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Published on Friday, 10 August 2012 02:34

APA UPDATE #39August 2012

E-NEWS AND INFORMATION ON SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS

FROM THE SECRETARIAT

Making HIV Responses Work for Key Affected Women and Girls in Asia and the Pacific

As the International Conference on AIDS (IAC) in Washington, DC, has come to an end, explore the challenges of placing women and girls on the HIV response agenda in a concentrated epidemic in Asia and the Pacific. “Critical ingredients for effective HIV responses... Women and girls in a concentrated epidemic” was written by Rose Koenders, Rodelyn Marte and Katy Pullen and published in ALQ/Mujeres Adelante July 2012. Read the article here.

Save the Date: 11th APA Conference and General Meeting of Members

‘Harmonizing Efforts for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for the ‘post-2015’ Global Framework’, the 11th APA Conference and General Meeting of Members will take place 13-14 November in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Read the Concept Note here. Registration information will be made available soon.

Post Rio+20: Calling for Greater Support for Reproductive Rights

APA and members were amongst 74 CSOs from 34 countries that endorsed a letter calling for greater support for reproductive rights from governments that failed to support these rights at Rio+20. The letter was prepared by Catholics for Choice and Population Action International (APA Member) and was mailed to foreign ministers and UN Ambassadors. Read the letter here.

FROM THE MEMBERS

New Video from Pathfinder Highlights Why Choice Matters

A new video by Pathfinder International (APA Member) explores the barriers that women face to reproductive healthcare. The video asks, what does the world look like when women can choose if, when, and how often to have children? The power of choice is when every woman, every man, every young person, has access to sexual and reproductive health. Watch the video here.

HIV Treatment as Prevention

HIV treatment as prevention was one of the hot topics at the 2012 International AIDS Conference in Washington DC last month. Shaun Robinson, Executive Director of New Zealand AIDS Foundation (APA Member) talks about the NZAF's position on treatment as prevention and the consequences of lowered condom use. Read the article here.

Interaction Magazine July Edition Now Available

A New Zealand Parliamentarian's Open Hearing on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health in the Pacific, and two capacity building projects - Sister Savve in Solomon Islands and Healthy Family Project in Kiribati - are the top highlights of this edition of Interaction Magazine, published by Family Planning International (APA Member). Access Interaction here.

Family Planning Summit: Loss or an opportunity for the Pacific?

A new article by Sean Mackesy-Buckley of Family Planning International (APA Member) explains that while most Pacific Islands Countries (PICs) have missed out being explicitly targeted at the recent Family Planning Summit in London, the Summit does nevertheless provide the region as a whole with a unique and rare opportunity to capitalise on family planning’s sudden and dramatic return to visibility on the global development agenda. Now is the time for regional advocates to step up calls for PICs and regional donors to be more accountable to the sexual and reproductive health and rights of the region’s peoples. Read the article here.

Why Pacific Women Deserve Contraceptive Choice

In a new article, Elissa Kennedy from Burnet Institute (APA member), shares that when speaking about increasing the access to contraception, some of the poorest progress has been made in the Pacific. Meeting the needs of women and girls dispersed across 500 islands in over 30 million square kilometres of Pacific Ocean will require considerable resources, but a forthcoming cost-benefit analysis conducted by the Burnet Institute and Family Planning International for Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands indicate that such an investment would have substantial benefits. Read more here.

FOCUS ON ASIA PACIFIC

Save the Date: ICAAP11 in Bangkok

The 11th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP11) will be held in Bangkok, Thailand,  from 17-23 November 2013. The theme is 'Asia/Pacific Reaching Triple Zero.  Investing in Innovation".  Read more here.

Philippines: New Milestone for the RH Bill

The RH bill, which has been introduced in Philippine Congress in various versions for more than a decade now, for the first time has reached the second phase in the legislative process. The next phase is the period of amendments. Read about how the RH Bill offers a chance for reproductive justice in the Philippines here.

Australia: Doubling Family Planning Aid

Australia will double its aid funding for family planning services in developing countries to $50 million a year by 2016. Announced on the eve of the recent Family Planning Summit, Foreign Minister Bob Carr said Australia's funding will deliver reproductive health services, family planning information and modern contraception, particularly in the Asia-Pacific. It will be delivered through partner organisations including the UNFPA and the IPPF. Read more here.

New Zealand: Parliamentarians call for increased in ODA for Family Planning in the Pacific

According to Dr. Jackie Blue, Chair of the New Zealand Parliamentarians Forum on Population and Developmebnt “New Zealand spends the majority of its aid money in the Pacific. Over the past decade family planning programmes in the Pacific have received just 0.03% of the region’s aid. Pacific women have expressed a desire to have fewer children, and a desire to space their children. Despite this, support for family planning programmes in the Pacific has diminished and does not meet demand. This is an issue of utmost importance that New Zealand should be seeking to support with our international development assistance.” Read the press release here.

Pakistan: Family Planning needs to be Part of Broader SRH Rights

Pakistan has one of the poorest maternal and health indices in the world. In order to achieve goals in reduction of maternal and child morality, family planning need to be part of broader sexual and reproductive health and rights. Dr. Tauseef Ahmed, Country Director for Pathfinder International, explained that "lack of political will and funding has severely hampered Pakistan from achieving most MDGs….No attention is given to several aspects of family planning, including contraceptive procurement, counseling to millions of women who want to adopt family planning methods, and quality of services." Read more here.

Indonesia: Activists Demand Revisions to Anti-abortion Laws

Activists are raising alarm over Indonesia’s anti-abortion laws, saying that criminalized abortion encourages women to turn to illegal practices that can be fatal. "The criminalization of abortion is a form of violence against women. State and society have failed to see women as subjects; women are increasingly seen as objects and are subordinated under the law," explained Inna Hudaya, founder of SAMSARA, an NGO that provides assistance to women with unplanned pregnancies. An estimated 2.5 million abortions are performed in Indonesia every year, but the figure might be higher than that, as many women turn to illegal clinics and traditional healers to have their pregnancies terminated discreetly. Read more here.

GLOBAL NEWS, UPDATES AND RESOURCES

Canada, US, and Vatican Were United Against Reproductive Rights at Rio+20

The Holy See led the charge against sexual and reproductive rights at Rio+20 last month, with support of the G77, an organization of developing countries. The participating countries emphasized the need for universal access to reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health and the integration of reproductive health in national strategies and programs in the outcome document. But express reproductive rights language was deleted. Read the article here.

Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Rights: A Human Rights Framework

A new resource on ICPD+20: ‘Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Rights: A Human Rights Framework’ sets out the link between human rights and the improvement of sexual and reproductive health. Published by Amnesty International, the briefing highlights some of the gaps in and challenges to the implementation of the Programme of Action in relation to sexual and reproductive rights; and contains recommendations to end exclusion, increase participation and accountability, and ensure sexual and reproductive rights as human rights. Read the Briefing here.

HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights & Health

Evidence that punitive laws and human rights abuses are costing lives, wasting money and stifling the global AIDS response is contained in a new report by the Global Commission on HIV and the Law. "HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights and Health," finds that governments in every region of the world have wasted the potential of legal systems in the fight against HIV. The report also concludes that laws based on evidence and human rights strengthen the global AIDS response - these laws exist and must be brought to scale urgently. Read the report here.

Domestic Funding for HIV Exceeds International Investments

Domestic funding for HIV has exceeded international investments, according to a new report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). ‘Together we will end AIDS’, states that low- and middle- income countries invested US$ 8.6 billion for the response in 2011, an increase of 11% over 2010. BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) increased domestic public spending on HIV by more than 120% between 2006 and 2011. BRICS countries now fund, on average, more than 75% of their domestic AIDS responses. International funding however remained flat at 2008 levels (US$ 8.2 billion). Read the Report here.

New Lancet Series on Family Planning

A new series of publications by the Lancet reviews the evidence for the effects of population and family planning on people's well-being and the environment, timed with the recent Family Planning Summit in London on July 11. The Family Planning series amalgamates the latest thinking underpinning these debates, showing how lack of access to family planning carries a huge price, not only in terms of women's and children's health and survival but also in economic terms. Access the series here.

Request for Submissions: Health and Human Rights

Health and Human Rights will be publishing a special issue in June 2013 on a proposed Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH), which would be based in the right to health and aimed at reducing national and global health inequities. Read more about FCGH here.  Articles are requested that explore how the FCGH could advance realization of the right to health. Read more about the research questions here. Submit abstracts to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 20 August.