這世界不適合兒童居住
發佈日期: 2004.12.11
發佈時間:
上午 1:47
這是英文版. 陳真
============
http://allafrica.com/stories/200412090693.html
Daily HIV/Aids Report
Kaisernetwork.org (Washington, DC)
December 9, 2004
Posted to the web December 9, 2004
Global Challenges
Libya Will Not Execute Six Health Workers Accused of Intentionally Infecting Children With HIV, Kadafi's Son Says
[Dec 09, 2004]
The son of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi on Wednesday said that the government will not execute five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who have been convicted of intentionally infecting hundreds of children in the country with HIV, the New York Times reports (Smith, New York Times, 12/9). A five-judge panel of a Libyan court in May sentenced to death by firing squad the health workers, who have been detained in Libya since 1999 and have been accused of deliberately infecting more than 400 children with HIV through contaminated blood products. The health workers also were ordered to pay a total of $1 million to the families of the children, 43 of whom have died. Kadafi accused the health workers of taking orders from the CIA and the Israeli secret service to kill Libyan children in order to destabilize the country. However, some European governments and human rights groups say that the Libyan Health Ministry failed to screen blood products adequately and allowed poor sterilization practices at Al Fateh Children's Hospital in Benghazi, where the health care workers were employed and where the children were infected. Two of the workers and the Palestinian doctor have said that they had been tortured into making confessions. During their trial, Dr. Luc Montagnier, co-discoverer of HIV, testified that he believed the children were infected in 1997, more than a year before the Bulgarians were hired (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 12/7). Seif al-Islam el-Kadafi, Moammar's son, on Wednesday said, "No one is going to execute anyone." He added that the Libyan government is expected over the next two months to pass a new law limiting the use of capital punishment to "a small number of crimes," according to the Times. Although Kadafi's son holds "no official position" in the government, he heads an organization that is helping to negotiate a resolution in the case and is "believed to speak with the backing of his father," the Times reports.
Possible Extradition
Kadafi said Libya might seek to extradite the Bulgarian nurses to Bulgaria but did not say what might be done with the Palestinian doctor. Kadafi also suggested that in exchange for the extradition of the workers, the country might ask for the extradition of a Libyan man serving a life sentence in Scotland for the 1988 crash of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, according to the Times. In addition, Libyan officials have said that a re-examination of the health care workers' death sentences would depend on Bulgaria paying compensation to the families of the HIV-positive children. However, Bulgaria has refused to pay any compensation, saying that doing so would acknowledge guilt on the part of the health workers, the Times reports. "I think we have to extradite them at a certain stage because we have an extradition treaty with Bulgaria," Kadafi said, adding, "But first we have to satisfy the families, compensation and a medical solution long term for their children" (New York Times, 12/9). Ramadan al-Fituri, director of the association representing the HIV-positive children, on Wednesday said that Libya would drop the case against the health workers if Bulgaria pays about $13.3 million for every child infected with HIV, AFP/Mail and Guardian reports. Fituri on Tuesday said that the charges against the six health workers would be dropped if the children receive treatment at medical centers in Europe and all "necessary medicines," a new specialized hospital in Benghazi is built in Libya and "adequate compensation" is paid to the children's families, according to AFP/Mail and Guardian (AFP/Mail and Guardian, 12/9).
More Than 1B Children Worldwide Face 'Brutal Existence' Because of HIV/AIDS, Poverty, Conflict, UNICEF Report Says
[Dec 09, 2004]
More than one billion children worldwide face a "brutal existence" because of HIV/AIDS, poverty and armed conflict, according to a UNICEF report released Thursday, BBC News reports (BBC News, 12/9). The annual report, titled "Childhood Under Threat," examines the impact of HIV/AIDS, poverty and war -- three of the most "widespread and devastating factors threatening childhood today" -- on children around the world, according to a UNICEF release. Working in collaboration with researchers from the London School of Economics and Bristol University, UNICEF found that more than one billion children are "denied the healthy and protected upbringing" guaranteed by the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, according to UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy (UNICEF release, 12/9).
HIV/AIDS
According to Peter McDermott, head of UNICEF's HIV/AIDS program, the pandemic's impact on children is "huge and getting worse. In fact, the worst is yet to come" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 12/8). Almost 500,000 children under 15 years old died of AIDS-related causes in 2003, and an additional 630,000 children were infected with HIV during 2003, according to UNICEF estimates. Approximately 2.1 million children under age 15 were living with HIV/AIDS in 2003, most of whom contracted the virus in utero, during birth or through breastfeeding, according to the report. The number of children worldwide who have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS increased from 11.5 million to 15 million between 2001 and 2003, and 80% of those children live in sub-Saharan Africa (AP/Yahoo! News, 12/9). The report also estimates that by 2010, more than 18 million African children will have lost one or both parents to AIDS-related causes unless "swift action [is] taken," Reuters reports (Lovell, Reuters, 12/9). AFP/Yahoo! News reports that millions of children also were "transformed into care providers for sick parents and siblings" between 2001 and 2003 (AFP/Yahoo! News, 12/8). "AIDS is the new factor in the last decade or so on the block, and it is having a vicious effect in some countries," David Agnew, president of UNICEF Canada, said, adding, "There is absolutely no question that in some countries, we are going backwards, and those are countries that are affected by intense and enduring conflict -- or the majority of them are the ones that have the highest HIV infection rates and AIDS death rates" (Oziewicz, Globe and Mail, 12/9).
Other Findings
The report also found that approximately 640 million children worldwide lack adequate shelter; 400 million children do not have access to safe water; 270 million children do not have access to health care; and 140 million children, most of whom are girls, have never attended school (AFP/Yahoo! News, 12/8). The mortality rate for children under five in sub-Saharan Africa in 2003 was 175 deaths per 1,000 children, compared with a world average of 80 deaths per 1,000 children. The report also determined that maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa in 2003 was 940 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared with a global average of 400 deaths per 100,000 live births (Reuters, 12/9). Of the 27 countries with the highest child mortality rates, 26 are located in Africa -- only Afghanistan was outside of the region. According to the report, Sierra Leone is the "most deadly place for a child," with a mortality rate for children under age five at nearly 30%, according to the Boston Globe (Donnelly, Boston Globe, 12/9). Almost half of the 3.6 million people killed in armed conflict worldwide since 1990 have been children, according to UNICEF. "Too many governments are making informed, deliberate choices that actually hurt childhood," Bellamy said, adding, "When half the world's children are growing up hungry and unhealthy, when schools have become targets and whole villages are being emptied by AIDS, we've failed to deliver on the promise of childhood" (BBC News, 12/9).
Reaction
Although Bellamy said that the "blame mostly rest[s]" with countries that failed to adequately address the HIV/AIDS pandemic and poverty or prevent armed conflict, some of her "critics" said the report was "full of evidence that she had failed to emphasize childhood survival," according to the Globe (Boston Globe, 12/9). In a comment published in the Dec. 3 issue of the journal Lancet, editor Richard Horton wrote that it is "widely, if regrettably, accepted that UNICEF has lost its way during Carol Bellamy's long term of office" (Horton, Lancet, 12/3). "The right to survival is the most critical right for a child," Dr. Robert Black, chair of international health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, said, asking, "If we can't put our focus on that, how meaningful is the rest of the discussion on child rights?" However, Bellamy, who will step down as UNICEF executive director next year, has "defended her priorities over the past decade" and said she was "proud we have embraced a child's rights approach, advocating that children not be seen as charitable instruments, if you will, but human beings that have rights," the Globe reports. She added that "child rights has not been a diversion from survival. The rights of a child are not only to survive but to thrive, not to become a victim of HIV/AIDS, not to be exploited, not to be abused. The world doesn't stop at simple survival." Mark Rosenberg, executive director of the Task Force for Child Survival and Development who supports Bellamy's view, said that her successor should "develop closer relationships" with other U.N. agencies, especially the World Health Organization, as well as the U.S. government and organizations, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to the Globe (Boston Globe, 12/9).
Child Marriage Puts Girls Worldwide at Risk of HIV/AIDS, Early Pregnancy; Ill. Sen. Durbin Drafts Legislation
[Dec 09, 2004]
Child marriage -- which affects about 51 million girls in developing countries worldwide -- puts women at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS or developing health complications from becoming pregnant at an early age, the Chicago Tribune reports. Girls who are married at a young age and become pregnant before their bodies are prepared to endure pregnancy and delivery may experience obstetric fistula. The condition, caused by ruptured tissue in the birth canal, can lead to continuous and uncontrollable leakage of feces and urine. Girls who develop obstetric fistula often are shunned by their families and communities because of the stigma attached to the condition, according to Geeta Rao Gupta, president of the International Center for Research on Women. About 100,000 new cases of obstetric fistula occur annually among girls, and about two million women worldwide are affected, according to the Tribune. Child marriage also can put young women at risk of contracting HIV. Girls often are married to older men, and the "unequal balance of power" makes young women "less able to negotiate the use of condoms" to protect against infection, according to the Tribune.
Economic Impact
Child marriage -- which is "common" in India, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa -- has "negative and lasting" consequences for women's health, education and overall economic development, Rao Gupta said, the Tribune reports. The practice "perpetuates poverty" because girls stop going to school when they get married and subsequently miss out on "economic opportunities," Rao Gupta said, according to the Tribune. Studies show that the children of educated women are more likely to be educated and are healthier than the children of less-educated women, according to Rao Gupta. Early marriage and pregnancy also can limit young women from participating in society, according to Rao Gupta. "She is not able to feed her children, not able to engage in her community," Rao Gupta said, adding, "What we are trying to do is encourage economic growth and equity in society, and both those things are negatively affected by child marriage."
Relevant Links
North Africa
Legal and Judicial Affairs
Libya
HIV-Aids and STDs
Legislation
After learning of the "long-term ramifications" of child marriage, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) drafted legislation aimed at "curbing the practice in the developing world," the Tribune reports. Durbin currently is seeking a Republican co-sponsor for the bill, which he plans to introduce in January, according to Joe Shoemaker, Durbin's press secretary. One of the bill's provisions directs the secretary of state to develop a "comprehensive" three-year plan to prioritize in foreign aid programs that focus on adolescent health, delaying marriage among adolescents and first pregnancies among married adolescents, according to the Tribune. Durbin said, "If we are to promote the economic and social development of all the world's children, we must work to give girls a chance to grow up before they marry." He added, "I believe that you can tell the most about the potential future of a country by asking one simple question: How do they treat their women and girls? If they hold them back, that country is likely to struggle. If they fully include them and treat them as equals, that country is likely to advance much more rapidly" (Lauerman, Chicago Tribune, 12/8).