URGENT PRESS RELEASE
Hyderabad (India), Savar (Bangladesh), Managua (Nicaragua), 5th January 2003:
PEOPLE'S HEALTH MOVEMENT and INTERNATIONAL PEOPLE'S HEALTH COUNCIL launches:
The Million Signature Campaign:
A march on the Internet demanding HEALTH FOR ALL NOW!
"In
the next 24 hours, over 30,000 children will die from preventable
diseases on our planet earth. Today, while the world is writing a
collective obituary of the future generation, we know why they are
dying; we know who are responsible for these deaths. We know how these
deaths can be stopped... Join 'The Million Signature Campaign', - a
march demanding health for all."
These are not just statistics,
but precious lives that the World Health Organisation promised to save
25 years ago. In 1978, World Health Organisation, the apex UN body
dealing with health, promised Health for all by 2000 through a historic
moment, the Alma Ata declaration.
"Since the Alma Ata
declaration in 1978, responses were promising. However, the spirit of
Alma Ata and the idea of Health For All has been under attack by
anti-health, anti-poor policies, reemerging and new diseases, new
challenges and above all by efforts to put private profit over public
health. In the current international health crisis, it is more
essential to reaffirm and implement the principles and strategies of
Alma Ata" says www.themillionsignaturecampaign.org [1], the home page for this-web based campaign.
The
Million Signature campaign was officially launched today simultaneously
from Bangladesh, Nicaragua and India. Thousands of people participating
in the Asian Social Forum at Hyderabad, India, are expected to extend
their solidarity on the opening day of this web campaign. People's
Health Movement is at Asian Social Forum to extend the solidarity of
the global health movement.
25 years since the Alma Ata
declaration, health for all by 2000 is not a reality. This signature
campaign, initiated by the People's Health Movement and the
International People's Health Council, is being endorsed by ordinary
people from various walks of life and organisations, institutions,
people's associations and others working for a just world.
Ms.
Parven Akhter, a 22- years old health worker from Souther, a village
located in the Faridpur district of Bangladesh is the first signatory.
"Let us work together, make other people aware of their health rights
and ensure basic health care for all. I hope everybody will join this
campaign", said Ms. Akter.
Some of the first signatories include
ordinary health workers, former UN officials and architects of the Alma
Ata declaration, medical professionals, journalists, writers,
policy-makers, academics, Nobel Prize and Right Livelihood award
(alternate Nobel prize) winners, ministers and former heads of nations,
politicians, celebrities, leading organisations, students and mass
movements.
"The campaign is conceptualised and designed to
catch the attention of the WHO, UNICEF, other UN bodies, social and
political organisations, policy-makers, governments and others. It is
one more step towards making health for all a reality," said Dr. Qasem
Choudhury, the outgoing facilitator for the People's Health movement
(PHM)
secretariat. PHM was launched in Dec 2000 through the People's Health
Assembly, a historic summit in Bangaldesh that had participation of
over 1500 representatives from nearly 100 countries. The goal of the
People's Health Movement is to re-establish health and equitable
development as top priorities in local, national and international
policy-making, with comprehensive primary health care as the strategy
to achieve these priorities.
PHM aims to draw on and support
people's movements in their struggles to build long-term and
sustainable solutions to health problems. One of the outcomes of the
PHA 2000 is the People's Charter for Health, the largest consensus
document on health.
"Last 25 years have seen several
experiments in the health sector. Some of them met with success in the
initial stages. Of late, corporate and private interests have defeated
public health. The negative impacts of unregulated globalisation and
privatisation are neutralising the achievements we had in making health
for all a reality," said Ms.Maria Hamlin Zuniga, Co-ordinator of the
International People's Health Council (IPHC). IPHC, a constituent of
the PHM, is a worldwide coalition of people's health initiatives and
progressive groups and movements committed to working for the health
and rights of disadvantaged people. "Primary Health care works where
there is a political commitment," she said.
"People's Health
Movement will observe 2003 as the year of Alma Ata. A series of
activities are being planned to remind and revive the key principles of
Alma Ata," said Dr. Ravi Narayan, the new facilitator for the PHM
secretariat.
"The struggle for justice and health for all needs
to be fought at different levels. We are aware of the digital divide.
Concerted efforts will be put to take this campaign and spread the
struggle for health for all also to people who are below the digital
line. Using media apart from the Internet will be one of the methods to
popularize this Internet based campaign," said Dr. Unnikrishnan PV of
IPHC, facilitator for this web-based campaign.
Dr. Qasem Choudhury, Outgoing facilitator: PHM secretariat
Maria Hamlin Zuniga, Co-ordinator: IPHC
Dr. Ravi Narayan, Facilitator: PHM Secretariat.
For further media queries, please call:
India : Dr. Unnikrishnan PV (Mobile: +91 (0) 98450 91319 / unnikru@yahoo.com [2])
Thailand: Satya Sivaraman (E-mail: satyasagar@yahoo.com [3])
UK: Andrew Chetley (E-mail: chetley.a@healthlink.org.uk [4])
During Asian Social Forum : +91 (0) 98450 91319 / +91 (0) 98491 55692