From DEBRA@OLN.comlink.apc.orgFri Sep 15 10:26:11 1995 Date: Thu, 14 Sep 1995 01:01:00 +0100 From: Debra Guzman Reply to: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org To: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org Subject: WCW: Third World Network Papers: Health [The following text is in the "ISO-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] ## Original in: /HRNET/WOMEN ## author : ngonet@chasque.apc.org ## date : 11.09.95 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Health For All Women Maria Zuniga THE Third World Network and the International People's Health Council conceive of health as a fundamental human right. Therefore access to health care should not be subject to discrimination of any kind. Nevertheless, the reality is that women are considered to be second or third class citizens and many governments and societies have denied them this right. Actually an elevated percentage of women of all ages in the world do not have access to any type of health service. On the other hand, the limited health services to which they have access are not of high quality, nor do they respond to women's needs and possibilities. This has a direct and dramatic incidence in the living conditions of women. In the Platform of Action of the IV World Conference on Women, in the chapter that refers to the inequalities in access to health and related services, it is important to emphasise the following points: 1. Guarantee access to integral health services and not limit health services to a basic minimum. 2. Demonstrate that structural adjustment is having devastating effects on public health systems and especially on the health conditions of women. As was discussed at the Social Summit, the International Financial Institutions have a fundamental responsibility for this worsening situation and must take action to detain and remedy this situation. 3. Governments have the undeniable responsibility to guarantee that women, independently of their age, ethnic origin, religion, capacity or sexual preference, have access to services and information on health, including sexual and reproductive aspects. 4. Reiterate the language of the Platform of Action approved at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, with reference to the sexual and reproductive rights of people. 5. Emphasise the rights of all women to control their fertility, as a fundamental step toward their emancipation. 6. The rights of adolescents to information and health care according to their necessities that include sexual and reproductive health and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, principally HIV/AIDS. 7. The need to define and implement health policies that take into account the opinion and participation of women. 8. The urgency of designing and implementing accessible health services that take into consideration the different stages in the life cycle of women. 9. Point out that genome and genetic experimentation ought to be monitored and respond to an internationally defined code of ethics. 10.Guarantee the access of women to truthful information and education about their health, including sexual and reproductive aspects, as well as adequate and safe treatments, eliminating attitudes and practices that discriminate against women. In the document there is no mention of the Transnational Pharmaceutical Companies and their responsibility toward the health of women. Frequently women have been used as experimental animals. It is fundamental that the document insist on the need to define a code of ethics and system of vigilance with respect to the investigations and practices that are being carried out by the companies, as well as controlling the immense profits being made by the companies at the expense of women. In addition it is necessary to develop precise indicators and detailed mechanisms for monitoring and follow up of the health conditions of women and girls. If this is not done, the risk exists of remaining in good intentions that have no direct benefit on the lives of millions of women and girls who are quite far from reaching the goal of Health for All by the year 2000, as had been proposed at the Health Conference in Alma Ata in 1978. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Maria Zuniga is a health activist from Nicaragua. She works for the Peoples' Health Council.