Dear Member,
Please find below a reminder about the petition from Oxfam, HAI Europe and
Médecins Sans Frontières:
Oxfam, Health Action International (Europe) and Médecins Sans Frontières
would like to draw your attention to a joint declaration (see:
http://www.haiweb.org/13112009/JointDeclarationTradingAwayAccesstoMedicines.
pdf) that details our concerns with the European Unions current approach to
intellectual property and innovation policies affecting developing
countries. Our organizations believe that the European Unions agenda is
negatively impacting access to medicines in developing countries and will
cause serious harm over the long-term to public health unless real reforms
are instituted.
November 14th was the 8 year anniversary of the Doha Declaration on TRIPS
(Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) and Public Health,
which was agreed upon by all WTO Member States, including the Member States
of the European Union, in 2001. Under the Doha Declaration, all countries
committed to ensure that public health must be prioritized over trade
interests. Our three organizations are deeply disappointed that the EU is
breaking this commitment, while also failing to honor its obligations under
the Millennium Development Goals.
We invite your organization to sign-on to this petition, to be handed over
to the incoming European Commission, asking the Commission to adopt a new
approach towards this critical issue. Due to the commissioner reshuffle we
have extended the deadline for sign-on until 14 December 2009.
Please send your organizational sign-on to Sophie Bloemen at
sophie@haiweb.org.
For additional information, please refer to the report issued by Oxfam
International and Health Action International (Europe) detailing our
concerns with European Union trade and innovation policy at:
(http://www.oxfam.org/en/policy/trading-away-access-medicines)
Thank you very much to all the organisations who have already signed-on. We
kindly ask you not to submit duplicates for this petition.
Very best wishes,
Terri Beswick
Communications Officer
Health Action International
Overtoom 60/II
1054 HK Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 20 489 1077
Mobile: +31 6 3494 0978
Fax: +31 20 685 5002
Email: terri@haiweb.org <mailto:terri@haiweb.org>
Website: http://www.haiweb.org
Health Action International (HAI) is an independent, global network working
to increase access to essential medicines and improve their rational use
through research excellence and evidence-based advocacy.