Purchase prices of drugs for common conditions such as asthma, high blood pressure and diabetes will push tens of millions of people in low- or middle-income countries below the poverty line, a study published in the PLoS journal warns. Researchers are calling for increased drug supply from the public sector and greater use of generic drugs.
Murders, kidnappings increase in wake of Haiti earthquake
Almost eight months after the Jan. 12 earthquake killed an estimated 300,000 people, crime trends show an increase in kidnappings compared to this time last year. U.N. police have documented 68 abductions so far this year, compared to 51 a year ago. A recent U.S. travel advisory noted that bandits have attacked travelers leaving the Port-au-Prince international airport, and that at least two U.S. citizens were killed in recent months. Five have been kidnapped. Even relief workers have been targeted. In March, bandits abducted — and released — two staff members of Doctors Without Borders in Port-au-Prince. Two months later, kidnappers grabbed a British national from the Pan-American Development Foundation and his Haitian driver.
Ban urges progress on MDGs for women, children
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on delegates to Advance Global Health summit in Melbourne, Australia, to continue to focus on ways to improve women and children’s health initiatives as part of the organization’s Millennium Development Goals. The event brings together charities and aid groups that work with the UN, and comes ahead of a September meeting of world leaders in New York City on pursuing MDGs.
UN is concerned for Pakistan’s children
Floodwaters have begun to recede in some parts of Pakistan even as they continue to threaten other regions in the county’s south, and relief agencies remain unable to reach the majority of those affected by the disaster. United Nations officials are raising the alarm for Pakistan’s children and the dangers posed by diarrhea, dehydration and malnutrition. Officials warn that 72,000 malnourished children in the flood-hit areas are at particularly high risk.
Abuse victim releases tapes of Belgian church leader urging silence
The former leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium urged a victim of serial sexual abuse by a bishop to keep silent for a year, until the bishop — the victim’s own uncle — could retire, according to tapes made by the victim last April and published over the weekend in two Belgian newspapers.
Young Egyptians use social media to fight police brutality
Young Egyptians have turned to social-media tools to spread information on government and security forces abuses, and push for reform. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and individual blogging platforms have become central battlegrounds between rights activists and authorities. In some cases, the online activism has forced officials to open investigations into cases of abuses, while in others the online activism has spurred charges against the activists.
UNHCR details Rwandan violence
The Rwandan military and allied rebel groups pursued “systematic, methodical and premeditated” campaigns against ethnic Hutus sheltering in eastern Congo twice in the late 1990s — slaughtering the elderly, women and children — and committing gross war crimes, leaked copies of a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights report charges. The systematic murders of survivors in camps and use of non-firearm weapons such as hammers to kill Hutus points toward possible charges of genocide, the report says.
Diplomatic immunity can serve as criminal cover
An employment solicitor argues in the Guardian that diplomatic immunity contributes to human-rights abuses — from verbal to physical to sexual assault. Migrant workers employed under diplomats in the U.K. have little recourse for abuses due to a 1961 Vienna convention that prohibits diplomats and their families and staff from being prosecuted under criminal and civil actions in the host country. In 2007, 78 criminal offenses were alleged against diplomats — who are immune to any prosecution.