Alternative Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in response to South Africa’s Baseline Country Report of March 2013 on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, with particular reference to the provisions of Article 24
The Lancet Global Health, Vol. 6, No. 10 Published: August 29, 2018
UNICEF Child Alert | February 2018
Back in Myanmar, an estimated half million Rohingya remain largely sealed off in their communities and displacement camps, fearful that the violence and horror that had driven so many of their relatives and neighbours to fl ee would engulf them too.
Today, t...here are an estimated 720,000 Rohingya children in southern Bangladesh and Myanmar’s Rakhine State, in dire need of humanitarian assistance and protection – and looking to the outside world for help.
more
Background: Mental health has recently gained increasing attention on global health and development agendas, including calls for an increase in international funding. Few studies have previously characterized official development assistance for mental health (DAMH) in a nuanced and differentiated ma...nner in order to support future funding efforts. Methods: Data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Creditor Reporting System were obtained through keyword searches. Projects were manually reviewed and categorized into projects dedicated entirely to mental health and projects that mention mental health (as one of many aims). Analysis of donor, recipient, and sector characteristics within and between categories was undertaken cumulatively and yearly.
more
The government of Kazakhstan has committed to ensuring that children with disabilities have access to inclusive education and it has taken the important step of ratifying international human rights treaties enshrining the rights of people with disabilities, including the right of children with disab...ilities to inclusive, quality education. The government has also introduced legal and policy changes toward an inclusive education system for children with disabilities. It has committed to ensuring that 70 percent of mainstream schools are inclusive by 2019.
However, this report finds that progress towards genuine inclusive education is slow. In order for the government to succeed in ensuring that all children can access an inclusive, quality, and free primary and secondary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live, it will need to fundamentally transform its policies and approach to education and address negative attitudes more broadly towards people with disabilities in Kazakhstan.
more
Under the theme Equity at the Heart of Health, this Plan seeks to catalyze efforts in Member States to reduce inequities in health within and between countries and territories in order to improve health outcomes. The Plan identifies specific actions to tackle health inequality, including those recom...mended by the Commission on Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas, with guidance from the High-level Commission for Universal Health. Four cross-cutting themes are central to this Plan’s approach to addressing the determinants of health: equity, gender, ethnicity, and human rights
more
As slight hints of recovery begin to surface in West Africa, UNICEF is looking at the impact of Ebola on children and the response and work of the affected communities in the report, Ebola: Getting to zero – for communities, for children for the future. The document traces some of the outbreak’s... history along with the stories of survivors, health care workers and those working to make things better on the ground. The report also helps map out the actions that urgently must continue to help build resiliency and resuscitate basic services and systems decimated by Ebola.
more
Palliative care for children with life-limiting illness is the active total care of the child’s body, mind, and spirit. It begins at diagnosis and continues regardless of whether the child receives treatment directed at the disease. It seeks to control all forms of suffering related to the illness..., including pain. It involves social, psychological, spiritual, and legal support to siblings, parents, and other close family members. Effective palliative care for children requires health professionals trained to assess symptoms, care for children of different ages and developmental stages, and to provide medicines in pediatric formulations. Care may be provided in tertiary care facilities, community health centers, and at home. The child’s best interest must inform all aspects of the treatment andcare, and the child’s rights must be protected at all times.
more
Early Childhood Matters is a journal about early childhood.
It looks at specific issues regarding the development
of young children, in particular from a psychosocial
perspective.
It is published twice per year by the Bernard
van Leer Foundation. The views expressed in Early Childhood
Matters ...are those of the authors and do not necessarily
reflect those of the Bernard van Leer Foundation. Work
featured is not necessarily funded by the Bernard van Leer
Foundation.
more
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, health is receiving unprecedented public and political attention. Yet the fact that climate change also presents us with a health crisis deserves further recognition. From more deaths due to heat stress to increased transmission of infectious diseases, ...climate change affects the social and environmental determinants of health in ways that are profound and far-reaching. The fundamental interdependency of human health and the health of the environment is encapsulated in the concept of planetary health, a scientific field and social movement that has been gaining force since the 2015 publication of the Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission report “Safeguarding human health in the Anthropocene epoch”.
We see an urgent need for strategic communication to raise awareness of climate-health synergies in order to overcome the misperception that climate and health are two independent agendas. The fragmented and sector-focused nature of thinking and action remains a significant barrier to integrating health considerations into climate planning and project development. Inevitably, collaboration across sectors requires a community of practice. Despite recent efforts focused on the climate-health nexus, much work remains to be done to translate scientific findings for policymakers, mobilise climate financing resources in support of health co-benefits, and promote genderjust solutions within climate change projects.
more
From Participation to Partnerships (September 2020)
Despite the COVID-19 challenges, children around the world have found meaningful ways to support and protect their peers, families, and communities. Children are on the frontlines of innovative responses and are working closely with their adult al...lies. The leadership demonstrated through these child-adult partnerships is the underlying inspiration for this guide.
more
Disabled children: a legal handbook is an authoritative yet accessible guide to the legal rights of disabled children and their families in England and Wales. The handbook aims to empower disabled children and their families through a greater understanding of their rights and entitlements. It is es...sential reading for the families of disabled children, their advocates and lawyers, voluntary and statutory sector advisers, commissioners, managers and lawyers working for public authorities, education, social and health care professionals, students and academics.
Each chapter has been adapted into a PDF for you to download for free
https://councilfordisabledchildren.org.uk/help-resources/resources/disabled-children-legal-handbook-2nd-edition
more
This guidance note is meant to assist humanitarian actors, youth-led organizations, and young people themselves across sectors, working at local, country, regional, and global levels in their response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. It begins diagnostically, exploring the impacts of coronavirus d...isease (COVID-19) on young people. It then proposes a series of actions that practitioners and young people can take to ensure that COVID-19 preparedness, response plans and actions, are youth-inclusive and youth-focused – with and for young people. Recommendations are structured around the five key actions of the Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action: services, participation, capacity, resources, and data. Where available, the recommended actions are accompanied by resources and concrete examples, which can inform approaches and support implementation
more
Over the past two decades, Afghanistan has depended on international donor support to fund essential services like health care. But this donor support has been falling for years and will likely to continue do so—perhaps precipitously—following the announcement by United States President Joe Bide...n that the US will withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021. This decline in funding has already had a harmful—and life-threatening—impact on the lives of many Afghan women and girls, as it affects access to, and quality of, health care.
more
Humanity & Inclusion has published a report on November 20, on the difficulties children with disabilities face in accessing education in the world’s poorest countries.
A broad range of UNHCR’s key priorities overlap with MHPSS issues – for example, child protection and sexual and gender-based violence [SGBV] prevention and response.
Despite all these existent synergies, UNHCR’s current policies and guidelines do not sufficiently link with MHPSS principles.... For example, the Community Services section, which is closely aligned to the principles of MHPSS and could be well-positioned to guide the implementation of related programs, has not adopted the MHPSS language or approach.
There are opportunities for UNHCR to engage more strongly and clearly in this field. However, this requires a vision for how the organisation as a whole, and particular sectors within the organisation, will engage within the field of MHPSS activities. For a start, UNHCR can work to improve its understanding and framing of mental health and psychosocial issues, and how these issues fit within its broader mandate.
While the majority of MHPSS activities are delivered by implementing partners, UNHCR staff require familiarity with core principles in the field, such as the Intervention Pyramid contained in the IASC Guidelines, in order to support and monitor quality MHPSS activities.
more
mnesty International’s annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2021, published in March 2022, shows that promises to “build back better” after the Covid-19 pandemic were little more than lip service. Hopes of global cooperation withered in the face of vaccine hoarding and c...orporate greed.
Governments suppressed independent and critical voices, with some even using the pandemic as a pretext to shrink further the civic space. New and unresolved conflicts erupted or persisted. Those forced to flee were subjected to a litany of abuses, including pushbacks by countries in the Global North. But hopes for a better post-pandemic world were kept alive by courageous individuals, social movements and civil society organizations.
The report is available in different languages
more
nContraception and Reproductive Medicine (2017) 2:26 DOI 10.1186/s40834-017-0053-6
Young women in Burkina Faso and Mali are increasingly using modern contraceptives for family planning; however, the LAPM contraceptive prevalence rate remains low. Our analysis indicates that social norms around idea...l family size for both men and women continue to drive young women’s choices around family planning and impede use of LAPMs. To increase modern contraceptive use and curb fertility rates, local governments and development organizations should focus on women’s empowerment and include male partners.
more
'Ethical Issues in Obstetrics and Gynecology' represents the results of carefully researched and considered discussion. The guidelines are intended to provide material for consideration and debate about ethical aspects of our discipline for member organisations and their constituent membership.
Policy Guidance Brief 2
• The potential health risks from climate change include: increase of waterborne and vector-borne diseases, heat-related illnesses, injuries and deaths, food insecurity and increased malnutrition. The poor, women, children and the elderly, as well as communities living... in remote high-risk areas are most vulnerable.
• The expected results to achieve this outcome are: (i) climate risk management system is well-established, robust and nationally integrated to respond efectively to increased intensity and impact of risks and hazards on people’s health and wellbeing; (ii) improved social protection, gender consideration and risk finance capacity to prepare for and recover from potential loss and damage resulting from climate change; (iii) Myanmar’s health system is improved and can deal with climate-induced health hazards and support climate-vulnerable communities to respond effectively to disaster and health hazards from climate change.
more