20–25 April 2015
2015 marks the 10th annual European Immunization Week (EIW). This year, EIW focuses on the need for renewed commitment to immunization at political, professional and personal levels.
Why must Member States continue to invest in immunization?
Извор: Светска здравствена организација - 19.04.2015
Are the UN financing for development & Post-2015 development agenda striking the right public-private balance
16 April 2015 - Getting the right balance between public and private sector roles and responsibilities in the Financing for Development and Post-2015 process will be fundamental to prospects for sustainable, inclusive development. Yet early evidence suggests this balance is already awry, skewed far in favour of private interests. Are we seeing a process of outsourcing the international agenda?
There’s no question that businesses around the world are sources of growth and employment. But they are also the source of the most serious threats to sustainable development—from pollution to illicit financial flows that undermine prospects for public resources.
Can we have a transformative development agenda without the transformation of business? Is it time for a new model of business fully grounded in sustainability and inclusion as inherent, not optional, operating principles?
Governments in industrial countries regularly put pressure on developing countries to introduce stringent plant variety protection (PVP) regimes and to adhere to the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention, without duly considering its consequences on the enjoyment of human rights of vulnerable groups such as small-scale farmers and in particular women.
New research shows, the expansion of intellectual property rights on seeds might well restrict small-scale farmers’ practices of seed saving and use, exchange and selling in the informal seed supply system, limiting access to seeds and putting their right to food at risk.
A pioneering research published in the Report “Owning Seeds, Accessing Food” (PDF, 2.2 MB) by an international group of NGOs reveals worrying results. The human rights impact assessment of stringent plant variety protection and seed laws based on the 1991 Act of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV 91) provides convincing evidence of the threat to the right to food by small-scale farmers. Their widespread practice of freely saving, replanting, exchanging and selling seeds clashes with the UPOV 91’s provisions that restricts or even prohibits such practices for seeds arising from protected varieties of plants by plant breeders. Consequently, plant variety protection based on UPOV 91 will make it harder for small-scale farmers to access improved seeds as shown by the case studies in Kenya, Peru and the Philippines presented in the research report. Access to seed is a key feature of the right to food of resource-poor farmers.
On February 9, 2015, the European Parliament Committee for Women’s Rights & Gender Equality (FEMM) submitted a Written Declaration on Establishing a European Year on Combating Violence against Women, which will be addressed to the European Commission in Brussels. .
Because violence against women is 'a major obstacle to gender equality and [...] one of the most widespread human rights violations, knowing no geographical, financial, cultural or social barriers', the FEMM Committee calls upon the Commission to establish in 2016 a European Year on Combating Violence against Women. The Declaration emphasizes the severe issue that violence against women still represents, with one out of three women in the European Union being a victim of sexual and/or physical violence. Submitted on the 9th of May 2015, the Declaration had been signed by 115 signatories by the 23rd of February 2015.
The Written Declaration is available in different EU languages including English, French, German and Spanish from the European Parliament website.
10 APRIL 2015 | GENEVA - Caesarean section is one of the most common surgeries in the world, with rates continuing to rise, particularly in high- and middle-income countries. Although it can save lives, caesarean section is often performed without medical need, putting women and their babies at-risk of short- and long-term health problems. A new statement from the World Health Organization (WHO) underscores the importance of focusing on the needs of the patient, on a case by case basis, and discourages the practice of aiming for “target rates”.
Caesarean section may be necessary when vaginal delivery might pose a risk to the mother or baby – for example due to prolonged labour, foetal distress, or because the baby is presenting in an abnormal position. However, caesarean sections can cause significant complications, disability or death, particularly in settings that lack the facilities to conduct safe surgeries or treat potential complications.
Ideal rate for caesarean sections
Since 1985, the international healthcare community has considered the “ideal rate” for caesarean sections to be between 10% and 15%. New studies reveal that when caesarean section rates rise towards 10% across a population, the number of maternal and newborn deaths decreases. But when the rate goes above 10%, there is no evidence that mortality rates improve.
