In preparation of People's Health Assembly II - part 25
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Neoliberal ideology in the World Health Organization: Effects on
global public health policy and practice
(Part 4 of 4)
The People's Health Movement
In an effort to bring the international health community back to
its founding principles, to revive "Health for All" and to rein-
stall legitimacy with broad representation, a People's Health
Assembly (PHA) was held in 2000 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. On 8 De-
cember 2000, 1453 participants from 92 countries, endorsed the
People's Charter for Health as a tool for advocacy and a rally-
ing point around which the global health movement can come to-
gether and other networks and coalitions can be formed. The
first paragraph of the preamble of the Charter encapsulates the
essentials of this social justice movement to achieve Health for
All:
"Health is a social, economic and political issue and above all
a fundamental human right. Inequality, poverty, exploitation,
violence and injustice are at the root of the ill-health and
deaths of poor and marginalized people. Health for all means
that powerful interests have to be challenged, that globaliza-
tion has to be opposed and that political and economic priori-
ties have to be drastically changed."
In effect, the People's Health Movement (PHM) created after PHA,
to take forward the People's Charter for Health, is promoting a
re-appropriation by the people of decision-making in health in-
cluding what happens at WHO --so it takes up its public health
responsibilities. In addition to promoting the social justice
approach to health through networking between groups and asso-
ciations of grassroots health workers and advocates, the PHM
maintains an eye on WHO, provides policy input on a variety of
issues and lobbies for proper attention to the social and eco-
nomic determinants of health.
We, the People and Health for All - NOW
Re-appropriation of some of the responsibilities and functions
of WHO by the people depends in part on the simple, yet not easy
task of returning decision-making power, throughout the UN, to
Member States. We refer here not only to the unfair power dis-
tribution in the Security Council, but to the undisguised ma-
nipulations behind the scenes on the part of the powerful Member
States to ensure that less powerful Member States vote "cor-
rectly".
Undemocratic practices at the UN are of course only a reflection
of power relations in the outside world. A democratic UN can
only start to fulfil its original mandate as expressed in its
Charter when Member States themselves start to represent their
own people. This implies an end to powerful nations' interfer-
ence in the democratic processes of sovereign nations and an end
to their support of puppet regimes installed to ensure uninter-
rupted exploitation of human and material resources. In turn,
these measures imply an end to the unprecedented and growing
power of transnational corporations which today are indistin-
guishable from "elected" governments in the power they wield.
At the same time, bearing in mind the ultimate goal of Health
for All - NOW, people are already wielding power and taking back
some of the roles and functions needed to achieve Health for All
-Now. The victory of the people of Cochabamba, Bolivia (against
the privatisation of water), of Placimada in Kerala (against the
giant Coca Cola), of the 'Sin Terra' movement in Brazil to ob-
tain land for subsistence for thousands of families, and of the
health workers of El Salvador to stop privatization of health
services are examples of successful popular pro-health actions.
To those who claim that these issues lie outside, for instance,
WHO's mandate, we reply that as undisputed key determinants of
public health, they are central to the role WHO should play.
Health for All - NOW cannot wait for results to be achieved
through lobbying efforts of NGOs at the World Health Assembly.
As the People's Health Movement has shown through its participa-
tion in World Social Fora, a re-appropriation of Health for All
requires joining forces with the worldwide movement for social
justice in its many other forms. It will require alliances with
trade unions, people's movements for democracy, community asso-
ciations, the independent media, the independent academic and
research community and political parties committed to real so-
cial justice. It will require political action and an explicit
rejection of exhortations not to "politicise" health issues.
Health is political and the international health community has
been infiltrated by neoliberal ideology to a point where un-
truths may be presented as scientific fact without a reaction of
dissent from the ranks.
Health for All - NOW is not an empty slogan; neither is it uto-
pian. However, it is cannot be achieved without a fair and ra-
tional international economic order in a world of plenty. For as
long as global health policy is allowed to be driven by neolib-
eral ideology, and for as long as global health actions I are
restricted to the sphere of charity and/or international dis-
ease-centred aid, the only achievement will be clean consciences
for those with fat wallets.
The Vision statement of the PHM is reserved as the last word
here on "Health for All - Now".
"Equity, ecologically-sustainable development and peace are at
the heart of our vision of a better world - a word in which a
healthy life for all is a reality... There are more than enough
resources to achieve this vision."
AK
(end)