Hunger Alert Case: AHRC-HAC-006-2009

Dear friends,

Dessy Sagita – The recent "detention" of two women and their babies by a South Jakarta hospital is further proof that many people, particularly low-income earners, don't receive the hea

Camelia Pasandaran – A team from the State Ministry for People's Welfare is slated to visit Yahukimo, Papua, to find out what is happening in the district, where at least 92 people have

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – Critics have urged the House of Representatives to delay the endorsement of the health bill, now dragging on for nine years, saying it was an effort to shift th

Dessy Sagita – Indonesia Corruption Watch has demanded the House of Representatives delay passing the controversial health bill, claiming the legislation remains flawed and had failed t

Jakarta – Stigmatization and discrimination are two crucial problems for people living with HIV/AIDS who seek medical treatment and to deal with these social attitude problems requires

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Madalena is 16 but weighs just 13 kilograms, her arms and legs thin and twisted. If she could speak, she would say how happy she is to see Sister Florencia.

Australia West Papua Association, Sydney
PO Box 28, Spit Junction
Sydney, Australia 2088

Dessy Sagita – An uneven HIV/AIDS budget that favors preventive measures over treatment programs, and an inability to involve civil society in the policy-making process have contributed

Dessy Sagita – Indonesia may consider itself up-to-date with regard to global fashion trends, but when it comes to awareness of the disorder widely associated with the industry, the cou

Luh De Suriyani, Nusa Dua – A number of youth groups at the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) made a stand today for the rights of young people living with

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Nusa Dua, Bali – Papua has intensified its campaign promoting the use of female condoms, after reports emerged of an increase in HIV/AIDS infections among residents.

Candra Malik & Febriamy Hutapea, Yogyakarta – Aggrieved nurses from around the country are expected to demonstrate outside the House of Representatives in Jakarta and in other city

Indonesia's health care system is failing to provide even the most basic care to vast swathes of the population, specialists say.

Dessy Sagita – A number of organizations have urged the House of Representatives to revise the draft of a health care bill it has been debating since 2002 to ensure money is set aside f

Agus Maryono, Banyumas (Central Java) – The rapid growth of prostitution has been blamed for the high number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Central Java, with more than 2000 people r

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Sumedang – The West Java administration has declared a state of emergency in its fight against HIV/AIDS, with high prevalence among non-risk groups such as homemakers.

Jakarta – Indonesia is planning to ask all people arriving from Australia and other swine flu-affected countries to wear face masks for at least three days, the health minister says.

Arientha Primanita – Dozens of Jakarta residents protested in front of City Hall on Tuesday demanding that the city administration pay more attention to the needs of the poor.

Guido Goulart, Dili – The UN population agency is urging predominantly Catholic East Timor to soften laws that criminalize abortion and to promote contraceptives, saying in a report rel

Jakarta – The number of known HIV/AIDS cases in Indonesia has almost tripled since 2005, AIDS commission head Nafsiah Mboi said Wednesday.

Dili – A new penal code implemented in East Timor this week is adding an exception to allow emergency abortions, despite opposition from the predominantly Catholic country.

Markus Makur, Timika, Papua – An HIV/AIDS commission senior official who claimed Mimika regency, Papua, had the highest HIV/AIDS rate increase in the country and in the world, advised r

New York – The predominantly Catholic nation of East Timor is under pressure from the United Nations for its laws that penalize abortion, even in the case of rape and incest.

Niken Prathivi, Denpasar – Various NGOs gathered Saturday to discuss the fallout from funding water access with international loans, as the 42nd annual board of governors' meeting of th

Dessy Sagita & Ismira Lutfia – Doctors on Friday urged the public and the government not to panic over the swine flu issue, and not to ignore more urgent health issues such as dengu

Suherdjoko, Surakarta – Up to 80 million Indonesian people are believed to lack private toilets, which means they tend to defecate anywhere, an official said Tuesday.

Jambi – An outbreak of leprosy has reached an endemic stage in Tanjungjabung regency, with one person in six per 10,000 suffering from the disease, which causes legions to form on the s

Balongsari, Indonesia - Ponari was just like any other kid in Indonesia until he was struck by lightning.

Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – The Supreme Court has ordered judges not to send drug addicts to prison any more, instead they should be put in rehabilitation centers.

Dili – A call for more lenient abortion legislation in this predominantly Catholic country is renewing friction between the Church and pro-abortion activists.

Jakarta – Education and Sport Minister Adhyaksa Dault revealed Saturday evening that 15,000 Indonesians die of drug-related illnesses each year.

The Australia West Papua Association says dramatic statistics about infant and maternal mortality emerging from the Provincial Health Department in Indonesia's Papua are almost certainl

Jakarta – An average of 2.3 million women, 30 percent of whom are teenagers, report having abortions in Indonesian each year, according to a report released by an NGO on Monday.

Jakarta – Most generic medicines consumed here fall short of international standards, with drug companies complicit in the scam, experts said Tuesday.

Tara Ravens – Women in East Timor are forced into potentially fatal abortions because they cannot legally terminate a pregnancy even for medical reasons, according to a Darwin researche

A report has found women in East Timor are 300 times more likely to die during childbirth than women in developed countries.

Yemris Fointuna and Agus Maryono, Kupang, Purwokerto – Six children in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, have died of acute malnutrition over the past two weeks while Banyumas, Central Java,

Agus Maryono, Purwokerto – In the past two years, at least 137 people in the four regencies of the Banyumas area of Central Java have committed suicide by hanging themselves because of

Jakarta – Poor sanitation has cost the state in terms of both health and wealth, a World Bank expert said Thursday, citing annual revenue losses estimated at Rp 56 trillion yearly.

Panca Nugraha, Mataram – West Nusa Tenggara was ranked 32nd among 33 provinces in the Indonesian Human Development Index (HDI), since its illiteracy and maternal and infant mortality ra

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Papua's provincial legislative council has decided to postpone the endorsement of the Papua HIV/AIDS Handling bylaw planned for approval this Monday, afte

Jon Afrizal and Agus Maryono, Jambi, Purwokerto and Yogyakarta – Against a backdrop of HIV/AIDS infection rates that are rising at alarming levels in Jambi, activists and sex workers in

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Maimun panicked when a doctor told him he was infected with HIV, detected when he went to give blood for one of his relatives.

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The government has been urged to change its "ineffective" approach to HIV/AIDS, as the number of people infected by the disease continues to grow each year.

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – Inconsistent standards and unethical recruitment methods in the health industry are to blame for Indonesia's costly yet ineffective medical services, a study sa

Aubrey Belford, Wamena – Gaunt and covered in sores, 20-year-old Christina Mabele is a rarity in the ballooning AIDS crisis that has hit the remote Papua region in eastern Indonesia: sh

Agus Maryono, Purwokerto – The number of HIV/AIDS cases in Banyumas, Central Java, has been growing steadily every month, sparking public concern, while local authorities have done litt

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The Papua AIDS Commission (KPA) on Tuesday submitted a letter rejecting a controversial draft bylaw that would require people living with HIV/AIDS to be i

Sarah Boseley, health editor – People with HIV in Papua, Indonesia, who are deemed to be "sexually aggressive" may be microchipped to enable the authorities to identify, track and punis