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Although Peru is a middle-income country, its maternal mortality rate is the second worst in South America. Low-income, rural, and indigenous women are most at risk. Peru has been a focus of the human-right-to-maternal-health community, and President Alan Garcia has promised better equity in maternal health funding. But he has yet to fulfill that promise.
Urge the Nicaraguan government to repeal the criminalization of access to abortion services, even where continuation of a pregnancy endangers a woman's or girl's life or health, or where the pregnancy is a result of rape.
Real health care reform could help bring the U.S. government closer to fulfilling the human right to health care. Yet Congress, and particularly the Senate, continues to treat health care as a market commodity, rather than a public good. The Senate must stop pandering to the insurance industry and instead provide a Medicare-like public plan that is accessible to everyone.
Human rights defenders working to end violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) do so in the face of grave threats of violence against themselves and their families. Justine Masika Bihamba is coordinator for Synergy of Women for Victims of Sexual Violence (Synergie des femmes contre les violence sexuelles), a women's human rights organization working in the DRC. Because of her work, Justine and her family have been targeted.
