Poverty Population & Development

3 billion of the world's people (one-half) live in 'poverty' (living on less than $2 per day). 1.3 billion people live in 'absolute' or 'extreme poverty' (living on less than $1 per day).

800 million people lack access to basic healthcare. 17 million people, including 11 million children, die every year from easily preventable diseases and malnutrition.

800 million people are hungry or malnourished. Nearly 160 million children are malnourished worldwide. 11 million people die every year from hunger and malnutrition.

2.4 billion people lack access to proper sanitation. 1.1 billion do not have safe drinking water. By 2025, at least 3.5 billion people or nearly 2/3rd's of the world's population will face water scarcity. More than 2.2 million people, mostly children, die each year from water related diseases.

275 million children never attend or complete primary school education. 870 million of the world's adults are illiterate.

3 million people die every year from HIV/AIDS. Approximately 25 million people have died from AIDS in the last 20 years. 70 million will die from AIDS by 2020. 40 million people are currently infected with HIV/AIDS, who will die within 10 years. 13 million children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS since the epidemic began, and the number is expected to double to 26 million by 2010.

Over 100 million people live in slums. An estimated 25 to 50 percent of urban inhabitants in poor, developing countries live in impoverished slums and squatter settlements.

The richest 1% of the world's people earned as much income as the bottom 57% (2.7 billion people). The top 5% of the world's people earn more income than the bottom 80%. The top 10% of the world's people earn as much income as the bottom 90%. The richest 16% of the world's population receives 84% of the world's annual income.

The wealth of the world's 7.1 million millionaires ($27 trillion) equals the total combined annual income of the entire planet. The combined wealth of the world's richest 300 individuals is equal to the total annual income of 45% of the world's population. The world's 3 wealthiest families have a combined wealth equal to the annual income of 600 million of the world's people. The wealthiest one-fifth of the world's population receive an average income that is 75 times greater than the poorest one-fifth.

Poor countries (which contain 4/5th's of the world's people) pay the rich countries an estimated nine times more in debt repayments than they receive in aid. Africa alone spends four times more on repaying its debts than it spends on health care. In 1997 the foreign debts of poor countries were more than $2 trillion and growing. The result is a debt of $400 for every person in the developing world - where average annual income in the very poorest countries is less than a dollar a day.

By Reality 16 October 05

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Malnutrition strikes 1 in 3 Africans: UN
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Malnutrition strikes 1 in 3 Africans: UN

One in three Africans suffers from malnutrition and a total of 852 million people in the world suffer from hunger, the United Nations says in a new report.

The World Food Program (WFP) report highlighted the plight of starving Africans and said that the financial contributions necessary for alleviating the continent's hunger problems were lacking.

The program said they had received less than 20 per cent, or $US67 million, of the $US405 million it needs for its operations in southern Africa from now until 2006.

"The WFP aims to feed 26 million victims of food crises on the continent this year because of drought, conflict, HIV/AIDS, locust infestations and economic problems," the report said.

"So far it has barely half the contributions it needs to keep these people alive and build better lives."

The report came just days before next week's G8 summit of leaders of the most industrialised countries, where African poverty is set to have a place on the agenda.

Activists have planned a string of worldwide concerts, protests and rallies in the build-up to the July 6-8 G8 summit in Scotland, designed to force world leaders to give the issue priority and to provoke action on debt, trade and aid in Africa.

The WFP report said the number of people in need of emergency food aid this year had rapidly risen from 3.5 million to 8.3 million in seven southern Africa countries, mainly because of drought.

It gave hunger figures as four million in Zimbabwe, 1.6 million in Malawi, 1.2 million in Zambia, 900,000 in Mozambique, 245,000 in Lesotho, 230,000 in Swaziland and 60,000 in Namibia.

In addition, the triple threat of HIV/AIDS, food insecurity and weakening capacity for service delivery is leaving whole societies much more vulnerable to external shocks.

Other African hunger hotspots mentioned in the report included Ethiopia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and Niger.

The WFP is the largest UN humanitarian agency and it feeds around 90 million people per year, of which 56 million are children.

Stages set for the 'greatest concert ever'

Final preparations are underway for what organisers have promised will be the greatest music show on Earth, with pop stars joining forces to raise awareness of poverty in Africa.

Irish rocker and organiser Bob Geldof says he believes Saturday's Live 8 event will eclipse the Live Aid concert of 20 years ago, when 1.5 billion people tuned in to see the likes of U2, David Bowie and Mick Jagger perform to raise money for Ethiopia's famine.

This time the event is about people power, with organisers hoping huge crowds at the venues and a television and Internet audience in the billions will put pressure on world leaders meeting next week in Scotland to do more to fight poverty.

"I tell you something ... You will never see it again. It will be the greatest concert ever," Geldof told an audience of young people on the MTV channel.

Plea

In an open letter from Live 8 appearing in The Times newspaper on Saturday, organisers made a final plea to governments to meet their demands to end poverty.

"Just as people demanded an end to slavery, demanded women's suffrage, demanded the end of apartheid - we now call for an end to the unjust absurdity of extreme poverty that is killing 50,000 people every day in the 21st Century," it said.

Concerts will be held in all the Group of Eight industrialised nations, plus one in Johannesburg and another featuring African acts in south-west England.

Tokyo will open proceedings in the east and the event winds up in North America.

The initiative, costing an estimated 25 million pounds ($US45 million) to stage, has been widely praised by aid groups, and Geldof can point to a recent $US40 billion debt forgiveness deal and US pledges to double aid to Africa as signs of progress.

"We're on the way," he said.

"It's incredible to think after 20 years we're almost there."

March planned

The Live 8 concerts are linked to the Make Poverty History campaign, campaign organisers hope up to 100,000 people will march through Edinburgh on Saturday.

"There is suddenly a real chance - the sort that comes but once in a generation, for Africa to reverse its three decades of stagnation," Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Not everyone is sure Live 8 will directly affect the outcome of the G8 meeting near Edinburgh on July 6 to 8.

By Feed the World 2 July 05

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Top UN official concerned about 'lack of progress' in Darfur
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Inmate takes legal action over lack of needle exchange

UK: A prisoner who claims that the refusal of the prison service to introduce a needle exchange policy represents a real and immediate risk to his life has started legal proceedings against the home secretary. Lawyers acting for John Shelley, a long-term prisoner currently in Long Lartin jail, near Evesham, are seeking a judicial review of current policy.

Under this policy prisoners are being issued with disinfecting tablets, which the Department of Health, doctors and drug-user support groups say are inadequate in protecting addicts from blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis.

A gay former prisoner who was wrongly diagnosed as HIV positive claims that Home Office figures on the number of prisoners with HIV are the "tip of a hidden iceberg". He said this was due to prisoners failing to report their condition to jail staff from fear of discrimination. During one sentence, he said, he was moved 38 times because no prison would accept him.

The last survey of prisoners with blood-borne viruses was carried out in 1997/98. The Public Health Laboratory Service concluded that 0.36% of inmates were HIV positive and 7.8% had Hepatitis B. A further 7.5% tested positive for Hepatitis C, regarded as the most serious of these viruses, directly responsible of around 100 deaths a year in the UK and a major contributor to a further 5,000 deaths annually.

A recent Home Office report suggested that 2% of prisoners inject drugs in prison and it acknowledged that there may be significant under-reporting of the problem because of the stigma, and illegality, of drug use in prison. A previous study suggested that 6.7% of inmates injected drugs and that there was a high level of needle sharing by prisoners who used drugs intravenously.

When the introduction of disinfecting tablets was reported a spokesman for the Department of Health said it would not recommend it as a suitable method of sterilising needles. It later denied saying this.

However, a department report, commissioned in 1999, states that, "although cleaning equipment is a safer practise than not cleaning at all, the practise - of disinfecting needles - has only been shown to reduce the risk of HIV and may offer little or no protection against more enduring or prevalent hepatitis C".

At least 99% of health authorities operate needle exchange programmes, which have proved to reduce the spread of blood-borne viruses among drug addicts who inject.

Shelley's solicitor, Sean Humber, said that the failure of the prison service to consider needle exchanges, "exposes prisoners and prison officers alike to unnecessary risks and is a breach of their human rights".

Glen Fielding was released from prison in October. In 1993, after being told he was HIV positive, he received his first jail sentence. During that five-year term he said he was in 38 different prisons as a result of staff refusing to have contact with him.

"Every time I was moved prison officers would refuse to be handcuffed to me."

He was advised to go on protection on the vulnerable prisoner wings and received daily abuse from staff and prisoners because of his supposed condition. "Staff were frightened of me," he said.

He went back to prison in 1997, serving seven years. Although he had by then been told that the earlier diagnosis was wrong, he was still treated with suspicion by staff and inmates. This was largely due to him not hiding his sexuality, he said.

Mr Fielding took a successful legal action to force the prison service to supply condoms to inmates.

Although Mr Fielding, 43, is not a drug addict, he said he began to notice the problems associated with needle sharing. In one prison, Littlehey, near Huntingdon, 32 prisoners were sharing one needle, fashioned from a biro and a needle that had been secreted by a diabetic prisoner, he said.

"Of the 32," he said, "four were HIV positive. By the time I left that nick, all 32, the whole shooting match, had contracted the virus."

Mr Fielding said that, in 12 months, in two jails in the south of England, he met at least two dozen HIV positive prisoners who had not declared their condition to prison staff.

"It may sound awful," he said, "but I could not blame them, after the dreadful experiences I suffered as a result of my wrong diagnosis."

He said the prison service had to face up to the reality of the drug situation and work to stop the spread of blood-borne viruses.

"Drugs are coming into prison, everybody knows that they are," he said.

"Therefore the prison service has an obligation to prevent the spread of ill health."

Tim Newell is a former prison governor, widely respected for his innovative therapeutic work with prisoners at Grendon jail. Now a consultant for the Butler Trust, he said the issue of drug abuse was huge and needed a multi-faceted approach to address it. His basic view is that that the problem should be seen and treated as a health issue, rather than a prison one.

"I agree that what they are doing - in relation to disinfecting tablets - may be a dangerous practice," he said. "The ideal way of dealing with this serious problem would be for the prison service to implement a needle exchange policy."

By Eric Allison posted 15 April 05

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The Thai Drug Users' Network is a group of individuals who use or have used drugs We have come together to respond to the deplorable health and human rights situation of drug users in our country, and in particular the current climate of fear caused by the extrajudicial killing of people allegedly involved with drugs.

Thailand's Hilltribe Prisoners

Sakhon Kirikamsukh died at 1 a.m. on 13th January 2005 at Youth Central Prison in Pathumthani just north of Bangkok. He was a 29-year-old Akha man from Doi Chang, Chiangrai Province serving a life sentence for drugs.

Together with many other prisoners Sakhon had been transferred from Bangkwang Central Prison, block 1, a few months previously.

Conditions at the new facility are reported to be even worse than at notorious Bangkwang. Sakhon had suffered a long time from a stomach ulcer, but otherwise had appeared to be healthy. However, he had no visitors and was very homesick.

There is some concern about 38-year-old Rassamee Wannasan, whose Akha name is Mee Ju Maw Po Ku, from Maesai in Chiangrai Province. She was taken to Klong Prem Prison Hospital with a stomach problem in early October 2004. She later returned to Lard Yao women's prison, but as of mid-January 2005 she was back in hospital again. Mee Ju is serving a life sentence for heroin.

Ah Naung Cher Mue, a 30-year-old Akha woman, died with AIDS at Lard Yao women's prison on 23rd April 2004. Ah Ba Yer Sor, another 30-year-old Akha woman, died at the same prison probably with TB on 6th April 2003.

Bu Yuen Cher Mue, a 35-year-old Akha man from Maechan in Chiangrai Province, died in Bangkwang Prison hospital on 26th December 2003 after being diagnosed with HIV.

These are just a few cases which reveal serious health problems for hilltribe prisoners in Thai prisons. TB and HIV are of particular concern, but many prisoners have stomach problems due to poor food and dirty water.

There are woefully inadequate doctors and medical facilities for prisoners, who are anyway expected to pay for medicines. Hilltribe prisoners held in facilities far from home are usually not visited or supported by their relatives or friends at all, as they are often too poor, and may not even have papers enabling them to travel in Thailand.

Another concern at this time is the cold weather in northern Thailand where hilltribe prisoners at Chiangrai Central Prison have died in previous years from the cold. Prisoners sleep on the floor, and are expected to provide, or pay for, their own bedding.

Law Reforms Needed

Last year there was much hope for a widely publicised Queen's amnesty for prisoners on 12th August 2004, Queen Sirikit's 72nd birthday. However, there was a bureacratic mix-up, and few prisoners were actually released. Some who fulfilled certain conditions received reduced sentences. The King, on his 5th December 2004 birthday, apparently had no good news for prisoners.

Horrendously long sentences in Thailand, especially for drugs cases, mean that prisoners put a lot of hope in Royal amnesties or pardons. For many it´s their only hope of seeing the outside world again. However, there are some indications that the Thai government is considering law reforms to bring sentences more in line with those in western countries.

Following Taksin Shinawatra´s overwhelming election victory on 6th February, his government now has the ability to carry out needed law reforms. The burgeoning prison population of 300,000 or more is a strain both on Thai correctional facilities and officials, as well as on prisoners who suffer inhuman conditions. It is hoped that sentences will be reduced, especially for drugs cases, and that the death penalty will be abolished.

Tawn Luang Sae Tein is a Yao man from Klong Lan in Kamphaeng Phet Province. He is in Klong Prem Central Prison in Bangkok with a 25-year sentence for drugs. His 32-year-old wife, Khet Fei Sae Tein, is in the nearby Lard Yao women's prison with a life sentence in the same case. She received a longer sentence because she pleaded innocent, while her husband pleaded guilty and says his wife is innocent.

Many hilltribe people, and others, in Thailand are confronted with this choice of pleading guilty so as to receive a reduced sentence. When this can mean the difference of the death penalty or life, it requires much courage to plead innocence and stand up for truth and justice. The system especially works against poor, oppressed hilltribe people in Thailand who do not have the resources to defend themselves. It is all the more unjust when it is openly admitted that corruption is rife among police, judiciary and officials in Thailand.

Two Akha women, Nong Khrang Kavin, whose Akha name is Mee Taw Cher Mue, and Mee Yo Mah Yer, were both sentenced to death although they plead their innocence in the same drugs case. They are awaiting their appeal. They are both in Lard Yao women's prison in Bangkok, far from their homes and families.

Hilltribe Prisoner Transfers, Change of Prison Directors

Many hilltribe prisoners have been transferred between prisons since mid-2004. Bangkwang had a terribly overcrowded inmate population of about 7,000 in early 2004. About 10% were hilltribe men, a disproportionately large number compared with the approximate 2% of the general Thai population who are hilltribe minorities. An official plan to reduce Bangkwang inmates to 5,000 had lowered the number to 5,403 as of late December 2004.

By September 2004, due to planned renovations all prisoners were moved from Bangkwang block number 5, where many hilltribe men were previously held. Some ended up at the Youth Central Prison in Pathumthani where Sakhon died on 13th January. As of mid-January, block 1 at this apparently new facility held 45 Hmong, 27 Akha, 20 Karen, 10 Lahu and 3 Leesaw hilltribe men amongst its inmates. Figures from other blocks are not known. The director´s name is Marootta Pantong.

The new director at Bangkwang since mid-2004 is Sowpon Gititammupak, who was previously posted at Bombat Prison.

There was also a new director posted in mid-2004 at Lard Yao women´s prison. Her name is Ang Hka Nueng Leib Nak.

In 2003 the director of Klong Prem Central Prison, Reung Muengmunechai, was removed from his post and put under investigation for graft. He was replaced by Prayad Jingjitt from Nakhon Ratchasima.

Prison System Corruption Hits Poor Hilltribe People Hardest

Prisoners are extremely reluctant to speak about labour exploitation in Thai prisons due to the fear of reprisals. However, those without money or outside support are effectively forced to work, because nothing is free in Thai prisons. Prisoners must even pay for the privilege of not working, and pay for materials to clean cells.

Inmates are often not paid, or receive only a pittance for the work they do. This is usually insufficient to pay for decent food, soap and toothpaste at inflated prison prices. Many prisoners run up debts, which can cause serious problems.

The reasons for this atrocious situation can be explained by the follwoing four points: 1. A lack of sufficient government funding to run prisons. This is partly due to the traditional system in Thailand whereby government officials paid the King for their positions, which then allowed them to levy whatever they could from the general populace. Such a system is bound to cause hardship to the poor, who have nowhere to turn for justice and human rights. 2. There has been a recent rapid rise in the prison population in Thailand without a corresponding rise in government funding for prisons. 3. Diversion of funding by officials for purposes other than prisoner facili ties and welfare. 4. Commercial deals between prison officials and business people to exploit captive prison labour.

Taksin Shinawatra likes to proclaim that Thailand is not a poor country, and that it does not need foreign assistance or aid. His government claims to be helping poor Thai farmers and rural people. However, there are very many issues still to be addressed effectively by the Thai government, such as its treatment of minorities, including hilltribe and moslem people, refugees from neighbouring countries such as Burma and Laos, and the large and rising prison population.

Draconian Thai government attempts to stamp out drugs and terrorism are more widely understood to be aggravating, rather than improving, the situation. Pouring government funds into military, police and official agencies, which are often corrupt themselves, is not proving to be an effective way to combat drugs, terrorism or crime.

Is it not preferable to tackle the root of the problem? To support the livelihood, welfare and rights of the poor and oppressed? Would this not be more likely to reduce pressures in society for people to turn to drugs, terrorism and crime? However, it is quite clear that vested interests, and the powers-that-be, are not easily convinced by this argument, especially if their job in an anti-drugs or anti-terrorism agency may be at stake.

Hilltribe Prisoners Down-Trodden by System of Discrimination

Below are the names of some hilltribe prisoners and the prison addresses they are currently held at in Thailand. If you are able to write to any of them, or even to visit them, they will be very grateful for your concern and support.

Chit Win Sein, (He is a 26-year-old Akha man from Burma. His Akha name is Aryoke Chermegu.) Klong Pai Central Prison, Building 3, 300 Klong Pai, A. Sikiu, Nakhon Ratchasima 30340 THAILAND

Apha Mopogu, (He is a 32-year-old Akha man from China.) Youth Central Prison, block 1, room 30, 22 / 4 M. 3 T. Klong 6, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120 THAILAND

Bue Mue Emily Soe, (She is a 54-year-old Akha woman from Burma.) Central Women Correctional Institution, building 5, room 3, 33 / 3 Ngam Wong Wan Road, Lard Yao, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900 THAILAND

Sila no sakul, (She is a 35-year-old Lahu woman from Burma.) Chiangrai Central Prison, block 4, room 10, P.O. Box 221, Doi Hang, A. Muang, Chiangrai 57000 THAILAND

Chamnan Chewchan, (He is a 38-year-old Akha man from Chiangrai Province.) Chiangrai Central Prison, block 2, room 4/5, Doi Hang, A. Muang, Chiangrai 57000 THAILAND

Kenny Lee, (He is a 32-year-old Akha man from Phamee, Chiangrai Province.) Bangkwang Central Prison, block 4, 117 Nonthaburi Road, Suan Yai, Nonthaburi 11000 THAILAND

Songsak Wangnapalai, (He is a Hmong man from Chiangrai.) Bangkwang Central Prison, block 2, 117 Nonthaburi Road, Suan Yai, Nonthaburi 11000 THAILAND

By Anon posted 14 February 05

Picture: The prison

Prisoners describing the conditions in Bangkwang (1998):

"At present the one meal a day provided by the prison for only Western foreigners consists of a small plastic bag of rice along with an inedible stew, that is not fit to sustain an animal.

The prison is overcrowded: in 1998 there were 140,000 prisoners in Thailand in prisons that were originally built to only house 90,000 with an available budget for only 70,000 prisoners.

Prisoner sleep shoulder to shoulder. There are no clean sanitary facilities available, the water is filthy because it is pumped from the nearby river.

Prisoners suffer from the isolation from their families and friends. There are no telephones available."

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Tell Bush to get serious about the fight against AIDS!

AIDS is one of the most pressing moral issues of our time. Everyday, some 6,500 people die from AIDS in Africa, leaving behind a generation of orphans. But you can help.

For 2005, Congress has allocated $2.7 billion for the fight against AIDS, or just 0.1% of the total U.S. budget. To put this in perspective, U.S. spending on AIDS next year will equal just 5% of annual U.S. spending on national defense. America can and should do more to fight this devastating disease.

That's why we need a minute of your time today. Care2 is working with non-profits to call upon the U.S. to commit 1% of the federal budget to fight global AIDS. It would make a huge difference to kids who are suffering. It would make our country more secure.

This level of commitment would better reflect who we are as Americans. It represents a way for the U.S. to use its economic power to deal with poverty, injustice and the global epidemic of AIDS.

Thank you for receiving Eye on Human Rights from Care2, and please act today!

Sign the petition:

Thank you for taking action today!

By Care2 & ThePetitionSite posted 20 December 04

Australia asked to dig deeper for aid programs

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is urging Australia to increase foreign aid.

The OECD gave Australia's foreign aid programs high marks, commending the Government's peace-building [colonialism] and AIDS-prevention efforts in the Pacific.

However, the organisation says Australia could be more generous.

Even though Australia's economic growth has outpaced most of the industrialised world in recent years, the country's foreign aid programs remain at 0.25 per cent of gross national income.

The OECD wants Australia to do more, with an eye to eventually reaching the United Nations goal of putting 0.7 per cent of gross national income to foreign aid programs.

UN Complicity in WAR

UN panel proposes criteria for legitimate military action
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Fallujah refugees in desperate need of aid: UN
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US accused of breaching international law
The United States is violating international law by holding prisoners in its war on terror incommunicado and in secret hiding places, Human Rights Watch said in a report to be published on Tuesday calling for an end to such practices.

Allies 'planned' Iraq war despite denials
The United States, Australia and Britain started to plan the invasion of Iraq months before the conflict, according to a report Wednesday quoting a leaked Pentagon document.

UN warns of Iraqi malnutrition
One in four Iraqis are dependent on food rations to survive and many of them have to sell what little food they have for basic necessities like medicine and clothes, the UN World Food Program (WFP) said.

Annan tells world leaders to respect law
United Nations (UN) secretary-general Kofi Annan has made an impassioned plea to bring about the rule of law across the globe today. Mr Annan told world leaders to respect international law at home and abroad.

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The 'coalition of the killing's' complicities - the US, Britain and Australia - have insisted that their countries' military action in Iraq was legal after they have committed war crimes against humanity.

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Ed: Just how much more can the UN and Australia do for peace?

By Just Give 17 December 04

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E Timor threatens campaign against Aust over oil deal
East Timor's Foreign Minister is threatening to launch an international campaign to pressure Australia for a bigger share of their own oil and gas royalties from the Timor Sea.

Fool me twice 1-20 -Official release (BALI BOMBINGS/ETimor) Exposing the Australian government's lies about the East Timor massacres, the cover-up of the Bali bombings (including '93 WTC attack) and subsequent anti-terror legislation forced through parliament.

HoWARd Government intelligence cover-up
The Federal Opposition has described the Government's failure to release the final report into the claims of intelligence failures within the Defence Department as a cover-up.

Lest We Forget Eureka Stockade!
On October 16, 1975, five journalists filming the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, for Australian TV channels, were killed at a place called Balibo. This name seems set to become one of the rallying cries of 2nd Renaissance secession movements in Australia. The facts surrounding the Balibo killings are so damning of the central governments of Australia and Indonesia that the event will rank in Australian consciousness with the Eureka Stockade uprising of 1854.

TIME TO GO JOHN SYDNEY PREMIERE...
BLACK BULLION I Jen Hughes: The Howard Government's withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea has forced East Timor to back down on their right to negotiate their Maritime Boundaries on an equal footing and access their resources for survival beyond the paternalism of Australia and other colonial powers. A film about the tension between personal friendship and the betrayal of trust for black bullion.

DRUG USE WITHIN AUSTRALIAN PRISONS

Senator BARTLETT (Queensland--Leader of the Australian Democrats) (3.43 p.m.)--At the request of Senator Allison, I move:

That the Senate--

(a)acknowledges that drug use within Australian prisons poses a considerable health risk to prisoners and the broader community;

(b)notes that:

(i)the Australian National Council on Drugs report, Supply, demand and harm reduction strategies in Australian prisons: Implementation, cost and evaluation, found that many injecting drug users spend considerable periods behind bars and that a history of drug use is far more common amongst prisoners than in the general population,

(ii)the report also identified a high prevalence of injecting drug use during incarceration and that high proportions of prison inmates report injecting drug use in the community once released, and

(iii)levels of hepatitis C in prisons are estimated to be up to 17 times greater than those in the general community; and

(c)calls on the Government to work collaboratively with the states and territories to develop and fund:

(i)a hepatitis B vaccination program for prisoners,

(ii)voluntary programs for prisoners for testing, counselling and treatment for HIV and other blood-borne viral infections, and

(iii)a trial needle and syringe exchange program, with rigorous evaluation, in an Australian prison.

Question agreed to.

Daele Healy
Adviser to Senator Andrew Bartlett
Leader of the Australian Democrats
Parliament House Canberra 2600
Ph: 02 6277 5724
Fax: 02 6277 3235
Mob: 0419 867 649

By Daele Healy 31 November 2004

Related:

People: 'Prisoners' of Drugs'
According to an Australian Medical Association report, 83% of prisoners behind bars are there as a result of drug-related offences. In a NSW study it showed the frequent amount of burglaries depended on the rate of spending money on drugs. Neil Comrie, Victorian Police estimates 70% of all criminal activity is drug related. Inadequate treatment services as well as treatment of drug addiction as a crime, rather than a health issue has criminalised a huge number of people.

Report Concludes Needle Exchange in Prisons Safe and Effective
DUBLIN --- A new report to be released tomorrow, entitled Prison Needle Exchange: Lessons from a Comprehensive Review of International Evidence and Experience, provides the clearest evidence yet that these programmes - now operating in over 50 prisons in 6 countries - are both safe and effective.

Drug law blamed for hep C epidemic
THE federal Government's conservative tough-on-drugs policies have triggered an explosion in hepatitis C infections, a secret health department report has found.

Sign, sign everywhere a sign
The Syringe Festival was first held in Darwin in August 2002. The event, organised by the Network Against Prohibition was held as a protest against the Territory's new "drug house" laws that came into effect on August 1 last year, as well as a celebration of drug culture.

Report Concludes Needle Exchange in Prisons Safe and Effective

DUBLIN --- A new report to be released tomorrow, entitled Prison Needle Exchange: Lessons from a Comprehensive Review of International Evidence and Experience, provides the clearest evidence yet that these programmes - now operating in over 50 prisons in 6 countries - are both safe and effective.

The report, co-authored by IPRT Executive Director Rick Lines and published by the Montreal-based Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, concludes that the controlled provision of sterile syringes in prisons:

*reduces risk behaviour and disease (including HIV and Hep C) transmission;

*does not endanger staff or prisoner safety, and in fact, make prisons safer places for both staff and inmates;

*does not increase drug use or injecting;

*has been successfully implemented in a wide variety of prison environments

Following on the publication of the report the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) and Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI) call upon the Irish Government to implement pilot needle exchange programmes in Irish prisons in order to protect prisoners, prison staff and the public from the further spread of HIV, Hepatitis C and other blood borne infections.

Speaking at the launch Tony Geoghegan, Director of Merchants Quay Ireland stated, "The report further highlights the safety and effectiveness of prison needle exchange programmes and I urge the Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform and the Minister with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy to set aside their difference on the issue and to implement these vital programmes before more people are infected and the lives of both prison staff and prisoners are unnecessarily placed at risk."

"The alarming rate of HIV, hepatitis C and injecting drug use in prisons demands urgent attention," continued Rick Lines, Executive Director of the IPRT. "Prisoners come from the wider community and most return to it. What is done - or not done - in prisons with regard to HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and injecting drug use therefore has an impact on the health of everyone in Ireland."

Continued Mr Lines, "The National Drugs Strategy endorses the importance of syringe exchange programmes in reducing the transmission of disease among injecting drug users. The evidence is clear that these interventions would also yield significant health benefits for prisoners, prison staff and for the wider community.

To provide syringe exchange in prisons is not to condone drug use. Rather, it is a pragmatic public health measure that should accompany other efforts to reduce drug-related harm, such as drug treatment programmes and methadone maintenance.

The Government has a moral and legal responsibility take action to prevent the further spread of infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C among prisoners and general the public, and should implement pilot prison syringe exchange programmes as a matter or urgency."

By CURE 18 November 04

The Center's Efforts to Protect Human Rights in Prisons and Jails
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and within the United States, the top 7 states with the highest incarceration rates are all Southern states (Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina).

No Time to Lose
HIV/AIDS and HEPATITIS C in NEW YORK STATE'S PRISONS

Related:

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Prison suicides soar as jails hire 'babysitters'
UK: Prison officers are being taken off suicide watch and replaced by unqualified 'babysitters' because the system is overwhelmed by an epidemic of self-harm.

Plan to sell off juvenile jails as job lot
UK: The government is to put out to tender all its dedicated juvenile jails that hold children under 18 in a departure in Whitehall's privatisation programme. The four institutions are to be offered as a job lot to be run by a private prison company in a deal thought to be worth £50m as part of an attempt to boost competition and "choice" in the penal system. It is also thought to be designed to tempt US prison firms into the British market.

Failure to sack 'racist' prison staff condemned
UK: Two prison officers suspended for racism are still on full pay three years after a stash of Nazi memorabilia, neo-fascist literature and Ku Klux Klan-inspired 'nigger-hunting licences' was found in a police raid on their home.

Report slams 'unjust' jailing of women on remand
UK: Six out of 10 women sent to jail while they await trial are acquitted or given a non-custodial sentence, a report published today reveals. Introducing the report, Lady Kennedy QC calls for a complete review of the use of remand and bail for women saying it is "inhumane and unjust".

Concern as UK prison suicides hit record level
UK: More prisoners took their own lives in English jails in August than in any other month since records began, prison reformers said today.

A life inside: Erwin James
This is my last prison column. After 20 years, I'm free. I just didn't expect it to happen with so little ceremony.

End of years of despair as Holloway closes its doors
UK: It has housed some of Britain's most notorious women prisoners, including Moors murderer Myra Hindley, serial killer Rose West, Diana Mosley, aristocratic wife of fascist leader Oswald Mosley and, most recently, Maxine Carr, girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley.

UK Miscarriages: Loss of innocence
Can anyone comprehend what it is like to spend years in prison for a crime you didn't commit? Eric Allison tracked down those still haunted by the experience - the victims of miscarriages of justice, and their families.

Prison service 'on brink of a race crisis'
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How detox and self-help brought suicide jail back from the brink
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Restorative Justice Practices
Restorative Justice Practices of Native American, First Nation and Other Indigenous People of North America: Part One BY LAURA MIRSKY.This is part one in a series of articles about restorative justice practices of Native American, First Nation and other indigenous people of North America.

UK: The injustice of jail
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Belmarsh prisoners consider suicide, says freed man
UK: The first of the Muslim prisoners released from Belmarsh high security prison after being held on suspicion of terrorism, [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], has [said], his fellow prisoners are suffering such 'severe mental problems' that they constantly consider suicide.

Revolving door: Criminal Law System
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How the Prison Service Works
1.Abuse and torture inmates at HMP Wormwood Scrubs
2.Take years to admit a regime of violence and torture.
3.Settle 46 claims, paying 1.7 million to prisoners.
5.Carry on as before.
4.Keep 11 of the 14 prison officers responsible in their jobs.

Prisoners must get right to vote, says court
UK: The government will be forced to lift a ban on prisoners voting dating back to 1870 after the European court of human rights ruled yesterday it breached a lifer's human rights.

Cherie calls for women to be kept out of jail
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Blunkett charges miscarriage of justice victims 'food and lodgings'
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Prison needle cleansing programme
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England tops the EU in imprisonment
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Don't put mothers behind bars
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UK Prison Abuse: Guards Holding Nooses
'We will kill you. We will get away with it... we've done it before' Prisoners tell of hanging threats by officers holding nooses.

K K K in the UK
In the documentary it is alleged an officer dressed in a Ku Klux Klan mask at a training centre in north-west England. An undercover reporter from the BBC also claimed to have taped racist comments by some officers.

Suicides and unrest have soared, admits Home Office
UK:The already overcrowded prison population is set to go on rising and will top 80,000 within the next three years, a senior Home Office civil servant warned yesterday.

My Sarah was smart and talented - Why did she die in jail?
LONDON: Sarah Campbell was just 18 when she killed herself [? committed suicide,] one of seven women to die in jail this year. Our correspondent asks why so many women kill themselves in prison [? commit suicide in prison.]