Subject: From TRANSNATIONAL - Satyagraha - 25 April 1994 - No. 0
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X-Comment: The Transnational Radical Party List
Fortnightly Newsletter of the Radical Party
A CAMPAIGN FOR NEW LAWS TO FIGHT AIDS
It has never been so startlingly clear that poverty and lack of health care
in one corner of the world can have such lethal consequences for people on
the other side of the planet. As far as the spread of disease is concerned,
the global village of the Nineties is very small indeed!
In most countries AIDS is still only treated as a health problem and not as
an issue to be dealt with also in relation to human development and from a
political and institutional standpoint. Notwithstanding the global
proportions of the pandemic, there are still no international laws
governing AIDS, which is symbolic of the fragmented way in which the battle
against this terrible disease has been conducted so far. In other words, we
have to admit that so far we have not been able to come up with a suitable
or effective "cure."
The challenge faced by the world community demands organization and
cooperation that is sustainable at a transnational level: the fact that the
HIV virus knows no frontiers makes it essential to establish common laws
that are respected by all countries. The concept of "interference for
humanitarian and health reasons" is also admissible in this case.
The main goal of the Radical Party campaign is, therefore, to fill the gap
in the international legal and institutional framework by creating an
instrument that will permit nations to take global and concerted action
against pandemics such as the one caused by the HIV virus. The Radical
Party would like to suggest three supranational instruments: an ad hoc UN
Convention; an amendment to the Statute of the World Health Organization; a
Universal Declaration. These three possibilities are not mutually
exclusive.
The relationship between the individual, the small or large community of
which he is part, his country and the world, has to be rethought. This is
why political change is necessary.
