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President of Burkina Faso commits to lifting financial barriers to maternal health in a meeting with Amnesty International

aron — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:10:31 +0000

The President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaoré, has committed to lifting all financial barriers to emergency obstetric care and access to family planning, as part of a strategy to fight maternal mortality in the country.

President Compaoré expressed this commitment during a meeting with an Amnesty International delegation led by interim Secretary General Claudio Cordone, and following the publication of an Amnesty International report highlighting the barriers women face in Burkina Faso to receiving adequate health care during pregnancy and child birth.

"The lifting of financial barriers for emergency obstetric care, accompanied by improvements in the quality of care and family planning will significantly reduce the number of deaths and complications for women in child birth," said Claudio Cordone. "Every woman has the right to life and the right to health. No woman should die giving birth when her death could have been prevented."

The government of Burkina Faso has made significant efforts towards improving maternal health during the last decade and Amnesty International welcomes the openness and constructive engagement it has experienced from the government while working on this issue. Costs associated with pregnancy and childbirth have been significantly reduced in Burkina Faso but remain an obstacle for many women in the country.

Pregnant women's lives in Burkina Faso can be endangered by the distance they have to travel to access adequate care, as well as corrupt practices by some medical personnel and lack of effective mechanisms to ensure monitoring and accountability. More than 2,000 women continue to die every year during pregnancy and childbirth.

"Ultimately, in order to fully address maternal death there is a need to tackle the various forms of discrimination against women which prevent them from taking part in decisions on family planning and accessing health care," said Claudio Cordone.

"Amnesty International will continue to work with civil society organizations, medical associations and government officials to address such discrimination and the poverty that fuels it."

The Amnesty International delegation also met Burkina Faso's First Lady Chantal Compaoré, the President of the National Assembly, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, the Prime Minister, Tertius Zongo, the Minister of Health, Seydou Bouda and the Minister for the Promotion of Human Rights, Salamata Sawadogo.

During these meetings, interim Secretary General Claudio Cordone shared the findings and recommendations of a two-year research project published in the report, Giving Life, Risking Death: Maternal Mortality in Burkina Faso.

The meetings with the authorities followed two weeks of discussions throughout the country with local communities, health professionals and local government officials. Amnesty International was able to take the testimonies of the people who suffer daily from the loss of their mothers, wives, and sisters to the authorities in the country.

"All the families we met told us that giving birth should be a joy, but that all too often it becomes an ordeal that no one should have to suffer," said Claudio Cordone.

During a meeting with international donors, Amnesty International urged them to continue their support for the Burkina Faso government with adequate, long-term and sustainable technical and financial assistance to ensure the availability and accessibility of emergency obstetric care.

Amnesty International also welcomed the adoption by the Burkina Faso National Assembly in December 2009 of a law implementing the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and called for an early abolition of death penalty.

Darfuri refugees exposed to increased attacks if UN withdraws from Chad

aron — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:16:36 +0000

Amnesty International on Thursday called on the Chadian government to allow United Nations (UN) peacekeepers to continue protecting 250,000 refugees from Darfur and 170,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in the east of the country.

The government has insisted that the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) must leave Chad when its mandate expires on 15 March 2010, arguing that the force has failed its mandate.

"Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable civilians would be exposed to increased attacks by Chadian armed opposition groups, irregular militias, criminal gangs and members of the Chadian security forces, if MINURCAT were to leave" said Tawanda Hondora, deputy director of Amnesty International's Africa programme.

MINURCAT has been deployed to eastern Chad since March 2008 to protect and enable humanitarian assistance to hundreds of thousands of refugees and IDPs that have sought shelter in the area.

Deployment has been slow over the past two years but the force is now for the first time deployed at around 70 percent of the level set by the UN Security Council and has received technical support from various countries.

Attacks on humanitarian workers and civilians, which reached alarming levels in the last months of 2009, have begun to decrease as MINURCAT soldiers have been able to carry out patrols in sensitive areas they were previously unable to patrol.

"The Chadian government has the responsibility and duty to protect its own population and other persons living on its territory but for many years it has shown itself incapable and unwilling to do so with respect to Eastern Chad," said Tawanda Hondora.

Human rights violations including rape and recruitment of child soldiers are carried out with almost total impunity in eastern Chad, by members of Chadian and Sudanese armed opposition groups, bandits and members of the Chadian security forces.

Amnesty International said it also fears that humanitarian agencies that assist refugees, IDPs and the local population in eastern Chad would be forced to close some or all of their programmes if MINURCAT were to pull out as the security vacuum left behind by the UN withdrawal would make it too dangerous for many to operate.

"This would leave hundreds of thousands without essential humanitarian assistance and facing increased security risks due to the absence of an international presence," said Tawanda Hondora.

"The UN Security Council must not accede to the request of the Chadian authorities until it is clear that the government of Chad is capable and prepared to protect the human rights of people living in eastern Chad."

In January 2010, the government of Chad sent a note verbale to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) requesting it to not renew the mandate of the United Nations Mission to the Central African Republic and Chad.

Following this request, the UN Secretary-General sent a Technical Assessment Mission to Chad to discuss the issue with Chadian authorities.

Chadian officials who met the UN team are reported to have confirmed the government's insistence that MINURCAT's mandate not be renewed when it expires on 15 March 2010.

On 8 February 2010, during a trip to Sudan, Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno reaffirmed that it is his government's position that MINURCAT must leave Chad at the expiration of its mandate.

The UNSC passed Resolution 1778 (2007) on 25 September 2007 establishing both a military and policing component to MINURCAT. The military force was deployed on 15 March 2008.

For the first year it was under the command of the European Union. Command of the military force was transferred to the UN as of 15 March 2009.

MINURCAT has the mandate, inter alia, to contribute to the protection of refugees, displaced persons and civilians in danger by facilitating the provision of humanitarian assistance in eastern Chad and the north-eastern Central African Republic.

Women 'S жизнь риску, поскольку Никарагуа ' S запрета абортов

aron — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:16:15 +0000

Activist Ana María Pizarro, tells Amnesty International how pregnant women are at risk of losing their lives because of Nicaragua's abortion ban.

"Many young women say 'I can't risk getting pregnant in this country'"

There can't be a law in Nicaragua which criminalizes something which only happens in women's bodies, because from that moment we are no longer equal before the law.

Women in Nicaragua are afraid to have a family, to get pregnant. Many young women say 'I can't risk getting pregnant in this country because I'm frightened that a (medical) complication could lead to my losing my life'.

I worked in the public health service for 10 years. Before, there used to be an analysis committee for the interruption of pregnancies, in the public hospitals. Now in the public hospitals, out of fear, women are left to die. There are cases of (pregnant) women who have treatable illnesses which aren't treated.

Women who have money can pay for a [clandestine] abortion and poor women have to carry on using basic, dangerous methods because they aren’t allowed to have an abortion in safe conditions.

We're creating a problem of social justice because in both of these cases, women can be sent to prison. The difference is that the poor women are going to die, and the women who aren’t poor won’t run any risk because they will be able to find professionals who can carry out an abortion safely.

One of the cases I know happened in Condega, in one of the provinces of Nicaragua.

A young woman of 25 arrived at a health centre one Sunday at 5am, where they diagnosed that she had had an induced abortion. In the space of two hours, the nurse and the doctor from the health centre informed the police and at 7am the police were inside the health centre interrogating the young woman.

The doctor, while a sample was being taken from the young woman's womb, filmed and took photos of the young woman, who was naked at the time. Then the police took photos of the young woman while the procedure was being carried out – again, while she was naked.

On the Monday the young woman was transferred to hospital and reported to the public prosecutor's office. The public prosecutor's office sent the case to the forensic doctor, who carried out a forensic assessment of her and on the Tuesday the young woman was being accused in court. She was interrogated while she was on a drip and under treatment.

The doctor said that the young woman didn't need a lawyer, they compelled her to testify and to incriminate herself. They obliged her to give information about details like how the abortion had been carried out.

Without a trial they ordered her to six months under house arrest, which is what the law stipulates. Since they had obliged her to give evidence against herself, a trial wasn’t necessary. She’s living out her sentence now.

The whole thing was carried out so quickly. This is not at all the case with rapists, with murderers, with those who abuse women, or when it’s an issue of corruption or violence, both of which affect Nicaragua so hugely.