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2017-03-20
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN);
Plastic has penetrated everyday life, and the disadvantages of plastics are becoming more and more visible: large quantities of plastics leak into rivers and oceans, with adverse effects to marine ecosystems and related economic activities. This report is one of the first of its kind to quantify primary microplastics leakage and to demonstrate that these primary microplastics are globally responsible for a major source of plastics in the oceans.
2015-07-01
WaterAid;
With 2015 marking the end of the Millennium Development Goals and the start of the Sustainable Development Goals, this report identifies 45 priority countries where there is a continuing need for water and sanitation aid. The report maps needs against resources available to countries, focusing on aid resources and other international resource flows.
2014-11-01
United States Agency for International Development (USAID);
When LGBT people are denied full participation in society because of their identities, their human rights are violated, and those violations of human rights are likely to have a harmful effect on a country's level of economic development. This study analyzes the impact of the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people on economic development in 39 emerging economies and other selected countries, and presents findings that demonstrate a link between LGBT rights and economic output. The findings suggest that LGBT equality should be part of economic development programs and policies.
2013-05-01
Open Society Foundations;
A hepatitis C epidemic fuelled by the "war on drugs" is sweeping amongst injecting drug users globally, says a new landmark report released today by the Global Commission on Drug Policy. Of the 16 million people who inject drugs around the world, an estimated 10 million are living with hepatitis C. The report, entitled "The Negative Impact of the War on Drugs on Public Health: The Hidden Hepatitis C Epidemic," condemns the drug war as a failure and recommends immediate, major reforms of the global drug prohibition regime to halt the spread of hepatitis C infection and other drug war harms.
Throughout the world, research has consistently shown that repressive drug law enforcement practices force drug users away from public health services and into hidden environments where hepatitis C and HIV risk become markedly elevated. Mass incarceration of nonviolent drug users also plays a major role in spreading the pandemic.
"Hepatitis C has to be one of the most grossly miscalculated diseases by governments on the planet," said Commissioner Michel Kazatchkine, who is also the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. "It is a disgrace that barely a handful of countries can actually show significant declines in new infections of hepatitis C among people who inject drugs."
The hepatitis C virus is highly infectious and easily transmitted through blood-to-blood contact. It therefore disproportionately impacts upon people who inject drugs, and is more than three times more prevalent than HIV among this population. In some of the countries with the harshest drug policies, over 90 percent of people who inject drugs are living with hepatitis C, with highest numbers reported in China (1.6 million people), the Russian Federation (1.3 million people), and the USA (1.5 million people).
Globally, most HIV-infected people who inject drugs are also living with a hepatitis C infection. The hepatitis C virus causes debilitating and fatal disease in around a quarter of those who are chronically infected, and is an increasing cause of premature death among people who inject drugs. Harm reduction services—such as the provision of sterile needles and syringes and opioid substitution therapy—can effectively prevent hepatitis C transmission among people who inject drugs, provided they are accessible and delivered early and at the required scale.
"The war on drugs is a war on common sense," said Commissioner Ruth Dreifuss, who is also the former President of Switzerland. "Repressive drug policies are ineffective, violate basic human rights, generate violence and expose individuals and communities to unnecessary risks. The Hepatitis C epidemic, totally preventable and curable, is yet another proof that the drug policy status quo has failed us all miserably."
This is the third report published by the Global Commission, the most distinguished group of high-level leaders to ever call for drug policy reform, including alternatives to incarceration, greater emphasis on public health approaches to drug use, decriminalization and experiments in legal regulation of drugs. Released in June 2011, its first report, War on Drugs, generated unprecedented media coverage and catalyzed international debate about the urgent need for a paradigm shift on the global drug prohibition regime. The second report, The War on Drugs and HIV/AIDS, was published in June 2012 in advance of the International AIDS Conference in Washington D.C. and was successful on exposing the links between the HIV pandemic and the criminalization of drug use.
2012-10-19
Open Society Foundations;
The United States is promoting a "New Silk Road" that would link Afghanistan to Southern and Central Asia via an interconnected web of transit corridors, which could transform the regional trade environment, tear down commercial barriers, and offer economic benefits for all.
The New Silk Road and the Northern Distribution Network is a constructive assessment of the conditions and challenges facing this effort that asks and answers the following questions:
Is the Northern Distribution network incentivizing regional cooperation and border reforms?
Is the Northern Distribution Network helping to fight corruption in Central Asia?
Has the Northern Distribution Network made transhipment through Central Asia more efficient?
Are ordinary Central Asian citizens benefitting from Northern Distribution Network trade?
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2012-09-25
Open Society Foundations;
U.S. military aid to Central Asia has substantially increased over the past 10 years with an increasingly large percentage going toward the training and equipping of Central Asian special forces units. In several cases, funding has been misappropriated by host governments, while the United States has tended to look the other way at such abuses.
Military aid can have varying goals, but increases in funding and ambivalence by U.S, officials toward possible abuse of funds by Central Asian governments suggest that the primary motive of U.S. aid is to "buy" access to regional governments and militaries for cooperation in Afghanistan, rather than to improve defense institutions and militaries.
2012-05-01
Open Society Foundations;
Over the last decade, the Central Asian republics have hosted a number of international programs designed to overhaul, equip, and reform the region's border control practices aimed at making the borders more secure and open-more secure against threats such as narcotrafficking and cross-border extremism and more open to licit civilian crossings and lucrative trade flows.
The sixth paper of CEP's Occasional Paper Series examines Central Asia's border dilemmas; assesses programs funded by the United States, European Union, United Nations, and other sponsors; and offers recommendations for policymakers and the donor community to make these programs more effective.
2009-10-31
Open Society Institute;
Assesses the quality of supplies for needle and syringe programs procured with grants from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; examines decision-making and procurement processes; highlights best practices; and recommends improvements.
2009-08-21
Open Society Institute;
Describes the regions' hepatitis C epidemic, its correlation with injection drug use, and the lack of awareness and access to care. Calls on civil society groups to support monitoring and awareness, distribution of cheaper medicines, and equity in care.
2009-06-04
Open Society Institute;
Provides an overview of the drug overdose problem in Eastern Europe and Central Asia; describes overdose symptoms, factors that affect overdose risk, prevention methods, and step-by-step responses to an overdose. Lists the overdose risks of various drugs.
2009-03-10
Open Society Institute;
Summarizes research on the range of human rights abuses practiced against drug users in Asia and the former Soviet Union, including detention without judicial oversight and beatings. Highlights the need for reform.
2008-11-20
Open Society Institute;
Offers a legal analysis of patients' rights and reports on their violation in cases of drug users seeking medical care in the Kyrgyz Republic, the quality of care received, and level of awareness of patients of their rights. Includes recommendations.
