We’re just a month away from World Health Day (April 7th) and the official launch of advocacy for the Global HEALTH Act of 2010. So far this month, through this blog you’ve learned about the Global HEALTH Act and gotten some great facts about the health workforce crisis (and how many people are waiting in line for an I-Pad — impressive!). Today’s post includes a few more resources that highlight the impact of Africa’s health workforce shortage. Check them out and share with colleagues.
PHR made the following video in collaboration with our Kenyan partner group, the Health Rights Advocacy Forum. In this 6-minute video, four health workers at Mbagathi Hospital talk about the challenges they face every day — and why they stay and practice medicine in their home country. This moving video can be shown on campus or at your workplace to stimulate discussion and urge people to take action.
For more personal stories, check out Africa’s Health Care Worker Crisis: Views from the Ground, a PowerPoint presentation that outlines six main drivers of the health workforce crisis in Africa and explores these challenges through the eyes of four Ugandan medical student leaders. Feel free to use this to make a presentation on campus or in your community, or use facts from it to drive home the need for action.
And watch our slideshows of Dr. Fred Katumba and Clinical Officer Jane Byarugaba following them through a typical day as they provide health care to the rural poor in Southwestern Uganda. Dr. Katumba’s work has propelled Lyantonde District to #2 out of more than 90 districts in terms of health outcomes — a phenomenal accomplishment and testament to Dr. Katumba, his staff, and the millions of hard-working health professionals who help communities realize the right to health every day.
Commemorate World AIDS Day TODAY by joining a nation-wide movement to protect women’s rights and promote women’s health.
Today, World AIDS Day, marks the first day of the 10,000 in 10 Campaign, a joint effort of Physicians for Human Rights, the American Medical Student Association, Advocates for Youth, Americans for Informed Democracy and the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care.
Between World AIDS Day (Dec. 1) and International Human Rights Day (Dec.10), join the campaign to mobilize 10,000 Americans to support US ratification of the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 2010.
Human rights violations such as widespread gender-based violence, systematic stigma and discrimination, and economic, social, health and educational inequalities put women at a disproportionately high risk of HIV/AIDS. Protecting women’s rights is essential to halting the feminization of AIDS.
CEDAW is the top international treaty that sets the standards for critical women’s rights issues, including equality in civil, political, and economic life, protection from sexual violence, and reproductive
freedom-all key to the fight against AIDS.
After 30 years of failed attempts at US ratification, CEDAW finally has the strong support within the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Administration needed to make ratification in 2010 possible.
If you are on facebook, spread the word and use this as your status today:
Celebrate World AIDS Day (Dec 1) and Human Rights Day (Dec 10)—join 10,000 Americans calling on senators to stop AIDS by protecting women’s rights at www.humanrightsforwomen.org
Or Tweet:
Celebrate #WorldAIDSDay—join 10,000 Americans calling on Senators to stop AIDS by protecting women’s rights at www.humanrightsforwomen.org
Let your Senator know now is the time to ratify CEDAW and show that the US is serious about global health and women’s rights worldwide! thanks for your support!
Suggestions that the US is a leader in human rights is questionable when the country is not a party to the main human rights treaties, including CEDAW;
US calls for other countries to fulfill women’s human rights lack credibility when the US has not ratified the main women’s human rights treaty;
Successive administrations would be under a legal human rights obligation to submit periodic reports on its implementation of the rights contained in CEDAW;
US civil society could monitor and report on what the US government is doing to implement the human rights of women in this country. Called a ‘Shadow Report’, this report is submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (the Committee). The Committee welcomes this information to ensure that it is as well informed as possible;
Individuals and groups can make complaints against the government to the Committee;
The Committee on its own initiative can investigate grave or systemic in-country violations of women’s human rights.
The latter two procedures are only available when a country has accepted them. Hence, this would require the US ratifying the Optional Protocol to CEDAW.
If the US ratifies CEDAW, fulfillment of women’s human rights in the US would no longer be at the whim of different administrations. As the U.S. would be a party to CEDAW, people within the US could demand that any US administration fulfill the rights contained in the treaty.
Between World AIDS Day (December 1) and International Human Rights Day (December 10), PHR is launching the 10,000 in 10 Campaign. We’re mobilizing 10,000 Americans, including students nationwide, to ask their US Senators to support US ratification of the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 2010.
We need your help to meet our goal. It will take 2 minutes:
Get More Involved: Join our “10,000 in 10 Leadership Team” and make a pledge to collect 50 signatures from family, friends and colleagues. Email me at skalloch[at]phrusa[dot]org to join the team.
Why CEDAW?
Women all over the world are facing discrimination, abuse and systematic inequities that make them especially vulnerable to some of the most severe global health challenges. Until we promote and protect women’s rights, the most severe diseases and health complications will continue to disproportionately affect women world wide.
Why Now?
The US remains one of only 7 countries in the world who have yet to ratify this critical treaty, along with Sudan and Somalia.
Since the treaty was adopted by United Nations in 1979, efforts for US ratification have come up repeatedly in the Senate but faced significant obstacles by CEDAW opponents, crushing potential for ratification. Now, CEDAW has strong support within the Foreign Relations Committee and is listed by the Obama administration as one of the top three treaties to ratify.
Things are looking a lot brighter: Let’s make the most of this new opportunity to protect women’s rights and support women’s health worldwide by finally ratifying CEDAW!
I just returned from an inspiring ANAC conference (Association of Nurses in AIDS Care). It is always fun, fabulous and totally energizing to be around ANAC members, who are deeply committed to stopping AIDS, supporting people living with AIDS and building an amazing community of caregivers, educators and advocates.
Former PHR Health Action AIDS Campaign Director Pat Daoust was honored with one of ANAC’s most prestigious awards, the Public Serive Award, for her three decades in AIDS care and her amazing advocacy work through Health Action AIDS. Her acceptance speech is below. In it she thanks all of you, the campaign’s supporters, for your deep commitme
nt to stopping AIDS. Read and be inspired!
First of all, thank you very much. I am extremely humbled and honored by this recognition, especially because it comes from this organization — ANAC — my fellow nurses.
When I received word that I would be the recipient of the Public Service Award, the letter noted that this is in large part an acknowledgment of the work accomplished as Director of the Health Action AIDS Campaign while at PHR. While I am extremely proud of the campaigns’ successes, I am the first to emphasize that without our coalition partners and the commitment of our members — particularly the thousands of nurses both here in the US and abroad — we would never been able to reach our goals!
Wen we called upon you to write or sign on to letters to members of congress calling for the repeal of the HIV travel ban.
When we asked you to set up in-district meeting with your representatives to help educate them on the importance of women’s rights and the need to integrate FP and reproductive health care with HIV service.
Whenever we held summits or organized hill meetings to advocate for US investment in health systems and health workers in the developing world.
Whenever we urged op-eds or LTEs that addressed human rights or the right to health for the most vulnerable including IDUs , MSN or women and children at risk for HIV.
You never let us down. You always rallied above and beyond.
The powerful voice of the nurse truly made a significant impact. The wins for AIDS, human rights and global health could never have happened with out the expertise, the dedication, the passion and the commitment of the largest group of health professional in the world. NURSES!!!
Our size as a profession — comprising close to 80% of all health professionals in the world — gives us power but also holds us responsible, obligates us to be advocates for those who voices are not hear. Our work is not done: appropriations for PEFAR and global health is still an unknown and with 70% of those in need of treatment lacking access and infection rates continuing to grown we have to keep our mission on the front pages and at the top of the USG agenda.
In closing I want to acknowledge and thank Deb von Z for nominating me for this award, the ANAC board for approving the nomination, my mentor Larry Kessler, the founder of the AIDS Action Committee in Mass, who first taught me about advocacy and the entire HAA team at PHR and, last, my biggest supporter, my husband Paul, who for years has put up with my international travel, my long absences and my obsessive behavior. He has never once complained.
With an innovative approach and new format to this year’s annual PHR National Conference, you may have a few questions about what to expect and how to attend. Below, we’ve answered some “Frequently Asked Questions” about this year’s conference, Health and Human Rights Education in 2010, being held on February 20 at Boston University School of Medicine (Boston, MA).
Who should attend the conference?
We hope that the majority of our National PHR chapters will attend, with two to three students and a faculty member or dean representing each school. We also welcome applications from medical students who may not have a PHR student chapter but are committed to furthering human rights education in their curriculum. Students are encouraged to apply online. If you are a Dean or faculty member and are interested in attending, email Sarah Kalloch, PHR Director of Outreach, at skalloch[at]phrusa[dot]org.
What will the conference include?
The National Conference will feature world-renowned speakers, panel discussions, strategy plenary sessions, skill development workshops and action planning sessions to address all aspects of integrating health and human rights into the health education field. The jam-packed day will provide information on the critical need to integrate health and human rights into education, strategies for incorporating quality human rights education in curriculum, as well as tangible skills and solutions to help lead your campus on this issue.
How does this conference differ from previous PHR National Student Conferences? This year’s conference is the first of its kind. It will focus on empowering students and faculty to change the paradigm of medicine to one which embraces human rights through the incorporation of human rights in health professional education. We will bring together a select group of roughly 150 committed students and faculty members who plan to be the frontrunners of the curriculum change movement on their campuses. This select group will gain vital ideas, strategies, skills, and connections to make health and human rights education a reality for their student bodies.
What will I gain from attending?
The conference will provide an excellent opportunity to network and strategize with dedicated students, faculty members and Deans who strive to bring a greater understanding of human rights to their classrooms, and to meet experts in the human rights field who have dedicated their careers to furthering this cause. You will learn from and engage with student leaders around the country who are passionate about health and human rights in their education. You will also gain new insights on the health and human rights approach, tools to create electives at your school, valuable resources and connections, and tangible ideas for getting your campus involved to shape your own education and that of your peers.
How should I prepare to have the best conference experience?
If you are accepted to represent your chapter and/or campus, you will be called on to prepare a preliminary plan for a tangible educational-change project you would like to see on your campus. As the conference approaches, we will also give you a short reading assignment to help you prepare for some of the conference’s key topics.
Whether you are looking to improve a current project or proposing a new initiative for you school, we recommend you draw on our Health and Human Rights Education Toolkit for guidance and resources for your planning process.
Questions? Email us at conference[at]phrusa[dot]org.
Robert S. Lawrence, MD, a founding member of PHR and the Chair of PHR’s Board of Directors, has been awarded the Sedgwick Memorial Medal at the 137th Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA). The medal, considered the APHA’s most prestigious award, was presented at a ceremony in Philadelphia on November 10, 2009. The Medal recognizes Dr. Lawrence as
an individual who has demonstrated a distinguished record of service to public health while tirelessly working to advance public health knowledge and practice.
Upon learning of the award, PHR’s CEO, Frank Donaghue, said:
Physicians for Human Rights warmly congratulates and applauds our Board Chair, Robert Lawrence, MD, the recipient of one of the highest honors bestowed by the APHA. The 2009 Sedgwick Memorial Medal — a true accolade of the profession — signals colleagues’ recognition of Dr. Lawrence’s exemplary accomplishments in the field of public health. His leadership has helped PHR bring a human rights perspective to vital issues such as fighting global AIDS, strengthening the health workforce, addressing inequities faced by women and children, and promoting accountability and governance in health systems.
The Sedgwick Medal honors Dr. Lawrence’s long and remarkable career in public service. As Professor and Director of the Center for a Livable Future at The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr. Lawrence has worked to eliminate racial and income-based disparities in health-care access across the United States. Educated at Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Lawrence has taught at top US universities, served as a director of health sciences at the Rockefeller Foundation and has been a principal force for establishment of human rights programs in schools of public health. He is a member of the prestigious Institute of Medicine and is a past recipient of the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Prize.
Dr. Lawrence co-founded PHR, and has participated in human rights investigations with PHR and other organizations in countries including Chile, the former Czechoslovakia, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, Kosovo, the Philippines, and South Korea and South Africa.
Homeland Security official Beth Gibson tried to put a kinder face on immigration detention health care in a November 9 talk to health professionals at the American Public Health Association annual meeting in Philadelphia. Instead of making detention center health staff pre-clear, and therefore pre-justify, every medical procedure that is referred to health professionals outside the prison walls, Homeland Security policy under consideration, according to Gibson, would devise a list of treatments that are “pre-approved.” Only more unusual services — such as CAT scans — would require special advance approval.
This is welcome news from Ms. Gibson, who, as Senior Councilor to the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security John Morton, surely appreciates the human costs of unjustified delays in detention health care that have been reported in the press and by human rights groups.
Still, the policy doesn’t go far enough in the opinion of a number of health professionals who attended the APHA session, chaired by detention health expert Homer Venters, MD, at which Ms. Gibson spoke. One participant called for health professionals to support comprehensive immigration reform, which would decrease the number of persons in the US who are amenable to detention in the first place. Leaders in the Jail and Prison interest group of APHA also called on health professionals to become much more involved in supporting reforms to immigration detention policy.
Today marks a victory for PHR and all of you who have been working to lift the US HIV travel ban. This morning, while signing the fourth reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act, President Obama vowed to “publish a final rule that eliminates the travel ban effective just after the New Year.”
Twenty-two years ago in a decision rooted in fear rather than fact, the United States instituted a travel ban on entry into the country for people living with HIV/AIDS. Now, we talk about reducing the stigma of this disease — yet we’ve treated a visitor living with it as a threat. We lead the world when it comes to helping stem the AIDS pandemic — yet we are one of only a dozen countries that still bar people from HIV from entering our own country. If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it.
The final rule will remove the HIV infection from the list of “communicable disease of public health significance,” no longer require HIV testing as part of the US immigration screening process and eliminate the need for a waiver to enter the country as an HIV carrier.
Please read Obama’s statement, his first public address about HIV/AIDS where he illustrates his commitment to make the United States a global leader in tackling HIV/AIDS and erasing its stigma. Also check out PHR’s press release on this important victory.
Said PHR CEO Frank Donaghue:
Today is a great day for human rights and for people living with AIDS, their friends and their families. The HIV Travel Ban made the United States a pariah in human rights circles, and harmed our reputation as a world leader of HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care. Starting in 2010, people living with HIV will no longer be prevented from entering this country, no longer turned away at customs, no longer forced to hide their condition and interrupt medical treatment, and no longer be treated by our government with contempt.
We’re celebrating in Cambridge and DC; we hope you are too. This is an amazing victory for all of you who have worked so hard to promote and protect the human rights of people living with AIDS!
During his campaign, President Obama promised to end the ban on federal funding for syringe exchange programs.
Call President Obama TODAY at (202) 456-1414 or (202) 456-1111 and tell him to keep his promise to save lives.
This summer, the House of Representatives took a historic step by removing the ban on federal funding for needle and syringe exchange programs (SEPs). Now, the Senate must act, but they are not making this policy a priority.
Senators need to hear from President Obama that his Administration supports syringe exchange. Now is the time to urge President Obama to fulfill his campaign promise to end the ban and to urge the Senate to act.
SEPs promote health and human rights. More than a dozen scientific reviews of SEPs have shown that when implemented as part of a comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention strategy, SEPs help reduce HIV transmissions without increasing drug use.
Indeed, SEPs do more than provide clean syringes and properly dispose of used ones; they link people into the health care system and drug treatment programs that save lives.
President Obama’s leadership is key to moving this issue forward in the Senate. His support could help save the lives of thousands of people. 20 years is too long—help us end the ban today!
Call The White House Comment Line TODAY at (202) 456-1414 or (202) 456-1111 and tell Obama to fulfill his promise and END THE BAN.
Phone Script:
Tell the operator where you are from and if you are a health professional and/or have any specific expertise relevant to needle exchange, AIDS, and/or harm reduction. It is okay if you don’t have specific expertise—Obama needs to hear from everyone, in every state, about this issue!
Ask the operator to tell President Obama:
The research is clear – syringe exchange programs work. The presence of syringe exchange programs in communities does not increase rates of drug use, nor does it lead to a rise in crime. What it does do: decrease transmission of HIV, Hepatitis C and other diseases.
Now is the time for the President to make good on his promise to support lifting the ban on federal funding for syringe exchange. We are calling on President Obama to let key congressional members know that the White House supports Chairman Obey in fully revoking the ban on federal funding for syringe exchange.
The President must also urge the Senate to refrain from adding any language or amendments to the Senate bill that would place undue restrictions on SEPs. The detrimental “1,000 Foot Rule” contained in the House bill may seem innocuous, but in reality it severely and unnecessarily limits the locations of SEPs. In some cases, the rule makes it impossible for urban communities to have needle exchange programs at all.
