Newsletter 174

Contents

Action of the Week

Darfur Crisis

http://www.wantedforwarcrimes.org/index.php/English/

'Ten Second Action' as part of the Wanted For War Crimes Campaign. Steven Speilberg has recently announced that he will no longer be the 'artistic consultant' for the opening and closing ceremonies of this summers Beijing olympics because of the Chinese governments support of the Sudanese and Burmese Governments. George Clooney has also recently been appointed a UN peace envoy after is work campaigning for an end to the conflict in Darfur and calling for attention to this issue.

WANTED FOR WAR CRIMES In August 2003 the International Criminal Court's Chief prosecutor stated that Ahmad Harun, a Sudanese Government Minister, and Ali Kushayb a leader of the Janjaweed, organised the destruction of Bindisi - a town in Darfur. The ICC prosecutor said that their followers murdered over 100 civilians from the Fur tribe, raped women and girls, destroyed the mosque and food stores, and forced 34,000 people to flee.

Since the warrants for their arrest were issued by the International Criminal Court neither man has been handed over to the ICC or prosecuted by Sudanese courts. Instead, Ali Kushayb has been freed from prison while Harun has remained in his post as State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and was appointed to co-chair a committee charged with investigating human rights complaints, including those committed in Darfur. As Minister he is responsible for those displaced by the violence in Darfur, and is also charged with liaising with the UNAMID peacekeeping force currently being deployed to protect those same people. Thus one of the chief suspects in an investigation into mass murder is now responsible for the fate of the victims.

Due to China's veto the United Nations Security Council did not even issue a Presidential Statement about Sudan's refusal to hand over the suspects - it will soon be almost one year since the arrest warrants were issued.

Please express your deepest concern at Sudan's defiance of international law and call for the United Nations Security Council to:

  • visit Khartoum in May 2008 to ask for the Sudanese government to hand over the two suspects
  • impose targeted sanctions (asset freezes) on the Sudanese Government ministers protecting these two men.

Please visit Wanted for War Crimes to send an email to all fifteen members of the UN Security Council - this should only take ten seconds.

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National News and Events

Anything Else

Website and News

The website is for YOUR events being held by YOUR branches, projects and campaigns. It is really, really easy to submit events and news, so please do, and let everyone know what wonderful things you are up to! Join in Medsin discussions at http://www.medsin.org/discuss

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National News and Events

Asylum Monologues

Asylum Monologues in Bristol TONIGHT!: Wed 20th Feb Wickham Theatre off Woodland road 6:30pm-performance with workshops after. Please e-mail Abeel or Tehmina Bharucha for more details, or just turn up!

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Regional Conference Dates

For Your Diary:

  • London Conference - 23rd February, King's College, London

  • Midlands Regional Conference - 23rd February, Nottingham

  • Scottish Regional Conference - 1st March, Glasgow

  • Northern Regional Conference - 15th March, Preston

For more information see here.

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South East Medsin Regional Conference

ACCESS DENIED Refugee and Asylum Seeker Access to Health Care in the UK Saturday 23rd of February, 2008, 9-5pm Harris Lecture Theatre, Guy's Campus, King's College London

Many of you might already be aware that the government is implementing proposals to withdraw free, non-urgent primary or secondary healthcare from failed asylum seekers. (Please note, people with perfectly legitimate claims to asylum are rejected by the home office on a daily basis, a failed asylum seeker is not necessarily a bogus applicant). The motivation behind this?

"To ensure that living illegally becomes ever more uncomfortable and constrained until they leave or are removed" (Home Office, Enforcing the Rules 2007)"

Come to the conference to hear the leaders in the field of the Refugee debate and Human Rights tell us who is going to have to pay the price for this proposal, what the alternatives are, and what we can do about it.

To learn more click here, where you can also buy your ticket! Tickets are £5 including lunch, or £8 including lunch and a masquerade themed social with live music in the evening...

E-mail us for more information.

I hope to see lots of you there!

Chloe

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Scottish Regional Conference

The Scottish regional conference is being held at Glasgow University on Saturday 8th March. The overall theme is sanitation and there will be three sessions:

  • Access to water
  • Access to healthcare and medicine
  • Migration Each session will be 2 hours plus workshop fairs.

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Parliamentary Lobby Day

On 11th March, join campaigners from across the country for a day of lobbying to strengthen UK Government efforts to tackle HIV and AIDS.

The day starts with a public meeting near the House of Commons with the Conservative Shadow Secretary of State for International Development - an opportuntiy to ensure the Conservatives are doing all they can in the fight against AIDS.

Then join others in entering the Houses of Parliament to lobby your MP.

The day will also incorporate a hand in to the Government of the more than 26,000 campaign actions that have been collected so far this year.

Join the event on facebook

For more info, click here

To send message to the Government supporting the campaign, click here

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International Health Partnership E-vote

Unfortunately we did not meet quorum for this E-vote, which means Medsin couldn't sign the letter. Thanks to all those who voted.

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Life Under Israeli Occupation

There will be a talk from Dr Asad Khan, entitled "Go And See the Truth For Yourself, I Did" - Life Under Israeli Occupation: through the Eyes of a Doctor

Dr Khan is a Specialist Registrar, Respiratory Medicine, Wythenshawe Hospital

The talk will be on Wednesday March 12th at Halifax Central Library at 7.00pm.

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Global health conference 08

400+ students, 50+ speakers – one weekend!

The annual, national Medsin Global Health Conference is being held in Oxford on the 29th-30th March (weekend after Easter), so pencil it into your diaries!

Exciting and dynamic lectures, within the plenary themes of:

  1. Tackling HIV/AIDS in Resource-Poor Settings
  2. Disaster Relief and Emerging Epidemics
  3. International Aid – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
  4. Mental Health in the Global Community

Also featuring 60+ interactive workshops – with the widest possible choice of themes – to educate and to inspire!

Eminent speakers from America, Africa, WHO, UN and across the UK.

For only £15 (£30 for non-students)! Including two free lunches, and a mini-ball with food at the beautiful Oxford Union!

More details to follow soon – including how to get your ticket – but for now just make sure you keep that weekend free!

Contact Xin-Hui or Joel for more.

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KCL's Mini Conference

On Saturday 8th March 2008, King's College London will be hosting a day conference on the relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession. The final debate will be entitled "This house believes that pharmaceuticals have an undue influence on the practice of medicine". The day will commence at 10am and finish at 5pm. For further details, please contact kcl@pharmaware.co.uk.

Event: KCL's mini conference What: Workshop Host: PharmAware When: Saturday, March 8 at 10:00am Where: KCL

To see more details and RSVP, click here

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WaterAid Talks

WaterAid event: Lajana Manandhar from Nepal will be speaking at:

  • Bristol University (Queens Building) on Thursday 21 February, 6.30 – 8.30pm.
  • SOAS, Brunei Gallery, London on Monday 25 February, 6.30 – 8.30pm.
  • University of Edinburgh, (Appleton Tower) on Tuesday 26 February, 6.30 – 8.30pm.

The WaterAid website also have a page for the event which is kept up to date.

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Global Health Conference Voting Session

This is a call for bylaw changes, policy statements, motions, etc for the GHC2008 voting session. The deadline for submission is midnight on 7th March. Hits and tips on submitting something can be found here.

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Global Health Forum Lectures

The Global Health Forum provides a platform for debating topical global health issues. Broadly, our topics concentrate on public health in the developing world, health within deprived communities in the developed world and issues relating to the ethics of health and healthcare. We run a weekly lecture series in which these important issues are presented by world experts and then questioned and discussed by the audience…you! This is a great opportunity to really explore things not covered in your course but which many of us are deeply interested in. Our talks are accessible to all. No baseline knowledge is needed, just an interest in the reasons underlying the massive discrepancy in public health across the world. All lectures take place at 6.30pm in the Sir Alexander Fleming building in South Kensington and there is free food!

  • March 14th - Effects of deforestation on drug sources
  • March 11th - Chernobyl/Hiroshima effects and aftermath

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GHC2009 bids

With the Medsin Global Health Conference 2008 nearly upon us, it's time to start thinking about whether your branch could host the GHC2009. The deadline for submission of applications is the 7th March 2008, and applicants will be voted on at the GHC08 in Oxford. All the paperwork (1 whole form!) can be found here, and for more information, please get in touch with the committee.

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Anything Else?

The following aren't officially affilliated with Medsin, but we thought you might be interested.

Climate Change and its Impact on Health

The Royal College of Physicians is organising a one day conference on 'Climate Change and its Impact on Health' on Tuesday 29th January 2008.

This conference aims to separate fact from fiction, and discuss the impacts of climate change both in the UK and abroad.

Although the conference is aimed at all members of the medical profession it is equally open to all those with an interest in climate change from other professions.

For more information contact the conference coordinator on 020 7935 1174 ext. 252 or click here.

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Journey to Justice: Breaking the Chains of Global Debt

This event will take place on Sunday 18th May 2008 at the International Conference Centre in Birmingham. It will mark the tenth anniversary of the human chain in Birmingham in 1998, when 70,000 people joined together to demand that the G8 drop the debt.

Ten years later some debts have been cancelled, resulting in many transformed lives. But the debt crisis is not over. Much wider debt cancellation is urgently needed to help tackle global poverty.

For more information click here.

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Global Health: Current Issues, Future Trends and Foreign Policy Conference

On Tuesday 29th April 2008, the Royal College of Physicians of London will host a conference on global health.

"Global Health: Current Issues, Future Trends and Foreign Policy" will explore the growing UK debate on global health, with updates on communicable and chronic disease. Coming after the publication in 2007 of Lord Crisp's "Global health partnerships" and Sir Liam Donaldson's "Health is global: proposals for a government-wide strategy" this conference will discuss their impact and the latest Government initiatives. Drawing together experts from the clinical and policy worlds, the conference will examine the role the UK has to play through the prism of its foreign policy. It will afford an opportunity for people from different fields to interact in lively and informative debate.

The Rt Hon Lord Malloch-Brown, Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN will deliver a guest lecture on "Health security: foreign policy and global health"

A full programme and registration details can be found here.

Venue: Royal College of Physicians Location: London

Audience: Physicians, public health specialists, healthcare personnel, policy makers, political lobbyists, journalists, supranational organisations, NGOs.

For more information please click here or email the conference team.

There are student places at £75, down from £225! Just state that you are a full time student on the apllication/payment form.

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£500 Student Essay Prize

MEDICINE, CONFLICT AND SURVIVAL is offering a £500 prize for the best essay BY A MEDSIN MEMBER on a topic covered by the Journal, and publication of the essay in a forthcoming issue.

The Essay should be no more than 2,500 words long and the deadline for submission is the end of July 2008

For the topics covered by the Journal, go here and click ‘Aims and Scope’. On the same page, click ‘Instructions for Authors’ to find how the essay should be presented.

This prize is made possible through the generosity of the LionelPenrose Trust

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News from the Oxford Health Alliance

The Oxford Health Alliance is a UK-based NGO that addresses 3 risk factors (poor diet, smoking, lack of physical activity) that lead to the four major chronic diseases (CVD, many cancers, diabetes and chronic lung disease) that account for well over 50% of deaths in the world.

A global network of experts and activists - from public health, business, young people, NGOs, academics, government etc. - and one of our major focuses at the moment is the way in which the environment (especially the built environment) impacts upon the risk factors, particularly physical activity.

Things that particularly might interest Medsin members:

  1. Our user-generated 'social networking' website, www.3four50.com. We'd be delighted if you or your colleagues felt able to register on the site - we have over 300 people in the online network, from all over the world (many young people as well as public health experts etc). You can then post photos/blogs - and if you have a particular project that you'd like highlighting, we can post it as a 'showcase'.

  2. We will shortly be having our annual summit - this one in Sydney on the theme 'Building a healthy future: chronic disease and our environment'. We will be streaming news videos from here twice daily on 3FOUR50. (We realise our carbon footprint with the flights is far from ideal - but we are a global organisation so many people will be attending from Australia! - and we hope people will follow online.)

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Interested in knowing more about Conflict, Peace & Human rights?

Medical Peace Work have launched an online free course for Medical students (and anyone who is interested). MPW is an organisation dedicated to using health and medicine to promote peace. Their course covers 8 modules:

  • Module 1: Understanding peace and conflict
  • Module 2: Medicine and Human Rights
  • Module 3: War, weapons and strategies of violent conflict
  • Module 4: Structural violence and the underlying causes of violent conflict
  • Module 5: Peace-Health Interventions in Armed Conflict
  • Module 6: Refugee and Migration Challenges
  • Module 7: Inter-personal and self-directed violence

If you use it and have any thoughts, the creators would love it hear about it. Please leave comments on the site.

Enjoy!

Pete

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Opportunity to attend Global Health Short Course 2008 at Imperial!

Monday 23rd June - Friday 4th July 2008

Global Health Short Course for medical students is potentially running from Monday 23 June - Friday 4 July this year! Held by Imperial College and Medsin-Imperial, this course will consist of lectures and small group work on topics including poverty and development, equality and health economics, policy and trade, infectious diseases, maternal and child health and the impact of war and conflict. These are very interesting topics, and whilst there will be structured teaching, there will also be plenty of time for participant discussion and debate. Leading experts with years of experience from Imperial College, Medact and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have been invited to lecture.

This promises to be an exciting new course, the very first of its kind to run open to medical students! The course fee is estimated at £60 (depending on level of interest) and will include a certificate of course completion.

If you are interested in taking the course, please reply to Anenta. This is in no way binding, but will provide an idea of the level of interest.

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Last updated on Wednesday 20 February 2008 at 15:39.