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Call for submissions! "Pushing Back: Opposition Against Unjust Immigration Policy & Enforcement" >>
June 16, 2022
Leigh K. Haynes
Everyone has the right to the highest attainable level of mental and physical health. But across the globe, people are not able to fully realize this right as economic interests take precedent over people's lives and well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how, even when there are enough resources available, inequities are created when governments, companies, and others in positions of power support policy that puts profits over people. The outcomes reflect inequities, within and between countries, that persist due to racism and histories of colonialism. As the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism stated, "unequal access to COVID-19 prevention, containment and treatment technologies (“COVID-19 technologies”) violates the fundamental human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination."
I need to be blunt, the world is on the brink of catastrophic moral failure. And the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries. –Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization
When antiretroviral treatment was discovered in America this treatment was available for people in the north, in Europe and America. People with HIV could go on this treatment and live long and happy lives. People in the South continued to die, particularly in Africa…10 years later it became available but 12 million had died. Was that not racism? And this is embedded in the trade rules that allow a company to hike a price create an artificial demand…and people die. We are seeing racism embedded in global policies. –Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director, UNAIDS
Leigh K. Haynes is a member of the MPH@Simmons faculty and a health activist who advocates for social justice and everyone to be able to fully enjoy the right to to health. Leigh is active with many organizations and networks working towards that end including the People's Health Movement, the Framework Convention on Global Health Alliance and Hesperian Health Guides.
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