OpenForum – a blog by the Health and Human Rights community

Touring Africa in May, Pope Benedict XVI provoked controversy when he told an enthusiastic crowd in Cameroon that condoms are an ineffective solution to the spread of HIV. His words sparked a global reaction, opening international discussion about the use of condoms and the Pope’s impact on health and social behavior. The heated response raises a provocative question: do the Pope’s words promote the violation of human rights?  Does the vocal distribution of condom misinformation impede the listeners’ right to knowledge?

This first explicit statement from the Pope on the subject was congruent with previous Vatican statements that moral and devout abstinence, in place of condoms, should be the primary prevention strategy. However, Pope Benedict went further, claiming that distribution and use of condoms increases the problem and can in fact spread the virus. The scientifically incorrect statement, which conflicts with knowledge on the proven effectiveness of condoms, jeopardizes the human right to “share in scientific advancements and benefits” as written in Article 27 of the UDHR. In a global outcry, health officials and religious leaders asserted that the Pope’s disregard of scientific evidence is extremely dangerous given the strong influences that Catholicism and its leader have in Africa. Read more

Pakistani mother seeks charity from motorists

Local religious leaders are proving to be a crucial resource in the fight against infant and maternal mortality in Pakistan’s southern Sindh Province, where a new Health Ministry initiative is in progress.

“In the communities here, the word of a cleric carries more power than anyone else. Why not use their influence and clout for a healthy cause,” says Ahsan Akbar Dhani, district coordinator of the National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Health Care in Pakistan. Leaflets, distributed at local madrasahs (Islamic religious schools), urge Imams to incorporate messages stressing the importance of good hygiene, TT (Tetanus Toxoid) inoculations for mothers and immunizations for infants.

According to USAID, one in 23 Pakistani women dies in childbirth, compared to one in 5,000 women in developed countries, while in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), 135 out of every 1,000 children under the age of five die from curable illnesses. By involving the religious leaders in the health awareness campaign, the Health Ministry hopes to counter misconceptions about vaccinations and even oral rehydration salts, which some people believe may cause impotence. The leaflets contain the footnote “May Allah always give us the strength to stay clean and protect ourselves and others from diseases as well as disseminate information with regards to health and hygiene, Amen.” By using both religious language and the mosque’s pulpit to spread public health messages, the Health Ministry has initiated an effectual method of creating better health outcomes in local communities.

For more information, see links below the fold. Read more

Protesters seek legalization of abortion in Brazil

It may be hard to imagine a 9-year-old, all of 79 pounds and four feet tall, 15 weeks pregnant with twins. Now compound that image with the girl’s story– sexually abused repeatedly, allegedly by her stepfather, since the age of 6. While the alleged rape should be enough to raise media attention, it is the tense controversy over reproductive rights in the predominantly Catholic country that is making headlines after the medical team who performed the legal abortion, as well as the girl’s mother, were summarily excommunicated by the Church.

Brazilian Minister of Health Jose Gomes Temporao declared, “It is legitimate for the church to have its dogmas, but theses dogmas must not be imposed on society as a whole.” Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of the coastal city of Recife countered in a TIME interview, “They took the life of an innocent… Taking that life cannot be ignored.” Read more