PHA-Exch> Women health care- War Situation

[Kamayani]

Women need safer access to health care in war situations

Geneva (ICRC) – In the run-up to International Women's Day, 8 March, the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that the specific
health-care needs of women are often ignored or insufficiently taken into
account in war situations.

"People wounded in fighting are given priority for medical treatment, but
women, even pregnant mothers, are often given scant attention despite their
special needs," said Nadine Puechguirbal, the ICRC's adviser on issues
relating to women and war.

In the world’s least developed countries, many of which are at war, women
are 300 times more likely to die in childbirth or from pregnancy-related
complications than in developed countries, according to UNICEF. While armed
conflicts and other violence affect entire communities, women are
particularly at risk of rape and other forms of sexual violence. Because of
poor security conditions or because they have no means of transportation, it
is often impossible for women to reach a health-care facility so as to give
birth safely.

"International humanitarian law stipulates that the specific health-care
needs of conflict-affected women must be met, including in places of
detention," explained Ms Puechguirbal. "Parties to a conflict have an
obligation to comply with the law and do everything possible to ensure that
women receive the health care they require."

During the recent conflict in Gaza the lives of numerous women were put at
risk when ambulances couldn't get through to them because of the fighting.
The conflict also prevented women in labour from reaching a safe place to
have their babies. Women are currently facing the same difficulty in
Somalia, where the death rate of pregnant women and newborn babies is among
the highest in the world. According to UNICEF, only nine women in a hundred
thousand actually make it to a hospital to give birth in Somalia*.*

The ICRC is addressing the specific health needs of women in war-torn
countries around the world by supporting hospitals and basic health-care
services. In some countries, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
it is making counselling services available to victims of sexual violence.
"The first priority after a rape is to obtain medical care," explained
Charlotte, a Red Cross volunteer providing counselling. "But medicines can
only treat the body. The victims of these attacks bear invisible,
psychological wounds."


-- 
We have to start looking at the world through women’s eyes’ how are human
rights, peace and development defined from the perspective of the lives of
women? It’s also important to look at the world from the perspective of the
lives of diverse women, because there is not single women’s view, any more
than there is a single men’s view.”
-- Charlotte Bunch

Adv  Kamayani Bali Mahabal
Mobile-00919820749204
skype:lawyercumactivist
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