From: AHRC
Sent date: April 24, 2008
Subject: [AHRC Forwarded Press
Release]
INDIA:
Dr. Binayak Sen of Chhattisgarh, India is conferred with
the
2008 Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights
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Dear
Friends,
The
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward to you the
following press release from the Peoples' Union for Civil Liberties
(PUCL) concerning Dr. Binayak Sen from Chhattisgarh, India. Dr. Sen is
currently detained in Raipur Central Prison against which the AHRC has
issued Urgent Appeals calling for his immediate release.
The
Appeals; FA-003-2007, UP-079-2007, UP-091-2007, UP-106-2007 and
UP-118-2007 not only provide information concerning Dr. Sen's work but
also explains the plight of the ordinary people in Chhattisgarh for
which Dr. Sen has dedicated his life.
Asian
Human Rights Commission
Hong
Kong
-------------
FORWARDED
PRESS RELEASE
AHRC-FPR-008-2008
A Press
Release from the Peoples' Union for Civil Liberties forwarded by the
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
Embargoed for
Release
22 April 2008
INDIA:
Dr. Binayak Sen of Chhattisgarh, India is conferred with the 2008
Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights
The
Global Health Council on 22 April 2008 announced that Dr. Binayak Sen of Chhattisgarh,
India is conferred with the 2008
Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights.
The
Global Health Council www.globalhealth.org
is the world's largest membership alliance of public health
organisations and professionals working to improve health and save
lives among the poor. The Jonathan Mann Award was established by
the Global Health Council in 1999 to honour Dr. Jonathan Mann and to
highlight the vital link between health and human rights.
Sponsored
in 2007 by four organizations, Association François-Xavier
Bagnoud, Doctors of
the World, John Snow
Inc. and the Global
Health Council, the Award is bestowed annually to a leading
practitioner in health and human rights.
Despite
his untimely death in a 1998 plane crash, Dr. Mann is considered by
many to be one of the most important figures of the 20th century in the
fight against global poverty, illness and social injustice. As the
first director of the World Health Organization's Special Program on
AIDS from 1986-1990, Dr. Mann pioneered the approach to AIDS that
continues to shape public health policy today.
As a
Professor of Health and Human Rights at Harvard University from
1990-1997, Dr. Mann began to articulate the ways in which the health of
individuals and populations reflect access to basic human rights based
on his years of experience as a public health practitioner and as a
strategist. History will remember Dr. Mann for bringing to the
world's attention the basic notion that improved health cannot be
achieved without basic human rights, and that these rights are
meaningless without adequate health.
A list
of the 57 individuals worldwide who were nominated for the 2008 Mann
Award can be viewed here.
Of note and a matter of pride for India, nine of the 2008 nominees are
Indians. They are Dr. Swami Hardas of Pune, Mr. Surya Makaria of
Hyderabad, Mr. Deelip Mhaske of Mumbai, Dr. Ugrasen Pandey of
Firozabad, Dr. Prameelamma Pedamali of Srikalahasti, Dr.
Kamalesh Sarkar of Kolkata, Dr. Mukesh Shukla of Surendranagar,
Dr. Diwakar Tejaswi of Patna, and Dr. Binayak Sen of Raipur.
In
reviewing these distinguished nominees, the international jury of
public health experts considered and evaluated several criteria
including: practical work in the field and in difficult circumstances;
actual relevance to the linkage of health with human rights;
predominant activities in a developing country and with marginalised
people; evidence of serious and long-term commitment; and potential for
the Award to strengthen the nominee's work.
The
Jonathan Mann Award along with three other awards (the Gates Award for
Global Health, the Best Practices in Global Health Award, and the
Excellence in Media Award for Global Health) will be presented to Dr.
Sen in a formal ceremony during the annual meeting of the Global
Health Council, which this year takes place in Washington, DC, USA.
Dr.
Sen, alumnus of the Christian Medical College, Vellore, has devoted a
lifetime to the healthcare of the tribal population of Chhattisgarh.
Along with the legendary trade union leader Mr. Shankar Guha Niyogi, he
founded the Shaheed Hospital in the mining town of Dalli Rajhara, an
institution that till today continues the tradition of providing
accessible and rational health care to the people. For the last fifteen
years, Dr. Sen has worked in a remote tribal area treating those
afflicted with chronic malnutrition, endemic malaria and other
infectious diseases. He has also worked on issues of food and
livelihood security, and has been the general Secretary of the State
Unit of the Peoples' Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), as well as the
National Vice President of the organisation.
In this
capacity he is a vociferous critic of police excesses carried out by an
unaccountable state and by the state sponsored vigilante Salwa Judum
movement in Chhattisgarh that has led to civil war like conditions in
large parts of southern Chhattisgarh. Dr. Sen has earlier received the
Paul Harrison Award from his alma mater for his contributions in
'redefining health care in a broken society', and the R. R. Keithan
Gold Medal from the Indian Academy of Social Sciences for 'a fresh and
radical interpretation of Gandhiji's core concerns'.
Unfortunately
and as it is well known within India, Dr. Sen has been
incarcerated in the Raipur Central Jail in Chhattisgarh on
charges of being a supporter of the banned Maoist party for almost one
year, and is soon to stand trial on charges under the Chhattisgarh
Special Public Security Act, 2005.
In a
letter to the President of India, the Prime Minister of India, and to
the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Dr. Nils Dulaire (president and
chief executive officer of the Global Health Council) has written:
"Dr. Sen was
selected for this honor by an international jury of public health
experts on the basis of his years of service in poor and tribal
communities in India, his effective leadership in establishing
self-sustaining health care services where none existed, and his
unwavering commitment to civil liberties and human rights. His
long history of selfless service and this Award's recognition are
commendations that we hope will be celebrated by India's leaders and
citizens.
The irony of course
is that Dr. Sen is now in his twelfth month of imprisonment without
trial in Raipur. This is of deep concern to the global health
community. Therefore those signing on to the statement attached
here felt it important to bring this matter to your attention and to
kindly request that you consider how means could be found to allow Dr.
Sen to attend the award's ceremony in Washington, DC, on May 29th, 2008.
We wish to be
clear: it is not our intent to interfere with the judicial process. We
simply request that this doctor's good works and highly regarded
reputation as a man of science and service, and his international
following, serve as guarantee of his obligation to return to India to
participate in a just and fair judicial process after the awards
ceremony, if his case is not resolved sooner.
The world is
watching this case. Some have expressed concern that it might represent
a dwindling respect for civil liberties in India. We believe, however,
that allowing Dr. Sen to attend the award's ceremony would send a
strong signal internationally that would help to restore faith that
India and its states are indeed committed to fairly addressing this and
other cases related to civil conflicts and civil liberties. Dr.
Binayak Sen's travel to the United States for this purpose would pose
no threat to the security of Chhattisgarh or the integrity of the
Indian judicial system.
Please consider
finding the means to allow him to receive his award in person.".
Dr. Sen
is the tenth individual to be honoured by the Global Health
Council. Previous awardees are: Dr. Bogaletch Gabre, a
champion of women's rights who is a pioneer in eradicating the practice
of female genital excision in Ethiopia (2007); Dr. Juan Canales,
who helped marginalised peasants and indigenous communities in
conflict-ridden areas of El Salvador and Mexico to gain their human
right to health care by establishing community medicine and public
health programmes (2006); Prof. Abdel Mohammad Gerais who
advocated for and established reproductive health services to those
most in need in Egypt (2005); Dr. Sima Sahar who led innovative
programs in health, education, construction, relief, and income
generation to improve the lives of women and girls in Afghanistan
(2004); Mr. Zackie Achmat and Dr. Frenk Guni, who have worked to
raise awareness and advocate for equity of people with HIV/AIDS in
South Africa and Zimbabwe (2003); Dr. Ruchama Marton and Mr. Salah Haj
Yehya, associated with Physicians for Human Rights-Israel for
providing volunteer health care in the occupied territories of the West
Bank (2002); Dr. Gao Yaojie, a gynaecologist involved in HIV/AIDS care
and prevention work in China (2002); Dr. Flora Brovina and Dr. Vjosa
Dobruna who worked with refugees in the Kosovo conflict and now with
women and children victims of war crimes in Kosovo (2000); and Dr.
Cynthia Maung who committed her life to healing victims of human rights
abuses in Burma (1999).
An
interesting parallel is that one of Dr. Flora Brovina who was bestowed
with the same award in the year 2000 was also in prison at the time she
was selected for the award. Dr. Brovina is the founder and director of
the League of Albanian women in Kosovo, and at the time the award was
presented, Dr. Brovina was imprisoned in Serbia. The world community
dedicated to health and human rights celebrated her release on November
1, 2000 after 18 months of imprisonment on charges that she committed
terrorist acts by helping refugees in the conflict in Kosovo.
# # #
About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights
Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and
lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was
founded in 1984.
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