Adopted by the 49th WMA General Assembly
Hamburg, Germany, November 1997
PREAMBLE
For years women and girls in Afghanistan have been suffering increasing
violations of their human rights; In 1996 a general prohibition
was introduced on practice by women, which affected more than 40,000
women. Human rights organisations call this a "human rights
catastrophe" for the women in Afghanistan. Women are completely
excluded from social life, girls' schools are closed, women students
have been expelled from universities, and women and girls are stoned
in the street. According to information from the United Nations
on the human rights situation in Afghanistan (February, 1996) the
prohibition on practice affects first of all women working in the
educational and health sectors. In particular female doctors and
nurses were prevented from exercising their profession. Although
the health sector was on the brink of collapse under these restrictions,
they have been eased only slightly. Without access to female doctors
female patients and their children have no access to health care.
Some female doctors have been allowed now to exercise their profession,
but in general only under strict and unacceptable supervision (US
Department of State, Afghanistan Report on Human Rights Practices
for 1996, January 1997).
RECOMMENDATION
Therefore, the World Medical Association urges its national member
associations to insist and call on their governments :
- to condemn roundly the serious violations of the basic human
rights of women in Afghanistan; and,
- to take worldwide action aimed at restoring the fundamental
human rights of women and removing the provision prohibiting women
from practising their profession.
- to insist on the rights of women to adequate medical care
across the whole range of medical and surgical services, including
acute, subacute and ongoing treatment.
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