View from the Secretariat - Edition 04 - 20th October 2004
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Dear Friends
Continuing with the previous update, this is to keep you
informed about some more of the PHM Activities all over the world.
Latin America
International Organising Committee of the 2nd People's
Health Assembly held at Cuenca, Ecuador
From 20th to 24th September 2004 the International
Organising committee Members met in Cuenca, Ecuador to take the PHA 2
process forward and to work out the modalities of the same. The members who
were present at the meeting were Eduardo Espinoza (Program), Prem John
(Logistics), Patricia Morton (Analytical Group), Samuel Ochieng (Regional
mobilisation), Unni (Media), Maria Zuniga (Convenor), Arturo Quizhpe
(General coordinator of PHA2) and others. Among the things deliberated were
the program, communication and regional mobilization for PHA2. For
more details contact the PHA 2 Secretariat (pha2@phmovement.org).
Regional conference on MDGs and human rights - Quito,
Ecuador
Ms. Ana Quirós Víquez of CISAS, a Latin American Health
group connected with PHM, attended the Regional conference on MDGs and Human
Rights in Sept 2004. Ms. Ana reports that "in total, around 90 people
participated from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa
Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, Paraguay,
Bolivia, Argentina and Chile attended the same" and CISAS gave the
inputs on health issues like
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Vision of health limited to death or disease, nothing of
prevention or promotion
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Sexual and reproductive health and gender violence made
invisible in the MDGs
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Empowerment of women and image transmitted very limited
The tackling of health problems takes no notice of
economic, social and cultural difficulties, including machismo, especially
in the case of maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS".
Europe
European Social Forum, London, 14th to 17th October
2004
The Health Seminars in the European Social Forum was
organised by the PHM Europe, European Network for the Right to Health and
others. Patricia Morton reports "The seminars were a resounding
success. At the first seminar there was standing room only (200 people) and
the second (50 people) was also quite well attended despite being at 7 pm on
a Friday night". After the Forum PHM-Europe members together with the
European Network for the Right to Health and other groups gathered at the
Medact office in London to see what work we could plan together. After a
full day of discussion in four languages they concluded that although
different, the PHM and the European Network had sufficiently similar goals.
A joint campaign to fight for the defence of the right to health and against
the privatisation of healthcare in Europe was launched. For more details
contact Patricia Morton. To receive the regular information about the
campaign sign up to Righttohealth-europe-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Asia
Public Hearing on Right to Health Care successfully
completed in Eastern Region, India
On October 11th, the public hearing on the denials of
health care was held jointly by PHM India and the National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC) of India in the Eastern region (comprising of the states
of Bihar, West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Jharkand, Orissa) in Ranchi, where the
cases of denial of health care from all these states were presented before
NHRC.
A series of Dialogues with the Government on Health
Policies, India
A series of dialogues have been organised by the newly
elected Government of India on various health policy issues. These include
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National Advisory Council meeting on Health. (This
council advises the union government of India on various policy issues).
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Rural Health Mission" for the 150 districts in 17
states of India which have been identified as having poor health status.
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Towards a network of "Schools of Public Health"
in India
Various PHM India members have represented PHM in these
dialogues.
Announcement
The Announcement of the Fourth International Forum in
Defence of People's Health, Porto Allegre, Brazil, 23rd -25th Jan 2005 (Also
known as the First World Social Forum on Health) has been made. The main
focus of the forum would be 'the deep analysis of the political health
process of each country, looking for a comprehensive approach that enhances
the possibility of alternative projects with wide social and political
support'. For more information including the subjects to be covered during
the Forum contact Armando De Nigri Filha (armandon@portoweb.com.br)
