AFRO-NETS> Human Rights Day: 10 December 2002

[Claudio Schuftan <aviva@netnam.vn>]

Human Rights Day: 10 December 2002
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New Cartoon Hopes to Catalyze Activism on the Right to Health

To raise awareness of health as a human right among the general pub-
lic, the World Health Organization (WHO) is today launching, "The 
Right to Health" a colourful, interactive cartoon booklet.

It is essential that people - especially poor, vulnerable and margin-
alized population groups - become aware of their right to the highest 
attainable standard of health. They should also be aware that their 
government has certain obligations and should be accountable. Aware-
ness is the first step in mobilizing action in favour of being able 
to claim this right.

"Awareness of human rights means that the disadvantaged can mobilize 
and empower themselves. The language of rights makes people conscious 
of the possibility of change," said Helena Nygren-Krug, Health and 
Human Rights Advisor, WHO.

The goal of the cartoon is to reach out to adolescents and children. 
It is just one of several tools WHO is using to raise awareness of 
the right to health amongst people, including health practitioners 
and government officials. In addition to various publications on 
health and human rights, WHO is developing health and human rights 
training both at its headquarters and regional offices.

The cartoon's story takes place in a classroom where a teacher inter-
acts with children from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe, empha-
sizing the universality of human rights. They talk about children's 
rights, women's rights, discrimination, freedom to make personal life 
choices and the right to healthy living conditions and education. 
They also discuss access to affordable health services, how govern-
ments must strive to increase their ability to promote and protect 
the right to health and the responsibility of rich countries to help 
poor countries in making this right a reality.

The cartoon gives the general public, including adolescents and chil-
dren, an opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned by playing 
a game in which they mark boxes containing statements true or false.

A resource pack is being prepared for teachers, health professionals 
and human rights organizations; in addition to the cartoon, it will 
contain a teaching guide, a poster and the recently published "25 
Questions and Answers on Health and Human Rights" which is available 
online at: 
http://www.who.int/hhr/activities/publications/en/

The cartoon itself will be published on this same web site on 10 De-
cember, Human Rights Day.

On this day, WHO is bringing together a broad range of health and hu-
man rights organizations, including Amnesty International, for a 
meeting titled "Advancing the dialogue on health and human rights."

The aim of the meeting is to assess how the trend of linking health 
with human rights is playing out in different parts of world. Non-
governmental organization (NGO) representatives from Brazil, India, 
Nigeria and Uganda will report on their experiences. Participants 
will also discuss how to strengthen the agenda to advance health as a 
human right and to further integrate human rights principles in 
health policies and programmes.

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