They are Threatened with Torture & ill-Treatment

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — According to a joke that was circulating in Washington political circles in a bygone era, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s notorious torture chamber in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad—once held up as a symbol of barbarity—was never shut down.

After the US invasion and occupation of the country (2003-2011), a signboard outside the prison chamber apparently read: “Under New Management”.…

Viewpoint by Roopa Dhatt & Samiratou Ouedraogo

Roopa Dhatt is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Women in Global Health. Samiratou Ouedraogo is the Coordinator and Co-Founder of Women in Global Health, Francophone West Africa, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

WASHINGTON DC (IDN) — If there were a Harvey Weinstein in health, we probably wouldn’t know about it. Not because sexual harassment in the health workforce isn’t widespread—we know that it is and not because women don’t want to report their experiences of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEAH) at work—we know that they do; but because across much of the world’s health systems, there are simply no feasible reporting or legal mechanisms in place that women health workers can use with confidence.
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By Robert Johnson

PARIS (IDN) — Though ODA-official development assistance from members of the OECD’s DAC-Development Assistance Committee rose to a new high last year, it amounted to the equivalent of only 0.33 per cent of their combined GNI-gross national income, thus falling short of a United Nations goal to reach an ODA/GNI ratio of 0.7%.

The biggest ODA givers by volume in 2021 were the United States (USD 47.8 billion), Germany (USD 33.3 billion), Japan (USD 17.6 billion), the United Kingdom (USD 15.7 billion), and France (USD 15.5 billion).…