Resources

The Muriel McQueen Fergusson Family Violence Research Centre has released the Final Report of the National Research Day 2010 - Engaging Our Communities: Working Together to End Intimate Partner Violence

This discussion Women and Health (PDF) (from 23 November 2009 – 25 January 2010)

was part of a series of United Nations online discussions dedicated to the fifteen-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995) and the outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly (2000); and was coordinated by WomenWatch, an interagency project of the United Nations Inter-agency Network on Women and Gender

Equality and an unique electronic gateway to web-based information on all United Nations entities' work and the outcomes of the United Nations’ intergovernmental processes for the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

For more information and other “Beijing at 15” online discussions, visit their website.

The Gender Inequality Index was introducted by United Natons Development Program to measures the sources of inequality between the sexes, in health, education and the labour market. This index is built on the same framework as the Human Development Index (HDI) and the Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI) — to better expose differences in the distribution of achievements between women and men.

This interactive video forms part of The Havens Sexual Assault Referral Centres ‘Where is Your Line’ survey. The video encourages young people to think around their sexual behaviour, consent and the law.  See the video and learn about where you would draw the line, on You Tube.

The David Suzuki Foundation has recently released their report on chemicals in cosmetics, in which they present the results of an online survey they ran this past spring. It is available on their website.

Breast Cancer Action Montreal’s "Femme Toxic" also runs a list on their website of Toxic Twenty Chemicals to Avoid.

The first detailed European guidelines to help public health decision-makers develop appropriate curricula for sexuality education have been issued.

The WHO Regional Office for Europe released the guidelines in October at a WHO European meeting on challenges in improving sexual health, which takes place in Madrid, Spain under the auspices of the Ministry of Health and Social Policy. The guidelines were developed by a group of 20 experts from 9 European countries under the guidance of the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) in Cologne, Germany and the WHO Regional Office for Europe. They provide step-by-step instructions and a detailed matrix to support health and education professionals in their efforts to guarantee children accurate and sensitively presented information about sexuality.

At the links below you can watch recent seminars from the National Institutes of Health (US):

1. National Institutes of Health (US) seminar on Environmental Exposures and Women's Health (2 hours) 

 Topics discussed:

Risks from Environmental Exposures During Pregnancy
Frederica Perer a, Dr .P.H.,
Professor, Mailman School of Public Health, Director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health and of the DISCOVER Center, Columbia University

Endocrine Disruption, Developmental Epigenetic eprogramming, and Adult Cancer Risk
Shu k-mei Ho, Ph.D.,
Jacob G. Schmidlapp Professor and Chair,
Department of Environmental Health, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine

Environmental Aspects of Autoimmune Diseases
Frederick Miller , M.D., Ph.D.,
Chief, Environmental Autoimmunity Group, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health

Occupational Exposures and Cancer Risk: Women Are Not Just Small Men
Melissa Friesen, Ph.D.,
Investigator, Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch,
National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of health.

2. Enrolling Pregnant Women: Issues in Clinical Research (6 hours)

Family Health International (FHI) is leading an advocacy campaign on international reproductive health and family planning, the Diverse Voices in Unison: Family Planning and the Millennium Development Goals initiative. With partners from a variety of disciplines, FHI has developed a consensus statement, "Family Planning and the Millenium Development Goals," published by Science Sept. 16, 2010, that highlights the multifaceted importance of and interdisciplinary support for international family planning. It will serve as a call to action for expanded discourse, broad partnerships and consensus building, and increased funding, all of which will accelerate progress toward meeting the targets of MDG 5, as well as the other MDGs.

The consensus statement can be downloaded here.

Echo: Improving Women’s Health in Ontario has just released two Echo Advances with recommendations on how Ontario can reach its targets for cancer screening.  One has recommendations for Decision Makers and the other one for Screening Providers.  You can read these recommendations here:

Equity in Cancer Screening: Recommendations for Decision Makers

Equity in Cancer Screening: Recommendations for Screening Providers 

Nunavut-based director Zacharias Kunuk (Atanarjuat The Fast Runner) and researcher and filmmaker Dr. Ian Mauro (Seeds of Change) have teamed up with Inuit communities to document their knowledge and experience regarding climate change. This new documentary, Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change the world’s first Inuktitut language film on the topic, takes the viewer “on the land” with elders and hunters to explore the social and ecological impacts of a warming Arctic. This unforgettable film helps us to appreciate Inuit culture and expertise regarding environmental change and indigenous ways of adapting to it. (Subtitled in English and French)