Dear CHIFA colleagues,
The message below was posted to our general forum HIFA. I have added a comment below.
https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/role-royal-colleges-war-advocating-gove...
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Sadly globally we are continuing to witness catastrophic harm to children and the vulnerable in War and Conflict. In the UK last week I was proud to be a part of a process where a Fellow Senior Member of the Royal College Of Paediatrics and Child Health to forward a motion to protect the Rights of the Children of Gaza at the Annual General Meeting. This motion concerned a particularly sensitive issue and the discussion was conducted in a thoughtful and respectful manner. A total of 808 members voted. 640 of these voted in favour, 146 against and 22 abstained. So, by a majority of 81.4% to 18.6%, the motion is passed.
I feel it is important that Health Professionals globally appreciate their responsibility to continue to advocate at all levels for the protection of lives and to enable all to receive appropriate healthcare, irrespective of their race, religion, ethnicity or background and to protest against the wrongful killings of aid workers and healthcare professionals. Medical Colleges have a powerful voice and we would like to encourage folks to bring forth such issues to their respective Colleges, globally and be united as health professionals.
Shiela C Puri Retired Consultant Paediatrician 'Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.'
HIFA profile: Shiela Puri is a Consultant Paediatrician at St James's University Hospital, Leeds, UK. Her interests include paediatrics/child health, complex disability and neuro-development. s.puri AT btinternet.com
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COMMENT (NPW): Were any CHIFA members present at the debate? Having read the motion beforehand, I was surprised that 18.6% voted against it. I was unable to find a link to the motion, which appears to be available only to RCPCH members.
CHIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org