Surveillance of pesticide poisoning in an East and a West Malaysian hospital: characteristics of pesticide poisoning and the early impact of a national Paraquat ban.

Background: Previous studies have shown that pesticide bans were associated with reduced fatal pesticide self-poisoning cases in high, and low-and-middle-income countries. We aimed to investigate the characteristics of pesticide poisoning patients admitted to two Malaysian hospitals and the early impact of the national paraquat ban implemented on 1st January 2020 in a culturally heterogenous South-East-Asian upper-middle-income setting.

Methods: Data were collected from an East (Bintulu) and a West (Ipoh) Malaysian hospital medical records in 2015-2021 and 2018-2021, respectively.

Human Rights Perspective on Pesticide Exposure and Poisoning in Children: A Case Study of India.

Pesticide exposure and poisoning among children can lead to devastating long-lasting health effects that impact their human rights, with communities in low- and middle-income countries experiencing the negative impacts of pesticides more profoundly than those in high-income countries. While United Nations agencies recommend banning highly hazardous pesticides responsible for serious pesticide poisonings, childhood pesticide poisoning is rarely discussed, especially from a human rights perspective. In India, a country with a large population of children and widespread pesticide use, no law or policy addresses pesticide poisoning among children.

Russia: despite legislative and procedural barriers, HIV-positive woman fights for custody of ten-year-old brother.

Svetlana Izambaeva, a well-known HIV-activist and educator in Russia, is seeking to obtain custody of her ten-year-old brother, Sasha. After their mother died, regional official refused Izambaeva custody because of her HIV-positive status. Consequently, the local child custody agency (organ opeki) decided to give Sasha to a foster family.

HIV, disability and discrimination: making the links in international and domestic human rights law.

Stigma and discrimination constitute one of the greatest barriers to dealing effectively with the HIV epidemic, underlying a range of human rights violations and hindering access to prevention, care, treatment and support. There is some existing protection against HIV-based discrimination under international law, but the extent of states' obligations to address such discrimination has not been comprehensively addressed in an international instrument.The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities entered into force in May 2008.

South African Court: Military cannot exclude HIV-positive people.

On May 16th, 2008, the High Court of South Africa ruled that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) HIV testing policy is unconstitutional because it excludes people living with HIV from recruitment, promotion or foreign deployment.

South Africa: Constitutional Court protects privacy rights of people living with HIV.

On 4 April 2007, the Constitutional Court of South Africa set aside the judgment of the Johannesburg High Court and ruled that applicants' rights to privacy, dignity and psychological integrity were violated by publication of their HIV status without their consent in the case of NM and Others v Smith and Others.

U.N. Committee holds that Colombia failed to protect right to benefits for same sex couple.

On May 14 2007, the U.N. Committee of Human Rights found that Colombia breached equality provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) when it rejected a pension transfer to a member of a same sex couple.

Russian Federation: inhumane conditions in drug treatment facilities lead to tragedy.

On 9 December 2006, a fire in a Moscow drug treatment hospital caused the death of 44 HIV-positive women undergoing treatment for drug dependence, and two hospital staff. An additional 11 people were severely burnt in the fire.

Russian Federation: governments threaten freedom of association and assembly for LGBT organizations.

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has insisted that he will not allow the Moscow's Gay Pride parade,scheduled for 27 May 2007, to go ahead, calling it a "satanic" event. Luzhkov banned the first planned Gay Pride parade which was scheduled to take place on the same date in 2006. On that occasion, the authorities stated that permission for the event was denied because of impossibility to provide adequate security for the participants.

Russian Federation: NGO law creates difficulties for human rights organizations.

On 10 January 2006, amendments were adopted to the law of the Russian Federation on NGOs. The amendments establish a new procedure for re-registration of both domestic and foreign NGOs working in the Russian Federation.