Man surveys the wreckage of his home

By Mariah Ortiz, Kenya Country Specialist for Amnesty USA

Imagine you are sleeping in your bed, and suddenly you hear the sounds of a bulldozer outside your window.  You have to run outside to avoid being crushed.  You escape, but your home is flattened before your eyes . . .

Now imagine that you are walking home, and the sewer suddenly ignites.  You cry out as people around you burst into flames . . .

These might sound like scenes from a science-fiction movie, but they are the frightening, everyday reality for many Kenyans living in informal settlements, where poverty is rampant.

Last month, the Kenya Airports Authority decimated houses in the Kyangombe slum with little notice, leaving many homeless. In September, an explosion ripped through a Nairobi slum, killing scores of people.  The exact cause of the explosion remains unknown, although it is believed to be linked to a gas leak from a nearby industrial depot spilling into an open sewer, which then ignited.  It was a horrific scene of people being scorched to death, choking on acrid smoke, and community destruction.

This explosion highlights the plight of daily life in Nairobi’s many slums.  Far-reaching effects of poverty, such as inadequate sanitation, insecurity, and the government’s failure to even acknowledge that slums exist contribute to the general uncertainty of life for many of Kenya’s citizens.

Forced evictions only exacerbate this situation. Last summer, the Government of Kenya sent bulldozers to flatten people’s homes in Kabete, leaving hundreds of families homeless and destitute.  Slum dwellers who previously had makeshift homes and means to earn a modest livelihood (often via entrepreneurial market stalls) are left with few resources, and even fewer options.

But there’s growing momentum for Kenyans living in slums to claim their human rights. The High Court of Kenya has affirmed that Kenyans have the constitutional right to adequate housing and reasonable standards of sanitation. And the High Court recently issued a stay on planned evictions in Sinai – the community where the explosion occurred – prompting a powerful statement this week from Amnesty International Kenya.

Join us in building on this momentum – tell Prime Minister Raila Odinga to stop forced evictions, and ensure basic services and human rights for Kenyans living in informal settlements! Take action today.

A house being destroyed in Zimbabwe. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

There’s a worldwide housing crisis — and we’re not just talking about foreclosures and the crash of the housing market.  Billions live without adequate housing across the globe, even though housing is a human right.

One of the most widespread and egregious violations is forced eviction — the removal of people against their will from their homes or land without legal protections or safeguards, typically because they live on land desirable to governments or private developers.

Stripped of their own land, they’re often left homeless or moved to remote areas, cutting off their access to clean water and sanitation, food, health care, education and work.

People living in slums and informal settlements are especially vulnerable to forced evictions. And here in the United States, we too fall shamefully short of fulfilling the human right to housing.

Eleven numbers you need to know

More than 1 billion: Number of people living in slums around the world. Globally, this figure is the equivalent of one in every three people who lives in a city.

2 billion: Number of people who will live in slums by 2030, according to U.N. projections.

More than 2 million: Number of people who have been forcibly evicted from their homes across Nigeria, since 2000.

700,000: Number of people who lost their homes, livelihood, or both, in Zimbabwe in 2005 in the mass forced eviction campaign called Operation Murambatsvina (“Operation Drive Out Rubbish”). Survivors largely now live in substandard housing without access to basic services. An estimated 222,000 children had their right to education impacted. Take action on their behalf.

Around 2,000: Number of families that have been forcibly evicted around Boeung Kak Lake, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, since 2008. Development company Shukaku Inc. has been clearing the land for construction, and a further 90 families are at immediate risk of forced eviction.

At least 119: Number of people killed in Cairo in September 2008, by a rockslide in Al-Duwayqa, an informal settlement. No action was taken to prevent future incidents. There are approximately 12 million slum dwellers in greater Cairo.

Zero: Number of permanent police stations in Kibera, the biggest slum in Nairobi, Kenya, home to more than one million people. Police do not regularly patrol the area and women are disproportionately subject to sexual violence. Only one in four slum households has access to a toilet, forcing residents to share pit latrines with an average of 50 other people – but often, women are “too scared to pee”.

1.6 million: Number of people in the U.S. who were homeless from October 2009 through September 2010.

Almost 1 million: Number of homeless school children in the U.S. in the 2009-10 school year – up 18% since 2007-8.

77%: Percent of the U.S. public that agrees that adequate housing should be considered a human right.

One: Number of G8 countries that have not ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the main treaty guaranteeing the right to housing. That country is … the United States of America.

Tomorrow, join Amnesty International and two housing rights experts to discuss these and other issues, including forced evictions worldwide, the criminalization of homelessness and the foreclosure crisis here in the United States in our live Facebook chat.

Next week, we’ll be concluding our Mother’s Day blog series by looking at the international dimensions of maternal mortality.  Today we’d like to focus on maternal health as a key to empowering women worldwide.

Globally, motherless children are 10 times more likely to die within two years of their mothers’ death.  A mother’s health and nutrition, what care and assistance she received during her pregnancy and delivery determined whether she and you are alive today, and whether you are battling with developmental problems, birth defects, or illnesses, including perinatal HIV.

Every 90 seconds a woman dies from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications. This is 1,000 women, or more than 2 filled-to-capacity jumbo jets crashing daily.  Amnesty International considers this a human rights scandal, not only because almost all of these deaths are preventable, but because they are the culmination of abuses and discrimination against women, from insufficient access to basic healthcare, lack of comprehensive family planning and reproductive healthcare services, early marriages, gender-based violence, to inadequate redress.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that nearly all maternal deaths are preventable with greater access to essential maternity and basic health-care services, active and emergency obstetric care, and access to safe abortion services.

In 2000, the international community adopted eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG) with targets to be reached by 2015, all addressing key aspects of development that affect the quality of women’s lives, from access to education, improved health outcomes, to the eradication of poverty.  MDG 5 calls on the global community to reduce maternal mortality by three quarters by 2015 and to achieve universal access to reproductive health. According to the UN, it is among the development goals that are the least likely to be met by 2015.  Yet, the world has recognized that without access by all women – whether they choose or delay motherhood or choose not to become mothers at all – to comprehensive reproductive health care and gender equality; national and global progress on poverty and development will remain elusive.

During the landmark 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo, 179 states affirmed that “achieving gender equality and empowering women are key components of eradicating poverty and stabilizing population growth.”  They recognized that progress depends on the “provision of universal access to reproductive health services, including family planning and sexual health.”

Commendably, since 2009, the US Department of State’s Human Rights Reports for each country in the world contains a section that assesses each nation’s maternal mortality rate.  The reports also assess every country’s respect for the internationally accepted basic right of couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children.  The reports stop short of outlining reasons for high maternal mortality rates, causes that include systemic abuses against women and denial of services that only women need.

Promisingly, over the past 2 years, 146 out of 172 countries reduced their maternal death ratio, from Bangladesh to Peru.  Some of this achievement was made possible by US foreign assistance funding. Such aid, while it constitutes a fraction of the international target for countries to channel 0.7% of their national income to official development assistance, often makes up the largest bilateral contribution to reproductive health abroad.  Yet, maternal mortality remains needlessly high, and much more work remains to be done.

Gains abroad, slippage at home

While Congress debates whether women should even be allowed access to basic reproductive health services, the rate of maternal mortality in the US has worsened, falling from 41^st to 50^th in the world, according to data released in 2010.  It is riskier for a woman to deliver in the US than in nearly all European countries, Canada, and several countries in Asia and the Middle East.  While the US spends more on healthcare than any other country, it sports some of the worst maternal and reproductive health outcomes in the industrialized world, from rates of maternal deaths to teen pregnancies. Amnesty International USA’s recently released 2011 update to its groundbreaking report, Deadly Delivery, The Maternal Health Crisis in the USA, outlines the gains and gaps addressed over the past year.

Our discourse must smarten up.  Only by addressing the inextricable links between poverty, gender empowerment, discrimination, access and availability of comprehensive reproductive healthcare, will we be able to effectively stop needless deaths of over 350,000 women annually affecting their families and communities, across the globe, and in the United States.

Act to save a life:

• Every day 2 to 3 women in the United States die from pregnancy-related complications, and every 15 minutes, a woman suffers a complication so severe she nearly dies. Support the bill introduced in the House of Representatives to help bring this tragedy to an end. Tell your Representatives to support the Maternal Health Accountability Act of 2011 (H.R. 894).
• Help ensure the US pushes for global progress on reduced maternal deaths, less poverty, and greater gender equality.  Tell Sec. Clinton to put human rights at the heart of the U.S. Millennium Development Goals policy!

Every 90 seconds a woman dies giving birth.

Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 8. Here at Amnesty, we’re honoring mothers by fighting for maternal health — sending Mother’s Day action cards to U.S. and international decision-makers, hosting events and more (sign up here).

We’re also launching a one-year update to our groundbreaking report, Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA. From that update, here are 14 numbers you need to know:

49: The number of countries that have lower maternal mortality ratios than the US.  Women in the US are more likely to die of pregnancy related complications than in 49 other countries, including nearly all European countries, Canada and several countries in Asia and the Middle East.

4 million: The number of women who give birth each year in the US.  Childbirth related care is the most common reason for hospitalization in the US.

$98 billion: The total amount spent in the US each year on hospital bills related to childbirth.  The average health care provider fees for maternal care are twice as high as any other country.

3 to 4x: African-American women are 3 to 4 times as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes as white women.

60: The number of years that the disparity between African-American women and white women has not improved.

4x: The maternal mortality ratio for American Indian/Alaska Native women was 4 times higher than the Healthy People 2010 goal (the national target set by the government).

8x: For African American women, the maternal mortality ratio was 8 times higher than the Healthy People 2010 goal.

2x: Women living in low-income areas across the US were 2 times as likely to suffer a maternal death as women in high income areas.

50: The number of women in the US suffering a “near miss” (a pregnancy complication so severe the woman nearly dies) for each woman who dies.

34,000: The total number of women each year who suffer a “near miss” – one every 15 minutes.

33%: The percentage of US births that are by cesarean section.  The cesarean rate has risen for 13 consecutive years to reach this all-time high in 2009. The cesarean rate is now more than double the WHO recommended range of 5-15%.

21%: In states with cesarean rates higher than 33%, the risk of maternal death is 21% higher than in states with cesarean rates lower than 33%.

29+1: The number of states – plus the District of Columbia – that have no maternal mortality review system in place to ensure that all deaths are analyzed to prevent the same problems from occurring in the future.

1,000: The number of women around the world who die every day from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. That’s over 350,000 women every year – one woman every 90 seconds.  The vast majority of these deaths are preventable.

This Mother’s Day, let’s change these numbers for the better. Register to write cards and take action to improve access to good quality care for all women.

Pregnant women at a maternity waiting house in northern Sierra Leone, where they can stay fom the ninth month of pregnancy until their babies are delivered.

Today is World Health Day – and you can celebrate by shining a light on maternal health!

World Health Day marks the anniversary of the founding, in 1948, of the World Health Organization, whose constitution – signed by all 193 Members of the United Nations — states that “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.”

Preventable deaths in pregnancy and childbirth are violations of the right to health, and the right to freedom from discrimination due to gender, race, ethnicity, immigration status, or income level. Maternal mortality is not just a public health emergency – it is a human rights crisis.

Every 90 seconds, another woman dies from complications of pregnancy and childbirth – that’s 1,000 women every day, more than 350,000 each year. The vast majority of these deaths could be prevented, and ninety-nine percent happen in the developing world — the greatest disparity between developed and developing countries of any global health issue.

Though the world has made progress in reducing maternal mortality rates over the last decade, this progress has much slower than necessary to meet the target set by Millennium Development Goal 5 — reducing maternal mortality ratios by 75% by 2015. Further, the progress has often been uneven. For example, though Peru saw a 61% drop in rates of maternal deaths between 1990 and 2008, poor and Indigenous women remain much more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications. In the United States, the risk of dying from complications of pregnancy and childbirth is greater than in 49 other countries, and African-American women remain at four times higher risk of death than white women – rates than have not improved in more than six decades.

In the weeks around Mother’s Day (May 8th) this year, Amnesty International’s Demand Dignity Campaign will be fighting for every woman’s right to a safe pregnancy and childbirth. From April 23 to May 22, activists across the country will:

• Write Mother’s Day cards to U.S. and international leaders
• Lobby their congresspeople to support the Maternal Health Accountability Act
• Hold film screenings to raise awareness about maternal mortality in their communities

And more.

Join us! This World Health Day, commit to shine a light on maternal health by registering to host or join an event.

A pregnant woman waits in a clinic in Burkina Faso.

“I did what I could to save my sister-in-law but it cost too much for a poor man like me.”

Each year, some 4,000 women in Burkina Faso die from pregnancy-related complications. Women face a one-in-28 lifetime risk of dying in childbirth. Most of those deaths could be prevented with timely access to quality maternal health care.

Albertine, a 25-year-old mother of two, died giving birth in January 2007.

She passed away at a regional hospital in Burkina Faso after delivering a stillborn child. Her brother-in-law, a farmer and mine worker, had to make several long trips to and from the hospital to borrow more than U.S. $100 – significantly more than his monthly income – to pay for blood and medicine. Albertine died while he was borrowing money to pay for a prescription.

Help prevent women dying needlessly in childbirth — be a part of this year’s Global Write-a-thon.

Many maternal deaths in Burkina Faso result from out-of-pocket costs that pregnant women living in poverty simply can’t afford, causing delays in deciding to seek care, in reaching health facilities, and in receiving treatment. Too often, those delays are deadly.

While Burkina Faso has made efforts to improve access to quality maternal health care services over the past several years, death rates in the country remain high. Despite policies aimed at lowering the cost of deliveries, care remains unaffordable for many families and low quality treatment, notably due to chronic shortages of skilled medical personnel and supplies, endangers the lives of pregnant women.

Though the Burkinabé government made a decision in 2006 to subsidize emergency obstetric and neonatal care by 80 percent, to provide free transportation between health centers and referral hospitals for all pregnant women, and to cover all health costs for the poorest women, the subsidy policy suffers from serious shortcomings. Women report having to pay more than the policy dictates, both due to real shortages and corruption, and uneven distribution of health facilities means that transportation remains a problem for many rural families (who represent 80% of the population).

During Amnesty’s mission to Burkina Faso in February of this year, President Blaise Compaoré pledged to remove financial barriers to emergency obstetric care. Join this year’s Global Write-a-thon and urge the president to keep his promise.

You’ll also help make a difference for thousands of women like Albertine by writing to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, calling for passage of the “Improvements in Global Maternal and newborn health Outcomes while Maximizing Successes Act” (the “Global MOMS Act”), which will expand access to quality maternal health care services and ensure that care meets international human rights standards. Write for Rights today!

Heather Lasher, Demand Dignity Campaign, contributed to this post.

Rosmery, a young survivor of sexual violence at age 12, draws her hopes for the future represented by a tree which marks her past, present and future.

In Nicaragua, rape and sexual abuse are widespread, and the majority of the victims are young and female.  More than two thirds of all rapes reported between 1998 and 2008 were committed against girls under the age of 17, and nearly half of victims were under age 14.

Though there is overwhelming evidence of widespread sexual abuse in the country, and five UN expert committees have called on the government to address the issue of violence against women and girls, the Nicaraguan government is still failing to treat this human rights emergency with the urgency that it deserves.

Last week, Amnesty International published a report on sexual violence against girls in Nicaragua. The report highlights that information on preventing and responding to abuse for those at risk or suffering from sexual violence is difficult, if not impossible to find, leaving many girls trapped in abusive situations with no clear escape.  Further, the stigma associated with sexual crimes means that it’s often the survivor – not the abuser – who is blamed, and young survivors of rape or sexual abuse get little to no government support to rebuild their lives.

The report also notes that, for girls who find the strength to speak out against the violence they have suffered, the struggle for justice can be traumatic.  Failures and a lack of resources in the justice system mean that cases often collapse and attackers go free.  Though the Nicaraguan Supreme Court published a protocol of conduct for crimes involving domestic violence and sexual assault, the protocols are not always adequately applied by state officials, and funding for justice officials’ work on sexual abuse cases is insufficient.

Some young survivors face the additional trauma of discovering that they have been made pregnant by their rapist.  For those girls who wish to carry the pregnancy to term, there is little or no state support to rebuild the hopes and dreams they had for the future.  For others, the idea of giving birth to a child as the result of rape is unbearable; however, as Amnesty documented last year, a 2008 law criminalizing all forms of abortion in all circumstances – even for child rape victims – has left them with no other legal choice.

The failure of government officials to respond to the human rights crisis of sexual violence against girls is unacceptable.  The government of Nicaragua has a duty to fulfill its obligations to prevent sexual violence against girls in Nicaragua, to protect young survivors, and to guarantee that survivors receive justice and reparation.  We must demand that they fulfill this duty.

November 25 to December 10 is the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence – so the time is now to take action against gender violence around the world.  You can help protect the rights of women and girls to be free from violence by demanding that the Nicaraguan government protect girls from sexual violence, insisting that the Indonesian government protect the reproductive and labor rights of female domestic workers in Indonesia, and by urging your legislators to pass the International Violence Against Women Act and ratify CEDAW.

Last Thursday, in advance of the MDGs summit, Amnesty International Secretary-General Salil Shetty delivered more than 20,000 signatures and postcards from around the world to Joseph Deiss, the incoming president of the U.N. General Assembly and co-chair of the meeting.

Amnesty International Secretary-General Salil Shetty (R) delivers petitions and postcards to incoming U.N. General Assembly President Joseph Deiss (L)

Today, as the General Assembly begins the work of its annual session, including implementing the outcomes of the summit, Amnesty International activists sent a second batch of more than 20,000 signatures and postcards to Mr. Deiss — bringing the total to more than 46,000 names.

Amnesty activists mail petitions and postcards to U.N. General Assembly President Joseph Deiss

There are only five years left until 2015, the deadline for meeting the Goals. And the debate about what anti-poverty framework should replace the MDGs after 2015 — that is, what “MDGs 2.0″ should look like — is already well underway. As supporters of human rights, this is a critical moment for us to insist that principles like anti-discrimination, participation and accountability be at the core of the global fight against poverty.

Amnesty International – along with Realizing Rights and other organizations – has been working to put human rights at the heart of the fight against global poverty. For the president to make good on his message about human rights and development, here are some key steps for him to take:

• Fight discrimination. The president said the U.S. will “invest in the health, education and rights of women,” and gender equality is of course crucial. But other disadvantaged groups – including racial and ethnic minorities and Indigenous Peoples – must also be prioritized.
• Ensure participation. People living in poverty must be the chief agents of change. It’s encouraging to hear the president say that, at the nation-to-nation level, the U.S. will stress “partnering with [developing] countries” in the development process rather than “dictat[ing]” from Washington. It should also create space for each country to ensure the participation of impoverished communities.
• Improve accountability. President Obama has called mutual accountability a “pillar of [America’s] new approach” towards development. That should include accountability to human rights standards in development.
• Respect, protect and fulfill human rights. Finally, and most importantly, the U.S. must ensure that all efforts to achieve the MDGs are consistent with human rights standards and respect the broad spectrum of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

There’s much to be hopeful about in the president’s speech. As his administration implements its new development policy, Amnesty International will continue to push for human rights standards in U.S. development policy and the MDGs.

Yesterday morning, as world leaders began a summit at the United Nations to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals, Amnesty International activists converged on Times Square to launch a “maternal death clock”, keeping track of the number of women who are dying in childbirth worldwide. Decisions made at the summit will have life-or-death consequences.

Every 90 seconds, somewhere in the world, a woman dies in childbirth. That’s 40 women every hour — almost a thousand mothers lost every day. The vast majority of those deaths are preventable. 99% happen in developing countries.

The annual rate of decline is less than half of where it needs to be to meet the MDG target of cutting maternal deaths by 75% by 2015. The fight against maternal mortality — and the fight against poverty — won’t be won until the international community puts human rights at the heart of the struggle.

You can join the Amnesty members who took that message to the streets of Times Square this morning — sign Amnesty’s petition and tell world leaders that poverty is a human rights crisis!