Press Release — March 16, 2015
Global Vote results are in: Poor countries’ debt burdens to be the focus of Article 25’s 2015 Global Campaign
Contact: Daniel Sufranski, djsufran@gmail.com, +1–630–772–7223 http://join25.org
BOSTON, USA — People around the world have spoken: the Article 25 movement will take on a massive campaign to cancel unjust debt burdens on poor countries and reform harmful lending practices from multilateral institutions.
These results come after a two-month long offline and online Global Vote, in which over 10,000 people voted on Article 25’s campaign priorities for 2015. Other campaigns on the ballot included challenging harmful drug patent laws that prevent access to medicines and promoting new forms of drug development to make medicines more affordable and rally support for neglected diseases.
A remarkable 90% of voters came from low-income communities across the global South. The Global Vote aimed to transform the way decisions are made in global health: shifting decision-making power away from boardrooms and into the hands of people whose lives are directly impacted by global policies.
Paulo Merenda, a disability rights activists in Brazil, worked as a Global Vote Captain in São Paulo and printed ballots, held educational sessions, and held voting drives among his network of people with disabilities. He collected 200 votes just in his hometown, and many other Captains in Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Cameroon, and Nepal went door-to-door and collected more than 1000 votes each — 85% of votes came from offline ballots. “Together we are not asking for favors; we are asking for our rights,” said Paulo.
Article 25 also placed a large emphasis on reaching women voters and other marginalized groups. Approximately 50% of all voters were women, with the vast majority from the global South. “Over 20 million people now die from global health inequity every year,” said Amee Amin, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Article 25. “It is not a coincidence that a system controlled by the few has failed to secure the right to health. That’s why Article 25 invested resources to get out the vote in some of the most marginalized communities — we’re building a people’s movement that can truly fight for the right to health.”
For more information about Article 25, the Right to Health Movement and future campaigns, visit join25.org. You can also join Article 25’s conversation on Twitter and Facebook by using the hashtag #RightToHealth.
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