Rockbites: Doctors Without Borders calls on George W. Bush

newsarchive

April 2001 • Rockbites Alternative Daily

back to April 2001 index

Doctors Without Borders calls on George W. Bush
19 April 2001

(As a human rights oriented Web site—we’re here to raise funds for human rights as well as to expose cutting edge pop—Rockbites occasionally brings you non-music-related stories. Here’s one.)

International medical aid and human rights organization Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has had great success with their Web-based petition supporting the government of South Africa in their efforts to fight 39 pharmaceutical companies who, through legal obstruction, are preventing life-saving drugs including HIV medication from reaching those in need. Hundreds of thousands of signatures have been collected so far.
    In 1997 Nelson Mandela, then president, signed the Medicines And Related Substances Control Amendment Act to ensure low-cost access to life-saving drugs. The Act is fully in accord with international trade agreements. Nonetheless, a cartel of multinational drug companies immediately sued the government, effectively rendering the act moot—and indirectly causing a number of HIV-related deaths over the past three years.
    In the past 12 months some 250,000 individuals have died of AIDS related illnesses in South Africa. And in the six weeks that the court postponed the case to allow the Pharmaceutical Manufacturer’s Association to provide evidence defending their high prices, 30,000 more people have died—the vast majority of whom did not have access to life-saving medicines due to those high prices.
    On Tuesday in New York city, Doctors Without Borders-USA executive director Nicolas de Torrente called on US president George W. Bush to publicly state his support for South Africa’s struggle to improve access to affordable medicines. De Torrente said, “The European Parliament, former South African President Nelson Mandela, and a quarter of a million individuals around the world have called on the companies to drop the court case, but the Bush administration has been alarmingly silent on the issue. We urge President Bush to express publicly and unequivocally US support for South Africa’s right to use legal measures that comply with international trade agreements to improve access to medicines for its citizens.”
    | online petition | | Doctors Without Borders | | top of page |

back to April 2001 index

today’s stories •

click for Rockbites Home
	Copyright © 1998 - 2001 M. Jason. All Rights Reserved. Rockbites is not for profit and supports human rights. “Rockbites” and “Alternative Daily” are service marks of Rockbites. All names are the property of their respective owners. Send your feedback or questions to feedback@rockbites.com Send your press releases to press@rockbites.com Rockbites Alternative Daily contact information