PHA-Exchange> bangkok charter

[David McCoy]

Dear all

I agree with others on the draft of this charter. The question is how to
respond? Do we oppose the Charter at this stage (we are unlikely to
block it or get it re-written). Perhaps we should submit some demands
for changes now, and only after it is finalized, we should oppose it
.... possibly with an 'alternative text' built on the Peoples health
Charter?


Some of specific changes we could ask for at this stage might be:

Page 2: Global challenges
Replace 'health inequalities remain a grave concern' with 'poverty and
health inequalities have grown over the last twenty years'

Page 2: Health promotion in a gloalising world
Add this:
Globalization can also .... "reduce the social and economic development
prospects of communities, particularly those that are marginalized and
impoverished"

Page 3: Under 'Make globalization health friendly'
Ask to add a bullet on addressing political and economic inequality

Page 3: Under 'Make health promotion a core responsibility of all
governments'
Change to .... "Develop appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks to
PROTECT HEALTH FROM COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY, promote APPRPORIATE,
SUSTAINABLE AND HEALTH-PROMOTING public-private PARTNERSHIPS and
inter-sectoral collaboration


Page 3: Under Corporate Practices section ... we could ask for:
- Reduce levels of tax avoidance
- Say something about exploitation of cheap labour 
- Ask for something to do with transparency - to allow corporate
activities to be monitored for the social, health and environmental
impacts


In the rest of the document, we could ask for a greater emphasis on
strengthening the public structures of democratic control and
accountability, and tempering the language around public-private
partnerships by asking for a distinction between for profits and
not-for-profits??
Cheers

dave