PHA-Exchange> Electronic copy of People's Charter (1)

[Claudio Schuftan]

I thought you all ought to have such an electronic copy for sending to your
associates and contacts for discussuin and feedback. Here it is in 2 parts.
Claudio.

Part 1:

PEOPLE'S CHARTER FOR HEALTH

PREAMBLE
Health is a social, economic and political issue and above all a fundamental
human right. Inequality, poverty, exploitation, violence and injustice are
at the root of ill-health and the deaths of poor and marginalised people.
Health for all means that powerful interests have to be challenged, that
globalisation has to be opposed, and that political and economic priorities
have to be drastically changed.

This Charter builds on perspectives of people whose voices have rarely been
heard before, if at all. It encourages people to develop their own solutions
and to hold accountable local authorities, national governments,
international organisations and corporations.


VISION
Equity, ecologically-sustainable development and peace are at the heart of
our vision of a better world - a world in which a healthy life for all is a
reality; a world that respects, appreciates and celebrates all life and
diversity; a world that enables the flowering of people's talents and
abilities to enrich each other; a world in which people's voices guide the
decisions that shape our lives.

There are more than enough resources to achieve this vision.



THE HEALTH CRISIS
"Illness and death every day anger us. Not because there are people who get
sick or because there are people who die. We are angry because many
illnesses and deaths have their roots in the economic and social policies
that are imposed on us."
(A voice from Central America)

In recent decades, economic changes world-wide have profoundly affected
people's health and their access to health care and other social services.
Despite unprecedented levels of wealth in the world, poverty and hunger are
increasing. The gap between rich and poor nations has widened, as have
inequalities within countries, between social classes, between men and women
and between young and old.
A large proportion of the world's population still lacks access to food,
education, safe drinking water, sanitation, shelter, land and its resources,
employment and health care services. Discrimination continues to prevail. It
affects both the occurrence of disease and access to health care.
The planet's natural resources are being depleted at an alarming rate. The
resulting degradation of the environment threatens everyone's health,
especially the health of the poor. There has been an upsurge of new
conflicts while weapons of mass destruction still pose a grave threat.
The world's resources are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few
who strive to maximise their private profit. Neoliberal political and
economic policies are made by a small group of powerful governments, and by
international institutions such as the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation. These policies, together
with the unregulated activities of transnational corporations, have had
severe effects on the lives and livelihoods, health and well-being of people
in both North and South.
Public services are not fulfilling people's needs, not least because they
have deteriorated as a result of cuts in governments' social budgets. Health
services have become less accessible, more unevenly distributed and more
inappropriate.
Privatisation threatens  to undermine access to health care still further
and to compromise the essential principle of equity. The persistence of
preventable ill health, the resurgence of diseases such as tuberculosis and
malaria, and the emergence and spread of new diseases such as HIV/AIDS are a
stark reminder of our world's lack of commitment to principles of equity and
justice.

PRINCIPLES OF THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER FOR HEALTH
- The attainment of the highest possible level of health and well-being is a
fundamental human right, regardless of a person's colour, ethnic background,
religion, gender, age, abilities, sexual orientation or class.
-- The principles of universal, comprehensive Primary Health Care (PHC),
envisioned in the 1978 Alma Ata Declaration, should be the basis for
formulating policies related to health. Now more than ever an equitable,
participatory and intersectoral approach to health and health care is
needed.
- Governments have a fundamental responsibility to ensure universal access
to quality health care, education and other social services according to
people's needs, not according to their ability to pay.
- The participation of people and people's organisations is essential to the
formulation, implementation and evaluation of all health and social policies
and programmes.
- Health is primarily determined by the political, economic, social and
physical environment and should, along with equity and sustainable
development, be a top priority in local, national and international
policy-making.

 A CALL FOR ACTION
To combat the global health crisis, we need to take action at all levels -
individual, community, national, regional and global - and in all sectors.
The demands presented below provide a basis for action.

HEALTH AS A HUMAN RIGHT
Health is a reflection of a society's commitment to equity and justice.
Health and human rights should prevail over economic and political concerns.
This Charter calls on people of the world to:
- Support all attempts to implement the right to health.
- Demand that governments and international organisations reformulate,
implement and enforce policies and practices which respect the right to
health.
- Build broad-based popular movements to pressure governments to incorporate
health and human rights into national constitutions and legislation.

- Fight the exploitation of people's health needs for purposes of profit.

TACKLING THE BROADER DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
Economic challenges
The economy has a profound influence on people's health. Economic policies
that prioritise equity, health and social well-being can improve the health
of the people as well as the economy.
Political, financial, agricultural and industrial policies which respond
primarily to capitalist needs, imposed by national governments and
international organisations, alienate people from their lives and
livelihoods. The processes of economic globalisation and liberalisation have
increased inequalities between and within nations.
Many countries of the world and especially the most powerful ones are using
their resources, including economic sanctions and military interventions, to
consolidate and expand their positions, with devastating effects on people's
lives.

This Charter calls on people of the world to:
- Demand radical transformation of the World Trade Organisation and the
global trading system so that it ceases to violate social, environmental,
economic and health rights of people and begins to discriminate positively
in favour of countries of the South. In order to protect public health, such
transformation must include intellectual property regimes such as patents
and the Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
agreement.
- Demand the cancellation of Third World debt.
- Demand radical transformation of the World Bank and International Monetary
Fund so that these institutions reflect and actively promote the rights and
interests of developing countries.
- Demand effective regulation to ensure that TNCs do not have negative
effects on people's health, exploit their workforce, degrade the environment
or impinge on national sovereignty.
- Ensure that governments implement agricultural policies attuned to
people's needs and not to the demands of the market, thereby guaranteeing
food security and equitable access to food.
- Demand that national governments act to protect public health rights in
intellectual property laws.
- Demand the control and taxation of speculative international capital
flows.
- Insist that all economic policies be subject to health, equity, gender and
environmental impact assessments and include enforceable regulatory measures
to ensure compliance.
- Challenge growth-centred economic theories and replace them with
alternatives that create humane and sustainable societies. Economic theories
should recognise environmental constraints, the fundamental importance of
equity and health, and the contribution of unpaid labour, especially the
unrecognised work of women.

(continued)