Links
These are some of the initiatives we recommend and support. If you are aware of an important web site that you believe should be linked here, please contact us.
GENERAL
We believe that nurturing and caring for children are the cornerstones of human progress. UNICEF was created with this purpose in mind - to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’ss path. We believe that we can, together, advance the cause of humanity.
The World Health Organization, the United Nations specialized agency for health, was established on 7 April 1948. WHO’s objective, as set out in its Constitution, is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. Health is defined in WHO’s Constitution as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Globalization and Health is an Open Access, peer-reviewed, online journal that provides a platform for research, knowledge sharing and debate on the topic of globalization and its effects on health, both positive and negative.
“A balanced view would propose that the effects of globalization on health (and health systems) are neither universally good nor bad, but rather context specific. If the dialogue pertaining to globalization is to be directed or biased in any direction, then it must be this: that we consider the poor first.”
Development is the flagship journal of the Society for International Development (SID).
Since 1957 Development has explored the cutting edge issues of human centred development. With alternative perspectives on civil society, development policy and community based strategies for livelihoods, gender and social justice, Development keeps readers up to date on the challenging issues of today’s rapidly changing world.
WORLD NEWS
AlterNet is a highly acclaimed Internet information source that provides readers with crucial facts and passionate opinions they can’t find anywhere else. Since its inception in 1998, AlterNet has grown dramatically to keep pace with the public demand for independent news and now provides free online content to over 1.5 million readers every month. Relying solely on word of mouth and viral marketing, AlterNet is unique in that its success has come entirely from its readers, who demand reliable information and use it to take action.
TruthOut scours the headlines from around the world and pulls together a fascinating collection of articles. In addition, their staff writes outstanding editorials. This is an excellent site for finding current news.
Guerilla News Network is an underground news organization with headquarters in New York City and production facilities in Berkeley, California. Its mission is to expose people to important global issues through guerrilla programming on the web and on television.
The Black Commentator’s core audience is African Americans and their allies in the struggle for social and economic justice.
Our focus is commentary, analysis and investigation, elements of political dialogue that are absolutely essential to the creation of movements for social change. Without regular forums for advocacy and debate, a people are at the mercy of their adversaries.
REGIONAL NEWS AND INFORMATION
The Network on Equity in Health in Southern Africa is a network of research, civil society and health sector organizations. Seeking to develop and widen the conceptual understanding of equity in health, Equinet identifies critical areas of work and policy issues and makes visible existing unfair and avoidable inequalities in health.
InfoChange is an independent daily development news website which provides news, views and analysis on sustainable development and socio-economic rights in India in particular and South Asia in general. The website offers comprehensive coverage of several different sectors including environment, water resources, poverty, livelihoods, women, children, public health etc. providing dozens of stories of change about alternative models of development and individuals and organisations working to make a difference at the grassroots.
Rajasthan Voluntary Health Association (RVHA) is a progressive informational group that is concerned about the the health challenges in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Problems identified for immediate intervention are related to a recurrent drought situation, gender inequity, malaria and famine. Recurring drought in Rajasthan has become a major cause of concern. To find ways and means to address the situation, RVHA organized an emergency meeting of concerned members followed by a state level workshop. On many issues RVHA helps to mobilize the efforts of the civil society to tackle problems which affect the poor.
The Medico Friend Circle (mfc) is a nation-wide group of socially conscious individuals interested in the health problems of people of India. Since its inception in 1974, mfc has critically analyzed the existing health care system and has tried to evolve an appropriate approach towards health care which is humane and which can meet the needs of the vast majority of the people in our country.
LOCOST is a public, non-profit charitable trust that makes essential medicines accessible to those working with the urban and rural poor in India. It is an innovative experiment to show that good quality medicines can be made and marketed at viable, low prices. The correct use of medicines and education of end-users and prescribes are major concerns of LOCOST.
SOCIAL EQUITY, ECONOMICS AND HEALTH
BUKO was founded in 1977 by independent Third World solidarity groups to improve communication on the grassroots level and to strengthen the political influence of the movement. The aim of BUKO is to expose structural injustice between North and South and to press for changes towards a fair new economic and political world order. BUKO has about 200 member groups.
The Institute for Food and Development Policy–better known as Food First–is a member-supported, non-profit ‘peoples’ think tank and education-for-action center. Our work highlights root causes and value-based solutions to hunger and poverty around the world, with a commitment to establishing food as a fundamental human right.
This web site looks into global issues that affect everyone and aims to show how most issues are inter-related. Over 5000 links to external articles, web sites reports and analysis are used to support the arguments made here. The issue categories range from trade, poverty and globalization, to human rights, geopolitics and the environment.
Globalization and Health is an Open Access, peer-reviewed, online journal that provides a platform for research, knowledge sharing and debate on the topic of globalization and its effects on health. The journal examines both the positive and negative effects of globalization on public health and presents balanced, challenging and rational debate on the subject.
IDS is an internationally-renowned centre for research and teaching on development, established in 1966. IDS also hosts many innovative information and knowledge management services.
The New Road Map Foundation seeks to foster a cooperative human community in a diverse yet interconnected world by creating and disseminating practical tools and innovative approaches to personal and cultural change. We promote love and service as routes to personal and social well-being.
One World is a portal on social justice - supporting people’s media to help co-create society, and a gateway to over 1250 partner non-profits worldwide.
The goal of the People’s Health Movement is to re-establish health and equitable development as top priorities in local, national and international policy-making, with comprehensive primary health care as the strategy to achieve these priorities. The People’s Health Movement (PHM) aims to draw on and support people’s movements in their struggles to build long-term and sustainable solutions to health problems.
The Third World Network is an independent non-profit international network of organizations and individuals involved in issues relating to development, the Third World and North- South issues. The Third World Network publishes the acclaimed Third World Resurgence.
HUMAN RIGHTS
The American system of government is founded on two counterbalancing principles: that the majority of the people governs, through democratically elected representatives; and that the power even of a democratic majority must be limited, to ensure individual rights.
Majority power is limited by the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, which consists of the original ten amendments ratified in 1791, plus the three post-Civil War amendments (the 13th, 14th and 15th) and the 19th Amendment (women’s suffrage), adopted in 1920.
Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights.
AI’s vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards.
In pursuit of this vision, AI’s mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights.
Our experience working in prisons throughout the United States over the past dozen years has compelled us to focus the Engaged Zen Foundation’s efforts on the complete circle of human rights imperatives.
EZF is inexorably committed to the abolition of punitive incarceration in any form, the dismantling of the prison industrial complex, and the adoption of alternative, restorative, methods of dealing with what is colloquially known as “criminal justice.”
ETC, or Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration, is dedicated to the conservation and sustainable advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human rights. To this end, ETC Group supports socially responsible developments of technologies useful to the poor and marginalized and it addresses international governance issues and corporate power.
Global Exchange is a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world. Since our founding in 1988, we have successfully increased public awareness of root causes of injustice while building international partnerships and mobilizing for change.
Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world.
We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice.
MindFreedom International unites 100 grassroots groups and thousands of members to win campaigns for human rights of people diagnosed with psychiatric disabilities. MindFreedom International is where mutual support meets human rights activism... and where democracy meets the mental health system.
EDUCATIONAL OPPPORTUNITIES
Future Generations, founded in 1992, is a nonprofit educational institution that teaches and enables a process of equitable and sustainable community change in four countries: Afganistan, China, Peru, and India The process of community change is designed to facilitate three-way partnerships between communities, government and non-government organizations and to scale-up successful community-based programs to the regional or national level. Future Generations formalized its education programs in 2003 by offering a Master’s of Arts Degree Program in Applied Community Change and Conservation. The first class of 16 students are community development practitioners from 12 countries.
Medsin is a network of healthcare students who raise awareness of and take action on humanitarian and global health issues at a local, national and international level. We encourage students to get involved with projects and campaigns that they feel are important or under-represented at university and that relate to health issues such as refugees, homeless ness or HIV. Formed in 1997, Medsin is a network of motivated healthcare students active in curriculum issues, community projects, international exchanges, campaigns and conferences.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
A project of the Sustainable Energy Institute - Promoting eco-democracy since 1988.
Greenpeace is a non-profit organisation, with a presence in 40 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. As a global organisation, Greenpeace focuses on the the most crucial worldwide threats to our planet’s biodiversity and environment.
Rocky Mountain Institute is an entrepreneurial nonprofit organization that fosters the efficient and restorative use of natural, human and other capital to make the world more secure, just, prosperous, and life sustaining. We do this by inspiring business, civil society, and government to design integrative solutions that create true wealth.
America’s oldest and largest, environmental organization.
The mission of the UN Environment Program is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
DISEASES AND SPECIFIC HEALTH ISSUES
The mission of the Kaiser Family Foundation is to provide timely, reliable, and non-partisan information on national health issues to policymakers, the media, and the general public. Kaisernetwork.org is the premier online resource for timely and in-depth coverage of health policy news, debates and discussions. This free and comprehensive multimedia service connects users to the events, people, information, and research that shape health policy.
A global non-profit organization established to catalyze the emergence of a social movement against AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases of poverty. The Massive Effort Campaign (MEC) empowers a much larger global movement that will not tolerate the injustice that more than ten million people die every year for lack of effective medicines and supplies costing $ 10 or less.
A web page dedicated to challenging the “Psycho-Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex” in its effort to over-medicate children for profit. This page focuses specifically on the “TeenScreen” program. The information that is provided paints a very clear picture of the devious tactics employed by the psycho/pharmaceutical complex. The material that is presented has a significance beyond the specific program that is described.
POSITIVE ALTERNATIVES
The Database provides stories about the many people and organizations worldwide who are responding and often finding solutions to environment and human right issues. including peace, social justice, environmental concerns, ethnic conflict, corporate abuses, preservation of our biological and cultural heritage, and related areas. These stories serve as a source of information and as a reminder that there are many approaches to a problem
This page is about the “Hodges’ Health Career Model.” This model was developed as “a tool to help an individual or group develop ideas connected with a problem or issue.” It emerged from the nursing profession but it is meant to be applicable to any set of problems that human beings encounter. It might be of interest to readers of this page because of its holistic focus and because of its recognition that politics is a necessary concern of all health care workers.
PEACE, NONVIOLENCE AND DISARMAMENT
The Mission of the Gandhi Institute is to promote and apply the principles of nonviolence locally, nationally, and globally, to prevent violence and resolve personal and public conflicts through research, education, and programming.
Peace Action has effectively mobilized for peace and disarmament for over forty years. As the nation’s largest grassroots peace group we get results: from the 1963 treaty to ban above ground nuclear testing, to the 1996 signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, from ending the war in Vietnam, to blocking weapons sales to human rights abusing countries.
This branch of the UN seeks to promote disarmament. They are motivated by the conviction that “global norms for disarmament are vital to the sustainable development, quality of life, and ultimately the survival of this planet.”
Physicians for Social Responsibility is committed to the elimination of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, the achievement of a sustainable environment, and the reduction of violence and its causes.
The Resource Center for Nonviolence offers a wide-range of educational programs in the history, theory, methodology, and current practice of nonviolence as a force for personal and social change. Founded in 1976, the Resource Center has developed a variety of formats to explore the meaning of nonviolence and its prospects in shaping our daily lives and our work for social change.
The Nuclear Policy Research Institute (NPRI) was established to educate the American public through the mass media about the greatest single threat to our country’s – and indeed the world’s – public health, namely the profound medical, environmental, political and moral consequences of perpetuating nuclear weapons, power and waste.
The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) — an inter-governmental organization within the United Nations — conducts research on disarmament and security with the aim of assisting the international community in their disarmament thinking, decisions and efforts.
Located in Costa Rica, the mission of the United Nations’ University for Peace is “to provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace and with the aim of promoting among all human beings the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress, in keeping with the noble aspirations proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations.”
STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE
This site aims to achieve “a broad popular understanding and resounding demand for official recognition of the right to health care for all Americans.”