Global campaign to Stop Torture in Health Care launched

Global campaigns against forced sterlizations, restrictions and/or denial of pain relieving pallative care, and detention as treatment


Today, a coalition of health and human rights groups has launched the Campaign to Stop Torture in Health Care www.stoptortureinhealthcare.org . This global effort builds on the recent groundswell of civil society activity to protect and advance human rights in health care settings. The Campaign seeks to hold governments accountable for the most egregious abuses perpetrated against citizens in the name of health care.

One particular focus of the Campaign is forced and coerced sterilization. Across the globe, women continue to be forced or coerced by medical personnel to submit to permanent and irreversible sterilization procedures, sometimes even without their knowledge. Cases of forced and coerced sterilization have been reported in North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Women who are poor or stigmatized - Roma women, women living with HIV, indigenous women, women with physical or intellectual disabilities, women who use drugs - are most likely to be deemed “unworthy” of reproduction. Governments turn a blind eye to these practices in their own public hospitals. Perpetrators are seldom held accountable. Victims rarely obtain justice for this violent abuse of their rights.

From Namibia, Hilma shares with us her fight to overcome the shame and anger she feels after being sterilized without her knowledge in a public hospital because she is HIV+. See her story here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STxkPfxzDg&feature=player_embedded .

The full announcement about the Campaign launch is here: http://blog.soros.org/2011/03/stop-torture-in-health-care-2/

You can also follow the Campaign on Twitter at @carenottorture.