Bulletin #118: Health movements expose occupation, attacks on healthcare at World Health Assembly
This fortnight
The 79th World Health Assembly (WHA) is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, between May 18 and 23 – with member states meeting in a context of global crises, a shrinking budget, and announcements of withdrawal. The People's Health Movement is on the ground again through its WHO Watch team, bringing an overview of the most important topics addressed during the week.
Interventions at the WHA covered attacks on healthcare in Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, and Cuba, the global shortage of health workers, while also building upon ongoing discussions including those on building a new Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system. In a new episode of Access Denied, Jyotsna Singh and the Working Group on Access to Medicines India explain why it is crucial that the new system is based on equity, solidarity, and justice.
While the WHO welcomed country representatives, the destruction of health infrastructure in Palestine and Lebanon by Israeli occupation forces continued. This month, PHM and other health organizations launched a renewed call to boycott the Israeli Medical Association over its complicity in genocide – while demands for the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and other Palestinian health workers persist.
In Kenya, reproductive rights came under attack after the Court of Appeal in Malindi overruled a previous ruling and recriminalized abortion, leading to outrage by activists, who warn thousands die in the country every year from unsafe abortion.
In focus: 79th World Health Assembly
Democratizing global health governance: mission impossible?
As the 79th World Health Assembly begins in Geneva, PHM activists call for Alma-Ata vision to guide global health architecture changes.
At the World Health Assembly, Cuba denounced the US energy blockade’s impact on health
First Deputy Minister of Health, Tania Cruz, said that causing shortages and hardship to millions of people is genocide.
Video
Pathogens for all, vaccines for few: Is WHO promoting health equity or aiding biopiracy?
Equity, not extraction, must guide pandemic preparedness as the new PABS system threatens to repeat COVID-19's unequal access patterns by privatizing vaccines.
Featured articles
On Nakba anniversary, health workers call for boycott of Israeli Medical Association
On the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, health organizations campaign to boycott the Israeli Medical Association.
Israeli authorities pursue another extension to Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s imprisonment
Israeli authorities are reportedly pursuing another extension of the imprisonment of Palestinian pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya.
Kenyan court recriminalizes abortion
Reproductive rights advocates warn that the ruling spells grave danger for both doctors and pregnant women, thousands of whom die of unsafe abortions every year in Kenya.
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Christophe Domec