As the US fosters a backlash at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, states from Lebanon to Namibia are taking more progressive positions.

Markets, machines and micromanagement are turning healthcare into officious, insensitive practice that demoralises staff and patients.

Expanding public health coverage, rather than universalising it, might be a more realistic goal.

Big Pharma is hurting the NHS at its core – here's what we need to do, if we're bold enough.

This government is betraying children on a grand scale, and making positive ‘choices’ impossible.

There was little on offer in yesterday’s budget to meaningfully help struggling hospitals, health and social care services. So it's up to us to organise.

As the deadly disease appears in Congo, Sierra Leone is still counting the cost of its 2014 epidemic.

Despite its relatively low drug abuse figures, the Japanese system is failing to treat addicts.

The right to health is severely restricted for the residents of Gaza in a way that would be inconceivable if enacted in a different setting.

A year and a half ago, the authorities in Abkhazia banned abortions in nearly all circumstances. These women have paid the price.

Cocaine in 1859; heroin in 1888 – and a ban introduced in 1929. Now, however, times are changing – and more compassionate policies are taking root.

The Russian state has absolved itself from providing social services to migrant workers. Are its own citizens next? RU

Natural femininity, natural birth, natural products – Russians are increasingly drawn to the concept of “naturalness” in their daily lives. But not many can afford to live by the laws of nature, rather than the laws of the state. Русский

For someone with a traumatized nervous system, sitting in silence isn’t always the right response.

In Russia, a punitive Soviet approach to drug users is still in place. But a new generation of activists is ready to challenge it. Русский

I didn’t learn how to cross lines of difference when I was younger. Maybe you didn’t either, but we can all learn it now.  

Russia has decriminalised domestic violence: one step towards “traditional values” means two steps back from international human rights standards 

Georgia’s draconian laws against narcotics are in the spotlight, as activists take to the streets and demand an end to the criminalisation of drug users.

In Ekaterinburg, one person in every 50 is HIV positive. A report from the frontline of what some people are calling Russia’s HIV epidemic. Русский

The doctor is out. Hunger strikes, mistreatment of patients and general desperation are beginning to seem like a feature – as opposed to a bug – of Russia’s healthcare system. Русский