Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, spearheads historic Call to Action for Global Women’s Health

Organizers hope the Call to Action will be used as an advocacy tool for furthering the global movement for women’s health.

Photo courtesy of Trygve Bolstad, Panos Pictures

Health and human-rights leaders from around the world convened in June at Aspen’s Wye River Conference Center to discuss “Innovations in Supporting Local Health Systems for Global Women’s Health.” The meeting, designed to examine ways to strengthen local health systems around the world and promote women’s right to health, brought together diverse leaders determined to create a new and stronger alliance.

“Women’s health is a basic building block of economic growth and social progress,” said Madeleine K. Albright, the keynote speaker, former U.S. Secretary of State and chairperson of the Council for Women World Leaders’ Ministerial Initiative, which cosponsored the meeting.

“A leader who is committed to saving women’s lives can shape a budget that gives full funding for that purpose. A leader who is determined to make a difference in the lives of women will inspire others to take up the same cause.”

The three-day conference culminated in the drafting of the “Wye River Call to Action for Global Women’s Health,” calling for universal access to health care and supporting the target of universal access to reproductive health by 2015. Signed by 59 prominent political leaders, grassroots activists, academic experts and foundation leaders from 21 countries, the Call to Action further emphasized that “countries must adopt laws, regulations and policies to strengthen health systems, improve women’s health and establish tolerance and respect for women’s decisions in all matters pertaining to their health and well-being.”

“This language certainly refers to protecting women’s right to make their own decisions about unwanted pregnancies as well as other health issues,” said Barbara Crane, Executive Vice President of Ipas. “The Call to Action sends a wake-up call to the world’s leaders that women and girls are suffering the most from lack of access in many countries to basic health care, including reproductive health—and that leaders can and must fix broken health systems at the local level in order to save women’s lives and ensure their health.”

The document further underscores the reality that health systems, rather than simply delivery systems for technical interventions, are “core social institutions.” It urges confronting the crisis of insufficient human resources that is causing health systems to collapse in many poor countries. Final key messages are abolishing user fees for primary-health care and other financial barriers to access, and reorienting HIV programs and policies to strengthen health systems and provide “uncompromising protection of health and rights of women and girls.”

The conference was led by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and current Executive Director of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative. Other cosponsors were the Council for Women World Leaders and the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. In addition to the organizers cited above, the conference was attended by activists and leaders from nongovernmental organizations, government officials from various countries, including ministers from Finland, Honduras, Mexico, and Togo, and U.N. agency staff.

Organizers hope the Call to Action will be used as an advocacy tool for furthering the global movement for women’s health and the human right to health, promoting more resources to achieve universal access to health care, and strengthening health systems, especially at the local level. They encourage other institutions and individuals to join them by signing on, and any interested party should contact Peggy Clark at peggy.clark@aspenist.org.

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258