What we have done so far

David Chiriboga (Ecuador), Paulo Buss (Brazil) and Juan Garay (Spain) proposed to send a letter to the UN Secretary-General. The letter was endorsed by a dozen of former presidents, 40+ former health ministers, lead scholars, scientists, and activists from every region in the world. Global, regional and national networks of public health defenders and professionals supported the call. The letter was published in the Lancet in May.

Hosted by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, with the participation of Dr. Tedros Adhanom, Director-General of WHO, Dr. Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dr. Bernice Dahn, former Minister of Health of Liberia, and representatives of SHEM partner institutions.

SHEM sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General and to the UNGA Chairman requesting that equity be a focus in the Special Session of the UNGA on Covid -19 and asking for inclusion of SHEM in the UNGA.

SHEM held a meeting with Dr. Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She listed three urgent health areas for the UN HR agenda: a) maternal and child health; b) increasing access to essential health care during the pandemics; c) complexifying metrics and units used to understand health inequalities.

In an action led by the InterAcademy Partnership, SHEM collaborated with WHO to identify and eventually publish a series of case studies on ‘Responses to COVID-19 aimed at Improving and Sustaining Health Equity’. The collection will assembly successful cases that illustrate attempts to reduce inequities caused by COVID-19.

Following a suggestion by SHEM and Fundación Ifarma (Colombia), WFPHA sent, an open letter to the World Trade Organization (WTO) with copies to WHO, World Intellectual Property Organization, and United Nations
Secretary-General to support the proposal for the temporary suspension of intellectual property rights for necessary products to address the covid-19 pandemic.