Asia

To
Shri Anand Sharma,
Hon’ble Minister of Commerce and Industry
Room No. 45, Udyog Bhavan
Rafi Marg
New Delhi – 110 001
Tel: 2306 1492 / 1008
Fax: +91-11-23062947

Hon’ble Minister,

February 9, 2010

Ambassador Brilliantes
130 Albert Street, Suite 606
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1P 5G4

Dear Ambassador Brillantes,

Third World Relief Fund, a Belgian development NGO, and intal, a solidarity movement with people's movements in the Philippines and other countries, condemns the brazen arrest of 43 doctors and health workers in the Philippines. We consider it an attack on the Council for Health and Development (CHD), our long-time partner organization in the Philippines, and on the right to health of the Philippine people.

For decades, India has been known as the “pharmacy of the developing world” for its ability to supply lifesaving generic drugs at a fraction of the cost of those with brand names. People living in India and throughout the Global South rely heavily on these affordable medicines, and without them antiretrovirals, cancer drugs, and hundreds of other basic medications would be out of reach for millions.

Peoples’ Health Movement Sri Lanka (PHMSL) was launched in the year 2001. The focal point is Sarvodaya Movement and the National Co-ordinator is Dr Vinya Ariyaratne, Executive Director of Sarvodaya.

It's time for promises - generous, sweeping and all-encompassing. Whenever elections are scheduled, politicians of all hues and affiliations come up with promises, of turning life for the common man into a rosy idyll. Looking through my file of political promises over the last fifteen, I have these samples chosen at random from a thick stack of clippings -

Bayer sues Indian Government to retain monopoly rights / International coalition demands protection of generic pharmaceuticals

Health groups call on German drugmaker Bayer to cancel the suit against the Indian government and domestic drug company Cipla in order to protect affordable drug treatment. The organizations fear that the fate of generics in India may hinge on this case and that thousands of Indians will die without affordable pharmaceuticals.

Recent publications have highlighted the impact of human rights violations, poverty and extraction of natural resources on the health status of the indigenous people of West Papua. However, the Australian medical literature has so far remained silent on this issue.

Long-standing allegations of violence being perpetrated against Papuan civil society are supported by accounts given by West Papuan refugees involved in an Australian-based study.

Program for launching of Global Health Watch 2 Report was organized on 6th Nov. in Gandhi Medical Collage, Bhopal, MP. Program is jointly organized by Community Medicine Department, GMC, Bhopal and Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (PHM-India).

16 October 2008, St. John's Medical College, Bangalore, India