UNICEF: Global austerity is hitting children hardest
Fiscal austerity measures being adopted by governments to combat the global economic downturn are heaping misery upon the world’s poor, especially children, who already are suffering from food, fuel and financial shocks, according to a study by the UN Children’s Fund. Cuts to wages, benefits and subsidies, as well as tax increases, could have “irreversible impacts” on the most vulnerable in developing countries, UNICEF found.
Procedure saves women from No. 1 cancer killer
Household vinegar is being used to treat cervical cancer as part of an inexpensive, effective medical procedure that could do for women in poor countries what the PAP smear did for women in rich countries — help save lives. The potential one-time procedure, known as VIA/cryo (in which the cervix is brushed with vinegar and any visible spots are frozen off with cryotherapy), is already routine for women between 30 and 44 years old in 29 of the 75 provinces in Thailand.
Saudi women are granted voting rights
On Sunday, women in Saudi Arabia were not only granted the right to vote in 2015, but the ability to run for municipal office — even as restrictions on women driving continue. Saudi women’s rights activists said the change was prompted by the uprisings that have swept the Arab world over the past nine months.
Global effort to end child marriages is under way
The Clinton Global Initiative and The Elders have joined forces to combat child marriage with a new worldwide initiative, the Girls Not Brides campaign. The initiative will bring together a global coalition of organizations working against child marriage in a bid to end the practice within one generation.
Child mortality lags behind MDG goal
The marked drop in global child-mortality rates reported last week by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation is nevertheless not significant enough to meet the Millennium Development Goal seeking a two-thirds reduction in child deaths by 2015. “The news that the rate of child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa is declining twice as fast as it was a decade ago shows that we can make progress even in the poorest places, but we cannot for a moment forget the chilling fact of around 21,000 children dying every day from preventable causes,” said Anthony Lake, executive director of UNICEF.
Enlisting the Afghan Taliban to help eliminate polio
A three-day polio vaccination drive in Afghanistan will begin Saturday — carried out by a 55,000-person team including Taliban and other insurgents — in 13 high-risk districts that account for nearly all the country’s reported cases of the disease. “The only way this works is if all elements of Afghan society are involved, and that includes those groups who are opposed to the government,” said Peter Crowley, head of UNICEF in Afghanistan.
Aid groups work to help traumatized Yemeni children
Nightmares, bed-wetting and other symptoms of emotional trauma plague children displaced by conflict in Yemen, and aid groups are increasingly placing focus on meeting the needs of this vulnerable population. Children account for an estimated 60% of the 100,000 people displaced in south Yemen.
UNICEF: Gender disparities emerge early
Boys and girls the world over are treated pretty much the same until they reach early adulthood, when girls become more likely to encounter domestic violence, HIV/AIDS infection and child marriage, according to a UNICEF report. Compounding the threats faced by an estimated 10 million girls who get married before they turn 18, primarily in Africa and South Asia, are poverty and poor health care, the report says.
Sex-abuse victims take case to ICC
A complaint filed Tuesday with the International Criminal Court at The Hague accuses Pope Benedict XVI, who formerly oversaw abuse cases, and three top cardinals of possible crimes against humanity for allegedly sheltering priests who sexually abused children. The Vatican had no immediate comment on the complaint, which was filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based nonprofit legal group, on behalf of the Survivors Network of those abused by Roman Catholic priests.
