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	World Health Organization condemns attacks targeting healthcare workers by WHO, UNICEF & agencies   Feb. 2013   UNICEF, WHO condemn attacks on healthworkers in Nigeria.   UNICEF and The World Health Organization (WHO) join the Government of Nigeria in condemning attacks in Kano state, Nigeria, that have killed and injured healthworkers.   Such attacks are a double tragedy for the health workers and their families and rob vulnerable populations, particularly children of basic life-saving health interventions. These attacks are unacceptable under any circumstance.   Jan. 2013   Pakistan: Aid workers targeted in bus attack   Pakistani police say seven aid workers have been killed in a drive-by shooting near the north-western town of Swabi.   The workers were on their way home from a shift at a children"s community centre when four men approached their van on motorbikes and sprayed it with bullets.   Among the dead were six women - five of them teachers - and a man who worked as a health technician.   The driver of the van was seriously injured.   Last month nine polio vaccination workers were shot dead in a string of attacks in Karachi and north-west Pakistan.   Those killings prompted the UN children"s agency and the World Health Organisation to suspend work on polio campaigns in the country.   Staff at the community centre say they had not received any threats but that a vaccination program could be the reason its staff were targeted.   There has been no immediate claim of responsibility, but police say they are investigating possible links to Islamist militants.   Charity workers condemned the attack and called for protection.   "Schools and NGOs have been threatened in the recent past. Several government schools had been bombed in the last several months," said Rooh ul-Amin, who heads an umbrella organisation of charities in Swabi.   Dec. 2012   WHO and UNICEF condemn attacks on health workers in Pakistan.   The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF join the Government of Pakistan and the provinces of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in condemning the multiple attacks that have killed six health workers in the past 24 hours.   At least six people working on a polio vaccination campaign have been reported shot dead in several locations in Pakistan - Gadap, Landi, Baldia and Orangi towns of Karachi city, Sindh Province and Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. Those killed were among thousands who work selflessly across Pakistan to eradicate polio.   The Government of Pakistan and the affected provinces have temporarily suspended the vaccination campaign due to concerns over safety of health workers.   Such attacks deprive Pakistan’s most vulnerable populations – especially children – of basic life-saving health interventions.   We call on the leaders of the affected communities and everyone concerned to do their utmost to protect health workers and create a secure environment so that we can meet the health needs of the children of Pakistan.   Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that can cause permanent paralysis in a matter of hours. Safe and effective vaccines protect children from the disease.   Currently the disease remains endemic in only three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.   WHO, UNICEF and all their partners in Pakistan and globally express their deepest sympathy to the families of the health workers.   http://healthcareindanger.org/ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2015/stop-violence/en/ Visit the related web page
	Informal justice systems should be integrated into development programmes by Olav Kjorven UN Development Programme (UNDP)   Informal justice systems to resolve disputes should be integrated into broader development initiatives to guarantee the protection of human rights, since they are preferred by a large number of people in various developing countries, according to a United Nations study released today.   The report, Informal Justice Systems: Charting a Course for Human Rights-Based Engagement, argues that informal justice systems in countries such as Bangladesh, Ecuador and Malawi, among many others, “may be more accessible than formal mechanisms and may have the potential to provide quick, relatively inexpensive and culturally relevant remedies.”   Women, children and minorities in particular benefit from the impact of these systems, the report says, providing a source of empowerment for vulnerable populations.   “Informal or customary justice systems are a reality of justice in most of the countries where UNDP works to improve lives and livelihoods and government capacities to serve,” said Assistant Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Olav Kjorven.   “The evidence in this report illustrates the direct bearing such systems can have on women and children’s legal empowerment, covering issues from customary marriage and divorce to custody, inheritance, and property rights.”   The report – commissioned by UNDP, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and produced by the Danish Institute for Human Rights – is the most comprehensive UN study on this area of justice to date, UNDP said in a news release. The report draws its conclusions based on research carried out in 18 developing countries.   “There has been little research or literature on children and informal justice systems to date, and this study is important in beginning to document the issues around children’s engagement with informal justice systems,” said UNICEF Assistant Director Susan Bissell. “Reconciling the procedures followed by informal justice systems with children’s rights, and ensuring that international standards about children and justice are implemented, is a challenge that the report clearly documents.”   Both formal justice systems – government-supported laws, police, courts, and prisons – and informal or traditional systems can violate human rights, reinforce discrimination, and neglect principles of procedural fairness.   “The efficacy of working with informal justice systems requires that it be complemented by engagement with the formal justice system and with development programming that addresses the broader social, cultural, political, and economic context of informal justice systems,” the report says. Surveys in Somalia, it notes, found up to 80 per cent of the population preferred arbitration by clan leaders to engagement with the formal justice system.   The report points out that formal and informal justice mechanisms need to learn from and cooperate with one another to widen access to justice and protection of human rights to all citizens. Broader development initiatives in education and health may also help change the way informal systems are structured and help create an environment where human rights can be respected.   “The crucial value in this report lies in its emphasis on what can be achieved in terms of improving access to justice and human rights through informal systems,” Mr. Kjorven said.   “Changes should be evaluated over the long term, but training adjudicators, increasing the number of women in decisions-making posts, empowering paralegals and women’s groups to monitor and engage with customary leaders – all these efforts will continually improve individual and communal experiences of justice.   * Access the Informal Justice Systems report (350pp) via the link below. Visit the related web page
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