Darfuri women in Chad, carrying sticks and water (Kirsten Johnson)

This is not my country. We get raped when we leave the camp. In my village, we could do what we wanted and there was enough food. I want to go back to my village, but it’s still not safe.

This is one of 88 Darfuri women now living in the Farchana refugee camp in Chad, who were interviewed for the new Physicians for Human Rights report Nowhere to Turn: Failure to Protect, Support and Assure Justice for Darfuri Women. Nowhere to Turn will be published this Sunday, May 31, 2009. The Darfuri women interviewed for the report spoke about the sexual assaults visited upon them both in Darfur and in the environs of the refugee camps in Chad. They spoke about their lives and difficulties in the camp. The report found that the Darfuri women refugees:

reported a general insecurity and unhappiness about life in the camp. Many reported being terrified of going out of the camp to graze animals or collect wood for fear of being beaten or raped. Women noted that though they had reported assaults to camp authorities, there was no response. Some feared that their families would find out if they reported the rapes. Women said that they preferred to suffer in silence rather than risk repercussions.

Nowhere to Turn reveals the profound stigma and physical violence to which many women have been subjected as a result of sexual assault. It portrays the tenacity and courage of these women who have protested gender discrimination and violence in a declaration they wrote proclaiming their lack of freedoms entitled the “Farchana Manifesto,” discussed in the report and available at DarfuriWomen.org.Nowhere to Turn makes specific recommendations regarding prevention and protection for the Daruri refugees, justice and accountability for the crimes committed against them, and support to survivors.The findings in the report should work to compel a just solution to the crisis in Sudan that allows these survivors to return home.

Douglas Gwatidzo, MD, head of Zimbabwe Physicians for Human Rights (Public Radio International)

Zimbabwean physician Douglas Gwatidzo has collaborated with Physicians for Human Rights in investigations of his country's health and human rights disaster. Dr. Gwatidzo is the 2009 winner of the Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights, which he will accept tomorrow evening at a special awards ceremony at the Global Health Council's 36th Annual International Conference.

Dr. Gwatidzo is in Washington, DC and is available now for photo ops and interviews. To arrange a meeting with Dr. Gwatidzo, contact PHR Senior Researcher Richard Sollom by email at rsollom [at] phrusa [dot] org or on his cell at +1-617-501-8510.

Through his work with the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR), Dr. Gwatidzo has passionately taken action against the human rights violations of the current government. As a practicing physician and co-founder and unwavering volunteer director of ZADHR since 2002, Dr. Gwatidzo has supported beleaguered fellow health workers, mentored young medical students, provided medico-legal documentation and care for survivors of state torture and advocated in the public arena for an end to government violence.

In November 2008, Dr. Gwatidzo launched an investigation with Physicians for Human Rights into the current cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe and the utter collapse of the country's health system. This investigation has documented the closure of hospitals and clinics, breakdown in sanitation and water purification systems, the ensuing and unchecked cholera epidemic, food scarcity, interruptions in HIV/AIDS treatment, untreated tuberculosis, and new outbreaks of anthrax and malnutrition not seen in Zimbabwe. The investigation led to a 2009 Physicians for Human Rights report, Health in Ruins: A Man-Made Disaster in Zimbabwe.

The Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights was established in 1999 to honor Dr. Jonathan Mann and highlight the vital link between health and human rights. Sponsored in 2007 by four organizations — Association François-Xavier Bagnoud, Health Right International, John Snow, Inc. and the Global Health Council, the award is bestowed annually to a leading practitioner in health and human rights and comes with a substantial financial reward to allow its recipients a measure of freedom to pursue their work in the important area of global health and human rights.

Despite his untimely death in a 1998 plane crash, Jonathan Mann is considered by many to be one of the most important figures in the 20th century fight against global poverty, illness and social injustice.

Yesterday, Richard Sollom posted the happy news that Binayak Sen, MD, has been released on bail after more than two years in jail on false charges of supporting a Maoist insurgency in India. The following is a TV interview with Dr. Sen very shortly after his release.

PHR is delighted to share the news that esteemed member of our Board of Directors Justice Richard Goldstone has received the MacArthur Award for International Justice.

(The Hague, Netherlands) — The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today honored Justice Richard Goldstone, former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, with the MacArthur Award for International Justice. The Award was presented at a dinner held in The Hague, the international city of peace and justice, which is home to more than 150 international legal organizations and judicial tribunals, including the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice. Guests included representatives from the diplomatic and judicial communities, as well as civic and nonprofit leaders.As the first Chief Prosecutor of the Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, Goldstone helped shepherd these courts, the first of their kind since Nazi war criminals were tried at Nuremberg following World War II. In 1995, Goldstone filed charges of genocide and crimes against humanity against Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic for their roles in the “ethnic cleansing” of Bosnian Muslims, as well as torture, rape, the shelling of Sarajevo, and the sacking of mosques and Catholic churches.Prior to his appointment as Chief Prosecutor in 1994, Goldstone was chair of the Commission of Inquiry Regarding Public Violence and Intimidation (commonly called “the Goldstone Commission”) in the aftermath of apartheid in his native South Africa. His service on the Commission proved invaluable to the democratic transition in that country, where he also served as an inaugural justice of the Constitutional Court. He currently serves as the first Spinoza Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study.In accepting the Award, Justice Goldstone said, “I am delighted that the MacArthur Award recognizes the centrality in the 21st Century of?international?criminal justice. It is a system that withdraws impunity for war criminals even if they are sitting heads of state. It is also a system that recognizes the inherent dignity of all human beings and seeks to bring official acknowledgment to victims of atrocity crimes.”“As Chief Prosecutor of the UN International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, Justice Goldstone displayed a mature, meticulous, and measured exercise of his mandate that reanimated the enterprise of international justice, bringing both a degree of resolution to victims and a new model for the prosecution of crimes against humanity,” said MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton, who presented the Award. “Insisting on the independence of the counsel and judges, a transparent establishment of the facts in each case, due-process protections for the accused, and the centrality of first-hand testimony from witnesses and surviving victims, he gave the Tribunals moral authority and legal credibility. Justice Goldstone stood guarantor for the responsibility, probity, and value of international justice; his unquestioned competence and integrity won the faith of the world.”

The McArthur Award for International Justice includes $500,000 which Justice Goldstone may direct for support of non-profit organizations working on international justice issues. PHR is deeply honored to be one of five non-profits that he has selected to receive grants from these funds.We congratulate Justice Goldstone, celebrate the recognition he has received for upholding international justice and thank him for his genrous support.

The Indian Supreme Court yesterday granted bail to Binayak Sen, MD, a leading health and human rights advocate. Dr. Sen languished in jail for more than two years on bogus charges of supporting a Maoist insurgency in India. The Court granted Dr. Sen bail on a personal bond in a hearing that lasted just one minute and also ordered the state government to provide him the "best possible medical aid." Dr. Sen suffers from coronary artery disease.

Yesterday PHR reported on three Sri Lankan physicians whom government officials detained on 16 May 2009.? PHR believes the government is trying to suppress facts of the humanitarian crisis, civilian casualties, and attacks on hospitals during the recent routing of Tamil separatist forces that these doctors reported to the outside world.? PHR called on the Sri Lankan government to

release the doctors immediately and to respect their rights to legal counsel and to receive medical care as well as family visits.? The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) should also be given immediate access to the doctors.

According to Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka’s Minister?for?Human Rights?and Disaster Management, detention orders have been issued against all three physicians.Physicians for Human Rights today received information from a reliable source in Sri Lanka informing us that authorities have allowed ICRC access to the two doctors detained at the Terrorist Investigation Division in Colombo – Dr. Thangamutha Sathiyamoorthy? and Dr. V. Shanmugarajah.? Dr. Thurairaja Varatharajah is still missing.

• Medical Evaluation of Fathi al-Jahmi Report

 

Scott Allen, MD, of Physicians for Human Rights, examines Fathi al-Jahmi at Tripoli Medical Center on March 13, 2008. (Photo credit: copyright 2008 Fred Abrahams/Human Rights Watch)

We are saddened at PHR to learn of the death earlier this morning of Fathi al-Jahmi, a prominent Libyan prisoner of conscience. He died in a hospital in Amman, Jordan. PHR is calling for an investigation of al-Jahmi’s death.Mr. al-Jahmi, an outspoken critic of the regime of Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi, had been in the custody of Libyan security for the past five years, including most recently under guard at the Tripoli Medical Center. He was transported to Amman several weeks ago—reportedly in a semi-conscious or comatose state—and breathing on a ventilator. Information about his latest condition was not made public. His body is reportedly being transported to Libya for burial.PHR’s Medical advisor, Scott Allen, MD, conducted an independent medical examination (PDF) of al-Jahmi in March 2008. On hearing this morning’s news about al-Jahmi’s death, Allen expressed his regrets and his condolences for al-Jahmi’s family and then said:

Independent medical judgment has not governed the care of Mr. Al-Jahmi. Not only was he inappropriately confined in a hospital for many months—he was also placed in a psychiatric facility without cause, and the Libyan government never provided any evidence to support such an intervention.

Susannah Sirkin, Deputy Director of PHR, elaborated on Allen’s comments:

Under these circumstances, an independent inquiry, including an autopsy, would be the best way to establish a factual record of what happened to Fathi al-Jahmi. PHR also believes that Mr. Al-Jahmi himself would have wanted nothing less, given his repeated requests to us last year that his medical records and conditions of confinement be shared with the world. He was a staunch advocate for freedom of expression and democracy in Libya.

Nizam Peerwani, MD, a forensic pathologist who is a senior advisor to PHR’s International Forensic Program, and who has extensive experience conducting death investigations in many countries, has offered to travel immediately to Libya to conduct an autopsy and review the medical records in this case, as part of an independent investigation.As Dr. Allen said:

The Libyan government has always asserted that it has provided the best possible care to Fathi Al-Jahmi. Therefore, they should have nothing to hide and should allow a full investigation.

Photos of Fathi al-Jahmi

(Available for press to download here.)

In his 2010 budget, President Obama failed to deliver on his commitment to end the ban on federal funding of needle exchange services—an action he promised to take before and after the election and one that would help protect the health and save the lives of tens of thousands of injection drug users—in the US and around the world.Every year since 1988, Congress has tucked the ban into the Labor HHS appropriations bill with a provision stating that "no funds appropriated in this Act shall be used to carry out any program of distributing sterile needles or syringes for the hypodermic injection of any illegal drug."These words have meant that communities across the US are limited in how they can fight HIV among some of their most vulnerable residents. Technically, they do not apply to any funding not covered by the Labor HHS bill. However, bureaucrats administering U.S. foreign assistance have felt constrained by this language and have cautiously decided to apply it to all foreign assistance. The harm caused by these words goes beyond HIV as well, as needle exchange programs are also an important tool in fighting viral hepatitis.Given President Obama's strong support for needle exchange programs and the Administration's commitment to invigorating the federal response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, we hoped that the President would seize this first opportunity for lifting federal restrictions on this lifesaving prevention strategy by removing this provision from his FY10 budget request to Congress. Sadly, it remains. Denying people at risk for HIV a proven prevention intervention is a denial of their basic human rights and it was certainly a surprise to find it still in the budget.The President has repeatedly expressed his support for lifting the ban, pledging during the campaign, the transition, and after the inauguration to take action on this issue. Within 24 hours of his inauguration, the White House website stated clearly: "The President also supports lifting the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of [HIV] infection among drug users."While we are disappointed by the inaction on needle exchange funding in the President's budget, the prospects of lifting the federal ban have not been defeated. We and our allies on this issue will continue working with the Administration and Congress to remove the obstacles to the implementation of needle exchange programs in communities devastated by HIV.The President must now move past simply being clear in his support for ending the federal ban and insist that Congress not include the restriction in the appropriations legislation they send him. The Administration must also work with Congress to pass the Community AIDS and Hepatitis Prevention Act , and direct HHS and State to remove all non-legislative barriers for funding of needle exchange.While there is a lot the Obama Administration needs to do, they alone are not responsible for paving the way for federal support of needle exchange programs. We know the importance of scaling up these programs in the US and elsewhere and we must now reach out to Members of Congress to ensure that they also allow science to guide their judgment on this issue. They, too, have an important role to play in lifting the ban and we must see to it that they act with due haste.(Cross-posted on RH Reality Check.)

An unprecedented surge of citizen activism demanding the release of famed Indian pediatrician, Binayak Sen, culminated last Thursday when people from around the world held vigils in his honor. Physicians for Human Rights has worked for Dr. Sen’s release ever since government authorities arrested him on bogus charges of sedition on May 14, 2007.? PHR Deputy Director Susannah Sirkin, who has visited Christian Medical College where Dr. Sen trained in India – spoke at the Harvard Square vigil saying,

Treating the poor is not a crime.

PHR member Shiv Pillay, MD, an oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and friend of Dr. Sen while in medical school, also spoke passionately about the injustice of his detention.Last year Dr. Sen was awarded the prestigious Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights, which his wife Ilina Sen, accepted on his behalf in Washington, DC. PHR will continue advocating for Dr. Sen’s release at this year’s International Global Health Conference where the annual Jonathan Mann Prize will be awarded.

In the past 2+ years that I have been Director of the Health Action AIDS campaign, I’ve been so inspired by the commitment of our health professional advocates to fighting the AIDS epidemic and promoting US global AIDS policy based on sound science and human rights. As our political environment, our global economy and our understanding of the AIDS epidemic develops with time, Health Action AIDS advocacy has always been on the forefront of shaping global health policy.The impact and lessons learned from the Health Action AIDS campaign have led PHR to further explore the connection between health and human rights. Responding to the global AIDS epidemic has reinforced our knowledge that an equitable and accessible health system is core to improving the health of the worlds’ most vulnerable.In response to the realization that global health cannot be improved until an approach to health takes into account the combination of all components of the health sector, PHR is launching an initiative that will explore the implementation of a comprehensive, right to health approach to health systems strengthening.Indeed, we have come a long way since May 2002, when PHR first convened leading medical, nursing and public health experts at the first John Lloyd Summit on HIV/AIDS in Stony Point, New York.The question under consideration: would it be possible to mobilize US health professionals to advocate for a comprehensive, rights-based response to the global AIDS epidemic.At that time, access to lifesaving medications was changing the course of AIDS in the US, while the epidemic continued to ravage the developing world, especially sub-Saharan Africa. The challenge put forth by the group was: “Who is going to say ‘no more’ to a continent dying?”Questions of equity, access to treatment and the responsibility of health professionals were considered, ultimately identifying US indifference to the global epidemic as the major problem that needed addressing. Was it feasible for PHR to rally the powerful voices of health professionals in response to that indifference and launch a national campaign to bring awareness and outrage to a growing epidemic that was a product of pervasive human rights violations?The answer: the launch of PHR’s Health Action AIDS Campaign.Eight years later, the Health Action AIDS campaign has helped revolutionize the US response to global health and highlighted the powerful role that health professionals can play in the development and implementation of health policies.The campaign’s success has been significant and you have been central to that success. You willingness to lend your voice and expertise to Health Action AIDS campaign priorities has helped shape HIV/AIDS policy and programming that has saved literally millions of lives.Over the next few months, our Health Action AIDS campaign will begin the transition to this new, broader Right to Health initiative. Although we planned to devote more time to this campaign transformation, lack of continued funding has required us to expedite the process. At the same time we recognize that the AIDS epidemic is far from over, thus, PHR’s commitment to many of the Health Action AIDS priorities will remain strong.We will keep you apprised of this work and look forward to your continued engagement as we move our agenda forward.