The PHM stands behind Professor Mary Bassett

On behalf of the PHM, its global coordinator, Roman Vega, sent a letter to Harvard University officials Alan Garber, MD, PhD, president of Harvard University, and Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD, faculty Dean, demanding the reinstatement of Professor Mary Bassett after she was removed from the directorship of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights (FXB Center), and expressing PHM's deep concern and dismay at this action, condemned by PHM members around the world.
 

Alan Garber, MD, PhD, President of Harvard University
Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD, Dean of the Faculty
Date: 16th December 2025

Dear President Garber and Dean Baccarelli:
Re: Sacking of Professor Mary Bassett from Directorship of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights.

We write to you concerning the firing of Professor Mary Bassett from the Directorship of the  François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights (FXB Center), to express our deep concern and horror at this move, which has been condemned by members of the People’s Health Movement globally.

The People’s Health Movement (PHM ) is a network of health activists, practitioners, and scholars who conduct global and regional campaigns on issues of health equity and health justice. PHM has Country Circles in over 80 countries globally, including in the United States. 

Professor Bassett has been a long-time supporter of PHM. PHM members across the world know her work well, across her roles as a researcher, health leader, and advocate. Our former Co-Chair Professor David Sanders worked with her in Zimbabwe in the 1980s where they conducted ground-breaking studies on the adverse impact of the World Bank Structural Adjustment Packages on the health of the Zimbabwean population.

Professor Bassett has pursued this deep concern with social justice and health equity over her career as a scholar and principled public health administrator, helping inform the global People’s Health’s Assemblies held every five years. Over decades, her work on structural racism has been vitally important in understanding persistent health inequities domestically and transnationally. More recently her principled commitment to global health justice  has supported our solidarity work with the PHM Palestine circle. 

During the seven years Professor Bassett has served as director of the FXB Center, its research has informed PHM’s advocacy work on multiple dimensions. We are greatly concerned, indeed outraged, that her sacking reflects Harvard University caving in to the Trump administration’s efforts to violate academic freedom and stifle debate by demanding the removal of academic units and individual faculty who express support for, or even discussion of,  the anti-colonial cause of Palestine. These actions send the chilling message that critical scholarship on racial justice and Palestine –and global health equity writ large– is unwelcome. We would hope this not to be the case, especially at Harvard –long a beacon for academic freedom and deep scholarly deliberation. Yet we cannot fathom any other rationale for the sacking of Professor Bassett given the quality and value of her work. 

PHM is launching a global campaign to demand the re-instatement of Professor Bassett and the return of the FXB Center to its mission of social justice, health equity and human rights.  

In the interests of the vital democratic principle of academic freedom we demand that you reinstate  Professor Bassett. We note we are not alone in this call and that there has been an outbreak of support for her cause across the global  public health world.  

Sincerely,

Roman Vega Romero
PHM Global Coordinator