Human Rights of the Deaf, Poverty and Health, Blindness and conferences |
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Human Rights : The Convention and the European Union of the Deaf The European Union of the Deaf (EUD/SINOSZ)’s International Conference will be held in Budapest, Hungary on 7 December 2007. The Conference’s main focus will be on increasing public awareness of and knowledge building on the UN Convention and its Optional Protocol. To register, go to http://www.sinosz.hu/ftp/dokumentumok/_jubileum/regform_english.doc. The invitation and preliminary programme are available at http://www.sinosz.hu/ftp/dokumentumok/_jubileum/invitation_english.pdf; http://www.sinosz.hu/ftp/dokumentumok/_jubileum/conference_program_english.pdf Poverty and Health On the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (17 October), the International Council of Nurses (ICN) is drawing attention to the condition of women around the world. According to the United Nations, 980 million people live on less than one dollar a day. The majority of the world's absolute poor (70%) are female. The poor and the disabled share an unequal burden of ill health. Poverty is particularly destructive of women's health, especially their reproductive and sexual health: women and girls are often the last to eat; in some countries women’s health problems are considered less important; girls may be sold into prostitution; girls and women with disabilities are raped as part of the myth to allegedly cure AIDS; and over half a million women still die each year from treatable and preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth. To address the poverty of women and gender inequality in all realms, ICN has joined a swelling coalition calling for the immediate establishment of a UN Agency for Women. The healthy development of all citizens and communities is inextricably tied to the education and empowerment of women and the strengthening of their health. Where women participate on an equal footing, societies flourish. The absolute importance of gender equity in all realms of life and areas of social and economic development cannot be understated. "There is no time to lose, no reason to pander to the deeply rooted forces that work against women's empowerment and gender equality. Without a women's agency every global goal, including each of the Millennium Development Goals, will be unreachable," says ICN President Hiroko Minami. More information on the ICN call for a UN Women’s Agency can be found at www.icn.ch/waa.htm Addressing Blindness and Visual Impairment Internationally The magnitude of blindness-related problems in developing countries is often As a result, in 1999 the WHO and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) launched the “Vision 2020: Right to Sight” program to decrease the number of people who are blind worldwide by 2020 from the projected 75 million to 24 million. Health agencies are also trying to increase awareness about early detection and prevention of conditions that lead to loss of vision. This has led to impressive results in Gambia, India, Morocco, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand where early detection camps for cataract, eye ulcers and cancers, and low-cost cataract surgery, as well as the distribution of vitamin A supplements have been implemented. Read more at http://www.scidev.net/gateways/index.cfm?fuseaction=readitem&rgwid=4&item=Features&itemid=659&language=1 Conferences The 2nd International Conference on Intellectual Disabilities/Mental Retardation, co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), will be held in Bangkok, Thailand 6-8 November 2007. A main event of the Bangkok Conference will be the launching of the WHO’s Atlas on Country Resources in Intellectual Disabilities. More than 145 countries representing 90% of the world population have contributed to this Atlas. Please go to http://bangkok-id-conference.org/registration-hot |
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