The Lancet: Commission on Health and Human Rights (8)

3 April, 2024

We agree completely with the powerfully worded statements by both Stewart Britten and Elaine Toomey.

We have three suggestions.

1. The first has been made by many organizations, namely that the arms transfers to Israel from the UK and USA must cease immediately.

2. Given the now uninhabitable state of Gaza, MCAI has been calling for the urgent medical evacuation of all high-risk patients including pregnant women along with their existing children plus all others with medical conditions that can no longer be treated within Gaza. Please see the front page of our website for more information https://www.mcai.org.uk/

3. The complete failure of the international organisations that should have stopped the cruelty and internationally illegal actions of Israel are raised for action in our recent publication in the Medical Research Archives of The European Society of Medicine. Here is the link: https://esmed.org/MRA/mra/article/view/5048

David and Rhona

Professor David Southall OBE, MD, FRCPCH

Consultant Obstetrician Liberia and professor of Paediatrics UK

Honorary Medical Director MCAI, 1 Columba Court, Laide IV22 2NL, UK

Dr Rhona MacDonald, Honorary Executive Director, MCAI. MBChB, MPH, MRCGP, DCH, DRCOG MCAI.

0044 (0) 7710 674003

0044 (0) 7710 674003 and +44 (0)7944 632011

WhatsApp +44 7944 632011

https://www.mcai.org.uk/

Registered as a SCIO (Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation) No. SC043467

Director, MCAI Liberia, Office within WHO in the UN One Building, and Field Office, House 13, Phebe Hospital, Liberia Enterprise Number 051730402<tel:051730402>

HIFA profile: David Southall is a retired Professor of Paediatrics and Honorary Medical Director of the Maternal and Child Health Advocacy International (MCAI). www.mcai.org.uk David founded MCAI in 1995 and currently is directing a task-sharing programme in Liberia aimed at the training of midwives in advanced obstetrics (including abdominal surgery) and the training of nurses and midwives in advanced neonatal care. David’s main interests include: medical education, approaches to healthcare based on human rights, sustained improvements in the emergency hospital care of pregnant women and adolescent girls, babies and children in disadvantaged countries, preventing the life-threatening abuse of children, and advocacy against armed conflict and the arms trade and its effects on mothers and children. director AT mcai.org.uk