Global Health
Advance Market Commitments (AMCs) are a new approach to public health funding designed to stimulate the development and manufacture of vaccines for developing countries. Donors commit money to guarantee the price of vaccines once they have been developed, thus creating the potential for a viable future market. Decisions about which diseases to target, criteria for effectiveness, price and long-term availability are made in advance by an independent advisory group. The donor commitments provide vaccine makers with the incentive they need to invest the considerable sums required to conduct research, train staff and build manufacturing facilities.
The GAVI Alliance is a unique organisation that aligns public and private resources in a global effort to create greater access to the benefits of immunisation. It does this with precision and in creative, innovative ways to ensure that donor contributions efficiently save lives and help build self-sufficiency in the world’s poorest communities and regions.
The International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm) is building a life-saving bridge between and childern in the world's poorest countries. Funds raised by IFFIm will allow GAVI to vaccinate 500 million young people against deadly diseases.
The Global Health Council is the world's largest membership alliance dedicated to saving lives and improving health throughout the world. The Council works to ensure that all who strive for improvement and equity in global health have the information and resources they need to succeed.
This companion site to Global Health Reporting "provides timely news summaries and information on HIVAIDS, TB, and malaria by country.
This site provides the latest information on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.
This page provides links to United Nations agencies, programmes, initiatives, and funds related to global health issues.
In a single electronic platform, the WHO’s Communicable Disease Global Atlas is bringing together for analysis and comparison standardized data and statistics for infectious diseases at country, regional, and global levels. The analysis and interpretation of data are further supported through information on demography, socioeconomic conditions, and environmental factors. In so doing, the Atlas specifically acknowledges the broad range of determinants that influence patterns of infectious disease transmission.
Human Rights
UDHR is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. It represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled. It consists of 30 articles which have been elaborated in subsequent international treaties, regional human rights instruments, national constitutions and laws.
Human Rights Watch is a nonprofit, nongovernmental human rights organization. Its staff consists of human rights professionals including country experts, lawyers, journalists, and academics of diverse backgrounds and nationalities. It is one of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, they give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Today HRW is present in 117 countries around the world.
Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights to be respected and protected for everyone. Organizational mission is to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated. It is an autonomous organization, safeguarding itself through being independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion. It is democratic and self-governing; and is financially self-sufficient through donations and contributions of individual members and supporters. Activists of Amnesty International take up human rights issues by mobilizing public pressure through mass demonstrations, vigils and direct lobbying as well as online and offline campaigning.
UHR assists and unites individuals, educators, organizations and governmental bodies to implement the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at local, regional, national and international levels. UHR's primary function is educative. It distributes informative and educational materials to increase public knowledge and bring about a full understanding of human rights around the world. Further, UHR supports governmental and legislative measures that advance the full implementation of the Declaration.
The Carter Center is guided by a fundamental commitment to human rights and the alleviation of human suffering. Built on the human rights principles embraced and implemented by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter during his presidency, The Carter Center is known worldwide as a nonpartisan organization. With unique access to governmental leaders and international organizations, the Center is viewed as a credible and valuable partner. The Center is at the forefront in support of human rights defenders worldwide and hosts the Human Rights Defenders Policy Forum annually, where activists—many of whom have been jailed or tortured for their outspoken commitment to human rights in their own countries—gather to discuss national and global issues affecting civil, political, social, economic, and cultural rights and freedoms. The Center also has endorsed the work of the International Criminal Court and voiced concerns about torture and other critical human rights issues.
Rights and Democracy is a non-partisan organization with an international mandate. It encourages and supports the universal values of human rights and focuses on the promotion of democratic institutions and practices around the world. It initiates and supports projects that advocate the protection of human rights and the strengthening of democratic development, and facilitates the capacity of its partners to do the same, principally in developing countries.
ILHR has worked to keep human rights at the forefront of international affairs and to give meaning and effect to the human rights values enshrined in international human rights treaties and conventions. It has been defending individual human rights advocates worldwide who have risked their lives to promote the ideals of a just and civil society in their homelands. With the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights as its platform, the League raises human rights issues and cases before the UN and other intergovernmental regional organizations in partnership with our colleagues abroad, helping to amplify their voices and coordinate strategies for effective human rights protection. The League has special consultative status at the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the International Labor Organization, and also contributes to the Africa Commission and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Human Rights First was founded in 1978 as the Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights to promote laws and policies that advance universal rights and freedoms.It is a non-profit, nonpartisan international human rights organization based in New York and Washington D.C. Human Rights First protects people at risk: refugees who flee persecution, victims of crimes against humanity or other mass human rights violations, victims of discrimination, those whose rights are eroded in the name of national security, and human rights advocates who are targeted for defending the rights of others. The organization seeks justice through the courts; raises awareness and understanding through the media; builds coalitions among those with divergent views; and mobilizes people to act internationally.
Founded in 1992, WITNESS is an independent nonprofit organization with offices in Brooklyn, New York, and human rights partners based around the world. WITNESS uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. It empowers people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change. WITNESS footage is used to promote grassroots education and mobilization; to corroborate allegations of human rights violations; as a resource for news broadcasts; to catalyze human rights advocacy via the worldwide web; as evidence in court and quasi-judicial hearings; to complement official written reports of human rights abuses; and as a deterrent to further abuse.
European Court of Human Rights was established in Strasbourg under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) of 1950 to monitor compliance by Contracting Parties.The European Court of Human Rights is an international court. It consists of a number of judges equal to the number of member States of the Council of Europe that have ratified the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms – currently forty-seven. Applications against Contracting Parties for human rights violations can be brought before the Court either by other States Parties or by individuals. The Court’s judges sit in their individual capacity and do not represent any State. In dealing with applications, the Court is assisted by a Registry consisting mainly of lawyers from all the member States (who are also known as legal secretaries). They are entirely independent of their country of origin and do not represent either applicants or States.
The OSCE's human rights activities focus on such priorities as freedom of movement and religion, preventing torture and trafficking in persons. The OSCE monitors and reports on the human rights situation in each of its 56 participating States, particularly in the areas of freedom of assembly and association, the right to liberty and to a fair trial, and in the use of the death penalty. It provides training and education across the field of human rights, including for government officials, law-enforcement officers, rights defenders and students. The organization also responds to issues affecting the lives of individuals today, helping to ensure, for example, that human rights are protected in the global fight against terrorism and taking active steps to combat racism, discrimination and related forms of intolerance.
OSCE Institutions active in human rights protection:
§ Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
§ Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings
§ OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media
§ High Commissioner on National Minorities
ACHPR is the most recent of the three regional human rights judicial bodies envisioned by the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights concluded in 1981. It is a regional court that rules on African Union states' compliance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. Unlike the European and Inter-American systems for the protection of human rights, where the ECHR and the IACHPR are integral parts of the cardinal instrument of the system as initio, in the case of Africa, the establishment of a regional judicial body to ensure the implementation of the fundamental agreement is rather an afterthought.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is an autonomous judicial institution of the Organization of American States established in 1979, and whose objective is the application and interpretation of the American Convention on Human Rights and other treaties concerning this same matter. It is formed by jurists of the highest moral standing and widely recognized competence in the area of Human Rights, who are elected in an individual capacity. As stipulated by Chapter VIII of the Convention, the Court consists of seven judges of the highest moral authority from the Organization's member states. They are elected to six-year terms by the OAS General Assembly and may be reelected for one additional six-year period. No state may have two judges serving on the Court at any one time, although – unlike the commissioners of the Inter-American Commission – judges are not required to refuse themselves from hearing cases involving their home countries.
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Human Security
AHSI2 is a follow-up to AHSI1, a regional programme that used the system of peer review to monitor the extent of compliance of eight African countries with their commitments to democracy, good governance and civil society participation. AHSI2 uses the peer review concept to complement the formal NEPAD/APRM (New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development/Africa Peer Review Mechanism) process by focusing on the criminal justice system in selected countries identified for APRM review.
ARCHS provides expert analysis, research and education on all aspects of human security to (a) raise the level of debate on human security, sustainable enterprise and the links between the two; and (b) catalyse change through conversations between people.
CCHS is an academic network promoting policy-based research on human security. CCHS offers fellowships for Canadian doctoral candidates and publishes an online Human Security Bulletin that "provides the latest analysis and opinions from experts in human security."
The Human Security Centre, formerly in cooperation with the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia, and now partnered with Simon Fraser University, produced the Human Security Report in 2005. The Report documented "a dramatic, but largely unknown, decline in the number of wars, genocides and human rights abuses over the past decade."
The Human Security Report Projectcontinues to document global and regional trends in political violence, including a focus on causes and consequences. HSRP is supported by five governments (Canada, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), "runs policy workshops, undertakes independent research, and also commissions research from individual scholars and research institutions around the world."
The Human Security Gateway "is a research and information database regrouping electronic and bibliographic resources on human security," and is an initiative of the HSRP.
The Human Security Network (HSN) is a group of like-minded countries from all regions of the world that, at the level of Foreign Ministers, maintains dialogue on questions pertaining to human security.The Network has a unique inter-regional and multiple agenda perspective with strong links to civil society and academia.An informal, flexible mechanism, the Human Security Network identifies concrete areas for collective action. It pursues security policies that focus on the protection and security requirement of the individual and society through promoting freedom from fear and freedom from want. The Network plays a catalytic role by bringing international attention to new and emerging issues. By applying a human security perspective to international problems, the Network aims to energize political processes aimed at preventing or solving conflicts and promoting peace and development.
The Human Security Unit (HSU) was established in May 2004 in the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The overall objective of the HSU is to integrate human security in all UN activities.