“Hurricane Katrina survivors need relief, not guns” says the
People’s Health Movement
New
York, Brussels and Bangalore, 13 September 2005.
“Katrina survivors are going through a trying
time and the People's Health Movement stands in solidarity with them”,
says a press statement from the People’s Health Movement (PHM- www.phmovement.org
.
“Hurricane
Katrina survivors need relief, not guns”, said a PHM spokesperson. “Deal
with them with dignity”, the global body demands. Reports indicate
that more bodies are being recovered today.
The
people of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama along with people in the
rest of the US and the world are shocked by the callousness,
carelessness and racism of the Bush Administration in responding to the
catastrophe.
“The
disaster has become an ongoing crisis, hitting the poor especially
badly”, warns PHM.
PHM
is a global body of grassroots health, peace and human rights activists,
researchers, academics, medical professionals, humanitarian workers, and
health and development groups. PHM has presence in nearly 100 countries,
many of them flashpoints of disasters and conflicts.
“We
are outraged to see US troops in full battle gear in the streets of New
Orleans, targeting poor people searching for food, water and survival as
yet another enemy” said a PHM spokesperson.
The
PHM argues that the sufferings of Hurricane Katrina victims are being
amplified by the Bush government's criminal policies and skewed
priorities. “They are not just victims of a natural disaster”, PHM
said.
The
number of poor people in the US has just topped 37 million and today
people of colour have a poverty rate three times the US average. Instead
of ensuring benefits and protection for workers and poor, the policy of
the present Administration is to give tax cuts for corporations and the
wealthy. All this exposes the injustice of US policies, both at home and
abroad.
“This
is how the poor suffer when a government decides to go for a war instead
of fighting poverty”, said a spokesperson.
“We
don’t believe that the US is bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq.
Our youth fighting and dying in Iraq are being sacrificed for the greed
and profit motives of oil companies”, said an associate of PHM-USA.
“Bring them back home. They are more needed to rebuild the shattered
lives and infrastructure in the Hurricane Katrina devastated areas”,
she said.
“Put
the needs of the victims first”, said a spokesperson referring to the
Bush government’s refusal to accept experienced doctors and
humanitarian aid from Cuba. Cuba has an impressive track record of
efficient disaster preparedness and response. Cuban doctors have been
praised for their service and support in similar disaster situations
like with other hurricanes in the Caribbean and even in the Indian
Ocean, with the tsunami.
As
always in times of need, people are taking initiatives to support the
relief and rehabilitation efforts in a demonstration of heartwarming
solidarity, trying to make up for the shortfalls in the policies of the
US government that have failed to protect and rescue the hurricane
affected.
Through
a variety of protest actions, pressure is building on the Bush
Administration for more resources and appropriate relief and
reconstruction and to stop the war in Iraq. Grassroots organizations of
the poor and people of color, trade unions and the anti-war movement say
that such people-based initiatives are demonstrating that there is
another America they represent – an America that extends compassion
and solidarity in trying times, “while the Bush Administration seems
dead set on representing a US characterized by greed and the arrogance
of power”.
The People's Health Movement and its associates support all genuine
grassroots efforts to provide solidarity, relief and reconstruction. In
the wake of the tsunami, the PHM issued the Chennai Declaration (http://www.phmovement.org/events/chennaidecleration.html),
outlining the principles for a people-centred approach in the
rehabilitation of affected communities, that sees them not as passive
beneficiaries of aid but as active participants in their own
empowerment.
“It
is important not to ignore people’s health needs, especially the less
visible yet life-saving needs like psychosocial support for the affected
communities”.
“Disasters
have a severe impact on the physical and mental health of the members of
the affected communities, especially women and children”, states the
People’s Charter for Health, the founding document of the Peoples
Health Movement and the most widely accepted document on health in the
world today.
The
PHM says that active engagement of affected communities is crucial to
make rehabilitation a reality.
For
media enquiries, please call:
1)
Sarah Shannon, Co-convenor PHM-USA, phm@hesperian.org,
1-510-845-1447
2)
Dr. Bert De Belder, PHM Belgium bert.debelder@intal.be,
32-495-85.57.01
3)
Ravi Narayan, PHM Secretariat
_______________________________________________________________________________
The legitimate role of
the WHO in relation to trade and health is at risk.
A draft resolution committing WHO to a more active analysis, research
and education role in relation to trade and health was tabled at the WHO
Executive Board in late May 2005.
A decision on the resolution was deferred following opposition by the
US and an attempt to water it down by Australia.
Now is the time for people and organizations who are concerned about
the implications of trade for health to mobilize nationally and globally
in support of the draft resolution.
The People’s Health Movement calls upon organizations, individuals
and networks to inform their governments and WHO representatives of the
importance of this resolution and to press them to support it.
More:
PRESS RELEASE
Second People’s Health Assembly in
Cuenca, Ecuador
Health activists call for movement to
‘Heal the Planet!’
Geneva, 18 May 2005:
The launch of an alternative world health report and the beginning of a
global campaign for health as a fundamental human right will form the
highlights of the second People’s Health Assembly in Cuenca, Ecuador
from 17-22 July 2005.
Four years after its
historic inauguration in Savar, Bangladesh thousands of activists from
the around the world who form the People’s Health Movement will meet
again to take stock of their experiences and chart out a course for the
future.
“We
are calling on all organizations and all peoples to join this worldwide
movement to find ways to heal our planet”
said Dr Arturo Quizphe, Coordinator, PHA-2. The planet he said was dying
from growing conflict, increasing ecological destruction and spreading
poverty and disease.
The Assembly
will be the culmination of a process of local and national reflection,
sharing, discussion and debate about the various factors that influence
the health and well being of everyone. At the Assembly campaigns and
groups of people will discuss ways to achieve the goals of equity,
ecologically sustainable development and peace, which are at the heart
of the PHM’s vision of a better world. Several
thousand delegates from around 80 countries are expected to participate
in the five-day meeting.
The Assembly will also be the site for the launch of an important new
initiative called the Global Health Watch, an alternative world health
report that articulates civil society's vision for global health.
The Global Health Watch Report,
2005 (www.ghwatch.org)
to be launched on 20 July in Cuenca and other parts of the world, will
consist of a compilation of chapters on various global health issues
written by NGOs and academics from different regions of the world. The
Report monitors global businesses, multi-lateral institutions and
powerful donor governments that drive global health policy.
At the first
People’s Health Assembly, 2000 in Bangladesh over 1453 participants from
75 countries came together to create and endorse a consensus document
called the People's Charter for Health. The charter, which reflects the
vision of the PHM, is most widely endorsed consensus document on health
since the Alma Ata Declaration of 1978.
Contact:
Satya Sivaraman -
satyasagar@yahoo.com
People's Health Movement
Secretariat (Global)
Email: secretariat@phmovement.org
; Web: www.phmovement.orgP:
+ 91-80 - 51280009 F: + 91-80 – 25525372
Geneva, 16 May, 2005:
Bill Gates invitation to
World Health Assembly
‘Declare Microsoft a WHO member nation!’
say health activists
A coalition of
global health activist groups has demanded that Microsoft Corporation be
declared a honorary ‘member country’ of the World Health Organisation.
This is in light of the WHO’s unprecedented invitation to Microsoft CEO
Bill Gates to address the inaugural session of the 58th World Health
Assembly as one of its keynote speakers. The health activist groups,
collectively known as the People’s Health Movement, see the invitation
as an inappropriate development which they fear, could signal an
increase in undue corporate influence on the public health policies of
WHO.
They also view the
invitation as part of an alarming trend of various UN organizations,
including the WHO, kowtowing to global multinational corporations under
the guise of the ‘Global Compact’ and so-called ‘Public-Private
Partnerships’. While Bill Gates has been ostensibly invited to the WHA
in his capacity as one of the founders of the Bill and Melinda
Foundation, activist groups say that the line dividing his philanthropy
from his company’s business strategy is very thin. “It is time to either
declare Microsoft a WHO member country or stop the shameful promotion of
global corporations at important UN meetings” said a spokesperson of the
People’s Health Movement.
‘There is no other way
the WHO can really justify the invitation to Bill Gates as a key note
speaker at the WHA except as a ‘Head of State’ of some sort.’Health
activist groups have for long questioned the entire concept of the
‘Global Compact’ the UN has entered into with businesses and
corporations which they say undermine the world body’s integrity and
independence. They are also critical of the Public-Private Partnerships
(PPP) being promoted by the UN as these give undue importance to private
profit-making bodies and have been undertaken with few public interest
safeguards in place.
According to a new
paper to be presented at the WHA on the theme of ‘PPPs and Health for
All’ the UN’s partnership interactions with business are often presented
as part of a well-proven, inherently positive, even unavoidable, policy
model. They are however actually the result of a particular ideology and
need to be reconsidered.The paper, written by independent researcher
Judith Richter, suggests in order for WHO to put public interest at the
centre of all its global public-private it needs to:
a.abandon
the partnership terminology;
b.hold
a public review and debate on the benefits, risks and costs of the
different global public-private interactions in health when compared to
alternatives;
c.recover
and further clarify the human rights and social justice principles
underlying the WHO’s work towards Health for All work for a clearer
distinction between actors that represent or are closely linked to
commercial interests and other societal actors.
For further information contact: Satya
Sivaraman -
satyasagar@yahoo.com
People's Health
Movement Secretariat (Global)
Email: secretariat@phmovement.org
; Web: www.phmovement.org
P: + 91-80 - 51280009
F: + 91-80 - 25525372
14th March 2005
PHM launches the Save UNICEF
Campaign to protest the appointment
of Ms. Ann
Veneman as the next UNICEF Executive Director
The
People's Health Movement is alarmed to
learn of the appointment of Ms. Ann Veneman, former Secretary of the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), as the new Executive
Director of UNICEF.
In the absence of a transparent, informative process
to select an Executive Director, the international health community is
forced to evaluate Ms. Veneman’s suitability to lead UNICEF based on her
past performance on issues affecting children’s health. Ms. Veneman’s
training and experience as a corporate lawyer for agribusiness do not
qualify her for the substantial task of leading the agency most
responsible for the rights of children worldwide. There is no evidence
in her tenure as US Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of the
California Department of Food and Agriculture, or Deputy Undersecretary
for International Affairs of the USDA of her interest in the world’s
children or their health and well-being. Indeed, her performance in
these positions has been characterized by the elevation of corporate
profit above people’s right to food. Such a philosophy and practice
would reverse almost six decades of UNICEF’s proud humanitarian history
and prove disastrous for the world’s children.
As
advocates for children, PHM insists that the Secretary General replace
current practice, which rewards powerful countries with the ability to
make political appointments to important posts, with a transparent and
participatory process that guarantees a professional, committed and
competent leadership for UNICEF and other agencies. The present process
undermines democracy, sullies the image of the UN, and further threatens
the already precarious existence of the majority of the world’s
citizens.
Read letter to UN Secretary General Mr. Kofi Annan
to the Executive Board of UNICEF
|
Sign Letter
|
Visit the Save UNICEF campaign website at
www.saveunicef.org
18 March
2005
PHM represented on the WHO Commission on Social
Determinants of Health
Dr. Fran Baum who is the PHM focal point for Australia, New
Zealand and the Pacific has be selected to be part of the WHO Commission
on the Social Determinants of Health which will be launched on 18 March
2005 at Santiago, Chile.
The
thee-year, high-level Commission on Social Determinants of Health will
leverage change in policy and institutional practice by turning existing
knowledge on social determinants into actionable global, regional and
national policy agendas. To achieve this, the Commission will compile and
make visible the relevant evidence on key social determinants and the
policies and interventions that address them. It will support and promote
the implementation of such policies and interventions by Member States,
and by national, regional and global health actors, including WHO.
For more
information visit www.who.int/social_determinants/en/
9 February 2005
PHM supports Global Campaign against the
Indian Patent Amendment (GCAIPA)
The People's Health Movement has extended support to the Global
Campaign against the Indian Patent Amendment (GCAIPA).
A Global Day of Action is being organized on February
26, 2005 to protest the Patents Amendment bill that is currently under
consideration by Indian parliament. India is under pressure to comply
with the TRIPS agreement on Intellectual Property Rights, as dictated by
World Trade Organization (WTO). This peoples’ mobilisation effort is
aimed at building solidarity around pressurising the Indian Government
to reassess the Bill to take into account all the flexibilities offered
by TRIPS.
Press release |
For more information visit www.gcaipa.org
23 January 2005
Responding to Tsunami Crisis - PHM
statement released at IHF-WSF 2005
At the year-end, on 26th December 2004, an
earthquake, off the Sumatra coast in Indonesia unleashed tsunami
waves that caused one of the biggest human tragedies in recent history.
PHM members in the affected countries supported by local efforts and
international solidarity have been actively involved in responding to
the disaster.
While gearing up collectively in the new year to
respond to this crises, let us also continue to build a strong
solidarity against the ongoing 'tsunamis' of war and occupation;
corporate led globalisation; the unjust WTO and international agreements
like TRIPS, GATS; and unsustainable development. This year needs our
collective response in solidarity with all those who are facing these
challenges.
Read the complete
statement
