5th People’s Health Assembly PHA5 in Cali, Colombia

Vibrant, diverse, dazzling and feisty, Santiago de Cali in the Colombian Pacific will host the Fifth People’s Health Assembly of the People’s Health Movement in december 2023. Nearly three thousand activists, representatives of movements and organizations fighting for the right to health in 80 countries will gather in Santiago de Cali to discuss the state of the right to health, health systems and the social determinants of health around the world.

The Assembly is the flagship event of the PHM at the global level, it was in 2000, in Savar, Bangladesh, where the first assembly of the PHM was held and where the founding of the Movement with global reach was sealed.

“This is a defining moment in the struggle for the right to health around the world, wars, threats of war, highly privatized health systems focused almost exclusively on disease care and not on prevention and that are not responding to the needs of the population, inequalities, inequity, pandemics that are becoming more frequent and us, activists and organizations around the world fight for the fundamental right to health of the people on all fronts, for that we will meet in Cali, Colombia, and it is not just a meeting or an academic congress, it is an assembly that determines the political line of our struggle, of the calls to action to achieve our goals, that is the People’s Health Assembly”, assured Roman Vega, PHM Global Coordinator,

Within the framework of the PHA, a People’s Health Tribunal will be launched, the first of its kind in the world and with the support of the People’s Tribunal of Rome, this People’s Health Tribunal will address violations of the right to health committed by transnational corporations and will guide the development of a more detailed roadmap to realize, ensure and guarantee the universal right to health in the face of violations committed by transnational corporations.

The proposed Tribunal has been endorsed by the People’s Health Movement Steering Council, but its implementation will require the enthusiasm and energy of the People’s Health Movement’s national circles and thematic groups and a wide range of civil society partners and supporters.

This is the second time that the ASP will take place in Latin America after ASP 2 was held in Cuenca, Ecuador in 2005. This time it will be the Universidad del Valle in Cali that will host the Assembly.

We look forward to meeting the activists, organizations and delegations from all over the world who will arrive in Cali to discuss the roadmap and actions in the struggle for the right to health of the people.