About Us
In 1948, world leaders, horrified by the consequences of World War II, met at the United Nations to adopt a Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This declaration served to provide a set of basic rights to protect human life and the dignity of all human beings. Among these rights was the ever-important Article 25, which declared a standard of adequacy for one’s “health and well-being,” and one’s right to “medical care and necessary social services.” Article 25 is now simply known as the “right to health.”
Photo courtesy of Facebook / Article25Advocate
Despite the well-intended creation of the declaration, today more than 20 million people die each year due to inadequate health care. Over the past 25 years, more people have died due to inequities in health care than from history’s largest wars and genocides. The article’s official website, Join25.org, recognizes this as a global crisis, and declares that it requires a global movement to fix it.
The movement calls for groups all over the world to hold their own events on October 25 to promote awareness of the current global health crisis and demand action to end health inequity. Doing so will help call for universal health coverage to be a goal in the UN’s 2015 agenda. Their team will gather images taken at individual events and share them via multiple social media platforms to send a powerful message that will hopefully make an impact on the world’s leaders.
This Saturday, October 25, UGBC will host Boston College’s own movement called “BC Pledges for the Right to Health” in O’Neill Plaza at 1 p.m. The event is open to any individuals or student organizations that wish to come and show their support for this incredibly important cause. UGBC will be making an “Article 25” poster that students can pose with for photos, handprint or paint. Students will also have the opportunity to write on the poster stating why they believe health is a human right.
An exciting aspect of this event is that it plays into a larger picture than just the BC campus. The following day, Sunday, October 26, at around 2 p.m., there will be a rally on Boston Common sponsored by the ALC via the AHANA Caucus, along with groups from other area universities, for the Global Day of Action for Article 25. The article has been outreaching to countries all over the world and so far, there are already 100 actions in 44 countries, ranging from Peru, to Egypt, to Thailand. Pictures taken during this event will be posted on Article 25’s website, along with pictures from similar events all over the world, portraying people uniting in support for this basic, but essential, human right.
To participate in this powerful event and show your support for the human right to health, be sure to stop by O’Neill Plaza this Saturday, and/or attend the rally on the Common on Sunday.
This article originally stated that the rally on Boston Common for the Global Day of Action for Article 25 was hosted, not sponsored, by ALC via the AHANA Caucas. The article has been amended to reflect these corrections.
