A demonstration in Uganda.

However, Malawi is making progress. In 1992, it opened the College of Medicine at the University of Malawi in Blantyre, and 168 doctors graduated in the first ten years. There was a 137% increase in doctors between 2004 and 2009. Malawi is also training more nurses than ever before.

Despite this success, Malawi still faces significant challenges. It must retain these doctors and nurses while persuading them to work in isolated, underfunded and overcrowded clinics and paying them less than they would make in other English-speaking countries. According to the WHO, 57 countries have critical shortages of doctors, nurses and midwives. How can you help? Support the Global HEALTH Act.

The Global HEALTH Act will guide and fund the development of a stronger workforce in countries like Malawi. Countries will develop plans for their health systems to build up their human resources for health. A stronger workforce means greater access to care, which is essential to realizing health as a human right. You may not have chosen the Global HEALTH Act for your Global Health Week of Action, but you can still sign the petition to ask your Representative to cosponsor the bill.

Want to take it a step further? Ask your Dean to join other prominent health professionals in signing the letter that PHR will send to your Representative — Members of Congress are busy people, but they respond to experts. Present the sign-on letter (pdf) to your Dean or interested faculty member, either directly or via email. You can use this email template (doc) and include this fact sheet (pdf) if you’d like. IMPORTANT: email me at hobrien[at]phrusa[dot]org to let me know when your Dean grants permission to use her or his name.

Your efforts on this important Act can have a big impact both in Congress and to the people of Malawi.

Students from NEOUCOM’s PHR chapter held an AIDS Week of Awareness surrounding World AIDS Day. Daily speakers and activities covered a wide range of topics from harm reduction and access to anti-retroviral medications to the feminization of AIDS. As a visual representation of this week, the student body received red ribbons and many students participated in creating Peace Tiles. These tiles were a depiction of students’ emotions regarding HIV/AIDS and what should be done to help fight this epidemic. As a first year chapter at NEOUCOM, the members were extremely excited by the interest from the student body and faculty and look forward to implementing what they’ve learned at local Syringe Exchange Programs and HIV/AIDS support agencies.

Check out these photos from NEOCOM’s WAD events.

Got great photos from your chapter’s WAD events? Email me at skalloch[at]phrusa[dot]org and we’ll post them here!

Why CEDAW? Why now?

1. Suggestions that the US is a leader in human rights is questionable when the country is not a party to the main human rights treaties, including CEDAW;
2. US calls for other countries to fulfill women’s human rights lack credibility when the US has not ratified the main women’s human rights treaty;
3. Successive administrations would be under a legal human rights obligation to submit periodic reports on its implementation of the rights contained in CEDAW;
4. US civil society could monitor and report on what the US government is doing to implement the human rights of women in this country. Called a ‘Shadow Report’, this report is submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (the Committee). The Committee welcomes this information to ensure that it is as well informed as possible;
5. Individuals and groups can make complaints against the government to the Committee;
6. The Committee on its own initiative can investigate grave or systemic in-country violations of women’s human rights.

The latter two procedures are only available when a country has accepted them. Hence, this would require the US ratifying the Optional Protocol to CEDAW.

If the US ratifies CEDAW, fulfillment of women’s human rights in the US would no longer be at the whim of different administrations. As the U.S. would be a party to CEDAW, people within the US could demand that any US administration fulfill the rights contained in the treaty.

We need your help to meet our goal. It will take 2 minutes:

• The petition is online now. Help us reach 10,000 signatures today!
• Get More Involved: Join our “10,000 in 10 Leadership Team” and make a pledge to collect 50 signatures from family, friends and colleagues. Email me at skalloch[at]phrusa[dot]org to join the team.

Why CEDAW?
Women all over the world are facing discrimination, abuse and systematic inequities that make them especially vulnerable to some of the most severe global health challenges. Until we promote and protect women’s rights, the most severe diseases and health complications will continue to disproportionately affect women world wide.

Why Now?
The US remains one of only 7 countries in the world who have yet to ratify this critical treaty, along with Sudan and Somalia.

Since the treaty was adopted by United Nations in 1979, efforts for US ratification have come up repeatedly in the Senate but faced significant obstacles by CEDAW opponents, crushing potential for ratification. Now, CEDAW has strong support within the Foreign Relations Committee and is listed by the Obama administration as one of the top three treaties to ratify.

Things are looking a lot brighter: Let’s make the most of this new opportunity to protect women’s rights and support women’s health worldwide by finally ratifying CEDAW!

Let your Senator know that it’s time for the United States to ratify CEDAW and get serious about women’s rights worldwide.

We need your help to meet our goal. It will take 2 minutes:

• The petition is online now. Help us reach 10,000 signatures today!
• Get More Involved: Join our “10,000 in 10 Leadership Team” and make a pledge to collect 50 signatures from family, friends and colleagues. Email me at skalloch[at]phrusa[dot]org to join the team.

Why CEDAW?
Women all over the world are facing discrimination, abuse and systematic inequities that make them especially vulnerable to some of the most severe global health challenges. Until we promote and protect women’s rights, the most severe diseases and health complications will continue to disproportionately affect women world wide.

Why Now?
The US remains one of only 7 countries in the world who have yet to ratify this critical treaty, along with Sudan and Somalia.

Since the treaty was adopted by United Nations in 1979, efforts for US ratification have come up repeatedly in the Senate but faced significant obstacles by CEDAW opponents, crushing potential for ratification. Now, CEDAW has strong support within the Foreign Relations Committee and is listed by the Obama administration as one of the top three treaties to ratify.

Things are looking a lot brighter: Let’s make the most of this new opportunity to protect women’s rights and support women’s health worldwide by finally ratifying CEDAW!

Let your Senator know that it’s time for the United States to ratify CEDAW and get serious about women’s rights worldwide.

Former PHR Health Action AIDS Campaign Director Pat Daoust was honored with one of ANAC’s most prestigious awards, the Public Serive Award, for her three decades in AIDS care and her amazing advocacy work through Health Action AIDS. Her acceptance speech is below. In it she thanks all of you, the campaign’s supporters, for your deep commitme

nt to stopping AIDS. Read and be inspired!

First of all, thank you very much. I am extremely humbled and honored by this recognition, especially because it comes from this organization — ANAC — my fellow nurses.

When I received word that I would be the recipient of the Public Service Award, the letter noted that this is in large part an acknowledgment of the work accomplished as Director of the Health Action AIDS Campaign while at PHR. While I am extremely proud of the campaigns’ successes, I am the first to emphasize that without our coalition partners and the commitment of our members — particularly the thousands of nurses both here in the US and abroad — we would never been able to reach our goals!

• Wen we called upon you to write or sign on to letters to members of congress calling for the repeal of the HIV travel ban.
• When we asked you to set up in-district meeting with your representatives to help educate them on the importance of women’s rights and the need to integrate FP and reproductive health care with HIV service.
• Whenever we held summits or organized hill meetings to advocate for US investment in health systems and health workers in the developing world.
• Whenever we urged op-eds or LTEs that addressed human rights or the right to health for the most vulnerable including IDUs , MSN or women and children at risk for HIV.

You never let us down. You always rallied above and beyond.

The powerful voice of the nurse truly made a significant impact. The wins for AIDS, human rights and global health could never have happened with out the expertise, the dedication, the passion and the commitment of the largest group of health professional in the world. NURSES!!!

Our size as a profession — comprising close to 80% of all health professionals in the world — gives us power but also holds us responsible, obligates us to be advocates for those who voices are not hear. Our work is not done: appropriations for PEFAR and global health is still an unknown and with 70% of those in need of treatment lacking access and infection rates continuing to grown we have to keep our mission on the front pages and at the top of the USG agenda.

In closing I want to acknowledge and thank Deb von Z for nominating me for this award, the ANAC board for approving the nomination, my mentor Larry Kessler, the founder of the AIDS Action Committee in Mass, who first taught me about advocacy and  the entire HAA team at  PHR  and, last, my biggest supporter,  my husband Paul, who for years has put up with my international travel, my long absences and my obsessive behavior. He has never once complained.

Thank you all once again.

an individual who has demonstrated a distinguished record of service to public health while tirelessly working to advance public health knowledge and practice.

Upon learning of the award, PHR’s CEO, Frank Donaghue, said:

Physicians for Human Rights warmly congratulates and applauds our Board Chair, Robert Lawrence, MD, the recipient of one of the highest honors bestowed by the APHA. The 2009 Sedgwick Memorial Medal — a true accolade of the profession — signals colleagues’ recognition of Dr. Lawrence’s exemplary accomplishments in the field of public health. His leadership has helped PHR bring a human rights perspective to vital issues such as fighting global AIDS, strengthening the health workforce, addressing inequities faced by women and children, and promoting accountability and governance in health systems.

The Sedgwick Medal honors Dr. Lawrence’s long and remarkable career in public service. As Professor and Director of the Center for a Livable Future at The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr. Lawrence has worked to eliminate racial and income-based disparities in health-care access across the United States. Educated at Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Lawrence has taught at top US universities, served as a director of health sciences at the Rockefeller Foundation and has been a principal force for establishment of human rights programs in schools of public health. He is a member of the prestigious Institute of Medicine and is a past recipient of the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Prize.

Dr. Lawrence co-founded PHR, and has participated in human rights investigations with PHR and other organizations in countries including Chile, the former Czechoslovakia, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, Kosovo, the Philippines, and South Korea and South Africa.

Film Recommendations

A film screening can be an easy and effective way to get people involved and fill them in on the most pressing issues. Numerous powerful films have been made about the global AIDS crisis and themes such as human rights, women’s rights, and universal access. Here are a few suggestions of relatively recent and well received films:

• Coming to Say Goodbye: Stories of AIDS in Africa – This short (27 minute) feature weaves together the stories of several families dealing with AIDS in Tanzania and Kenya.
• Yesterday – Oscar nominated film about an HIV-positive mother in South Africa struggling to stay alive long enough to see her daughter off to school.
• A Closer Walk - Narrated by Will Smith and Glenn Close and featuring Kofi Annan, the Dalai Lama and Bono this expansive film about the global AIDS crisis travels between Africa, North America, Europe and South Asia as it explores the challenges and heartbreaks of AIDS.
• A Powerful Noise – A documentary about three women in different parts of the world (one of whom is an HIV-positive advocate for PWAs in Vietnam) overcoming gender barriers and poverty to affect positive changes in their respective communities.
• SASA – A 33 minute award-winning film that provides a glimpse into the lives of two East African women where intimate partner violence has made them susceptible to HIV. (The film is saved as a .mov file and thus needs to be played using QuickTime or a compatible player.)

Organize a Journal Club

A smaller event idea for interested members of your organization can be a discussion group to discuss relevant articles and brainstorm ideas. Consider using WAD as the inspiration for a journal club on health and human rights, global AIDS, or other related issues! Here are three good articles to use as a springboard to further discussion and reading:

1. Confronting AIDS: Human Rights, Law and Social Transformation; Mark Heywood and Dennis Altman; Health and Human Rights, Volume 5, No. 1 (2000), Pages 149-179
2. All for Universal Health Coverage; Laurie Garrett, A Mushtaque R Chowdhury and Ariel Pablos-Mendez; The Lancet, Volume 374, No. 9697, Pages 1294-1299
3. Human Rights Approaches to an Expanded Response to Address Women’s Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS; Daniel Whelan; Health and Human Rights, Volume 3, No. 1 (1998), Pages 20-36.

Additional Health and Human Rights-related articles and Right to Health-related books and journals are available on our website.

Host a Presenter

Having a guest come speak is always a fantastic idea for an event. Check out our Host a Speaker Guide and read some tips for finding and inviting a speaker:

• Ask your professors! Faculty members tend to know many people in the field and often have insight into who in the area might be most likely to be able to attend your event. They can also lend their support by helping present the invitation and acting asde facto sponsors of your event.
• Do some investigation to find non-university activists or organizations from the local community.
• Take advantage of the internet. You may be pleasantly surprised and realize they are at a nearby institution or in the same city.
• Reach out to other student groups to co-host an event. Not only does this make publicity more effective, it also means you can pool funds to invite someone from further away than would otherwise be possible.

This year, in keeping with the 2009 theme of Universal Access and Human Rights, we’re dedicating World AIDS Day and Human Rights Day to getting the United States to ratify the Convention to End All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Join us for the 10,000 in 10 campaign, which aims to collect ten thousand signatures for US ratification of CEDAW during the ten days between World AIDS Day (Dec 1) and Human Rights Day (Dec 10)!

There are a variety of opportunities to join the national action, depending on your interest and capacity:

1. Mobilize the health professional student and faculty communities to urge the US to ratify CEDAW as a step forward in protecting women’s rights and health. PHR is doing this in partnership with a number of other organizations, allowing for a greater national movement. Our challenge to each PHR chapter: collect 100 signatures of support for CEDAW from your community.
2. Host educational events on campuses nationwide about women, HIV, and the human rights context/approach.
3. Organize an in-district meeting with your Senator to personally deliver the signatures you collect and urge him or her to support CEDAW.

As you plan your school’s involvement in World AIDS Day, download our 2009 World AIDS Day Toolkit to receive educational & organizing resources to reach out to students and faculty, organize successful events, and educate members of your community. And stay tuned to the Student Blog for more hands-on advocacy resources available mid-November.