U.N. - Related Issues

Up to date news and comment about UN related public health issues.

» Archive 2007

April 28, 2008

At WHO Meeting, Patient Group Has Pharma Ties
A World Health Organization group that meets in Geneva today to debate ways to improve access to drugs in the developing world and promoting R&D for new meds is, of course, going to attract input from all sides, including industry, academics, patients groups and non-govermental organizations, or NGOs. However, many individuals who signed a "Patient Declaration" have undisclosed ties to pharma, as does the patient advocacy group that is circulating the petition, according to Essential Action, a non-profit project that focuses on public health and corporate accountability, and is funded by the Open Society Institute and the Ford Foundation.
Read article at pharmalot.com

January 5, 2008

Cutbacks to Iraqi food rations threaten malnutrition and starvation
Under conditions of widespread malnutrition, run-away inflation and mass unemployment, the Iraqi Trade Ministry is preparing to slash the provision of subsidised food and basic hygiene necessities under the Public Distribution System (PDS).
Read article on the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS)
Comment: The PDS was introduced by Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime as a short-term answer to the UN economic sanctions imposed during the Gulf War of 1990-1991. It is estimated that these sanctions led to as many as one million Iraqi deaths, including those of 500,000 children, between 1991 and 1998. Denis Halliday, the then United Nations Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Iraq, resigned in protest in October 1998, declaring: "We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral." Notably, therefore, by the time of the March 2003 invasion, virtually the entire Iraqi population was to some extent reliant on food rations to meet even their basic nutritional requirements. Nevertheless, the US military has utterly failed to ensure that they received them. As such, the UN's retrospective and continued approval of the US-led military occupation of Iraq only further cements the final erosion of its credibility, thus heralding the ultimate demise of its role as servant to the people of the world.