One year ago today, health and education ministers throughout Latin America and the Caribbean committed to investing in comprehensive sexuality education and increased access to health services as a foundation for curbing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS.

Nearly every country in the region was in attendance at the unprecedented meeting, convened by the Mexican government in advance of the 2008 International AIDS conference. Ultimately, governments committed themselves to fundamentally changing the delivery of sexuality education in their countries, resulting in the Mexico City Declaration on Sex Education in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Unparalleled in its commitment by governments to address the important role that comprehensive sexuality education can play in improving the health and well-being of young people, governments agreed to key actions to promote the health and rights of young people.

“The Ministers established clear commitments,” said Sylvia Cavasin, Director of ECOS in Brazil. “In order to fulfill the Declaration’s targets, governments must now take prompt and focused action.”

The Mexico City Declaration’s ambitious targets include achieving a 75 percent reduction in each country of schools that do not provide comprehensive sex education by 2015. Countries acknowledged the role comprehensive sexuality education plays in introducing young people to the reproductive and sexual health services they need, and vowed to ensure that health services-including testing for HIV and STIs and counseling about condom use- are youth friendly. Governments also agreed to reduce the current number of adolescents not covered by adequate reproductive and sexual health services by half.

Comprehensive sexuality education curricula that provide information about HIV/AIDS, sexuality and pregnancy, and also promote self-esteem, respect for human rights and gender equality in relationship are needed to prepare new generations for a future premised on gender equality and human rights. IWHC, along with partners at the International Planned Parenthood Federation/ Western Hemisphere Region and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States created a media advocacy kit to support our partners in their local, national and regional advocacy efforts.

Moving forward, IWHC will continue to work with our partners to fulfill the goals of the Declaration, and ensure a just and healthy life for young people worldwide.

See original here:
The 2008 Mexico City Ministerial Declaration: One Year Later

Of all the regions in the world, Latin America consistently has some of the most restrictive laws when it comes to abortion. There are six countries in the world in which abortion is illegal in all circumstances, three of which are in Latin America: Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Malta, East Timor, and the Vatican City. Amnesty International has just released a report, The Total Abortion Ban in Nicaragua (link leads to a PDF of the report), which details the situation in Nicaragua.

Of all the regions in the world, Latin America consistently has some of the most restrictive laws when it comes to abortion. There are six countries in the world in which abortion is illegal in all circumstances, three of which are in Latin America: Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Malta, East Timor, and the Vatican City.

Amnesty International has just released a report, The Total Abortion Ban in Nicaragua (link leads to a PDF of the report), which details the situation in Nicaragua. In 2008, the country ramped up its penal codes for the “offense” of abortion, which means that not only are both abortion providers and the women who seek their services being arrested, but also that desperate women are obtaining unsafe abortions and they are dying from the procedure.

The report is very thorough and interesting, and well worth a read. If reading it makes you angry (and it should), send a letter to the President of the National Assembly in Nicaragua calling for the total ban on abortion in the country to be lifted.

Read more posts on the study at Gender Across Borders and Feministing.

See the original post:
Reporting on Nicaraguas Abortion Ban

In her new book The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World, author Michelle Goldberg exposes the global battle over women’s reproductive rights that pit reformers against an international alliance of fundamentalists, with profound consequences for both individual lives and worldwide development.

Last night IWHC hosted an event with Michelle so our friends and staff could learn more about her approach to writing the book. We were especially interested to hear what she had to say because she chronicles the rise of the international women’s movement, including the key roles played by our founders Joan Dunlop and Adrienne Germain.

Lori Adelman was able to get a few minutes with Michelle to talk about her work on video.

View original here:
(Video) Michelle Goldberg on the Global Battle Over Reproductive Health

On June 2nd, 2009, Brazils House of Representatives approved a bill that recognizes the right of incarcerated adolescents to conjugal visits. The bill also allows babies up to three years old to stay with their mothers in the prison facilities.

On June 2nd, 2009, Brazils House of Representatives approved a bill that recognizes the right of incarcerated adolescents to conjugal visits. The bill also allows babies up to three years old to stay with their mothers in the prison facilities.

The approval of this bill is a milestone because it is a step to the effective acknowledgement, at the infra-Constitutional level, that adolescents are subjects of rights, including sexual and reproductive rights.

This is an advance because the bill acknowledges the sexuality of female adolescents and does not mask the reality and life facts. It also establishes the state responsibility for maintaining public policies for adolescents regarding their sexuality.

Regarding the permanence of children in prison facilities, it protects the rights of women/mothers and children because it intends to preserve family bonds.

The approval of the bill by Brazils House of Representatives is the result of the recognition of the rights of incarcerated women and it follows the entering into force of a law signed by Brazils President on May 28th, 2009, which guarantees the antenatal and postnatal care for these women and their newborns. Under that law, prison facilities must create appropriate facilities to newborns and children whose mothers are incarcerated.

In a report that we presented to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights during a hearing about the imprisonment of women in Brazil, we stated that:

Women in the gestational and breastfeeding period are in a unique situation and must receive appropriate treatment, as set by internal and international regulations. This differentiated attention stems from the conditions that are inherent to gestation and breastfeeding which require special attention anywhere both in public and private spaces and especially in institutions of total confinement under State custody, such as prison facilities. This is an example of gender specific factors that need to be considered in public policies for incarcerated women a policy that does not exist in Brazil yet. By the way, the Inter American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women, which was ratified by Brazil, stated the need that the states, when adopting their policies, consider the situation of most vulnerability to discrimination and violence that both pregnant and incarcerated women are exposed to.

The lack of fulfillment of Constitutional provisions has a stronger negative impact on pregnant female inmates than on the average population. The health-related rights of incarcerated women in Brazil are often violated as they do not receive specialized medical attention during the gestation period. Most of them, during pregnancy, do not perform a single laboratory or image test what exposes both women and the fetus health to many risks. For pregnant incarcerated women in Brazil, diseases such as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), AIDS and tuberculosis are often only diagnosed after childbirth. They dont have ensured the right to stay at prison institutions that have post-partum hospitalization, including proper places for the woman and her newborn, because few institutions have such capacity. Most of imprisonment institutions, in special those in the facilities for non-convicted inmates, the child-care unit is an improvised cell that has the same unhealthy conditions common to those places.

Therefore, through this new legislation, we are managing to advance the enforcement of womens rights.

Kenarik Boujikian Felippe is a judge in So Paulo, Brazil. She is co-founder of the Association of Judges for Democracy and member of the Group of Studies and Advocacy on Incarcerated Women. In 2007, IWHC supported a member of that Group to come to Washington D.C. and present the above mentioned report, which exposes the human rights violations of incarcerated women, especially in the field of sexual and reproductive rights.

****

A aprovao deste projeto de lei uma marco, pois d um passo para o reconhecimento efetivo, no mbito legislativo infra-constitucional, que o adolescente um sujeito de direitos, portanto a ele tambm pertence o rol dos direitos sexuais e reprodutivos.

um avano, porque reconhece a sexualidade da mulher adolescente e no mascara a realidade, os fatos da vida e impem a obrigao do Estado em ter polticas pblicas voltadas para os adolescentes, atinentes sua sexualidade.

No tocante permanncia das crianas, protege direitos das mulheres/mes e das crianas, pois pretende preservar os vnculos familiares.

A aprovao, pela Cmara dos Deputados fruto do reconhecimento dos direitos das mulheres encarceradas, pois recentemente foi aprovada e sancionada pelo Presidente da Repblica (28 de maio de 2009), uma lei para as mulheres presas, para garantia de exames- pr-natal, ps e para o recm-nascido, alm de previso de berrio e creche nas unidades prisionais femininas (leia abaixo). Diziamos no relatrio apresentado na CIDH, em audincia sobre o encarceramento da mulher no Brasil, que:

“A mulher no perodo gestacional e de amamentao encontra-se em uma situao singular, ocupa posio diferenciada e deve receber condies especiais de tratamento, como estabelecem normas internas e internacionais. A exigncia de uma ateno diferenciada s mulheres nessas situaes especficas decorre, portanto, das prprias condies inerentes gestao e lactncia, e deve ser observada em quaisquer espaos pblico ou privado quanto mais ainda em estabelecimentos de total confinamento sob custdia direta do Estado, como so os crceres. Essa , por exemplo, uma das especificidades de gnero que se deve levar em conta em uma poltica pblica voltada para a populao feminina encarcerada, poltica essa que ainda inexistente no Estado Brasileiro. A propsito, a prpria Conveno de Belm do Par estabeleceu a necessidade de que os Estados, na adoo de suas polticas, leve em conta a situao de maior vulnerabilidade discriminao e violncia em que se encontram as mulheres grvidas e em privao de liberdade.

As brasileiras encarceradas, quando grvidas, sofrem mais com o descumprimento das normas constitucionais, ao no terem garantido o direito assistncia mdica especializada durante o perodo gestacional: a maioria, durante a gravidez, no realiza um nico exame laboratorial ou de imagem, expondo a sade da mulher e do feto a vrios riscos, inclusive de contaminao em casos de doenas sexualmente transmissveis, AIDS, tuberculose, muitas vezes desconhecidas at o momento posterior ao parto. A vaga em estabelecimento que permita a internao ps-parto, com local apropriado para receber a detenta e seu filho, no direito assegurado para grande parcela de parturientes no sistema prisional, uma vez que, so raras as unidades prisionais que contemplam esse tipo de acomodao com berrio apropriado. Na maioria das unidades prisionais, especialmente nas Cadeias Pblicas, o berrio uma cela improvisada, com as mesmas caractersticas de insalubridade comuns a esses locais”.

Portanto, conseguimos avanar na construo dos direitos das mulheres.

Excerpt from:
Brazilian Incarcerated Teens Granted Conjugal Visits

This week womens health and rights activists are celebrating President Manual Zelaya Rosales decision to veto a bill that would have outlawed emergency contraception in Honduras. The bill, which the national Congress of Honduras passed last month, would have made it illegal to sell, purchase, distribute, or use emergency contraception. As soon as Congress passed the bill, womens rights advocates in Honduras mobilized by sending letters and demonstrating to demand a Presidential veto.

This week womens health and rights activists are celebrating President Manual Zelaya Rosales decision to veto a bill that would have outlawed emergency contraception in Honduras.

The bill, which the national Congress of Honduras passed last month, would have made it illegal to sell, purchase, distribute, or use emergency contraception. As soon as Congress passed the bill, womens rights advocates in Honduras mobilized by sending letters and demonstrating to demand a Presidential veto. In the end, they succeeded in persuading President Zelaya that the bill violated womens human rights, which are protected under the Honduras Constitution and international human rights treaties. See also Women Outraged that Honduras Outlaws EC for a brief recap.

Please write to President Zelaya today (jvalladares@presidencia.gob.hn) and thank him for standing strong for the women of Honduras and ensuring they can continue to legally access emergency contraception, which is a crucial part of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services.

Sample letter text in English is below. For Spanish click here.

Excelentsimo Seor
Presidente de la Repblica de Honduras
Don Manuel Zelaya Rosales
Su Despacho
Email: jvalladares@presidencia.gob.hn

Seor Presidente:

On behalf of women worldwide, thank you for your unwavering support for womens health and human rights.

Ensuring womens access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services such as emergency contraception is one crucial step towards securing every womans right to a just and healthy life. As a result of your veto of Decree No. 54-2009 from April 2, 2009, more women will be able to decide when and if they want to get pregnant.

Thank you again for helping girls and women access the sexual and reproductive health services they need to stay healthy and safe.

Sincerely,

[Insert your name]

Protesters against the outlawing of EC in Honduras.

Susanna Smith is the Program Officer for Communications at the International Womens Health Coalition. Read her bio here .

See more here:
Support Activists in Honduras: Thank President Zelaya for Keeping EC Legal in Honduras

** Al final de esta pagina puede leerlo en espaol.

At a recent meeting, the XI Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Meeting in Mexico City, IWHC staff caught up with Milagros de Rama from Manuela Ramos. IWHC staff Lucina Di Meco and Marisa Viana-Aitchison taped Milagros talking about her work with young people in rural Peru.

Founded in Lima in 1978, the Manuela Ramos Movement is one of Peru’s leading feminist organizations. For more than 30 years, Manuela Ramos has worked in rural and urban settings and at the local, regional, and international levels to stop violence against women; to teach young people about sex and how to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections; and to empower women economically and politically.

In particular, Manuela Ramos has focused its work with young people on those living in rural areas. For example, in the town of Pucallpa in the Central Amazon of Peru, the main industry is timber and gas, which attracts primarily male, migrant labor. Young women, who have few employment options and little access to sexual and reproductive health care, are vulnerable to early and forced sex, sex trafficking, and unwanted pregnancies. This is evidenced in the data: 27 percent of adolescent girls in this region have been or are pregnant, as compared to the national average of 13 percent. Pucallpa has one of the highest HIV/STI rates in the country.

Responding to the realities of young Peruvians lives, Manuela Ramos implemented the first gender- and culturally-sensitive sexual and reproductive rights and health program for adolescents in the Central Amazon. The program built cross-cultural alliances with public health administrators, educators, and young people by working in schools, health centers, and with youth groups. The program also trained a group of young people as peer educators to spread messages about health and rights to other young people. Similar projects are underway in three other rural regions of Peru, Huancavelica, Ayacucho, and Lima.

(Video) Manuela Ramos Ensenado Los Jovenes a Ser Lideres
Recientemente, al XI Encuentro Feminista en la Ciudad de Mexico, Lucina Di Meco y Marisa Viana-Aitchison de IWHC hablaron con Milagros de Rama del Movimiento Manuela Ramos sobre su colaboracin con jvenes Peruanas de los zonas rurales.

Fundado en 1978 en Lima, el Movimiento Manuela Ramos es una de las organizaciones feministas ms respectadas en el Per. Para ms de 30 aos Manuela Ramos ha trabajado en zonas rurales y urbanas, as como a nivel local, regional e internacional para acabar con la violencia contra las mujeres, ensear a los y las jvenes sobre sexualidad, cmo prevenir embarazados no deseados e infecciones de trasmisin sexuales y a empoderar a las mujeres econmicamente y polticamente.

En particular, Manuela Ramos ha enfocado su proyectos con jvenes a aquellos jvenes que viven en zonas rurales. Como por ejemplo en la ciudad de Pucallpa, Amazonia Central de Per, donde las industrias ms importantes son la madera de construccin y la gasolina, que atrae a muchos trabajadores migrantes. Las mujeres jvenes, con pocas oportunidades de trabajo y limitado acceso a clnicas para la salud sexual y reproductiva, resultan siendo ms vulnerable a relaciones sexuales precoces, violencia sexual, trfico de personas y embarazos no deseados. Segn las estadsticas, 27% de las adolescentes en esta regin est o estuve embarazada en mientas que la media nacional es de 13%. Pucallpa tiene el nivel de VIH/SIDA ms alto del pas.

Para responder a las realidades las jvenes Peruanas, Manuela Ramos implement el primer programa sobre derechos y salud sexual y reproductiva con enfoque cultural y de gnero para la Amazonia Central. El programa instituy alianzas interculturales entre los responsables del sector salud, los educadores y los jvenes, a travs del trabajo en escuelas, centros de salud y grupos de jvenes. El programa tambin ha capacitado a un grupo de jvenes para que educaran a sus coetneos con informaciones sobre salud sexual y reproductiva. Proyectos parecidos se estn dando en otras regiones rurales del Per como Huancavelica, Ayacucho, y Lima.

Susanna Smith is the Program Officer for Communications at the International Womens Health Coalition. Read her bio here.

See more here:
(Video) Partner Highlight: Manuela Ramos Teaching Young People to Lead

Today kicks off the 8th annual United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues , which runs through May 29th. Like most conferences and meetings at the United Nations, participants have to register in advance, so you can’t just wander in and check things out. But since the meeting brings a lot of really fascinating activists to New York, there are other events that are open to the public, like this screening and panel: Intercultural Reproductive Health in Latin America

Today kicks off the 8th annual United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which runs through May 29th. Like most conferences and meetings at the United Nations, participants have to register in advance, so you can’t just wander in and check things out. But since the meeting brings a lot of really fascinating activists to New York, there are other events that are open to the public, like this screening and panel: Intercultural Reproductive Health in Latin America. The event takes place on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Jolly Hotel Madison Towers, 22 East 38 Street, New York City. If you’re interested in attending, today is the last day to RSVP, which you can do by emailing diseta@unfpa.org.

The event is co-sponsored by The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), The Mexican Cultural Institute, Foro Internacional de Mujeres Indigenas (FIMI), and Enlace Continental.

Among the panelists is IWHC colleague Tarcila Rivera Zea (pictured above), who is a Quechuan activist from Peru who has devoted over 20 years of her life to defend and seek recognition and acknowledgement of Peruvian Indigenous peoples and cultures. Her contributions to the empowerment of indigenous children and women have resulted in the creation of the Permanent Workshop of Andean and Amazon Indigenous Women of Peru, the International Forum of Indigenous Women of the Americas and the Continental Link of Indigenous Women of the Americas.

Here are the films that are screening:

“Nurses on the Frontline” – Bolivia

Following Alba – Ecuador

“Impact of Maternal Mortality on Indigenous Women” – Guatemala

Interculturality: A Perspective to Reduce Maternal Mortality in Indigenous Territories – Mexico

For bonus online viewing and to learn about the indigenous struggle and efforts to work with the UN, check out this 2006 film, Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations.

Go here to see the original:
Film Night in NYC: Intercultural Reproductive Health in Latin America

Earlier this week we urged everyone to write to the Embassy for the Dominican Republic in their countries and speak out against the disturbing restrictions that Article 30 would put on reproductive health and access. Yesterday there were protests in the Dominican Republic: La Gran Marcha

Earlier this week we urged everyone to write to the Embassy for the Dominican Republic in their countries and speak out against the disturbing restrictions that Article 30 would put on reproductive health and access.

Yesterday there were protests in the Dominican Republic: La Gran Marcha. Our colleagues at Colectiva Mujer y Salud were there, and Lorena Espinoza Pea was taking pictures. More information on what’s happening is on the ColectivAndo blog (in Spanish).

You can see more of these great photos by Lorena Espinoza Pea on our Flickr photostream.

Original post:
May 6 Gran Marcha in Dominican Republic

We have another update from our Dominican colleagues Colectiva de Mujer y Salud : For the past few weeks, the national Congress of the Dominican Republic has been reviewing a controversial bill that would amend the Constitutionand definethe right to life from conception to death .” On April 21, 2009, Article 30 , was approved by the executive branch under pressure and threats from the Catholic hierarchy and right-wing extremists. Article 30 would represent a significant step back for womens human rights, and approximately 100 civil society organizations have organized anumber of mobilizations, including a national march on Congress on May 6. To see photos of the protests, click here . In addition to voicing opposition to Article 30, women’s rights organizations are asking that during the second reading, when, according to the regulations governing the assembly, Article 30 must be discussed and is once again subject to approval, Congress modify its language or maintain the current language of the Constitution.

We have another update from our Dominican colleagues Colectiva de Mujer y Salud:

For the past few weeks, the national Congress of the Dominican Republic has been reviewing a controversial bill that would amend the Constitutionand definethe right to life from conception to death.” On April 21, 2009, Article 30, was approved by the executive branch under pressure and threats from the Catholic hierarchy and right-wing extremists.

Article 30 would represent a significant step back for womens human rights, and approximately 100 civil society organizations have organized anumber of mobilizations, including a national march on Congress on May 6. To see photos of the protests, click here.

In addition to voicing opposition to Article 30, women’s rights organizations are asking that during the second reading, when, according to the regulations governing the assembly, Article 30 must be discussed and is once again subject to approval, Congress modify its language or maintain the current language of the Constitution.

In light of this serious situation, Colectiva isrequesting support and a show of solidarity on May 6. Please write to the Dominican Republic embassy in your country and let them know that women’s health and rights will be compromised if the language of Article 30 is approved as it is now written.

Here is a sample letter, which you can send to the Embassy of the Dominican Republic in the United States by emailing
embassy@us.serex.gov.do:
Dear Mr. President of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Leonel Fernndez Reyna; Mr. President of the Parliamentary Assembly for Constitutional Review, Senator Reynaldo Pared Prez; Mr. Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly for Constitutional Review, Deputy Julio Csar Valentn:

On April 21, 2009, Article 30, which amends the current Constitution of the Dominican Republic by establishing the right to life from conception to death, was approved under pressure and threats from the Catholic hierarchy and right-wing extremists.

This article will severely and negatively impact public policies, medical practice, scientific development and womens lives, especially poor women. It also violates international agreements signed and ratified by the Dominican Republic, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Article 30 limits womens autonomy, and denies them their human rights.In light of the significant step backwards that the approval of Article 30 would represent for the human rights of Dominican women,Iask that during the second reading, when Article 30 must be discussed and is once again subject to approval, you reject the proposed language andmaintain the current language of the Constitution.

Sincerely,
[NAME]

Read the rest here:
Protect Reproductive Rights in the Dominican Republic

Last week we blogged about the worrisome approval of Article 30 in the Dominican Republic , which seriously restricts reproductive freedoms in the country. Our colleagues at the Colectiva Mujer y Salud have been keeping us updated on the activist mobilizations around the issue. Photographer Lorena Espinoza Pea sent us a fantastic set of photos taken at a protest last week

Last week we blogged about the worrisome approval of Article 30 in the Dominican Republic, which seriously restricts reproductive freedoms in the country.

Our colleagues at the Colectiva Mujer y Salud have been keeping us updated on the activist mobilizations around the issue. Photographer Lorena Espinoza Pea sent us a fantastic set of photos taken at a protest last week. Check them out in the slideshow below or on our Flickr photostream. The signs you see being held up in lots of these pictures translate to, “Shame, shame, shame on Congress.” Amnesty International has also released a statement (PDF) urging the Dominican Republic to pass legislation that enhances women’s health and rights instead of restricting them.

The folks at Colectiva are putting together a statement that we’ll post here once it’s finalized and has been translated from the original Spanish. In the meantime, check out this flier for a protest in the Dominican Republic on Thursday (click image for hi res version).

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

The rest is here:
Dominican Republic Activists Protest Repro Rights Restrictions

Yesterday we blogged about the need for people to voice their opinions and lend support to the reproductive rights movement in the Dominican Republic . Unfortunately, we just got word from our colleagues at Ipas that yesterday the National Assembly voted by a huge majority, 167-32, to approve Article 30: This decision will have serious repercussions for the health and rights of women and girls in the Dominican Republic. While the word conception was not defined in Article 30, legislators and the Catholic Church have made it clear that they define life as beginning before implantation .

Yesterday we blogged about the need for people to voice their opinions and lend support to the reproductive rights movement in the Dominican Republic.

Unfortunately, we just got word from our colleagues at Ipas that yesterday the National Assembly voted by a huge majority, 167-32, to approve Article 30:

This decision will have serious repercussions for the health and rights of women and girls in the Dominican Republic. While the word conception was not defined in Article 30, legislators and the Catholic Church have made it clear that they define life as beginning before implantation. This means that efforts to modify the penal codes that criminalize abortion would have no legal standing.

Adding insult to injury, at yesterdays session some legislators also discussed increasing the criminal penalties for illegal abortions.By defining life as beginning before implantation legislators and others can then argue that most forms of contraception, including IUDs, EC, and hormonal contraceptives, could be considered as violating the right to life.

Emphasis mine. Scary stuff indeed. According to our colleagues in Latin America, there is some possibility that some of this will be renegotiated. We’ll keep you updated as we know more.

The rest is here:
Reproductive Rights in the Dominican Republic Under Siege

Yesterday we blogged about the need for people to voice their opinions and lend support to the reproductive rights movement in the Dominican Republic . Unfortunately, we just got word from our colleagues at Ipas that yesterday the National Assembly voted by a huge majority, 167-32, to approve Article 30: This decision will have serious repercussions for the health and rights of women and girls in the Dominican Republic. While the word conception was not defined in Article 30, legislators and the Catholic Church have made it clear that they define life as beginning before implantation .

Yesterday we blogged about the need for people to voice their opinions and lend support to the reproductive rights movement in the Dominican Republic.

Unfortunately, we just got word from our colleagues at Ipas that yesterday the National Assembly voted by a huge majority, 167-32, to approve Article 30:

This decision will have serious repercussions for the health and rights of women and girls in the Dominican Republic. While the word conception was not defined in Article 30, legislators and the Catholic Church have made it clear that they define life as beginning before implantation. This means that efforts to modify the penal codes that criminalize abortion would have no legal standing.

Adding insult to injury, at yesterdays session some legislators also discussed increasing the criminal penalties for illegal abortions.By defining life as beginning before implantation legislators and others can then argue that most forms of contraception, including IUDs, EC, and hormonal contraceptives, could be considered as violating the right to life.

Emphasis mine. Scary stuff indeed. According to our colleagues in Latin America, there is some possibility that some of this will be renegotiated. We’ll keep you updated as we know more.

Go here to read the rest:
Reproductive Rights in the Dominican Republic Under Siege

Recently Denise Hirao, IWHCs Program Officer for Latin America, interviewed Debora Diniz, IWHC Board member and Executive Director of the Institute on Human Rights and Bioethics (Anis), about abortion in Brazil.

DEBORA DINIZ: In 2004, Anis presented a case to the Brazilian Supreme Court. It was a case on an anencephalic pregnancy, which is when the fetus has no brain and will not survive after birth. In Brazil, abortion is banned with two exceptions: when the womans life is at risk and in case of rape. Our idea was to change this small piece of abortion legislation at the Supreme Court level.

DENISE HIRAO: So this case was filed in the Brazilian judiciary and it went to the Supreme Court. Can you tell us what has happened since then?

DEBORA DINIZ: We got a preliminary injunction, a temporary authorization that allows women to decide if they want to abort when encephaly occurs. No women were forced to abort; they were free to choose whatever they wanted. But we lost the authorization; it was cancelled by the Supreme Court.

DENISE HIRAO: I understand that you have made a few short documentaries about this issue. Can you tell us a bit about the films?

DEBORA DINIZ: In partnership with International Womens Health Coalition we did two films. Four Women tells the story of four women who were able to get abortions during the time that women were protected by the preliminary injunction. The second film is Severinas Story Severina is the name of a farmer, a poor woman who was in the hospital on the same day that the Supreme Court cancelled the authorization. We decided to follow Severina during four months after the cancellation so we could show the part of Severinas life that the Supreme Court never witnessed.

Below is a short video of Denise and Debora talking about how Debora and her team found Severina and decided to tell her story.

DENISE HIRAO: What was the impact of the film?

DEBORA DINIZ: When we decided to make this film we didnt know how to make films. IWHCs support was key in helping us to tell this story. The impact of the film was tremendous. Not only because we did a good film, but because we had a good story. Severina is a great woman. And she was suffering, due to the Supreme Court decision. She was suffering from being pregnant and waiting to give birth when she knew that at the end she would not have a living baby.

DENISE HIRAO: You were able to make this film a very big part of the discussion about abortion. Can you tell us what it was like to screen Severinas Story at a public hearing at the Supreme Court?

DEBORA DINIZ: It was the second public hearing in the history of the Brazilian Supreme Court. And Anis, the organization that I represent, was one of the organizations invited to be in the public hearing. We asked the Supreme Court to screen the film and they accepted. So this was the first time that a film was exhibited as evidence for a Supreme Court case.

We have the support of the scientific community. At the same time, the majority of public opinion is with us as well. Im confident the Supreme Court decision will stand up for women, but were still waiting.

Watch Severina’s Story below and learn more about Anis here:

Read the rest here:
(Video) Abortion Advocacy, Film, and the Brazilian Supreme Court

Women in the Dominican Republic face a dire threat of losing their rights to contraception, assisted reproduction services, and safe abortion care. Please take two actions today to support Dominican women as they fight to retain access to the sexual and reproductive health care they need and want: (1) Sign a petition , asking the Senate President Reinaldo Pared Prez and President of the House of Representatives Julio Cesar Valentin Jiminian to stand strong for womens rights, and (2) Send a letter to the Presidents of the Senate and House to express your concern womens rights are being eroded in the Constitutional reform process and demand that they stand up for womens rights and health. Read a sample letter, Spanish language only, here

Women in the Dominican Republic face a dire threat of losing their rights to contraception, assisted reproduction services, and safe abortion care.

Please take two actions today to support Dominican women as they fight to retain access to the sexual and reproductive health care they need and want:

(1) Sign a petition, asking the Senate President Reinaldo Pared Prez and President of the House of Representatives Julio Cesar Valentin Jiminian to stand strong for womens rights, and
(2) Send a letter to the Presidents of the Senate and House to express your concern womens rights are being eroded in the Constitutional reform process and demand that they stand up for womens rights and health. Read a sample letter, Spanish language only, here.

What is happening with womens rights in the Dominican Republic?
The Dominican law that criminalizes abortion is over 100 years-old and prohibits abortion even in cases of rape. Spurred by a push from womens rights advocates, the executive branch decided to reform the law in August 2006. In the summer of 2007, public hearings were held on decriminalizing abortion. While this review process is still ongoing, it has been further complicated by a decision to undertake Constitutional reforms.

Recently, President Leonel Fernandez proposed new Constitutional language to establish the right to life from conception. Womens rights and health advocates, led by Colectiva Mujer y Salud, are concerned that this new language could make it illegal for women to use contraceptives or assisted reproduction and stop any progress on making abortion safe and legal. Please speak out today on the right of all women and girls to access comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care, which must include contraceptives, safe abortion care, and other services they need to fully realize their rights.

Susanna Smith is the Program Officer for Communications at the International Womens Health Coalition. Read her bio here .

Originally posted here:
Take Action Today to Support Dominican Womens Rights

a leson for the America Continent ? 5 Years After: Portugal ’s Drug Decriminalization Policy Shows Positive Results From Scientific American In the face of a growing number of deaths and cases of HIV linked to drug abuse, the Portuguese government in 2001 tried a new tack to get a handle on the problemit decriminalized the use and possession of heroin , cocaine, marijuana, LSD and other illicit street drugs

a leson for the America Continent ?

5 Years After: Portugal’s Drug Decriminalization Policy Shows Positive Results

From Scientific American

In the face of a growing number of deaths and cases of HIV linked to drug abuse, the Portuguese government in 2001 tried a new tack to get a handle on the problemit decriminalized the use and possession of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and other illicit street drugs. The theory: focusing on treatment and prevention instead of jailing users would decrease the number of deaths and infections.

Sounds like they were having a similar problem as US and Latin America

Five years later, the number of deaths from street drug overdoses dropped from around 400 to 290 annually, and the number of new HIV cases caused by using dirty needles to inject heroin, cocaine and other illegal substances plummeted from nearly 1,400 in 2000 to about 400 in 2006, according to a report released recently by the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C, libertarian think tank.

Are you fallowing that Obama , Mexico ?

More at Scientific American

Traducido por Jose J Castillo

Ante un nmero creciente de muertes y casos del CIDA relacionado al consumo de drogas, el gobierno portugus en 2001 intent una nueva tactica para enfrentar el problema despenalizando el uso y la posesin de la herona, cocana, marihuana, LSD y otras drogas ilcitas. La teora: el enfoque en tratamiento y prevencin en vez de encarcelar a usuarios disminuira el nmero de muertes e infecciones.

Cinco aos ms tarde, el nmero de muertes de sobredosis de drogas cay de alrededor 400 a 290 anualmente, y el nmero de nuevos casos de CIDA causados por el uso de agujas sucias para inyectar herona, cocana y otras sustancias ilegales cay a plomo de casi 1,400 en 2000 a aproximadamente 400 en 2006, segn un informe liberado recientemente por Cato Institute, un grupo de Washington, D.C,

“Ahora en vez de ser puestos en la prisin, los adictos van a centros de tratamiento y ellos aprenden a controlar su uso de medicina o medicinas que se bajan completamente,” relatan que el autor Glenn Greenwald, un antiguo Estado de Nueva York litigante constitucional, dijo durante una sesin informativa de prensa en Cato la semana pasada.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Drug Decriminalization In Portugal (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
• Prohibition has failed; legalisation is the least bad solution (3quarksdaily.com)

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• A lesson For the American Continent ? Una leccion Para America
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Continued here:
A lesson For the American Continent ? Una leccion Para America