Category: Legal Rights

Children struggling with obesity should be evaluated and treated early and aggressively, including with medications for kids as young as 12 and surgery for those as young as 13, according to new guidelines released Monday.

The long-standing practice of “watchful waiting,” or delaying treatment to see whether children and teens outgrow or overcome obesity on their own, only worsens the problem that affects more than 14.4 million young people in the U.S. Left untreated, obesity can lead to lifelong health problems, including high blood pressure, diabetes and depression.

“Waiting doesn’t work,” said Dr. Ihuoma Eneli, co-author of the first guidance on childhood obesity in 15 years from the American Academy of Pediatrics. “What we see is a continuation of weight gain and the likelihood that they’ll have [obesity] in adulthood.”

For the first time, the group’s guidance sets ages at which kids and teens should be offered medical treatments such as drugs and surgery — in addition to intensive diet, exercise and other behavior and lifestyle interventions, said Eneli, director of the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

In general, doctors should offer adolescents 12 and older who have obesity access to appropriate drugs and teens 13 and older with severe obesity referrals for weight-loss surgery, though situations may vary.

The guidelines aim to reset the inaccurate view of obesity as “a personal problem, maybe a failure of the person’s diligence,” said Dr. Sandra Hassink, medical director for the AAP Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight, and a co-author of the guidelines.

“This is not different than you have asthma and now we have an inhaler for you,” Hassink said.

‘Not a lifestyle problem’

Young people who have a body mass index that meets or exceeds the 95th percentile for kids of the same age and gender are considered obese. Kids who reach or exceed that level by 120% are considered to have severe obesity. BMI is a measure of body size based on a calculation of height and weight.

Obesity affects nearly 20% of kids and teens in the U.S. and about 42% of adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The group’s guidance takes into consideration that obesity is a biological problem and that the condition is a complex, chronic disease, said Aaron Kelly, co-director of the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine at the University of Minnesota.

“Obesity is not a lifestyle problem. It is not a lifestyle disease,” he said. “It predominately emerges from biological factors.”

The guidelines come as new drug treatments for obesity in kids have emerged, including approval late last month of Wegovy, a weekly injection, for use in children ages 12 and older. Different doses of the drug, called semaglutide, are also used under different names to treat diabetes. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that Wegovy, made by Novo Nordisk, helped teens reduce their BMI by about 16% on average, better than the results in adults.

How Wegovy works

The drug affects how the pathways between the brain and the gut regulate energy, said Dr. Justin Ryder, an obesity researcher at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.

“It works on how your brain and stomach communicate with one another and helps you feel more full than you would be,” he said.

Still, specific doses of semaglutide and other anti-obesity drugs have been hard to get because of recent shortages caused by manufacturing problems and high demand, spurred in part by celebrities on TikTok and other social media platforms boasting about enhanced weight loss.

In addition, many insurers won’t pay for the medication, which costs about $1,300 a month.

One expert in pediatric obesity cautioned that while kids with obesity must be treated early and intensively, he worries that some doctors may turn too quickly to drugs or surgery.

“It’s not that I’m against the medications,” said Dr. Robert Lustig, a longtime specialist in pediatric endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco. “I’m against the willy-nilly use of those medications without addressing the cause of the problem.”

Lustig said children must be evaluated individually to understand all factors that contribute to obesity. He has long blamed too much sugar for the rise in obesity. He urges a sharp focus on diet, particularly ultra-processed foods high in sugar and low in fiber.

Dr. Stephanie Byrne, a pediatrician at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said she’d like more research about the drug’s efficacy in a more diverse group of children and about potential long-term effects before she begins prescribing it regularly.

“I would want to see it be used on a little more consistent basis,” she said. “And I would have to have that patient come in pretty frequently to be monitored.”

At the same time, she welcomed the group’s new emphasis on prompt, intensive treatment for obesity in kids.

“I definitely think this is a realization that diet and exercise is not going to do it for a number of teens who are struggling with this — maybe the majority,” she said.

Source: Voice of America

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Saturday for an attack Friday on a police checkpoint in Egypt’s Suez Canal city of Ismailia. At least four people, including three police officers, were killed, officials and state-run media said.

The attack also wounded 12 others, mostly conscripts who were taken to a hospital, according to a casualty tally document at the hospital.

The dead included three police officers and a still unidentified person, the hospital document obtained by The Associated Press showed.

“A cell of soldiers of the caliphate managed to attack an Egyptian police roadblock … with a machine gun,” the militant group’s Amaq news agency said Saturday.

The attack took place late in the afternoon in Ismailia city, on the western side of the Suez Canal, according to security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The media office of Ismailia province described the attack as a terrorist strike.

State-run al-Qahera New television reported that security forces killed one of the attackers. It broadcast graphic footage purportedly showing a body, saying it was the dead militant.

Egypt has been battling the Islamic State extremist group in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula for years. The militants have carried out numerous attacks in Sinai and elsewhere in the country, mainly targeting security forces, minority Christians, and those who they accuse of collaborating with the military and police.

In May, at least 11 Egyptian soldiers, including an officer, were killed in a militant attack on a water pumping station east of the Suez Canal.

The pace of IS attacks in Sinai’s main theater and elsewhere has slowed to a trickle since February 2018, when the military launched a big operation in Sinai as well as parts of the Nile Delta and deserts along the country’s western border with Libya.

Source: Voice of America

Six people were killed in two separate road accidents, in South Africa’s Free State Province yesterday, the provincial police said.

The first accident killed five people and injured 11 others, after a head-on collision between two minibuses, said Mahlomola Kareli, police spokesperson in Free State Province.

“Three passengers and both drivers of the minibus taxis died on the scene, while 11 others were rushed to different hospitals in Bloemfontein,” said Kareli.

In another accident in the province, along the N3 road, which connects Johannesburg and Durban, four sedans were involved in a pile-up, resulting in the death of one person, he said.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Confronted with what can sometimes seem like an endless cycle of bad news in the media, it’s easy to feel despondent. But, amid the gloom, there were plenty of good news stories to celebrate this year.

Throughout 2022, Amnesty’s ongoing campaigning, media and advocacy work contributed to positive outcomes for people all over the world whose human rights were being violated. Individuals unjustly detained were freed from prison. Human rights abusers were held accountable. Vital legislation and resolutions were passed by governments at national and international level. Progress towards the global abolition of the death penalty continued. And important advances were made both for the rights of women and LGBTI people.

Here’s a round-up of human rights wins in 2022.

Individuals freed from unjust imprisonment

Amnesty’s ongoing work for individuals helped secure the release of people across the world, delivered justice for families, and held abusers accountable.

In January, university lecturer Professor Faizullah Jalal was released after being arbitrarily arrested and detained by the Taliban.

Hejaaz Hizbullah, a Sri Lankan lawyer and Amnesty prisoner of conscience, was granted bail in February after almost two years of pre-trial detention under Sri Lanka’s draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Two other detainees held under the PTA, Ahnaf Mohamed Imran and Divaniya Mukunthan, were also released on bail in August and September respectively.

In Honduras, the “Guapinol eight”, a group of water rights defenders and prisoners of conscience, were unconditionally released in February, after spending more than two years in prison for their human rights work.

The following month, in neighbouring Guatemala, Indigenous Mayan environmentalist and prisoner of conscience Bernardo Caal Xol was released early after being jailed on bogus charges related to his activism. More than half a million actions were taken on his behalf during Amnesty’s 2021 Write for Rights campaign.

Elsewhere, Magai Matiop Ngong — for whom more than 700,00 actions were taken during Write for Rights 2019 — was released from prison in South Sudan in March, having been sentenced to death at the age of 15 in 2017.

August saw the release of schoolteacher Hriday Chandra Mondal, who was detained for discussing the difference between science and religion in his classes. All charges against him were subsequently dropped.

In May, 18-year-old Palestinian Amal Nakhleh, who suffers from a chronic autoimmune disorder, was released from Israeli administrative detention following 16 months of campaigning by Amnesty and others.

In July, a Russian court?acquitted?Yulia Tsvetkova of “production and dissemination of pornographic materials” over her body-positive drawings of vaginas that were published online.

Following an Urgent Action by Amnesty, Maldivian activist Rusthum Mujuthaba, who was being held on blasphemy charges in relation to a social media post, was released from prison in August.

Palestinian national Dr. Mohammed al-Khudari was released from prison in Saudi Arabia in October after spending more than three years in arbitrary detention along with his son, Dr. Hani al-Khudari. Both men were handed down prison sentences based on trumped-up charges. Dr. Hani al-Khudari remains in prison despite the expiry of his sentence in February and Amnesty continues to campaign for his release.

Six Palestinian men who reported that they had been tortured in Palestinian Authority prisons were released on bail within two weeks of Amnesty’s intervention in November.

Thanks to the support of Amnesty Argentina, a Ukrainian family was able to escape the war and settle in the country in November. A short film documenting their story is available here.

In Yemen, journalist Younis Abdelsalam was released in December after being arbitrarily detained for over a year for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression.

Justice for families, abusers held accountable

In Malawi, justice was served in April when a court convicted 12 men over the 2018 killing of MacDonald Masambuka, a person with albinism.

In June, partial justice was finally delivered for the 2016 murder of environmental and Indigenous rights activist Berta Cáceres, as David Castillo was sentenced to prison for co-authoring her killing. Amnesty continues its campaign to bring others suspected of responsibility for Berta’s murder to justice.

After pressure from the US authorities, and following a visit by President Biden to Israel, the Israeli Defense Ministry agreed in October to pay compensation to the family of Palestinian-American Omar As’ad, who died after Israeli soldiers ill-treated him at a checkpoint in January.

In November, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation informed the Israeli government that it would conduct an investigation into the May killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by an Israeli soldier.

In December, a Lebanese judge indicted five State Security members on charges of torture in the case of Syrian refugee Bashar Abdel Saud, who died in custody in August.

Continued progress towards the global abolition of the death penalty

Amnesty’s campaign for the global abolition of the death penalty saw further success in 2022, as a string of countries abolished or took significant steps towards abolishing the punishment.

The abolition of the death penalty for all crimes came into force in Kazakhstan in January. Papua Guinea followed suit in April, repealing the punishment 30 years on from its reintroduction.

Via social media, Zambia’s President announced in May that the country would begin the process of abandoning the death penalty and, in June, Malaysia’s government initiated the process of removing the mandatory death sentence for 11 offences.

In September, a new law which removed death penalty provisions from the penal code in Equatorial Guinea came into effect.

Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that have not yet abolished the death penalty for all crimes, including Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, continued to carry out no executions.

Landmark national legislation and international agreements

At both national and international level, Amnesty’s work was vital in helping secure the passage of essential legislation and resolutions, as well as ensuring that companies were held accountable for their human rights responsibilities.

National

There were important wins on Refugee and Migrants’ Rights in the U.S. For example, in March, the Department of Homeland Security announced the designation of Afghanistan for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The move offers protection from deportation to Afghans without visa status and in the U.S. before March 15, 2022, allaying immediate fears of a return to a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Amnesty USA is Campaigning for a bill that would provide a path to citizenship for Afghans seeking safety, the Afghan Adjustment Act.

In a win for the protection and promotion of the right to freedom of expression in May, the Supreme Court of India suspended the 152-year-old sedition law.

The government of Sierra Leone drafted a new mental health bill in June that is more aligned with international human rights standards than the outdated and discriminatory ‘Lunacy Act’ of 1902. This was a central call in Amnesty’s May 2021 report focusing on the issue.

In Niger, the country’s parliament adopted amendments to the cybercrime law in June that lifted prison sentences for libel and insults. The law had been routinely used to target and arbitrarily detain human rights defenders, activists and journalists.

In the US, legislation on gun violence long campaigned for by Amnesty USA and partners was adopted, with the passage of the Safer Communities Act in June. The legislation provides an additional $250 million for community violence interruption (CVI) programs.

Amnesty saw impact from our work on children in conflict zones in Niger, including increased UN monitoring of the situation. In July, the UN Secretary-General called on his Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict to “promote enhanced monitoring capacity in the Central Sahel region”, which would cover the tri-border region of Niger, which was one of the main recommendations of our September 2021 report.

Throughout the year, Amnesty also saw some businesses take their human rights obligations more seriously.

Following Amnesty’s request, the authorities of Sierra Leone asked the Meya mining company operating in Kono district to respond to our concerns about the negative impact of its activities on local people. The company replied that it was engaged in various actions to improve the safety of populations and access to drinking water for communities.

Amnesty’s investigation into the aviation fuel supply chain linked to war crimes in Myanmar played a role in several companies announcing their withdrawal from jet fuel sales to the country, where shipments risk being used by the Myanmar military to carry out deadly air strikes. The companies included Puma Energy, which announced its exit less than two weeks after being presented with Amnesty’s findings. Thai Oil and Norwegian shipping agent Wilhelmsen also confirmed they would pull back from the supply chain, with more expected to follow.

International

Following Amnesty’s report, in March, UN Special Rapporteur (SR) Michael Lynk said that Israel is practising apartheid, followed by UN SR Balakrishnan Rajagopal in July, joining a growing chorus of expert assessments.

In April, the European Union reached political agreement on the Digital Services Act (DSA), a landmark regulatory framework that will, among other things, require Big Tech platforms to assess and manage systemic risks posed by their services, such as advocacy of hatred and the spread of disinformation.

Important progress was made on environmental justice, with the passage of a resolution at the UN General Assembly in July recognising the right to a healthy environment. The news followed a similar resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Council at the end of 2021.

In July, ten European countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden rejected the Israeli Defense Ministry designation of seven Palestinian civil society organizations as “terrorist” and “illegitimate”. The US government expressed its concern when the Israeli military raided the offices of the organizations in August, and UN experts condemned the Israeli attacks on Palestinian civil society in October.

At its 51st session, the UN Human Rights Council released a special resolution on Afghanistan in September. Amnesty suggested the inclusion of a call for the UN Special Rapporteur to prepare a thematic report on the situation of women and girls. Several countries supported the idea, and it was included in the final resolution.

In October, the UN Human Rights Council renewed the mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela — a key?independent international mechanism actively investigating and regularly reporting on past and ongoing international crimes and other human rights violations — until September 2024. And, in November, the Human Rights Council passed a landmark resolution to establish a new fact-finding mission to investigate alleged human rights violations in Iran related to the ongoing nationwide protests that began on 16 September 2022.

The mandate of the OHCHR’s Sri Lanka Accountability Project was extended for a further two-year period in October. The project has a mandate to collect and preserve evidence for future accountability processes — a key aspect of ensuring pressure remains on the Sri Lankan government to remedy and stop both historical and current human rights violations.

Victories for women’s rights

The year saw a number of victories for women’s rights, with Amnesty at the forefront.

In the latest progress on sexual and reproductive rights in Latin America, Colombia decriminalized abortion during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy in February. The news followed the legalization of abortion in Argentina in 2020 and the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico 2021.

In May, the lower chamber of Spain’s parliament passed a bill containing important measures to prevent and prosecute rape. Finland’s parliament passed similar measures in June, adopting reforms that make lack of consent key to defining rape. Finland also passed reforms in October that eased the strictest abortion laws in the Nordic region.

September saw the acquittal of Miranda Ruiz, a doctor who had been unjustly prosecuted in Argentina for having guaranteed a legal abortion.

Notable wins for LGBTI rights

Amnesty contributed to some notable wins for LGBTI rights throughout 2022.

In an important affirmation of transgender individuals’ rights to dignity, happiness and family life,?South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled?that having children of minor age should not immediately be the reason to refuse to recognize the legal gender of transgender persons.

In July, same-sex marriage became legal in Switzerland, after almost two-thirds of the population voted in favour of it in a referendum. Slovenia followed suit in October, legalising same-sex marriage after a constitutional court ruling.

A ban on the award-winning film Joyland, which features a transgender person as a central character, was reversed in Pakistan in November.

Source: Amnesty International

PANAMA CITY— An international conference on trade in endangered species ended in Panama, with protections established for over 500 species.

The measures were approved by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known by its initials as CITES.

The conference agreed to tighten trade regulations on sharks targeted by the fin trade and tiny frogs with translucent skin.

Global shark populations are declining, with annual deaths due to fisheries reaching about 100 million. The sharks are sought mostly for their fins, which are used in shark fin soup, a popular delicacy in China and elsewhere in Asia.

Over two weeks, the 184-nation gathering sought to combat trade in species facing extinction.

The international wildlife trade treaty, which was adopted 49 years ago in Washington, US has been praised for helping stem the illegal and unsustainable trade in ivory and rhino horns as well as in whales and sea turtles.

The translucent or “glass” frogs have been hit hard by habitat loss, diseases and their popularity in the pet trade, said Joaquin de la Torre, the international director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, IFAW.

“We have been waiting for this for three years,” De la Torre said of the protections. “They are very charismatic species.”

The conference also voted to restrict trade in South American fresh-water turtles known as Matamata, whose spikey, pre-historic appearance has made them popular among collectors.

CITES approved 46 of the 52 proposals presented, including restrictions on dozens of tree species.

Fans of hippos, found in more than three dozen African countries and regulars in nature documentaries, had hoped the convention would ban commercial trade, but that proposal was not approved.

The proposal to ban the hippo trade was opposed by the European Union, some African countries and several conservation groups, who argue many countries have healthy hippo populations and that trade isn’t a factor in their decline.

Source: Nam News Network