<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">From: <b class="gmail_sendername" dir="auto">David</b> <span dir="auto"><<a href="mailto:dlegge@phmovement.org">dlegge@phmovement.org</a>></span><br></div><br><u></u>
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<span class="m_4190453447798962882mcnPreviewText" style="display:none;font-size:0px;line-height:0px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;opacity:0;overflow:hidden">Member states determined to avoid accountability for action on refugee and migrant health</span>
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<h1 style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left">WHO member states determined to avoid accountability for action on refugee and migrant health</h1>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">WHO has adopted a new Global Action Plan for the Health of Migrants and Refugees (in <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=d8a58076ec&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">A72/25 Rev.1</a>) after bruising negotiations before and during the 72nd World Health Assembly. Several member states, led by Mexico, deplored the lack of transparency in the development of the final draft of the plan (which was published two days <i>after</i> the commencement of the Assembly).</p>
<h2 style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left">Lack of member state accountability</h2>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">The Plan has no options for member state action and the weak provisions for member state accountability, regarding migrant and refugee health in earlier drafts, have also been removed. As <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=d845d3f660&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Portugal</a> commented during the debate:<br>
<i>.. we are particularly disappointed with the fact that all recommendations directed to Member States have been withdrawn during the drafting process.</i><br>
<i>since the action plan was already deprived of recommendations to Member States, we would have hoped that at least the decision of this Assembly contained a strong invitation for States to report on the progress made at the national level on the promotion of migrants’ and refugees’ health.</i></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=63a493707f&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Mexico</a> was particularly critical that an obligation on member states to report on their actions for migrant and refugee health had been withdrawn. Lebanon and Pakistan spoke against an obligation on member states to report. They were concerned that reporting obligations would unfairly focus attention on their difficulties in managing huge refugee populations with very limited resources. Lebanon commented that 1/3 of its population are refugees and it faces huge financial challenges.</p>
<h2 style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left">Human rights ignored</h2>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">The Plan mentions human rights repeatedly but references to the <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=b86b033f08&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Global Compact on Migration</a> (which includes strong and specific rights clauses) have been virtually expunged during the negotiations.</p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">The Global Health Council commented that, "<i>Thousands of migrant children seeking safe haven in the U.S. have been forcibly separated from their parents since 2017. Studies overwhelmingly demonstrate the irreparable harm caused by breaking up families.</i>"</p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Objective 13 of the Global Compact aims that countries "<i>Use immigration detention only as a measure of last resort and work towards alternatives</i>" and urges that "<i>immigration detention is not promoted as a deterrent or used as a form of cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment to migrants</i>". It is not surprising that countries like the USA and Australia which explicitly use immigration detention as a deterrent do not wish to be accountable.</p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Inserted in the new Plan (behind closed doors) is a provision requiring WHO to provide support for the development of intercountry surveillance tools and mechanisms for the exchange of data on the health of refugees and migrants. In a side event on the health of refugees and migrants the World Bank spoke of the potential for tracking the movement of migrants and refugees through mobile technologies, namely apps with access to location.</p>
<h2 style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left">Root causes ignored</h2>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">The Plan lacks any reference to the root causes driving migrant and refugee crises around the world. Objective 2 of the Global Compact aims to <i>Minimise the adverse drivers and structural factors that compel people to leave their country of origin.</i></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">As <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=37438a4138&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Medicus Mundi International with PHM</a> commented, the Plan <i>ignores the root causes, particularly, a global system that is economically unstable with widening economic inequality. It is destabilising the human environment, including through climate breakdown, and is generating economic, food and personal insecurity for billions.</i></p>
<h2 style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left">Xenophobia versus solidarity</h2>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">References to xenophobia in an earlier draft of the Plan have been reduced to 'misperceptions'. As Mexico pointed out, <i>we have witnessed a hardening of expressions of racism, discrimination and xenophobia that threaten migrants and their families, and can put them at risk the enjoyment of their fundamental rights, including the right to health.</i></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">In their intervention MMI with PHM pointed out: <i>Many HICs have abdicated their global responsibility, introduced hostile environments towards migrants, encouraging fear, racism, xenophobia and denied access to health.</i></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Mexico stressed that the GAP “<i>needs a stronger reference to solidarity and cooperation under the shared responsibility approach, understanding that to be effective, the health actions of migrants they require greater harmonization and coordination between the countries of origin, transit and destination.</i></p>
<h2 style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left">"These are fundamental issues"</h2>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">In a statement following the Assembly, spokesperson for People's Health Movement, Ms Ana Vračar said:<br>
<i>These are fundamental issues. Irreversible harm is being done to ordinary decent human beings. It is bizarre to recognise the dramatic increase in the number of migrants and asylum seekers over the last two decades and ignore:</i>
</p><ul><li><i>the role of war, communal violence and climate change in driving migration and asylum seeking;</i></li>
<li><i>the role of economic stagnation and widening inequality which, through poverty, contribute to driving migration;</i></li>
<li><i>global imperialism under which big powers can invade smaller countries with impunity;</i></li>
<li><i>neoliberal globalisation, always approaching the brink of collapse but stabilising itself through further immiseration of the ‘reserve armies of the poor’; and</i></li>
<li><i>a ‘free trade’ regime which promotes free movement of all of the inputs to production except labour.</i></li></ul><p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><i>It is deeply concerning that people's anxieties in the face of large scale displacement are being manipulated by demagogue politicians, and their financial backers, who stoke racism and xenophobia to direct attention away from the structural causes of such displacements. <br>
Progressive governments and social movements must address the root causes which drive asylum and security seekers. We must also address the policies which contribute to racism, xenophobia and protofascism, including economic insecurity and alienation associated with globalisation, marketization, and individualism.</i></p>
<h1 style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left">More</h1>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">For full coverage of the WHA consideration of refugee and migrant health see the PHM item page, which includes: summary of issues in focus at the Assembly; background notes; PHM commentary and the WHO watchers' notes of the debate.</p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Access all of the documents and debates from the World Health Assembly from the WHO Tracker at <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=71c8bcbad3&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">who-track.phmovement.org/wha72</a>. Review previous Update Reports from WHA72 <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=2787c2963d&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<h2 style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left">Spread the word</h2>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">The purpose of WHO Watch is to contribute to democratising global health governance, through new alliances and new information flows. You can help by forwarding our updates, disseminating on social media and inviting others to <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=4986a6091c&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">subscribe to the Updater</a>.</p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">WHO Watch is a project of the <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=e3974ab3b2&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">People's Health Movement</a> in cooperation with <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=b71eef019a&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Medicus Mundi International</a>, <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=b685694158&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Third World Network</a> and a number of other civil society networks.</p></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td id="m_4190453447798962882templateFooter" style="background:#fafafa none no-repeat center/cover;background-color:#fafafa;background-image:none;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;background-size:cover;border-top:0;border-bottom:0;padding-top:9px;padding-bottom:9px" valign="top"><br></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></center></div>
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