This report summarizes the proceedings of a three day convening of experienced practitioners of community monitoring for accountability in health. The meeting, which took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, on July 18-20, 2011, was organized by the Accountability and Monitoring in Health Initiative of the Open Society Public Health Program.
Strong and independent citizens’ groups play an instrumental role in ensuring that government, health care institutions, and health programs are held accountable to the communities they are designed to serve. The Open Society Foundations work to ensure that civil society groups have the information, skills, and capacity to hold governments accountable for their actions.
Violations of human rights in health care are widespread in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. A series of how-to manuals offers lawyers, patients, and health officials tools for ensuring proper treatment and care for all.
Protecting patients from forced sterilization will require more than signed forms to ensure consent.
Across the world, fear and discrimination push transgender people through the cracks in our social safety nets, and our health care and legal systems. Today we remember those who were pushed hardest—the victims of murder.
