The True Magnitude of Stillbirths & Maternal & Neonatal Deaths Is Underreported
Counting and reviewing every birth and death is key to preventing future tragedies.
16 August 2016 | GENEVA - The day of birth is potentially the most dangerous time for mothers and babies. Every year, worldwide, 303 000 women die during pregnancy and childbirth, 2.7 million babies die during the first 28 days of life and 2.6 million babies are stillborn.
Most stillbirths and neonatal deaths are preventable with quality health care during pregnancy and childbirth. Nearly all babies who are stillborn and half of all newborn deaths are not recorded in a birth or death certificate, and thus have never been registered, reported or investigated by the health system. As a result, countries often do not know the numbers of deaths or the causes of these deaths and thus are unable to take the effective and timely actions to prevent others babies and mothers from dying.
“We need to ensure all births and deaths are counted, and that we can understand what to do to prevent future deaths, no matter where they occur,” says Ian Askew, Director of Reproductive Health and Research at WHO. “By reviewing the causes of maternal and infant deaths countries can improve quality of health care, take corrective actions, and prevent millions of families from enduring the pain of losing their infants or mothers.”
By Ben Parker
GENEVA - 19 August 2016 - Only 16 percent of aid agencies have proper policies dealing with sexual assaults on staff, and just one in 10 cases of sexual abuse are reported and then properly handled, according to a new report.
The campaign, Report the Abuse, surveyed 92 aid organisations, including UN agencies and NGOs, and collected accounts of 77 incidents of sexual abuse, most of which were perpetrated by fellow staff members on their colleagues.
Megan Nobert, the report’s author, told IRIN that sexual violence was “pervasive” in the humanitarian and development sector. Too often, she said, survivors “tend to face some sort of punishment or retaliation from the person they are accusing.” Accountability is “phenomenally difficult”, as local law enforcement will often not be a safe or realistic option in troubled countries, and senior staff have extensive leeway in the field.
by Ben Ryan
August 11, 2016 - This article is Gallup's second contribution to the International Labour Organization's (ILO) Women at Work Centenary Initiative on the work needs and aspirations of women around the world, aiming to bring fresh insights and explore interesting findings that warrant further analysis. The collaboration will result in a joint Gallup-ILO report that will also point to policy directions, to be launched on International Women's Day in March 2017.
Finding decent work can be a life-changing experience. Gallup research shows worldwide, men and women tend to rate their lives and many of their experiences better when they have full-time work. This has important implications for the world's young people -- more than 73 million of whom are looking for jobs -- and particularly for young women, who are more likely than young men to be out of the workforce.
"We know that investing today in the employment of young people means investing in the present and future of our societies. Sustainable development needs to be about the quantity and quality of jobs. In a world of work undergoing profound changes, our challenge is to continuously find new and innovative solutions as we look into the future of work," Guy Ryder, the ILO Director-General, remarked in early June at the World of Work Summit, which focused on how to shape the future of work for youth.
VI. Conclusions and Recommendations
121. By 2050, there will be, for the first time, more older persons than children under the age of 15 worldwide. A demographic transformation of such magnitude has far-reaching implications for society at all levels. As the world population continues to age, the human rights dimension of ageing becomes an ever-growing concern. It is essential that the analytical lens is all encompassing and embraces the full set of human rights, economic, social and cultural rights, but also civil and political rights.
122. Older persons face a number of particular challenges in the enjoyment of their human rights that need to be addressed urgently. Several good or promising practices in the implementation of existing laws have been reported on issues such as the development of national strategies or action plans on ageing, and in the area of care, the right to work, social protection, equality and non-discrimination, access to justice, violence and abuse, education, training and lifelong learning, the participation of older persons, accessibility and awareness-raising. None of those areas has however been covered extensively and little or no information has been received on some crucial issues such as legal capacity, quality of care, long-term care, palliative care, assistance to victims of violence and abuse, available remedies, independence and autonomy, or the right to an adequate standard of living, particularly housing. Each of the aforementioned areas raises a set of issues and protection concerns that deserve in-depth analysis. The information provided also demonstrates the need for South-South cooperation and the sharing of good practices at the regional level to guide national-level implementation taking into account regional specificities.
Media freedom and media pluralism are pillars of any democratic society and deserve to be safeguarded and protected for the sake of the existence of democracy itself. This is of utmost importance, particularly in the present difficult times, when freedom of expression is both enhanced and challenged by technological developments and also faces the alarming threats that arise from intolerance and fundamentalism. At the European Union (EU) level, freedom of expression and the freedom and pluralism of the media are principles that are enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. The protection and promotion of pluralism and the freedom of the media are crucial ingredients in guaranteeing a democratic environment for all EU citizens, and for the legitimacy of the European Union as a whole.
Direct Link to Report: MPM 2015 Final Report
