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Note: This document is from the archive of the Africa Policy E-Journal, published
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Africa Action: Africa's Right to Health
Africa Action: Africa's Right to Health
Date distributed (ymd): 010623
APIC Document
Africa Policy Electronic Distribution List: an information
service provided by AFRICA ACTION (incorporating the Africa
Policy Information Center, The Africa Fund, and the American
Committee on Africa). Find more information for action for
Africa at http://www.africapolicy.org
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide
Issue Areas: +political/rights+ +economy/development+
SUMMARY CONTENTS:
This posting contains several short documents on the launch of the
Africa's Right to Health Campaign by Africa Action: the press
release distributed yesterday announcing the June 24 launch press
conference; the text of the two-page campaign brochure; and
summary information on the Stop Global AIDS Now march and rally
taking place today in New York, for which Africa Action is a cosponsor.
More campaign resources are now available on the campaign page:
http://www.africapolicy.org/action/campaign.htm. In addition to
formatted versions of the brochure, and links to background
information, you will find the three letters sent to President Bush
by community leaders this month, a link to the cover story on
"Global Apartheid" by Salih Booker and William Minter, in the July
9 issue of The Nation magazine, and a self-test for Acquired
Morality Deficiency Syndrome (AMDS), to check if you (or your
leaders) have dangerously high levels of this threat to global
health.
On the campaign page you can also click to send "It's time to deal
with AIDS" messages to USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios or to the
G-8 representatives at the United Nations. You can use the messages
on the page or write your own.
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
June 22, 2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Salih Booker 202-546 7961; Aisha Satterwhite 212-785 1024
PRESS CONFERENCE
SUNDAY, JUNE 24TH at 2pm
UN CHURCH CENTER 777 UN PLAZA
(at 44th Street and 1st Ave), 8th Floor, Boss Room
AFRICA ACTION LAUNCHES MAJOR CAMPAIGN FOR "AFRICA'S RIGHT TO
HEALTH"
Focus Is on Addressing Structural Issues Underlying Africa's Health
Crisis
Group to escalate campaign to fire Andrew Natsios, head of US Aid
agency
On Sunday, June 24, the eve of the UN General Assembly Special
Session on HIV/AIDS, Africa Action will host a news conference at
2pm at the United Nations Church Center in New York City to launch
its new campaign for "Africa's Right to Health." Speakers will
include Fernando Ferrer, President of the Bronx Borough of New York
City; Nkululeko Nxesi, Director of the National Association of
People With AIDS (NAPWA) in South Africa; Charlotte Mjele, from the
Society for Women and AIDS in Africa (SWAA), Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee
Walker, President of Africa Action's Board of Directors, and Salih
Booker, Executive Director of Africa Action.
Earlier on Sunday morning, Dr. Walker's Canaan Baptist Church and
dozens of other churches from Africa Action's Religious Action
Network, will highlight the plight of Africa's 12 million AIDS
Orphans at special Sunday services.
The "Africa's Right to Health Campaign" will focus on the
international obstacles that deny Africans the resources they need
to respond effectively to the AIDS pandemic and the wider health
emergency.
The campaign aims to achieve: (1) the cancellation of Africa's
massive external debt burden, which drains much-needed resources
from African governments; (2) affordable access to drugs and
treatment for the 25 million Africans who are currently living with
HIV or AIDS; (3) an end to World Bank and IMF policies that have
undermined Africa's public health care systems and exacerbated
poverty; (4) an end to discrimination on the basis of race, gender
or HIV status; and (5) the promotion of a public discourse on
reparations (so the West will understand its obligation to invest
in Africa's health).
Executive Director Salih Booker stated, "It is no accident that
Africa is the continent most affected by HIV/AIDS. The spread of
the pandemic and the world's failure to respond reveal a system of
global apartheid in which the right to health is determined largely
by race." Africa Action will continue to press for the firing of
USAID Director Andrew Natsios, whose racist remarks about Africans
have provoked protests in the US and Africa and are widely seen as
part of a strategy to deny treatment to Africans living with HIV
and AIDS. For campaign updates visit http://www.africapolicy.org.
Africa Action is the oldest and largest advocacy organization on
African affairs in the United States. Fighting for freedom and
justice since 1953.
Campaign Brochure
[for formatted version [updated January, 2003] see
http://www.africapolicy.org/action/cam0301.pdf
or
http://www.africapolicy.org/action/cam0301.htm]
AFRICA'S RIGHT TO HEALTH CAMPAIGN
Health is a fundamental human right.
Health, along with education, is also an indispensable
component of development.
In the first decades after independence, African countries
invested in health care. Average life expectancy in
sub-Saharan Africa rose from 39.9 years in 1960 to 50.6
years in 1995.
Now, however, life expectancies in many African countries
are dropping, driven by HIV/AIDS and a resurgence of
malaria and tuberculosis.
Almost 2.5 million Africans died of AIDS in the year 2000.
Meanwhile, life-prolonging treatment in the 1990s cut AIDS
deaths dramatically in rich countries.
Neither these treatments nor other resources needed to
combat HIV/AIDS are available to the vast majority of
people in Africa.
While the HIV virus affects people of all races, most of
those dying of AIDS are black.
The spread of the pandemic and the world's failure to
respond reveal a system of global apartheid in which the
right to health--and to life itself--is largely determined
by race, gender, class and geography.
Africans are taking action.
In Africa, as elsewhere, stigmatization, stereotypes and
denial have blocked effective responses to HIV/ AIDS. This
is changing, slowly. At recent continent-wide meetings,
people living with HIV/AIDS have demanded more urgent
action from government leaders and experts.
African activists, medical professionals, and many
government officials are now struggling to save lives and
prevent new infections. They face immense challenges. The
AIDS pandemic reflects--and deepens--economic inequality,
civil conflict and, most critical of all, the
subordination of women. Such factors must be addressed
within each African country.
But there are also overwhelming obstacles that are imposed
from outside. Corporate greed, foreign economic domination
and global racism have helped lay the fire and now fan the
flames of death.
GLOBAL APARTHEID OR GLOBAL JUSTICE
Access to treatment is key
People around the world are challenging the notion that
HIV/AIDS treatment is too expensive for Africa and other
poor regions. In 2001, worldwide protests forced drug
companies to begin lowering prices and to drop their
lawsuit that had tried to block South Africa's access to
cheaper generic drugs.
But the companies and the Bush administration refuse to
admit that treatment is an essential part of prevention.
To them, aggressive patent protection is more important
than African lives. In effect, they are saying that
millions of Africans should just be left to die.
Debt reduction has fallen short--It's time for cancellation
At a summit in Abuja, Nigeria, African leaders agreed on a
target of spending at least 15% of their national budgets
on health, two or three times current levels.
Their chances of meeting this goal are slim�unless the
World Bank and IMF agree to full debt cancellation. Most
African countries still spend more on repaying debts than
on health care for their people.
These debts come from old loans, many to dictators long
fallen. They came with strings attached�economic policies
that have since failed. Yet the debt still looms as a
giant obstacle to Africa�s development and the fight for
health.
Economic colonialism
The rapid spread of HIV/ AIDS is linked to structural
inequalities. Poverty and patterns of discrimination leave
women vulnerable. Malnutrition reduces resistance to
disease, including HIV/ AIDS. Migrant labor patterns
(still in place from colonialism and apartheid) raise the
risk of infection.
Policies imposed by the World Bank and other creditors
forced African governments to cut spending on health. New
�user fees� put medical care out of reach for millions,
leading to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases.
Yet the World Bank still holds more influence over
Africa's economic policies than do African elected
officials.
Global racism or common humanity
It is no accident that Africa is the continent most
affected by HIV/AIDS, and that minorities are the most
affected within the United States. The pandemic starkly
reveals the fault lines of deep inequality in the world
order.
Vulnerability is linked to poverty, poverty to race, and
race to the centuries-old history of the slave trade and
colonialism. The rich countries' failure to act now is
linked to the fact that the majority of those affected are
poor, black and female.
The response to HIV/ AIDS will show whether common
humanity will prevail over corporate greed. It will also
show whether the world is ready to confront centuries of
global injustice.
Africa's Right to Health Campaign
End the injustices that gave rise to and now perpetuate
the AIDS pandemic.
Remove international obstacles that deny Africans the
resources they need to respond effectively to the pandemic
and the wider health emergency it represents.
Africa Action will fight for the following goals:
1. unconditional cancellation of Africa�s illegitimate
foreign debt,
2. equal access to drugs and treatment,
3. an end to IMF/ World Bank colonialism,
4. an end to discrimination on the basis of race,
gender, and HIV status, and
5. promotion of a public discourse on reparations (the
need for the West to invest in Africa's health care
as an obligation� not charity).
Media attention comes and goes, but the deaths continue.
Support the campaign. Join our networks and keep up by
visiting http://www.africapolicy.org.
Africa Action: Incorporating the American Committee on
Africa (ACOA), The Africa Fund, and the Africa Policy
Information Center (APIC)
WASHINGTON OFFICE
110 Maryland Ave N.E. #508, Washington, DC 20002
Tel: (202) 546-7961; Fax: (202) 546-1545;
E-mail:
[email protected]
NEW YORK OFFICE
50 Broad Street, #1701, New York, NY 10004
Tel: (212) 785-1024; Fax: (212) 785-1078;
E-mail:
[email protected]
STOP GLOBAL AIDS NOW! MARCH AND RALLY JUNE 23, NEW YORK CITY!
THE MESSAGE: DONATE THE DOLLARS, TREAT THE PEOPLE, DROP THE DEBT
Before world leaders discuss HIV/AIDS at the United Nations and
before the G8 Summit in Genoa, Italy . . . WE WILL BE IN THE
STREETS DEMANDING ACTION:
DOLLARS: We call on the United States and other wealthy countries
to invest multiple billions in grants to the Global AIDS FUND and
to national AIDS plans in developing countries.
DEBT: We call on the World Bank and IMF to cancel 100% of the debt
owed to them by all impoverished countries heavily impacted by
HIV/AIDS.
DRUGS: We call on the United States and other wealthy countries to
ensure access to lifesaving AIDS medications, including generically
manufactured drugs, at the lowest possible cost.
GLOBAL SOLIDARITY STATEMENT
We honor the people throughout the world who have lost their lives
or their loved ones due to HIV/AIDS. We join in struggle with
those that are fighting to end the AIDS epidemic.
We affirm the demand of people living with HIV/AIDS in the South
for access to care, support, and treatment - treatment that has
been proven to extend lives, help build up weak health care
systems, and enhance prevention efforts.
We know this to be morally correct: that the lives of the millions
of poor people with AIDS are no less valuable than those of people
with AIDS living in wealthy countries. We know also that access to
treatment is a right of people everywhere. It is both necessary
and possible to extend medication to everyone who needs it.
We join people from the South in calling for complete cancellation
of debt owed by poor countries to the International Monetary Fund,
the World Bank, and individual governments, so they can devote
their resources to health care and education.
MORE INFORMATION
Voice mail: 212-208-4533. Email:
[email protected] For
an updated list of endorsers and campaign materials:
http://www.stopglobalaidsnow.org For background information:
http://www.globaltreatmentaccess.org
SPONSORS
African Services Committee, the Health GAP Coalition,
Global-AIDS-Alliance, ACT UP New York, American Jewish World
Service, Jubilee USA Network, Africa Action in cooperation with
allies in the Global South including National Association of People
with AIDS - South Africa, and Treatment Action Campaign - South
Africa.
ENDORSERS
Accion Ciudadana Contra el SIDA, Caracas/Venezuela (ACCSI), ACT
UP/Cleveland, ACT UP/East Bay, ACT UP/Paris, ACT UP/Philadelphia,
AFL-CIO, AIDS Community Resource Network (ACORN), AIDS Research
Alliance/Los Angeles, AIDS Treatment Access-Cuba, AIDS Treatment
Data Network (ATDN), Africa AIDS Initiative, AmFAR, Arianna
Huffington, Americans Mobilized Against the Spread of AIDS in
Africa (AMASAA), Association for the Study of African American Life
and History, Inc., Audre Lorde Project (ALP), BGAN Africa AIDS
Project, Bailey House, Body Positive, Boston Global Action
Network/African AIDS Project, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS,
Canadian AIDS Society, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Care
International, Centre for Study of Global Trade System and
Development, Church Ladies for Choice-NYC, Church Women United,
Coalition of Labor Union Women, Connecticut Radical Queer Caucus,
Conscious Movements Collective, Constituency for Africa,
Dignity/USA, Disabled Global Action, Division for Church in
Society-- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Doctors of the
World-USA, Dutch Stichting AIDS Fonds, Elizabeth Varon, End AIDS
Now!, FUNDAMIND/Buenos Aires, Family Health Project, Florida AIDS
Action, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Freedom Socialist
Party, Freetown-New Haven Sister Cities, GNP+ North America, Gay
Mens Health Crisis (GMHC), Global ACCTS, Global AIDS Action
Network, Global Action on Aging, Global Exchange, Global Ministries
(United Church of Christ/Disciples of Christ), Global Network of
People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+), God's Love We Deliver, Goddard
Riverside Community Center, Grupo Pela VIDDA/Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, Grupo de Apoio e Preven��o a AIDS, Harlem United Community
AIDS Center, Heritage of Pride/NYC, Hope Africa in Nairobi, Kenya,
Housing Works, Human Capital International, Institute for
Agricultural Trade Policy, International Action Center (IAC),
International Association For volunteer Efort-Liberia,
International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO),
International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC),
International Harm Reduction Development/OSI, International
Presentation Association of Sisters of the Presentation,
International Socialist Organization, Jews Against Genocide,
Jubilee Northwest Coalition in Seattle, Kathleen Chalfont,
Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, Latin American and Caribbean
Council of AIDS Service Organizations (LACCASO), Latino Commission
on AIDS, Life Force, Lower East Side Harm Reduction, Margaret
Sanger Center International at Planned Parenthood of New York City,
Maryknoll AIDS Task Force, Metropolitan Community Church of New
York, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate-U.S. Province,
Mississippians With HIV/AIDS, Mobilization Against AIDS
International, The Momentum AIDS Project, Mothers' Voices, NY Pride
at Work AFL-CIO, NYC AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN), National
Association of People with AIDS/USA (NAPWA), National Minority AIDS
Council (NMAC), National Organization for Women (NOW), National
Summit on Africa/Africa Society, National Working Group on Patent
Laws, Neighborhood AIDS Advocacy Group/Aisha Muhammad, The New York
AIDS Coalition (NYAC), New York City Coalition Against AIDS in
Africa (NYCRAA), New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project
(AVP), New York Community Trust/Royal S. Marks Foundation Fund, The
North American Taskforce on Prostitution, Oxfam, PATRONATO DE LUCHA
CONTRA EL SIDA, INC. (PLUS), People's Health Coalition for
Equitable Community, Positive Health Project, POZ Magazine,
Partners In Health and the Institute for Health and Social Justice,
Physicians for Human Rights, Q.U.E.E.R. (Queers United To Eradicate
Economic Rationalism)/ Melbourne, Australia, Queers For Racial &
Economic Justice, Radical Women, River Fund, San Francisco AIDS
Foundation, Sierra Foothills AIDS Foundation, Sisters Mobilized for
AIDS Research and Treatment (S.M.A.R.T. University), Solidarity
Against the HIV Infection in India (SAATHII), South Africa
Development Fund, St. Luke AME Church Good Samaritan HIV/AIDS
Ministry, Student Committee Against Labor Exploitation (SCALE),
Student Global AIDS Campaign, Survive AIDS (ACT UP/Golden Gate),
Third Wave Foundation, Title II Community AIDS National Network,
Treatment Action Group (TAG), UCC Wider Church Ministries, Union of
American Hebrew Congregations and the Central Conference of
American Rabbis, Union of New York Free Youth (UNYFY), United
Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ Global Ministries Africa
Office, Visual AIDS, WOFAK (Women Fighting Aids in Kenya), Women in
Mourning and Outrage, Washington Office on Africa,
This material is distributed by Africa Action (incorporating the
Africa Policy Information Center, The Africa Fund, and the
American Committee on Africa). Africa Action's information
services provide accessible information and analysis in order to
promote U.S. and international policies toward Africa that advance
economic, political and social justice and the full spectrum of
human rights.
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