PHA-Exchange> WHO's Bangkok Charter a big disappointment, says PHM! (Press Release : 18 August 2005)

[UNNIKRISHNAN P.V. (Dr)]

PRESS RELEASE
18 August, 2005
PEOPLES HEALTH MOVEMENT
 
WHO's Bangkok Charter a big disappointment, says PHM! 
 
Bangkok, 18 August 2005: The Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion,
adopted at the recently concluded 6th International Conference on Health
Promotion, is an inadequate and timid document that falls far short of
what is required to tackle global health problems today.
 
The Conference was organized by the World Health Organisation and
Thailand's Ministry of Public Health and was attended by 700 leading
health promotion experts from more than 100 countries around the world.
 
The People's Health Movement (PHM), an international civil society
network of health professionals, academics and non-government
organizations, is dismayed and disappointed by the Charter and by the
failure of WHO to take the opportunity to offer leadership on a
progressive agenda to improve the health of the global poor.
. 
 
"Although we support the aims of the Charter and its call for "political
action and sustained advocacy" to promote health, the Charter fails to
highlight the current regime of global economic governance as a primary
cause of increased poverty, widening income inequalities and poor
health" said David McCoy, a researcher associated with PHM. 
 
"It also avoids identifying the political barriers to health for all and
consequently offers little in the form of bold or concrete
recommendations to advance this agenda" he said. 
 
The failure to provide a robust critique of the causes of global poverty
and failing health systems, results in the Charter omitting any
reference to the negative social and health impacts of neo-liberal
public policy, or the exploitation of natural and human resources by the
corporate sector and the wealthy global minority or to the rapidly
increasing concentration of wealth. 
 
While the Bangkok Charter echoes previous declarations that health is a
human right, it has not grasped the opportunity to call for human and
health rights to take precedence over the provisions of economic policy
and trade and financial agreements. This Charter does not even call for
the routine implementation of equity-focused health impact assessments
of trade agreements - an omission that is grave and an issue that WHO
must not be allowed to ignore. 
 
There are many concrete strategies that the global public health
community should be advocating, but which are neglected in this
Charter. These include:
*      Further cancellations of unsustainable and unjustified debt
*      The end of economic conditionalities on debt cancellation,
development assistance or loans/grants from international financial
institutions and other development banks
*      The democratic reform of the International Monetary Fund and
World Bank
*      The establishment of a fair international tax regime to eradicate
unacceptable transnational tax avoidance 
*      Promotion of appropriate global redistribution and the public
financing for essential services to all citizens
*      The renegotiation or even scrapping of multilateral and bilateral
trade agreements that have negative impact on public health
*      The adoption of an agenda to repair and develop the capacity of
public sector health systems in all countries particularly developing
nations
*      Ratification of the United Nations Convention on Corruption to
reduce the negative health effects of bribery and other forms of illegal
and unethical practices involving multinational corporations and
governments.
 
Unless the global public health community is serious about identifying,
naming and tackling the underlying political barriers and vested
interests that lie in the way of health promotion, we run the risk of
changing little. 
 
It is vital that WHO, as the lead multi-lateral agency for the promotion
of health, takes a more constructive and independent position with
respect to the political and economic actors and institutions that
retard the promotion of health. It is no longer enough to merely promote
well-meaning declarations that lack any meaningful equity-based
strategies to improve health.
 
For further media enquiries, Contact:   +91 98450 91319 
Satya Sivaraman -   satyasagar at yahoo.com or Dr Unnikrishanan PV -
unnikru at yahoo.com 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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