“With a fast-moving pandemic, no one is safe, unless everyone is safe” [This sub-title is taken from the WHO Covax report: “Working for global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.” Covax offers: Doses for at least 20% of countries’ populations; Diverse and actively managed portfolio of vaccines; Vaccines delivered as soon as they are available; End…

Far too many people in the UK are not taking the two most important precautions to protect themselves and each other from Covid-19 when they are not at home: * always wearing a mask & * always staying away from other people (2 feet at least and 6 feet whenever possible) When I go outside…

by Marge Berer [This blog was revised on 23, 26 and 31 December 2020 and 3 January 2021 to clarify some points that were criticised by readers and add links to relevant new information.] The amendment to the tabled resolution was: “The CLP regrets in particular the sense of so many Jewish party members, Jewish…

Report and comments, by Marge Berer, 16 December 2020 All sessions are available on: http://webtv.un.org/ This Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was originally scheduled as a two-day event on 3-4 December 2020. On both days, it began at 9:30am New York time and ended late at night. The intention was to give…

Re-thinking the Zero Tolerance Approach to FGM/C: the debate around female genital cosmetic surgery, by Janice Boddy, Current Sexual Health Reports, 21 November 2020  The main point of this paper is that there is a growing phenomenon of young women having “cosmetic labiaplasty” in Europe, the Americas, and Antipodes, carried out by medically trained gynaecologists and…

This paper was rejected by five journals in the space of a week. It was published in the newsletter of the International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion on 26 August 2020. Introduction Telemedicine for abortion care is the use of communications technology to arrange an abortion in a clinical setting or self-managed by…

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the second woman ever to sit on the United States Supreme Court and is known as the legal architect of the modern women’s movement. She, more than any other person, pointed out that many laws encouraged gender discrimination instead of guaranteeing equal rights and opportunities to all, as was intended by…

7 September 2020 — This commentary was submitted in early July to the London Review of Books in response to its many comments about Julian Assange over the years. They rejected it. I am sharing it now as the UK court is about to hear the case for and against Julian Assange’s extradition, that is,…

RE: Covid-19, Kashmir, Antisemitism, Rebecca Long-Bailey 28 June 2020 I have spent a lot of my time in lockdown writing letters of protest. Yesterday, I sent an email to Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock and Jeremy Hunt about the Tory’s 300-strong vote in Parliament this week to deny NHS and care staff Covid-19 tests for their…

To: ‘boris.johnson.mp@parliament.uk’; ‘huntj@parliament.uk’; ‘matt.hancock.mp@parliament.uk’ Cc: ‘nickie.aiken.mp@parliament.uk’ Subject: Three hundred Tory MPs vote to deny NHS workers Covid-19 tests Dear Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Matt Hancock, Shame on the entire Tory party. Shame on all of you who voted down needed Covid-19 tests to protect NHS staff and thereby also continuing to put patients at risk.…