Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
chapter 10
access to aIDS Medicines,
International Human rights
law, and Social Movements
lisa Forman
any global effort to achieve health for all must respond to the inaccessibility
of affordable and essential medicines in many developing countries. this dearth of
fundamental healthcare goods and services threatens human development and social
prosperity. Global governance by international organisations and governments in this
area has largely been inadequate and inefficient, serving to perpetuate and entrench
the
status quo
, which has prioritised the interests of pharmaceutical companies in the
west over the human needs of the global poor. Global civil society actors challenged
this
status quo
in relation to aIDS medicines, moving international organisations and
governments alike toward collective action to facilitate access to these medicines
in developing countries. this struggle has coalesced around human rights claims,
litigation, and mobilisation.
this chapter explores the contribution of global social movements to the issue
of access to aIDS medicines and their implications for the utility of rights-based
discourse and legal actions in global health governance. It outlines the broader
challenge posed by inaccessible medicines, and focusses on the specific problem of
aIDS medicine; it illustrates the inadequacies of global responses to this problem,
and describes the emergence of global social activism. It explores the changes and
innovations achieved through this activism, and closes by analysing the implications
of this struggle for global health governance more generally.
Global Access to medicines
Medicines are a fundamental component of a healthcare system and a core element
of any government's efforts to meet the healthcare needs of its populace. they are
'by far the most significant tool that society possesses to prevent, alleviate and cure
disease' (United nations Millennium Project 2004, 9). Yet almost 2 billion people
(one third of the global population) lack regular access to essential medicines (world
