Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report

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  • Ending Poverty and Hunger: Meeting the Challenge of Millennium Development Goal 1 11/24
  • The Global Food Crisis: "The Silent Tsunami" The Brookings Institutions "will host a discussion on nutrition, school feeding programs and food security in the developing world, featuring World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick; Josette Sheeran, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme; and Samuel Worthington, president and CEO of InterAction." 11/24
  • A Call to Copenhagen – Health Effects of Climate Change "Members of the press are invited to the unveiling and policy discussion of a major international study on the Public Health Impacts of Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions being published in Lancet, just in time for the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), one of the National Institutes of Health, is sponsoring the event which will feature speakers from around the world gathered in Washington, DC and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine participating via live video conferencing." 11/25

Indian Court Overturns 150-Year-Old Ban On Gay Sex

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Thursday, July 02, 2009

An Indian court on Thursday ruled that "gay sex between consenting adults was not a crime, ordering that the rights of citizens were violated by parts of a 150-year-old colonial-era law that made it illegal," Bloomberg reports. The law "has drawn criticism from public health activists as a barrier in the fight against HIV/AIDS" (Patnaik, 7/2).

The New York Times writes, "India has one of the world’s largest populations of people with AIDS, and Section 377 was view by many advocates as a hurdle to education about safer sex." Anjali Gopalan – the executive director and founder of the Naz Foundation, an AIDS awareness group that sued to have Section 377 changed, said – "Clearly, we are all thrilled." 

The newspaper continues, "Thursday’s decision applies only in the territory of India’s capital city, but it is likely to force India’s government either to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, or change the law nationwide, lawyers and advocates said" (Timmons/Kumar, 7/2).

The Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report is published by the Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2009 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.