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Ferguson L, Emoto S, Gruskin S. Laws governing access to sexual health services and information: contents, protections, and restrictions. Sex Reprod Health Matters 2024; 32:2336770. [PMID: 38647261 PMCID: PMC11036897 DOI: 10.1080/26410397.2024.2336770] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Access to sexual health services and information is critical to achieving the highest attainable standard of sexual health, and enabling legal environments are key to advancing progress in this area. In determining overall alignment with human rights standards to respect, protect, and fulfil sexual health-related rights without discrimination, there are many aspects of laws, including their specificity and content, which impact which sexual health services and information are availed, which are restricted, and for whom. To understand the nature of existing legal provisions surrounding access to sexual health services and information, we analysed the content of 40 laws in English, French, and Spanish from 18 countries for the specific sexual health services and information to which access is ensured or prohibited, and the non-discrimination provisions within these laws. Overall, there was wide variation across countries in the types of laws covering these services and the types and number of services and information ensured. Some countries covered different services through multiple laws, and most of the laws dedicated specifically to sexual health addressed only a narrow aspect of sexual health and covered a small range of services. The protected characteristics in non-discrimination provisions and the specificity of these provisions with regard to sexual health services also varied. Findings may inform national legal and policy dialogues around sexual health to identify opportunities for positive change, as well as to guide further investigation to understand the relationship between such legal provisions, the implementation of these laws within countries, and relevant sexual health outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Ferguson
- Director of Research, Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Sarah Emoto
- Program Specialist, Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Sofia Gruskin
- Director, Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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Selvarajah S, Corona Maioli S, Deivanayagam TA, de Morais Sato P, Devakumar D, Kim SS, Wells JC, Yoseph M, Abubakar I, Paradies Y. Racism, xenophobia, and discrimination: mapping pathways to health outcomes. Lancet 2022; 400:2109-2124. [PMID: 36502849 DOI: 10.1016/s0140-6736(22)02484-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2020] [Revised: 10/06/2022] [Accepted: 11/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Despite being globally pervasive, racism, xenophobia, and discrimination are not universally recognised determinants of health. We challenge widespread beliefs related to the inevitability of increased mortality and morbidity associated with particular ethnicities and minoritised groups. In refuting that racial categories have a genetic basis and acknowledging that socioeconomic factors offer incomplete explanations in understanding these health disparities, we examine the pathways by which discrimination based on caste, ethnicity, Indigeneity, migratory status, race, religion, and skin colour affect health. Discrimination based on these categories, although having many unique historical and cultural contexts, operates in the same way, with overlapping pathways and health effects. We synthesise how such discrimination affects health systems, spatial determination, and communities, and how these processes manifest at the individual level, across the life course, and intergenerationally. We explore how individuals respond to and internalise these complex mechanisms psychologically, behaviourally, and physiologically. The evidence shows that racism, xenophobia, and discrimination affect a range of health outcomes across all ages around the world, and remain embedded within the universal challenges we face, from COVID-19 to the climate emergency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sujitha Selvarajah
- Institute for Global Health, University College London, London, UK; St George's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
| | | | - Thilagawathi Abi Deivanayagam
- Institute for Global Health, University College London, London, UK; Lancaster Medical School, Faculty of Health and Medicine, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
| | | | - Delan Devakumar
- Institute for Global Health, University College London, London, UK
| | - Seung-Sup Kim
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Jonathan C Wells
- University College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, UK
| | - Marcella Yoseph
- Global Mental Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK; Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana
| | - Ibrahim Abubakar
- Institute for Global Health, University College London, London, UK
| | - Yin Paradies
- Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Melbourne VIC, Australia
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Dunaway K, Brion S, Hale F, Alesi J, Assan H, Chung C, Moroz S, Namiba A, Ouma J, Owomugisha IB, Ross V, Strachan S, Tholanah M, Yuvaraj A, Welbourn A. What will it take to achieve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women living with HIV? WOMEN'S HEALTH (LONDON, ENGLAND) 2022; 18:17455057221080361. [PMID: 35225088 PMCID: PMC8891932 DOI: 10.1177/17455057221080361] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2021] [Revised: 01/18/2022] [Accepted: 01/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
This article outlines progress in realizing the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls living with HIV over the last 30 years from the perspective of women living with HIV. It argues that the HIV response needs to go beyond the bio-medical aspects of HIV to achieve our sexual and reproductive health and rights, and considers relevant Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), World Health Organization, United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), Global Fund and other guidelines, what engagement there has been with women living with HIV and whether guidelines/strategies have been adopted. It has been written by women living with HIV from around the world and a few key supporters. Co-authors have sought to collate and cite materials produced by women living with HIV from around the world, in the first known effort to date to do this, as a convergence of evidence to substantiate the points made in the article. However, as the article also argues, research led by women living with HIV is seldom funded and rarely accepted as evidence. Combined with a lack of meaningful involvement of women living with HIV in others' research on us, this means that formally recognized evidence from women's own perspectives is patchy at best. The article argues that this research gap, combined with the ongoing primacy of conventional research methods and topics that exclude those most affected by issues, and the lack of political will (and sometimes outright opposition) in relation to gender equality and human rights, adversely affect policies and programmes in relation to women's rights. Thus, efforts to achieve an ethical, effective and sustainable response to the pandemic are hindered. The article concludes with a call to action to all key stakeholders.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Happy Assan
- Tanzania Network of People who Use Drugs (TaNPUD), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
| | | | | | | | - Joyce Ouma
- Global Network of Young People Living with HIV (Y+ Global), Capetown, South Africa
| | | | - Violeta Ross
- Latin American & Caribbean Movement of Positive Women, Asunción, Paraguay
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Hussein J. A round-up of articles in 2020. Sex Reprod Health Matters 2021; 28:1859785. [PMID: 33478370 PMCID: PMC7887907 DOI: 10.1080/26410397.2020.1859785] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/30/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Julia Hussein
- Editor in Chief, Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, London, UK
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