themes explored include invisibility and lack of information, influences on decision-making and sexual activities and experiences of services and barriers to sexual healthcare. Key issues of importance in this respect are homophobic and heterosexist social contexts. Drawing on understandings of lesbian, gay and bisexual human rights, sexual rights and sexual citizenship, it is argued that these are useful lenses through which to examine and address lesbian and bisexual women's sexual health and related inequalities.     

Lesbian and bisexual women's human rights,sexual rights and sexual citizenship: negotiating sexual health in England

Lesbian and bisexual women's sexual health is neglected in much Government policy and practice in England and Wales. This paper examines lesbian and bisexual women's negotiation of sexual health, drawing on findings from a small research project. Themes explored include invisibility and lack of information, influences on decision-making and sexual activities and experiences of services and barriers to sexual healthcare. Key issues of importance in this respect are homophobic and heterosexist social contexts. Drawing on understandings of lesbian, gay and bisexual human rights, sexual rights and sexual citizenship, it is argued that these are useful lenses through which to examine and address lesbian and bisexual women's sexual health and related inequalities.     

Young women's health concerns: revealing paradox

Because of the numerous physical, psychological, and social changes that take place for adolescents, the risk of engaging in life-threatening behavior is greater than at any other time in their life-span. Community workers identified the invisibility of adolescent women (ages 16-24) in their health-related programs and sought to rectify this. To discover the unmet health concerns of adolescent women, eight focus groups were held with a diverse group of adolescent women. Forty-two adolescent women, including adolescent mothers, women of color, attendees at a drop-in youth center, high school and university students, and employed persons participated. While most women attended one focus group, some participants attended two. Using Spradley's ethnographic method, we identified two overarching themes shared by the adolescent women. These themes included feeling invisible and struggling with independence. Our findings underscore the invisibility of adolescent women's lived experiences and concerns within most research agendas.     

Evaluating the role of gender inequalities and rights violations in women's mental health

This article examines the concept of women's mental health articulated as a human right in international documents and the current public health concern regarding the contribution of depressive and related anxiety disorders--which disproportionately affect women--to the global health burden. There is a growing awareness, supported by health research and accepted in recent international documents such as the Beijing Platform for Action, that gender inequalities and rights violations such as economic dependence, lack of decision-making power, conflicting gender roles, disproportionate domestic responsibilities, and violence are closely linked to mental health problems of women. The article argues that governments and international agencies, as well as women's health and rights advocates, must place more emphasis on women's mental health and its relationship to underlying gender discrimination and rights violations.     

Integrating women's human rights into global health research: an action framework

This article uses Scale of Change theory as a framework to guide global health researchers to synergistically target women's health outcomes in the context of improving their right to freedom, equity, and equality of opportunities. We hypothesize that health researchers can do so through six action strategies. These strategies include (1) becoming fully informed of women's human rights directives to integrate them into research, (2) mainstreaming gender in the research, (3) using the expertise of grass roots women's organizations in the setting, (4) showcasing women's equity and equality in the organizational infrastructure, (5) disseminating research findings to policymakers in the study locale to influence health priorities, and (6) publicizing the social conditions that are linked to women's diseases. We explore conceptual and logistical dilemmas in transforming a study using these principles and also provide a case study of obstetric fistula reduction in Nigeria to illustrate how these strategies can be operationalized. Our intent is to offer a feasible approach to health researchers who, conceptually, may link women's health to social and cultural conditions but are looking for practical implementation strategies to examine a women's health issue through the lens of their human rights.     

Drinking and diving: public health concerns

Stage diving and crowd surfing are an established part of clubs and open-air concerts. Despite policy attempts to reduce accident prevalence rates, teenagers and young adults are at risk in these often volatile environments. Attempts to promote harm minimisation are discussed.