- Email: [email protected]
A prescription for gender, health, and human rights
DISSECTING ROOM
Books A prescription for gender, health, and human rights n order to understand how and why social movements are fighting for women’s health and rights you need to have a 21st century notion of these rights. This is a central message of Global Prescriptions: Gendering Health and Human Rights. The rights that Rosalind Pollack Petchesky discusses
I
Global Prescriptions: Gendering Health and Human Rights Rosalind Pollack Petchesky. London: Zed Press, 2003. Pp 306. £16.95. ISBN 1 84277 007 1.
are not those determined by greysuited lawyers and bureaucrats, and enshrined as fixed, universal, and unalienable principles. They are rights that exist in an era of global capitalism; rights that are influenced by sex, race, class, geography, and ethnicity; rights that are dynamic and malleable; and rights that, above all, are a necessary and irrepressible element of movements for social change. Petchesky views individual and social rights as “two sides of the same coin”. She ascribes equal importance to social and economic rights as to those related to reproduction, sexuality, and health; noting that together they form “a single fabric of rights”. Without individual rights a woman cannot exercise social rights, and vice versa. Macroeconomic policies determine the environment in which reproductive and sexual rights become practical realities. Therefore, these policies should be incorporated
into our ethical framework and seen as fundamental to human rights. Vibrancy and critical thinking are brought to bear in this scholarly and nuanced analysis of the global forces that shape women’s health. Petchesky describes women’s nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) as key players in the struggle to define and secure international recognition for reproductive and sexual rights, and charts the evolution of international and local movements for women’s health. The book highlights many of the tensions inherent in these heterogeneous and far from conflictfree groups. Case studies are used to describe the struggles to gain and defend health and human rights in a context of increasing political conservatism. Petchesky balances analysis of the threats posed by these forces to human rights by charting some notable successes of NGOs, for example in the area of trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) and antiretroviral drugs. Global threats need global responses; Petchesky argues eloquently for the development and support of transnational NGOs as a civil society response and balance to the organisation of global capital. An example of this response, the women’s movement and its organisation in working to influence the outcome documents from the 1994 Cairo
International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the 1995 UN Conference on Women in Beijing, is discussed in detail. UN meetings are opportunities for positive interventions, but pose many challenges. For example, success depends on women’s advocates having experience of working effectively in large-scale bureaucratic processes. Inherent resource biases lead inevitably to advocates from developed countries outnumbering those from the developing world—who are most affected by these processes. This is one of the many contradictions that need to be faced as agendas unroll and forces group and regroup in efforts to promote health and human rights. This book is an important contribution to understanding the politics of women’s health in the early 21st century, in particular through its presentation and analysis of the challenges to health of globalisation. Petchesky tackles the world made problematic—she avoids generalising and simplifying the complex politics of international NGOs and women’s movements—and raises questions that need to be addressed by activists and academics. Above all, the book is very optimistic, arguing that human rights based approaches provide huge opportunities for advancing economic and gender justice. Rachel Jewkes e-mail: [email protected]
Films Tackling pregnancy-related death and injury his year marks the 10-year anniversary of the 1994 International Conference of Population and Development, often simply referred to as the Cairo conference, which set goals for family planning and reproductive health. As a series in this week’s Lancet shows, we are still far from realising the Cairo goals (see pages 65–77). An estimated half a million girls and women die every year from preventable conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth. As Nancy Durrell McKenna notes, this number is “the equivalent of a Titanic of pregnant women sinking every day”. Photographer Durrell McKenna is the driving force behind Safehands for Mothers, a charity launched on Dec 4, 2003, with a showing of Fistula Pilgrims. Giving voice to the personal tragedies behind the statistics, the film tells the story of Telanish, pictured above, a girl
T
Fistula Pilgrims Written, produced, and directed by Nancy Durrell McKenna for Safehands for Mothers in partnership with the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Duration 10 minutes. http://www.safehands.org.
from Ethiopia who was married at 10 years. A year later she gave birth to a stillborn child after a long obstructed labour and was left with a fistula. Fistula Pilgrims describes in a simple yet compelling style the misery of the many
girls and women like Telanish who are left incontinent outcasts. The aim of Safehands is to improve education for managing childbirth in places where face-to-face training is difficult. Safehands will produce and distribute visual packages—films, videos, and CD ROMs—tailored to different cultural settings. The first package is currently under development with the Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia. Sarah Ramsay c/o The Lancet, London, UK
THE LANCET • Vol 363 • January 3, 2004 • www.thelancet.com
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet.
91
Books A prescription for gender, health, and human rights n order to understand how and why social movements are fighting for women’s health and rights you need to have a 21st century notion of these rights. This is a central message of Global Prescriptions: Gendering Health and Human Rights. The rights that Rosalind Pollack Petchesky discusses
I
Global Prescriptions: Gendering Health and Human Rights Rosalind Pollack Petchesky. London: Zed Press, 2003. Pp 306. £16.95. ISBN 1 84277 007 1.
are not those determined by greysuited lawyers and bureaucrats, and enshrined as fixed, universal, and unalienable principles. They are rights that exist in an era of global capitalism; rights that are influenced by sex, race, class, geography, and ethnicity; rights that are dynamic and malleable; and rights that, above all, are a necessary and irrepressible element of movements for social change. Petchesky views individual and social rights as “two sides of the same coin”. She ascribes equal importance to social and economic rights as to those related to reproduction, sexuality, and health; noting that together they form “a single fabric of rights”. Without individual rights a woman cannot exercise social rights, and vice versa. Macroeconomic policies determine the environment in which reproductive and sexual rights become practical realities. Therefore, these policies should be incorporated
into our ethical framework and seen as fundamental to human rights. Vibrancy and critical thinking are brought to bear in this scholarly and nuanced analysis of the global forces that shape women’s health. Petchesky describes women’s nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) as key players in the struggle to define and secure international recognition for reproductive and sexual rights, and charts the evolution of international and local movements for women’s health. The book highlights many of the tensions inherent in these heterogeneous and far from conflictfree groups. Case studies are used to describe the struggles to gain and defend health and human rights in a context of increasing political conservatism. Petchesky balances analysis of the threats posed by these forces to human rights by charting some notable successes of NGOs, for example in the area of trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) and antiretroviral drugs. Global threats need global responses; Petchesky argues eloquently for the development and support of transnational NGOs as a civil society response and balance to the organisation of global capital. An example of this response, the women’s movement and its organisation in working to influence the outcome documents from the 1994 Cairo
International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the 1995 UN Conference on Women in Beijing, is discussed in detail. UN meetings are opportunities for positive interventions, but pose many challenges. For example, success depends on women’s advocates having experience of working effectively in large-scale bureaucratic processes. Inherent resource biases lead inevitably to advocates from developed countries outnumbering those from the developing world—who are most affected by these processes. This is one of the many contradictions that need to be faced as agendas unroll and forces group and regroup in efforts to promote health and human rights. This book is an important contribution to understanding the politics of women’s health in the early 21st century, in particular through its presentation and analysis of the challenges to health of globalisation. Petchesky tackles the world made problematic—she avoids generalising and simplifying the complex politics of international NGOs and women’s movements—and raises questions that need to be addressed by activists and academics. Above all, the book is very optimistic, arguing that human rights based approaches provide huge opportunities for advancing economic and gender justice. Rachel Jewkes e-mail: [email protected]
Films Tackling pregnancy-related death and injury his year marks the 10-year anniversary of the 1994 International Conference of Population and Development, often simply referred to as the Cairo conference, which set goals for family planning and reproductive health. As a series in this week’s Lancet shows, we are still far from realising the Cairo goals (see pages 65–77). An estimated half a million girls and women die every year from preventable conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth. As Nancy Durrell McKenna notes, this number is “the equivalent of a Titanic of pregnant women sinking every day”. Photographer Durrell McKenna is the driving force behind Safehands for Mothers, a charity launched on Dec 4, 2003, with a showing of Fistula Pilgrims. Giving voice to the personal tragedies behind the statistics, the film tells the story of Telanish, pictured above, a girl
T
Fistula Pilgrims Written, produced, and directed by Nancy Durrell McKenna for Safehands for Mothers in partnership with the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Duration 10 minutes. http://www.safehands.org.
from Ethiopia who was married at 10 years. A year later she gave birth to a stillborn child after a long obstructed labour and was left with a fistula. Fistula Pilgrims describes in a simple yet compelling style the misery of the many
girls and women like Telanish who are left incontinent outcasts. The aim of Safehands is to improve education for managing childbirth in places where face-to-face training is difficult. Safehands will produce and distribute visual packages—films, videos, and CD ROMs—tailored to different cultural settings. The first package is currently under development with the Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia. Sarah Ramsay c/o The Lancet, London, UK
THE LANCET • Vol 363 • January 3, 2004 • www.thelancet.com
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet.
91