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Global Campaign to Protect Women’s Reproductive Rights

The US’ global gag rule and the global coalition formed to counter it; Mental Health in the West Bank; Pakistan and its death row prisoners with serious mental health illnesses

In one of his first acts as US president, Donald Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy - a ban on providing federal money to international groups which perform abortions or provide information about them. A campaign called She Decides has been launched by the Dutch government, with support from Sweden, Belgium and Denmark, to mitigate the impact of decreased American funding for family planning. Claudia speaks to the Swedish Minister for International Development and Climate Change, Isabella Lövin, about her concerns.

In Pakistan two men with serious mental health issues have been sentenced to death. Khizar Hayat and Imdad Ali are waiting to hear whether their executions will be carried out. The World Psychiatric Association has said it’s extremely concerned about the situation. Their president Professor Dinesh Bhugra explains to Claudia about the implications of the court ruling for how others with mental health issues are dealt with by the judicial system.

Following years of conflict, the Middle East has one of the highest rates of serious mental health problems, according to the World Health Organisation. Many of the people who live there are experiencing difficulties including those in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank. Now a two year masters degree programme in psychotherapy has begun. It’s one of the few of its kind in the Middle East – aimed at improving specialist mental health treatment tailored to people in the region, as Dale Gavlak reports.

(Photo Credit: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

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27 minutes

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Thu 2 Mar 2017 07:32GMT

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