PHA-Exchange> ANNOUNCEMENT + Invitation: Formation of a PHM thematic group : WARS, CONFLICTS and DISASTERS ( & health and humanitarian action in such situations)

[UNNIKRISHNAN P V (Dr)]

ANNOUNCEMENT + Invitation: 
Formation of a PHM thematic group on WARS, CONFLICTS and DISASTERS                                        ( & health and humanitarian action in such situations)

Dear Friends

Greetings to all friends of PHA !

This is to announce the formation of a thematic / issue based group on the theme: WARS, CONFLICTS and DISASTERS ( &  health and humanitarian action in such situations). Please consider this as an invitation to join this initiative.

The need to take up this issue as a core theme for PHA / M was expressed up during the PHA 2000. During PHA, three events / activities endorsed this need. 

1)      An evening discussion that Dr. Rosalie Bertell facilitated

2)      A workshop on the theme "health and humanitarian action during disasters, wars and conflicts'' that I was facilitating 

3)      The People's Charter for health 

After the PHA, some of us (mainly those working on humanitarian action) have been in touch on this issue in an informal way. However, the issue didn't get much momentum. As we know, PHA as a collective body has not been so active and vocal during the bombing of civilians in Afghanistan and on the ongoing imminent threat of bombing of civilians and civilian targets in Iraq. Same has been the case during extreme violent civil strife in certain countries. (It is true that individual organisations, especially those who have a mandate to work on these issues, have been active.) 

Focused attention on this issue can strengthen the PHA / M's pro-active involvement on this issue. We hope that this thematic group will be able to feed their synergy to the PHM and thus strengthen PHM's work. This may also help PHM to take collective position and action during such situations. More over, such a group also would mutually contribute to organsiations and individuals working on this theme.

As a beginning, some of the issues that call our urgent attention are:

1)      The need for an informed debate on redefining health and humanitarian action in the ''globalised humanitarian arena''.

2)      Militarisation of humanitarian assistance (Militarisation is fast replacing the role of communities, specialist relief agencies and humanitarian organisations in situations that call for health and humanitarian assistance. Afghanistan and Kosovo are examples)

3)      Inadequate relief assistance (The global annual arms trade is over US $ 780 billion. The global annual relief aid (for human- made disasters) is around US $ 8 billion !!) 

4)      The need to monitor the impact of wars, conflicts and disasters on health and humanitarian issues. 

It is also important to remember the negative impacts of such situations that made HEALTH FOR ALL impossible. Well, these are some initial thoughts.

If you are interested in joining this group, please write back to us at : unnikru at vsnl.com . We can discuss this further amongst interested individuals / organisations and can develop a mutually acceptable process and strategy in the coming days.

Dr. Rosalie Bertell and few others associated with PHM (and whose main focus is this issue) endorses this initiative and has extended their solidarity. 

Looking forward to having you in this initiative

Regards and in solidarity

Unni

Dr. Unnikrishnan PV, India 

E-mail: unnikru at yahoo.com   ; Mobile: 91 (0) 98450 91319

Click: www.indiadisasters.org   :   the one-stop humanitarian 

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