CNS

SHE & Rights: Centring the marginalised: Intersectionality and population ageing in UPR and LBI-HROP

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We welcome you to the 51st SHE & Rights session on Friday, 16th October 2026. We cannot achieve health and gender rights of older persons are on the blind-spot, especially those who are marginalised, vulnerable and often left behind. Human rights of older persons are non-negotiables and not an ‘afterthought,’ and so are the rights of people in all their diversities throughout their life-course.

How community-led AI-powered X-Rays are helping find TB among those without symptoms

Some of the people diagnosed with TB in a couple of important community-based screening initiatives in Delhi did not come to the health facility complaining of a cough, fever or other obvious symptoms. They came for something else - routine follow-up for HIV care, or because a mobile screening camp had reached their neighbourhood.

At the AMR Exhibition in European Parliament, a strong call to drop the 'silent pandemic' label, and to turn One Health commitments into laws, funding and accountability

[हिंदी] At the European Parliament this week, an exhibition titled "Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR): The Human Stories Behind a Silent Pandemic" confronts visitors with a stark reality. Antimicrobial resistance is not a distant scientific problem. It is already destroying families, emptying bank accounts, and killing at least one million people every year from drug-resistant bacteria alone — two every minute.

[video] Survivors of antimicrobial resistance give human face to AMR: AMR Exhibition in European Parliament

CNS at AIDS 2026: Impact report

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Putting rights, choices and investment at the heart of bodily autonomy and sexual health

[हिंदी] Bodily autonomy and sexual health are often framed as matters of individual health, personal choice and human rights. But the latest evidence from the Adding It Up 2024 report by Guttmacher Institute shows that meeting sexual and reproductive health needs is not merely a health expenditure—it is a smart investment that can save lives, reduce unintended pregnancies and generate significant economic returns.

Earned media coverage report ahead of UNGA81, International Day of Older Persons and Intergovernmental Working Group Meeting on Human Rights of Older Persons 2026

Longer lives, equal rights: Why ageing needs a gendered human rights response

[हिंदी] October 2026 may mark a pivotal moment in the global fight for equality and human rights for older persons. On 1st October the world observes the International Day of Older Persons under the theme "The Age of Longevity: Rethinking Systems for Longer Lives." Later that same month, the UN Inter-Governmental Working Group on the Human Rights of Older Persons reconvenes at UN in Geneva to advance work on the drafting of a legally binding international treaty.

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Special highlight: Sharing of Adding it up 2024 Guttmacher’s Report findings and interactive costing tools

This 50th session marks 2nd anniversary of SHE & Rights!

We welcome you to the 50th SHE & Rights session on Friday, 18th September 2026 – which also marks 2nd anniversary of hosting SHE & Rights regularly to counter anti-rights pushbacks and advance gender equality and human right to health –by engaging media and other stakeholders, especially in the Global South.

In a landmark public health achievement, Lakshadweep became the first among Indian states and union territories to reach TB elimination levels. Lakshadweep is a sterling example that if we prevent-find-treat ALL TB in a person-centred and rights-based manner where "no one is left behind," we can end TB - even in a part of a country like India (which has the highest TB burden globally).

Beyond disguise: Defending women's rights against the anti-rights backlash

[हिंदी] With just 52 months left to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals, the world is already falling dramatically short on goals related to gender equality and health rights. Decades of progress secured through legally binding treaties and other international agreements and commitments, are being threatened by a growing anti-rights backlash.

A 20-hospital, 3-year ICMR study of over 150,000 patients finds that carbapenem drug-resistant infections are driving up both deaths and treatment costs

A large multi-centre study of over 150,000 patients in India's 20 tertiary-care hospitals has put a stark number on one of the top ten global health threats today: Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). AMR happens when infections easier to treat earlier become difficult (or impossible) to treat due to disease-causing microbe (such as bacteria, virus, fungi, parasite) becoming drug resistant.

Truth they do not want you to know: Half the world but only 27% of political power.

[watch the video of Shobha's talk] In a forceful address ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 elections, gender justice leader Shobha Shukla declared that inclusive democracy is not a side issue - it is a core gender justice demand. Women form roughly half of humanity and a large share of voters, yet they hold only a fraction of real political power. Speaking at a session organised by the Moment for Women Alliance and African Girls Empowerment Network (The AGE Network), Shobha warned that formal voting rights mean little when women remain locked out of the rooms where laws are written and budgets decided.

SHE & Rights: Countering anti-rights pushes and upholding human right to health and gender equality

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We invite you to the 49th SHE & Rights session on the theme: “Countering anti-rights pushes and upholding human right to health and gender equality,” scheduled on Friday, 28th August 2026, at 3:30pm Sri Lanka/ India time (12noon South Africa/ Zimbabwe/ Geneva).

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In a powerful intervention timed for the eve of critical global diplomacy, Eliva Press today (12th August 2026) released "Justice Unbound: Feminist Voices on Gender Equality, Health Rights, and Inclusive Futures," an exclusive compilation of 14 hard-hitting reports by veteran feminist, health and development justice advocate Shobha Shukla. Written between January and June 2026, the book documents the “nefarious pushbacks” against gender equality and the human right to health across Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. With only about 53 months remaining to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, Shukla’s work arrives as a stark warning and a call to action.

As the world approaches the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, Indonesian health officials and community advocates are calling for a stronger people-centred response to HIV and TB, saying medical treatment alone cannot overcome the stigma, discrimination, policy barriers and lack of access that keep vulnerable communities from care.

Not defined by HIV: Generation ready to rise

As India makes progress in preventing new HIV infections among children and inches towards eliminating its vertical transmission (mother to child), young women who have grown up with the virus say the next challenge is ensuring that they can live, work, love and build independent lives without discrimination.

Cambodia's recent achievement of achieving the 95-95-95 HIV-related targets demonstrates what determined national leadership and community partnership can accomplish, said Eamonn Murphy, UNAIDS Regional Director for Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Cambodia is the first and only country in Asia Pacific region so far to do so.

When every HIV visit becomes a chance to stop TB

TB continues to be the most common opportunistic infection as well as biggest cause of deaths of people living with HIV despite decades of progress in diagnosis, treatment and prevention. TB is preventable and curable but it was not so for over 150,000 people living with HIV who died of TB in 2024, as per latest UNAIDS report 2026 launched at 26th International AIDS Conference 2026 (AIDS 2026).

Some of the most important lessons from the recently concluded AIDS 2026 Conference were learnt not inside the conference halls, but on the steep hillsides of dangerous favelas (urban slums) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Two health and gender rights leaders delivered a stark assessment of what happens when major external funding disappears overnight and organised opposition fills the vacuum. The sudden withdrawal of US government's funding support has not merely reduced services - it has fractured health systems, emptied pharmacy shelves, driven up unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortions, and enabled anti-rights groups.

At a recent global meet, a session cut through the usual conference optimism with a stark warning: the global AIDS response is being hit by a coordinated anti-rights and anti-gender backlash at the precise moment when funding is collapsing.

Tuberculosis (TB) programmes worldwide have expanded diagnosis and treatment on a historic scale. Millions of lives have been saved. Yet TB remains the deadliest infectious disease in the world. The gap between progress and elimination is not a mystery of medicine. It is a failure of prevention, politics, and priorities, said Dr Tara Singh Bam, noted global health advocate.

Read the latest HPPI publication here

It is deeply disturbing that the world largely forgot children when confronting tuberculosis (TB) - the deadliest infectious disease. Stronger data collection on childhood TB began only about a decade and a half ago, and the first child-friendly formulation was introduced just ten years ago, in Kenya in 2016. At world's largest AIDS conference, the 26th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a special publication was launched by Humana People to People India showcasing four success stories of children (from socially and economically marginalised communities) tiding to cure and health.

Rising attacks against health and gender rights are threatening the global AIDS response. No wonder, a special session on this issue hosted at the world's largest AIDS conference - the 26th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026) - was full to capacity. This session put the spotlight on a recent #PauseForPurpose protest organised by a group of African feminists, survivors, women’s rights organisations and legal advocates around the Pan-African Parliament meet on 25th July 2026. This meet was for the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (AU CEVAWG). They were not there to reject continental action against violence against women and girls. They were there to demand better.

Latest report of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) show that one-in-four people living with HIV worldwide who are not receiving the lifesaving antiretroviral treatment, are in Asia Pacific region. This report "United to end AIDS" was released on 27th July 2026 at the world's largest AIDS conference, the 26th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.