BMC International Health and Human Rights

BACKGROUND: In recent decades, many workers from rural areas in China migrated to urban cities in search of a better livelihood. Due to the household registration policy and other financial barriers, more than 40 million of children were left behind in their rural home by their migrated parents in 2015. In this cross-sectional study, we aimed to investigate the influence of being left behind on these children's physical and mental health. METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire was completed by participants about their demographic background and health status...

BACKGROUND: In 2010, a shelter programme was established in the Netherlands to provide social and health services for trafficked people. This article describes how service users in this programme conceptualized and experienced their own process of recovery. METHODS: In 2012, 14 people of non-Dutch nationality who had been trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation were interviewed at all three shelters of the programme. Data analysis followed a grounded theory approach...

BACKGROUND: The ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh not only contributes to the nation's economic development, but has created income opportunities for women, benefiting their whole family. However, these benefits come at considerable cost to the women. This research examines how the work environment and gendered family role in this conservative society affect the health of the female industrial workers. METHODS: A qualitative study employed in-depth interviews (n-20) and focus group discussions with female garment workers (n-4) in two cities of Dhaka district...

BACKGROUND: Violence against women is a major human rights and public health issue globally. The experience of violence affects women across Australia, including the large number of migrant and refugee women who permanently or temporarily resettle in the country. Many women who experience violence find it difficult to access support, and evidence suggests women who have resettled in Australia face additional barriers to violence-specific services. Previous research, however, indicates many migrant and refugee women experiencing violence have contact with, and may disclose violence to, settlement and multicultural services...

BACKGROUND: Texts and interpretations on the lawfulness of abortion and associated administrative requirements can be vague and confusing. It can also be difficult for a woman or provider to know exactly where to look for and how to interpret laws on abortion. To increase transparency, the Global Abortion Policies Database (GAPD), launched in 2017, facilitates the strengthening of knowledge and understanding of the complexities and nuances around lawful abortion as explicitly stated in laws and policies...

BACKGROUND: As of May 2017, the United States federal government renewed its prioritization for the enforcement of mandatory minimum sentences for illicit drug offenses. While the effect of such policies on racial disparities in incarceration is well-documented, less is known about the extent to which these laws are associated with decreased drug use. This study aims to identify changes in cocaine use associated with mandatory minimum sentencing policies by examining differential sentences for powder and crack cocaine set by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act (ADAA) (100:1) and the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA), which reduced the disparate sentencing to 18:1...

BACKGROUND: There are various harmful traditional practices and beliefs across the different parts of Ethiopia. Shilshalo, which is yet little known about, is one of these practices existing in Argoba, a community in Amhara National Regional State of Ethiopia. This study was conducted to explore the various features associated with the practice of Shilshalo. METHODS: To address the objective of the study, qualitative approach with case study design was employed...

BACKGROUND: Words matter when describing people involved in the criminal justice system because language can have a significant impact upon health, wellbeing, and access to health information and services. However, terminology used in policies, programs, and research publications is often derogatory, stigmatizing, and dehumanizing. DISCUSSION: In response, health experts from Europe, the United States, and Australia recommend that healthcare professionals, researchers, and policy makers working with people in detention follow key principles that foster constructive and humanizing language...

BACKGROUND: Determinants of newborn health and survival exist across the reproductive life cycle, with many sociocultural and contextual factors influencing outcomes beyond the availability of, and access to, quality health services. In order to better understand key needs and opportunities to improve newborn health in refugee camp settings, we conducted a multi-methods qualitative study of the status of maternal and newborn health in refugee camps in Upper Nile state, South Sudan. METHODS: In 2016, we conducted 18 key informant interviews with health service managers and front-line providers and 13 focus group discussions in two Sudanese refugee camps in Maban County, South Sudan...

Smaller groups of victims of violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation - such as male victims of intimate partner violence (IPV), victims of elder abuse, victims of abuse by carers, victims of parent abuse, victims of human trafficking, girls and boys below 18 years engaging in sex work, victims of sexual exploitation by gangs or groups and victims of honour based violence (such as forced marriages and female genital mutilation) - are often in contact with the health care system without being identified as such and frequently do not receive appropriate treatment...

BACKGROUND: Empirically assessing the needs of refugees in camps is critical to the improvement of existing policies and programs that aim at enhancing their well-being. By neglecting the needs of refugees, interventions may fail to capture the complex patterns of refugees' daily lives within camps. This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the needs of encamped Malian refugees in Northern Burkina Faso following the 2012-armed conflict. In addition to assessing the needs of Malian refugees, the study aimed to critically assess from an upstream perspective the degree of their involvement in policies and practices that are targeted towards improving their livelihood...

BACKGROUND: In Mozambique, the widow is traditionally required to undergo a cleansing ritual called pita-kufa, which generally involves several sessions of unprotected sexual intercourse with the brother of her deceased husband. This ritual may play a role in the spread of HIV and reveals, to some degree, the subordinate position to which women are subjected in Mozambican society. Thus, this study's aim was to map Mozambicans' views on the acceptability of this ritual, given the gender and public health concerns linked to it...

BACKGROUND: Mexican law permits syringe purchase and possession without prescription. Nonetheless, people who inject drugs (PWID) frequently report arrest for syringe possession. Extrajudicial arrests not only violate human rights, but also significantly increase the risk of blood-borne infection transmission and other health harms among PWID and police personnel. To better understand how police practices contribute to the PWID risk environment, prior research has primarily examined drug user perspectives and experiences...

BACKGROUND: The Global Abortion Policies Database (GAPD), launched in June 2017, provides a verifiable, comprehensive, nuanced approach to information and data sources on abortion law and policy. Abortion laws, policies, and guidelines from United Nations (UN) and World Health Organization (WHO) Member States are juxtaposed to information and recommendations from WHO safe abortion guidance, national sexual and reproductive health indicators, and relevant UN human rights bodies' concluding observations to countries...

BACKGROUND: More than 17.000 Palestinians were injured during different Israeli military incursions on the Gaza Strip from 2006 to 2014. Many suffered traumatic extremity amputations. We describe the injuries, complications, living conditions and health among a selection of traumatic amputees in the Gaza Strip. METHODS: We included 254 civilian Palestinians who had survived, but lost one or more limb(s) during military incursions from 2006 to 2016. All patients were receiving follow-up treatment at a physical rehabilitation center in Gaza at the time of inclusion...

BACKGROUND: Despite 20 years of democracy, South Africa still suffers from profound health inequalities. Gender roles and norms are associated with individuals' vulnerability that lead to ill-health. For instance, gender inequality influences women's access to health care and women's agency to make health-related decisions. This paper explores gender-awareness and inclusivity in organisations that advocate for the right to health in South Africa, and analyses how this knowledge impacts their work? METHODS: In total, 10 in-depth interviews were conducted with members of The Learning Network for Health and Human Rights (LN), a network of universities and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) which is explicitly committed to advancing the right to health, but not explicitly gendered in its orientation...

In the original publication of this article [1] the background section contained an inaccurate mention of the amount of civilian deaths in the 2014 Gaza war. In this correction article the incorrect and correct information are published for clarification.

BACKGROUND: Sub Saharan African (SSA) prisons have seen a substantial increase in women prisoners in recent years. Despite this increase, women prisoners constitute a minority in male dominated prison environments, and their special health needs are often neglected. Research activity on prison health remains scant in SSA, with gathering of strategic information generally restricted to infectious diseases (human immunodeficiency virus infection HIV/tuberculosis TB), and particularly focused on male prisoners...

BACKGROUND: Approximately 18% of Sub-Saharan Africa's urban population relies on shared sanitation facilities, which are shared by one or more households. While there is growing recognition of sanitation's relationship with stress and well-being - particularly among women - most research has focused on rural populations and the transition from open defecation and/or unimproved latrines to private shared sanitation. This study explores sanitation-related stressors among users of both improved and unimproved shared sanitation facilities...

BACKGROUND: This paper provides empirical evidence on how the relationship between health expenditure and health outcomes varies across countries at different income levels. METHOD: Heterogeneity and cross-section dependence were controlled for in the panel data which consist of 161 countries over the period 1995-2014. Infant, under-five and maternal mortality along with life expectancy at birth were selected as health outcome measures. Cross-sectional augmented IPS unit root, panel autoregressive distributed lag, Dumitrescu-Hurlin and Toda-Yamamoto approach to Granger causality tests were used to investigate the relationship across four income groups...