The theme issue is among the first public health publications ever devoted to new research on mental illness stigma and was sponsored by The Carter Center, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, with additional support from the National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Directors.

The special journal issue, which features new research on the public’s understanding of mental illness, the health im-pacts of stigma, and more than 30 other expert articles on a range of issues, can be found at www.ajph.org.

Watch the video: The American Journal of Public Health Launches May 2013 Theme Issue on Stigma and Discrimination Against People With Mental Illness

“The poorest, most isolated, most neglected, quite often, the most hopeless people, on earth…now have new hope that their future will be free of this dreaded disease,” said President Carter.

Guinea worm disease—which causes agonizing pain and leaves people incapacitated for weeks, even months at a time—once was endemic to 21 nations in Africa and Asia, afflicting approximately 3.5 million people when eradication efforts began in 1986.

Today, the disease is poised to become the second human disease, after smallpox, to be wiped out and the first to be eradicated without the use of a vaccine or medical treatment.

As the last cases in an eradication campaign are the most difficult and expensive to track, treat, and prevent, the United Kingdom Department for International Development will contribute approximately US $31 million, if other donors come forward, to help end Guinea worm disease transmission before 2015.

“Britain is ready to help fund the final push to eradicate this debilitating disease, and we now need others to join us in taking this historic opportunity to rid the world of Guinea worm,” said United Kingdom International Development Minister Stephen O’Brien.

Other participants in the press conference included Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, Carter Center Vice President of Health Programs Dr. Donald Hopkins, and Laurie Lee, of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who commented on the scale of the work achieved until now, and the importance for donors to come together and secure the funds to see this through.

“Guinea worm is a painful disease, which has horrendous consequences for sufferers in terms of their immediate health and in terms of their education and employment,” President Carter said. “I welcome the challenge laid down by the British government…I call on other donors to match their efforts.”

Read the press release: Britain to Help Carter Center Secure Worldwide Eradication of Worm Disease >

Photo credit: Carter Center/ J. Cobb
(Left to Right: Minister O’Brien, President Carter)
“It has never been a question of if we can rid the world of this ancient disease – but when. For the price of a sandwich, we can prevent someone in the developing world from catching this terrible disease,” said Minister O’Brien.

Photo credit: Carter Center/ J. Cobb
(Left to Right: Minister O’Brien, President Carter, and Director-General Chan)
“The U.K. has shown its willingness and staying power to help eradicate this debilitating disease. I call on other donors to match their efforts,” President Carter said.

Photo credit: Carter Center/ L. Gubb
Today, South Sudan harbors the vast majority of the world’s remaining cases of Guinea worm disease, which can incapacitate patients for weeks as a worm painfully emerges from a lesion on the skin. In February 2010, Dario Mere (above) suffered worms emerging from both his legs and received free Carter Center-supported treatment and health education at his home in Terakeka County, South Sudan from trained health workers and volunteers.

Photo credit: Carter Center/ L. Gubb
Dr. Donald Hopkins, vice president for Health Programs at The Carter Center, shows South Sudanese children how to prevent Guinea worm disease when they visit their local water source. Dr. Hopkins, a central player in the Center’s work on Guinea worm reminded the International community that the people doing the most to wipe out this disease are the endemic communities, themselves, who need international support overcome this ancient plague: “Resources are especially important at the end of the campaign. It gets more expensive to treat individual cases. We also need to intensify our surveillance of vulnerable regions,” Dr. Hopkins said.

More than 100 Carter Center observers will be deployed across Sudan and in eight out-of-country voting locations to witness voting in the referendum for the self-determination of Southern Sudan, as part of one of the Center’s largest observation missions. Most observers are currently being briefed in Juba, Sudan, and will deploy Friday, but some long-term observers are already in their regions of responsibility.

The referendum is the fulfillment of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement and is a critically important moment for Sudan and the opportunity for Southern Sudanese to express their political will in an open, democratic process.

Listen to Sanne van den Bergh, Carter Center field office director for Sudan, explain the Center’s preparations.

Click image below to watch video.

Carter Center Field Office Director Sanne van den Bergh briefs one of the Center's observers on the region to which she will be deployed.

A group of Carter Center observers in Juba, Sudan, poses by the Nile river after their briefing on the referendum on Jan. 5.

Read “Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, Joseph Warioba, and John Hardman to Lead Carter Center Delegation to Observe Referendum on Self-Determination of Southern Sudan” >

Watch video:  Carter Center Prepares to Observe Sudan Referendum >

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter discusses the Carter Center’s efforts to eradicate Guinea worm disease. Learn more about the Center’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program >

Go to CNN Impact Your World >

Click image below to watch video.

Watch election day video with Carter Center intern Aaron Collett.

Outside a polling station in north Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, hundreds of people waited behind closed gates for voting to begin. Women and the elderly sat on chairs they had brought or on the ground. By the time our team of observers arrived at 10 a.m., three hours after polling should have begun, voters were growing anxious in the baking sun. Some had gotten there at 4 or 5 that morning.

They remained patient, though eager for information about when they could vote, but suddenly turned around and began to clap as former Ghana President John Kufuor, co-leader of the Carter Center’s observation mission, walked through the crowd to enter the polling station.

“John Kufuor stands for democracy,” one voter said. “He handed over power peacefully.  He will help us be able to vote.”

Another said: “He set a good example for Africa. Ghana has principles, rules, and Kufuor followed them.”

In choosing leaders for its election observation missions, The Carter Center seeks out such respected individuals who bring extra credibility to its work observing troubled elections.

Yesterday’s presidential election in Cote d’Ivoire was the first chance for Ivoirians to choose their leader in ten years and the freest and most competitive contest since the country’s 1960 independence from France.

The Center’s 50 observers have so far reported that voters were overwhelmingly peaceful, eager, and generally patient despite polling delays and various logistical problems. Observers remain deployed to witness the vote tabulation. The Carter Center will announce its preliminary findings in a statement tomorrow.

Here are some other images from across Abidjan on election day.

Read Carter Center to Observe Historic Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea Elections Back-To-Back >

Watch exclusive Carter Center video of the arrival that took place at Boston Logan Airport.

View Carter Center photos of the August 27 arrival.

All photos: The Carter Center/D. Hakes

After seven months imprisoned in North Korea, American teacher Aijalon Gomes was reunited with his family this afternoon at Boston Logan Airport. The Carter Center delegation’s plane landed at 2 p.m. today. President Carter embarked last Tuesday on a humanitarian mission to obtain Gomes’ release after he was arrested last January and subsequently sentenced to eight years of hard labor and fined about $600,000. After two days of talks, President Carter and other delegates from The Carter Center left Pyongyang Friday morning to accompany Mr. Gomes for the flight home.

Aijalon Gomes is embraced by his family upon arrival in Boston Aug. 27. Read the Gomes family statement >

Read Statement from The Carter Center on President Carter’s Mission to North Korea >>

The compendium and database of obligations for democratic elections, a result of years of research, was launched this week on the Carter Center’s website.

In their article, “Using International Law to Assess Elections,” Davis-Roberts and Carroll argue that the use of international human rights law is an important means of not only promoting democratic elections, but also more objective election observation.  When using international human rights law–as well as the domestic laws of the country being observed–to assess elections, observers are essentially trying to determine the degree to which fundamental rights and freedoms (such as the right to vote, or freedom of assembly) are fulfilled.

In 2006, The Carter Center embarked on a multi-year initiative aimed at building consensus on standards for democratic elections based on obligations in Public International Law – the Democratic Election Standards (DES) project.  The DES project builds on the success of the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation and draws on past work on election standards and assessment criteria by other leading organizations.  This initiative has been funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Irish Aid Civil Society Fund.

Click here to read a  pre-printed version of “Using International Law to Assess Elections” (Democratization vol.3, 2010).

The final and definitive version can be purchased and read at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a922099370~frm=titlelink)

In an AllAfrica.com article about the event, NTC Chairman Chief Zazan Kawah said “he was particularly impressed with the cordial working relationship between the council and the Carter Center over the past few years,” describing the working atmosphere as rewarding. He also said he was pleased with the manner in which Hummel and the Carter Center’s staff engaged with them and that it was “now time for the traditional people to appreciate the Center for its numerous contributions made in Liberia’s peace-building process, as well as the many assistance rendered the country’s justice system aimed at strengthening the rule of law.”

Carter Center Country Representative John Hummel receives a farewell gift from National Traditional Council Chairman Chief Zanzan Kawar. Photos by Pewee Flomoku/The Carter Center.

The Carter Center has worked since 2006 with the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to strengthen formal systems of justice, educate citizens on their rights, and to strengthen indigenous dispute resolution capacity in ways consistent with the law. Read more about our efforts: www.cartercenter.org/liberia

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Carter Center staff and members of the National Traditional Council in front of the organization’s headquarters in Monrovia, Liberia.

Click image below to watch the election day video.

View Guinea election blog posts >

Polls opened Sunday morning in Conakry to pouring rain, from which voters sought relief under trees and building overhangs. This was followed by a baking and relentless sun that lasted all day, as hundreds of people waited in line to vote across Conakry and Guinea. One voter told a Carter Center observer that she was in line for more than eight and a half hours. Women with babies on their backs, the disabled, citizens of all kinds waited in mostly good spirits, while poll workers did their jobs in an orderly and transparent way during a very long day for them; many going without food or water.

“This is a very, very important moment for Guinea because they are going to install new and proper democracy,” said General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria’s former head of state and co-leader of the Center’s international election observation delegation.

Election day had its share of imperfections in the process, as noted by Carter Center observers. These included a lack of clear communication to some individual poll stations that they should allow those already in line at poll closing time to be able to vote, and there was a lack of consistency among closing procedures. The overall findings of Carter Center observers will be detailed in the Center’s preliminary statement to be released on Tuesday.

Carter Center observation mission co-leader John Stremlau observed the counting process in Conakry.

“The ballots were counted in a civil, careful way. There seems to be a willingness to cooperate across all the parties represented (at the polling stations). This is a very inspiring day for Guinea’s democracy,” said John Stremlau, Carter Center vice president for peace programs.