PHM-Exch> Announcing Launch of the Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH) Alliance

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Eric Friedman <Eric.Friedman at law.georgetown.edu>

*Release from the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at
Georgetown University Law Center *[http://www.law.georgetown.
edu/oneillinstitute/news/01-08-18-Framework.cfm]

*Launch of the Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH) Alliance*

The O'Neill Institute is pleased to share a milestone in the progress
towards the Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH), a proposed global
treaty based on the right to health and aimed at national and global health
equity: the formation of a new NGO, the FCGH Alliance
<http://www.fcghalliance.org/>, this past Human Rights Day, December 10,
2017.

"For years we have been working with our colleagues to build support for
the FCGH. We have always believed that such a treaty could have a
transformative role in ending persisting and unconscionable health
inequities, much as another treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control, has turned the tide on tobacco use," said Professor Lawrence
Gostin, Faculty Director of the O'Neill Institute. "For such an esteemed
group of individuals and organizations, such as South Africa's Treatment
Action Campaign, to be not only willing to support the FCGH, but also to
put the energy behind the FCGH to establish a new NGO and to become a core
part of the FCGH movement, is a testament to the power of this idea. It
gives me great hope that the FCGH can indeed become a reality."

Added Eric Friedman, the O'Neill Institute's point person on the FCGH, "We
have long hoped that the FCGH could take on a life of its own, and as a
colleague used to say, mobilize millions of people behind it. The FCGH
movement now does stand on its own. And with the formation of the FCGH
Alliance, which anyone can join and which already has among its leaders
people who know firsthand what is it to experience health inequities, for
the first time mass mobilization and the necessary political support that
it can create seems possible. The right to health has just moved a step
nearer reality for people for whom it often seems furthest away."

Please find the official FCGH Alliance press release immediately below.

*Release from the FCGH Alliance *[http://fcghalliance.org/
turning-the-right-to-health-into-reality/]

*The Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH) Alliance: Turning the
Right to Health Into the Lived Reality for Everyone*

December 10, 2017

Today, Human Rights Day <http://www.un.org/events/humanrights/>, witnessed
the birth of a new organization committed to using the law to turn the
right to health into the lived reality for all people, everywhere: *The
Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH) Alliance*.

The FCGH Alliance <http://fcghalliance.org/> formalizes and creates new
potential for an existing network of organizations and individuals already
advocating for the FCGH and holds the promise of engaging many more in the
pursuit of the FCGH.

The FCGH Alliance, a Geneva-based nongovernmental organization (NGO) that
will operate as a global network, aims to secure the FCGH, a proposed
global treaty based on human rights and aimed at national and global health
equality that would respond to some of the most pressing problems of
national and global health governance by increasing accountability, equity,
participation, financing, and health in all policies at community,
national, and global levels.

Momentum behind the treaty has been growing, from last year’s call to
action from then-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who “encourage[d] the
international community to consider and recognize the value of a
comprehensive framework convention on global health” to national and global
health leaders from around the world coalescing behind the proposed
treaty. FCGH supporters recognized it was time to elevate the FCGH from a
loose coalition to a legally constituted international NGO.

Over the past few years, more and more global health luminaries and leading
NGOs have called for an FCGH, for using the strongest instrument of
international law to advance the quest for health equity, for health for
all, and to empower even — and especially — the most marginalized
communities in their own struggles for the right to health.
The FCGH Alliance can help achieve this goal, while ensuring that
the treaty is, above all, one that speaks to the needs of and meets the
expectations of civil society and community-based organizations, and
populations who suffer most from health inequities. Indeed, a chief aim of
the FCGH Alliance is to ensure inclusive participation in the process of
developing the FCGH. Not only will this be the only way to achieve the
treaty, but such inclusive health decision-making is also a fundamental
requirement of the right to health itself.

The FCGH Alliance membership includes more than 30 organizations and
individuals from Africa, Asia, Latin America, North America, and Europe.
Its inaugural Executive Committee Chair will be Martin Hevia (Dean of
the Torcuato Di Tella University Law School, Argentina).
The FCGH Alliance will have 4 Vice Chairs — Leslie Ramsammy (former
Minister of Health, Guayana), Gracia Violeta Ross (Bolivian Network of
People Living with HIV/AIDS), the Treatment Action Campaign (South Africa),
and Eze Eluchie (People Against Drug Dependence and Ignorance, Nigeria) —
while Adam Bertscher will serve as Secretary, and Gabriella Sozanski
(Coordinator of the Alliance for Health Promotion) as Treasurer. In
addition, an Advisory Committee of leading NGOs and global health experts
will support the Alliance by providing expert advice and collaboration.
For additional information, please see:

FCGH Alliance website <http://www.fcghalliance.org/>
FCGH briefing paper
<https://www.jalihealth.org/documents/Dr-Tedros-WHO-DG-FCGH-sign-on.pdf>
(September 2017)
FCGH sign-on letter to Dr. Tedros
<https://www.jalihealth.org/documents/Dr-Tedros-WHO-DG-FCGH-sign-on.pdf>
(September 2017)
Lancet Global Health article calling for new WHO Director-General to
support FCGH
<http://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(16)30219-4/fulltext>
(December 2016)
Precious Matsoso/Mushtaque Chowdhury Devex FCGH opinion piece
<https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-a-vote-for-the-world-s-health-absent-from-the-headlines-89129>
(November 2016)
FCGH FAQ
<https://www.jalihealth.org/documents/FCGH%20WHO%20EB%20Q%20and%20A%20short%205-9-17.pdf>
(May 2016)
Health and Human Rights Journal article on FCGH and accountability
<https://www.hhrjournal.org/2016/01/an-independent-review-and-accountability-mechanism-for-the-sustainable-development-goals-the-possibilities-of-a-framework-convention-on-global-health/>
(January 2016)
Health Care Analysis article on the FCGH and right to health
<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10728-015-0307-x> (December
2015)
Global Health Governance journal FCGH special issue
<http://blogs.shu.edu/ghg/2016/01/21/spring-fall-2015-combined-issue/>
(2015)
Health and Human Rights Journal FCGH special issue
<https://www.hhrjournal.org/archives/test1/> (June 2013)
Yale Journal of Health Law, Policy, and Ethics article on FCGH
<http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjhple/vol13/iss1/1/> (2013)
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