RightsBase

human rights news & views

Maternal deaths catastrophic & avoidable: UN

"The scale of maternal mortality is catastrophic. Every minute a woman dies in childbirth or from complications of pregnancy. . . well over 500,000 women a year. 95% are in Africa and Asia. . . This is global health inequality on a shocking scale. For every woman who dies, as many as 30 others suffer […]

Uganda realises right to free secondary education

Last year, RightsBase hailed the introduction of free primary education in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Uganda, resulting in huge increases in school attendance and great knock-on benefits to the kids and their society. Now Uganda is offering free secondary education, in accordance with its human rights obligations. The International Covenant on the Economic, Social and […]

Millennium Goals offer security to rich nations

Leading economist Jeffrey Sachs says ending poverty will relieve security concerns of rich nations. Dr Sachs, best-selling author of The End of Poverty currently serving as Special Adviser to the UN on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), says conflict in places such as the Horn of Africa is fuelled by poverty: "This isn’t a crisis […]

Realising the right to education in Africa

School fees as low as 875 shillings ($US12) a year is enough to prevent millions of African children getting even a basic education. Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki made the first 8 years of school free in 2003 — including free textbooks — and the response has been tremendous. In that time, school enrolments have risen […]