(New York) – Dozens of peaceful advocates for democratic reforms, rule of law, religious freedom, and human rights face arbitrary detention and harsh prison sentences, with no respite in sight, Human Rights Watch said today, on the fifth anniversary of the founding of the democracy movement known as Block 8406.
“With a steady stream of people being locked up for nothing more than asking for their rights, the situation is critical,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Vietnam’s donors and development partners need to forcefully express their public support for Vietnam’s courageous activists and call for the immediate release of all who have been arbitrarily detained.”
Named for its inception date of April 8, 2006, Block 8406 swelled into a movement of thousands through online petitions calling for respect for basic human rights, establishment of a multiparty political system, and guarantees of freedom of religion and political association. Vietnamese authorities respond with harassment and arrests to nonviolent appeals by Block 8406 and other groups advocating for democracy and human rights.
Since June 2010, Vietnamese authorities have arrested and detained at least 24 dissidents, house church activists, and bloggers, many of whom have been held incommunicado for many months without access to legal counsel or to their families.
During the last month alone, courts sentenced a prominent legal activist, Cu Huy Ha Vu, to seven years in prison on April 4; upheld harsh sentences for three young labor activists on March 18; and sentenced Chau Heng, a land rights activist and member of the Khmer Krom ethnic minority in An Giang province, to two years in prison on March 31. On April 8, Vu Duc Trung and Le Van Thanh, who have been held by Hanoi police since June 2010, will be tried for broadcasting information from an illicit house-based radio station about the Falun Gong religion.
In an attempt to shut down popular support for Dr. Cu Huy Ha Vu, on April 4 police in Hanoi arrested Pham Hong Son, a physician, and Le Quoc Quan, a lawyer, as they approached the People’s Court of Hanoi on Hai Ba Trung street, where the trial was taking place. Initially, authorities indicated the trial would be open, but then the area surrounding the court was cordoned off and guarded by police and civil defense forces.
Le Quoc Quan is a former fellow of the US-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) who was previously arrested on March 8, 2007, four days after his return from the United States. The authorities detained him for 100 days on charges of carrying out activities to overthrow the government, under article 79 of the penal code. He was released on June 16, 2007.
A pro-democracy activist, Pham Hong Son was arrested on March 27, 2002, on espionage charges, under article 80 of the penal code, for using the internet to communicate with fellow dissidents and to disseminate pro-democracy articles and statements. The authorities sentenced him to 13 years in prison in June 2003, which was later reduced to five years upon appeal, followed by three years on probation. The government gave him amnesty and released him on August 30, 2006.
“The government is playing a game of guilt by proximity by arresting Pham Hong Son and Le Quoc Quan for standing near the court,” Robertson said. “It only adds certainty that this show trial is a new high-water mark in a continuing crack-down on human rights advocates in Vietnam.”
Vietnamese prison authorities routinely mistreat and torture political detainees during interrogation to pressure them to sign pre-written confessions and to disclose information about other activists. During pretrial detention, which can last up to 20 months, political detainees are often shackled in solitary confinement in dark cells and allowed out only for interrogation and abuse.
Since January, police have held a number of activists connected to Block 8406, pending investigation, such as a land rights petitioner, Ho Thi Bich Khuong, and a Protestant pastor, Nguyen Trung Ton. Other supporters of Bloc 8406 have been sentenced to long prison terms, including Pham Ba Hai, Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung, Nguyen Xuan Nghia, Tran Anh Kim, Tran Khai Thanh Thuy, Tran Quoc Hien, Truong Minh Duc, Truong Quoc Huy, and Vi Duc Hoi. In addition, several Bloc 8406 members released from prison remain under house arrest, including Father Nguyen Van Ly, Le Thi Cong Nhan, and Nguyen Van Dai.
Authorities are also holding other peaceful activists not directly associated with Bloc 8406, such as Pham Minh Hoang, who blogged as Phan Kien Quoc, and a Mennonite pastor, Duong Kim Khai. Both have been in detention for more than six months on allegations of subversion.
Nguyen Van Hai, who blogged under the name Dieu Cay, has been held incommunicado since October 20, 2010, after serving 30 months in prison on a trumped-up tax evasion charge.
Another blogger, Phan Thanh Hai, a.k.a. Anhbasg, has been detained for almost six months. Police arrested him on October 18, two days before Nguyen Van Hai’s scheduled release date. Both are founders of the Club for Free Journalists, established in September 2007 to promote freedom of expression and human rights. Another founding member of the club, Ta Phong Tan, also a blogger, has been harassed and interrogated by the police.
“Bloggers and activists peacefully campaigning for freedom of expression and human rights should not be arrested and locked up,” Robertson said. “Holding them for months without trial or access to legal counsel seriously violates their basic civil rights. They should be immediately and unconditionally released.”
Annex
Activists and dissidents detained and awaiting trial in 2010 and 2011
The following list of political and religious detainees, in the order of most recent arrest, should not be considered exhaustive or representative of political and religious prisoners in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government does not allow access to its prisons and detention centers by independent monitors, nor does it generally publish the names, locations, and charges against people in detention. This list should be considered a sample of the most recent arrests of dissidents who have not yet gone to trial.
•1. Le Quoc Quan – lawyer and a former fellow of the National Endowment for Democracy. Arrested April 4, 2011, in Hanoi. No formal charge announced.
•2. Pham Ho
ng Son – a medical doctor and political prisoner from 2002 to 2006. Arrested April 4, 2011, in Hanoi. No formal charge announced.
•3. Nguyen Ngoc Cuong – activist from Ho Chi Minh City. Arrested April 1, 2011, in Dong Nai for allegedly distributing anti-government leaflets.
•4. Vu Quang Thuan – leader of Vietnam Progressive Democratic Movement. Arrested February 2, 2011, upon arrival at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City and charged with “fleeing abroad to carry out activities against the people’s administration” under article 91 of the penal code.
•5. Nguyen Trung Ton – a religious activist, Block 8406 supporter, and Protestant pastor, who heads the Full Gospel Church in Thanh Hoa province. Arrested January 15, 2011, in Nghe An. No formal charge announced.
•6. Ho Thi Bich Khuong – a land rights activist, blogger, and member of Bloc 8406 who was imprisoned for six months in 2005 and again from 2007-2009. Arrested January 15, 2011, in Nghe An. No formal charge announced.
•7. K Khiep – Ko Ho ethnic group. Arrested December 11, 2010, in Tay Ninh for alleged affiliation with the Vietnamese-Love-Vietnamese (Nguoi Viet Yeu Nguoi Viet) party. Charge and whereabouts unknown.
•8. K Theo – Ko Ho ethic group. Arrested December 10, 2010, in Tay Ninh for alleged affiliation with the Vietnamese-Love-Vietnamese party. Charge and whereabouts unknown.
•9. NguyenChi Thanh – land rights activist and member of the Cow Shed Mennonite home church. Arrested November 19, 2010, in Ho Chi Minh City. No formal charge announced.
•10. Pham Ngoc Hoa – land rights activist and a member of the Cow Shed Mennonite home church. Arrested November 19, 2010, in Ho Chi Minh City. No formal charge announced.
•11. Siu Glol – Montagnard (Jarai) Christian pastor. Arrested September 22, 2010, in Chu Se district, Gia Lai. Charges and whereabouts unknown.
•12. Kpuih Theng –Montagnard (Jarai) Christian. Arrested September 13, 2010, by border guards in Gia Lai province as he was trying to flee to Cambodia. Charge and whereabouts unknown.
•13. Ro Mah Hit – Montagnard (Jarai) Christian. Arrested August 25, 2010, in Chu Prong district, Gia Lai for allegedly using unauthorized religious activities to incite unrest in rubber plantations. Charges and current whereabouts unknown.
•14. Kpuih Do – Montagnard (Jarai) Christian. Arrested August 25, 2010, in Chu Prong district, Gia Lai for allegedly using unauthorized religious activities to incite unrest in rubber plantations. Charges and whereabouts unknown.
•15. Kpa Thom – Montagnard (Jarai) Christian. Arrested August 25, 2010, in Chu Prong district, Gia Lai for allegedly using unauthorized religious activities to incite unrest in rubber plantations. Charges and whereabouts unknown.
•16. Ro Lah K’lan – Montagnard (Jarai) Christian. Arrested August 25, 2010, in Chu Prong district, Gia Lai for allegedly using unauthorized religious activities to incite unrest in rubber plantations. Charges and whereabouts unknown.
•17. Phan Thanh Hai (aka blogger Anhbasg) – founding member of Club for Free Journalists. Arrested October 18, 2010, in Ho Chi Minh City. No formal charge announced.
•18. Pham Minh Hoang (aka blogger Phan Kien Quoc) – democracy activist affiliated with the banned Viet Tan party. Arrested August 13, 2010, in Ho Chi Minh City and charged with “subversion of the people’s administration” under article 79 of the penal code.
•19. Duong Kim Khai – pastor of the Cow Shed Mennonite home church and a land rights activist. Arrested August 10, 2010, in Ho Chi Minh City. No formal charge announced.
•20. Tran Thi Thuy – land rights activist and a follower of Hoa Hao Buddhist Church. Arrested August 10, 2010, in Dong Thap and charged with “subversion of the people’s administration” under article 79 of the penal code.
•21. Nguyen Thanh Tam – land rights activist and member of the Cow Shed Mennonite home church. Arrested July 18, 2010, in Ben Tre. No formal charge announced.
•22. Pham Van Thong – land rights activist and a member of the Cow Shed Mennonite home church. Arrested July 18, 2010, in Ben Tre. Charged with carrying out activities to overthrow the government under article 79 and disseminating propaganda against the government under article 88 of the penal code.
•23. Vu Duc Trung – a Falun Gong member. Arrested June 11, 2010, in Hanoi for installing equipment to broadcast information about Falun Gong to China. He is scheduled for trial on April 8, 2011, on charges of “illegally transmitting information on the network of telecommunication” under article 226 of the penal code.
•24. Le Van Thanh – Falun Gong member. Arrested June 11, 2010, in Hanoi for installing equipment to broadcast information about Falun Gong to China. Scheduled for trial on April 8, 2011, on charges of “illegally transmitting information on the network of telecommunication” under article 226 of the penal code.
Continued detention after prison sentence completed
Nguyen Van Hai
(a.k.a blogger Dieu Cay) – co-founder of the Club for Free Journalists, arrested April 20, 2008, and sentenced September 10, 2008, by the People’s Court of District Three, Ho Chi Minh City, to two years and six months in prison for tax evasion. The government refused to release him on October 20, 2010, after he completed his prison term. While the authorities have not formally announced any additional charges, his family said they believe the government is holding him on a new charge of “propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under article 88 of the penal code.
Warning: Undefined array key 0 in /home/shi9fruqstv087j9/public_html/monthly/wp-content/plugins/wp_edit_pro/main.php on line 1765
Warning: Undefined array key "wp_edit_pro_buttons_wp_visitor" in /home/shi9fruqstv087j9/public_html/monthly/wp-content/plugins/wp_edit_pro/main.php on line 1795
Insert WP Edit Snidget
Select a WP Edit Snidget below to add it to your post or page. Yes, they can be used in content areas too!
He has been a radio producer (Earthstar Radio, San Francisco), organized and worked with the homeless, and is an advocate/activist in the nonviolent protest movement for safe energy, human rights, and peaceful solutions.
He is USA Vice President of the World Constitution and Parliament Association whose mission is to build a parallel world body to the United Nations, an emerging Earth Federation with a Provisional World Parliament under the Earth Constitution.
[/themify_box]
First published at:
">Roger Kotila PhD Dr Gary G Kohls MD[/caption]
is a retired physician who practiced holistic, non-drug, mental health care for the last decade of his forty year family practice career. He is a contributor to and an endorser of the efforts of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights and was a member of MindFreedom International, the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.
While running his independent clinic, he published over 400 issues of his Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter, which was emailed to a variety of subscribers. (They have not been archived at any website.) In the early 2000s, Dr Kohls taught a graduate level psychology course at the University of Minnesota Duluth. It was titled “The Science and Psychology of the Mind-Body Connection”.
Since his retirement, Dr Kohls has been writing a weekly column (titled “Duty to Warn”) for the Duluth Reader, an alternative newsweekly published in Duluth, Minnesota. He offers teaching seminars to the public and to healthcare professionals.
[/themify_box]
">Gary G Kohls George Monbiot[/caption]
Studied in Oxford University, columnist with The Guardian newspaper, also the author of the bestselling books The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order and Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain, as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed, No Man’s Land, How Did We Get into This Mess? Politics, Equality, Nature and other.
Prof Johan Galtung was born in Oslo. He earned the PhD degree in mathematics at the University of Oslo in 1956, and in 1957 a year later completed the PhD degree in sociology at the same university.
Prof Johan Galtung received nine honorary doctorates in the fields of Peace studies, Future studies, Social sciences, Buddhism, Sociology of law, Philosophy, Sociology and Law.
State Councilor of St. Petersburg, Russia. Founding President, Global Harmony Association (GHA) since 2005. Honorary President, GHA since 2016. Director: Tetrasociology Public Institute, Russia. Philosopher, Sociologist and Peacemaker from Harmony. Author of more than 400 scientific publications, including 18 books in 1-12 languages. Author of Tetrism as the unity of Tetraphilosophy and Tetrasociology – science of social harmony, global peace and harmonious civilisation. Director, GHA Web portal “Peace from Harmony”. Initiator, Manager, Coauthor and Editor in Chief of the book project “Global Peace Science” (GPS).
[/themify_box]
First published at :
">Leo M Semashko Robert C Koehler[/caption]
writes for the Huffington Post, Common Dreams, OpEd News and TruthOut. He considers himself a “peace journalist.” He has been an editor at Tribune Media Services and a reporter, columnist and copy desk chief at Lerner Newspapers, Chicago. Koehler launched his column in 1999. Robert Koehler has received numerous writing and journalism awards over a 30-year career in USA. He writes about values and meaning with reverence for life. He is praised as “blatantly relevant” and “a hero of democracy”.
[/themify_box]
First published at :
">Robert C KoehlerRobert J Burrowes PhD[/caption]
has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of ‘Why Violence?‘
[/themify_box]
">Robert J BurrowesProf Richard Falk[/caption]
an international relations scholar, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, author, co-author or editor of 40 books, and a speaker and activist on world affairs.
Since 2002 he has lived in Santa Barbara, California, and taught at the local campus of the University of California in Global and International Studies, and since 2005 chaired the Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. His most recent book is Achieving Human Rights (2009).
[/themify_box]
First published at :
">Richard FalkDr Gray Corseri, PhD[/caption]
is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment. He has published and posted articles, fiction and poems at hundreds of venues, including, TMS, The New York Times, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine and Counterpunch.
He has published 2 novels and 2 collections of poetry, and his dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere. He has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and Museum and has taught in universities in the US and Japan, and in US public schools and prisons.
[/themify_box]
First published at :
">Gary CorseriAntonio Carlos Silva Rosa, Editor, TMS[/caption]
born 1946, is the editor of the pioneering Peace Journalism website, TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS, an assistant to Prof. Johan Galtung, and Secretary of the International Board of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.
He completed the required coursework for a Ph.D. in Political Science-Peace Studies (1994), has a Masters in Political Science-International Relations (1990), and a B.A. in Communication (1988) from the University of Hawai’i.
Originally from Brazil, he lives presently in Porto, Portugal. Antonio was educated in the USA where he lived for 20 years; in Europe/India since 1994.
[/themify_box]
First published at :
">Antonio Carlos Silva Rosa
John Scales Avery is a theoretical chemist, Associate Professor Emeritus, at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is noted for his books and research publications in quantum chemistry, thermodynamics, evolution, and history of science. His 2003 book Information Theory and Evolution set forth the view that the phenomenon of life, including its origin, evolution, as well as human cultural evolution, has its background situated in the fields of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory.
He is an Indian citizen & permanent resident of Australia and a scholar, an author, a social-policy critic, a frequent social wayfarer, a social entrepreneur and a journalist;He has been exploring, understanding and implementing the ideas of social-economy, participatory local governance, education, citizen-media, ground-journalism, rural-journalism, freedom of expression, bureaucratic accountability, tribal development, village development, reliefs & rehabilitation, village revival and other.
For Ground Report India editions, Vivek had been organising national or semi-national tours for exploring ground realities covering 5000 to 15000 kilometres in one or two months to establish Ground Report India, a constructive ground journalism platform with social accountability.
He has written a book “मानसिक, सामाजिक, आर्थिक स्वराज्य की ओर”on various social issues, development community practices, water, agriculture, his ground works & efforts and conditioning of thoughts & mind. Reviewers say it is a practical book which answers “What” “Why” “How” practically for the development and social solution in India.
worked as a mediator for the church in Belfast; as faculty at The School of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, and as Executive Director, the Right Livelihood Award Foundation. He has founded several Indian NGOs, is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.
[/themify_box]
First published at -
">Vithal RajanRene Wadlow[/caption]
is the President of the Association of World Citizens, an international peace organization with consultative status with ECOSOC, the United Nations organ facilitating international cooperation on and problem-solving in economic and social issues.
[/themify_box]
">Rene WadlowBaher Kamal[/caption]
[themify_box]
Baher Kamal
Egyptian-born, Spanish-national secular journalist. He is founder and publisher of Human Wrongs Watch. Kamal is a pro-peace, non-violence, human rights, coexistence defender, with more than 45 years of professional experience. With these issues in sight, he covered practically all professional posts, from correspondent to chief editor of dailies and international news agencies.
[/themify_box]
Credits :
">Baher KamalRosa Dalmiglio with Lama Mongolia[/caption]
She is a member of the China Council Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe (special art, culture and humanity), which touches the hearts of all people and portrays the strong willpower so encouraging to 60 million Chinese disabled persons.
Ms. Dalmiglio is Intermediary Agent of CICE, Centre International Cultural Exchange, a direct subsidiary of the Ministry of Culture, People’s Republic of China. CICE is a comprehensive institution engaged in cultural exchange programs, professional publication and presentation of cultural art works such as exhibits, receiving foreign art troupes and artists, holding international cultural research programs, and producing intercultural and interreligious documentary films.
She is a member of China Disabled Person’s Federation, CDPF. She is also a member of the International Women Federation, which is concerned with the financial ethics of women s enterprises in underdeveloped areas.
[/themify_box]
credits:
">Rosa Dalmiglio
Director, Guru Arjan Dev Institute of Development Studies.
A recipient of Cultural Doctorate of Philosophy of Economics from USA. He is an active member of various professional bodies, namely -
He participated and presented papers in various International/national/regional seminars, conferences etc.. He remained member of the Academic Council of Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar. An unwearied researcher has about 200 research papers published in various international and national journals of repute and 15 research monographs to his kitty. Besides, he has authored/co-authored /edited 15 books which have been well received and highly acclaimed during his three decades of professional career. He was honoured by various national and international awards, namely, Guru Draunacharya Samman, Vijay Rattan Award and so on.
Dr Ron Paul served in U.S. House of Representatives three different periods: first from 1976 to 1977, after he won a special election, then from 1979 to 1985, and finally from 1997 to 2013.
During his first term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Paul founded the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE), a non-profit think tank dedicated to promoting principles of limited government and free-market economics. In 1984, Paul became the first chairman of the Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), a conservative political group founded by Charles Koch and David Koch 'to fight for less government, lower taxes, and less regulation.' CSE started a Tea Party protest against high taxes in 2002. In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy split into two new organizations, with Citizens for a Sound Economy being renamed as FreedomWorks, and Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation becoming Americans for Prosperity. The two organizations would become key players in the Tea Party movement from 2009 onward.
Dr Paul proposed term-limit legislation multiple times, while himself serving a few terms in the House of Representatives. In 1984, he decided to retire from the House in order to run for the U.S. Senate, complaining in his House farewell address that 'Special interests have replaced the concern that the Founders had for general welfare.... It's difficult for one who loves true liberty and utterly detests the power of the state to come to Washington for a period of time and not leave a true cynic.'
He is known nationally and internationally as a pioneer figure in the study of culture and psychopathology who challenged the ethnocentrism and racial biases of many assumptions, theories, and practices in psychology and psychiatry.
In more recent years, he has been writing and lecturing on peace and social justice. He has published 15 edited books, and more than 250 articles, chapters, book reviews, and popular pieces.
[/themify_box]
Credits:
">Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D.Jason Hickel[/caption]
He is international consultant of the UN – FAO and international consultant for sustainable development and sustainable future of humankind of Universal State of the Earth - USE.
On 8th October 2016 he was appointed as The Chairman of the Humanity, Nature, Space and Environment protection Committee of the USE, the Supreme Council of Humanity - SCH from Athens, Greece and London, UK.
He is researcher working on: Nature; the Nature, Space and Environment protection; the Climate change system; System thinking; Globalization and global studies; Networking, Complexity and Swarm research: Sustainable Development and Sustainable Future of Humankind. He was among the pioneers researchers (1986 – 1994) to apply nature, space, and environment protection in a local community by activities we call today Local Agenda 21 Processes – a holistic program for survival of our civilization under new challenges of the third millennium.“Commencing from Local Community Sustainable Future and moving towards Sustainable Future of the Global Community of Humankind”.
He is independent researchers with many domestic and international publications and talks. Together with many researchers in co-operation worldwide within philosophy, operational research, global studies, case studies and complex problem solving research, system thinking, requisitely holism, networking and complexity, swarm research, integration and disintegration of matter and energy and universal upbringing, education and lifelong learning. He is contributing a systemic, requisitely holistic and a better understanding of the present. His latest research within the system theory, system thinking, networking, complexity and swarm research may provide a possible answer enabling people to better understand our world of humans.
During 2014 he completed 50 years of research work (1964 - 2014). This year he completed 50 years of been Dr. Vet. Med. Since 1986 he worked on the protection of Humanity, Nature, Space and Environment and completed 30 years of research.
For research on the climate change system and the book “System Thinking and Climate Change System (Against a big “Tragedy of Commons” of all of us), Ecimovic, Mayur, Mulej and co-authors, 2002, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize 2003. His work on “The Information Theory of Nature” was his second nomination for The Nobel Prize during 2007 in Physics. His third nomination for The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 was for “The Environment Theory of the Nature”, published in the book “Three Applications of the System Thinking”, Ecimovic, 2010. Within last 10 years he has contributed trilogies: “The Nature”, “The Sustainable Future of Mankind” and “The Life 2017” – please see at: www.institut-climatechange.si
I grew up in Chile, got my medical degree there, began an academic career in 1970, and left for the USA due to the military coup in early 1974. My first job in the USA was working as a public nutrition professor in the international programme of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee.
I started to travel to Africa in 1975, and worked a year in Cameroun in 1980 helping to prepare their five-year nutrition plan. I then moved to New Orleans, to Tulane University’s School of Public Health, and taught in the department of nutrition for ten years, before moving to Nairobi where I was an advisor in the Ministry of Health. Seven years there got me into extensive consulting in Africa, often on nutritional issues. In 1995 moved to Vietnam where I worked for two and a half years in the Ministry of Health as a senior primary health care advisor.
Many years of touching the reality on the ground, in Latin America, then the USA, then Africa and Asia, has made me understand that the real challenge is in the social and political determinants of malnutrition. I have devoted my writings and teaching to that. Over the years, I have found an important shift in my colleagues’ attitude and understanding towards acknowledging the basic causes of malnutrition. But yet I see little happening as a result. I submit that it is our guild’s lack of experience in the political arena that explains this dichotomy. I devote much of my energy to bridge this gap, and am a fervent advocate of empowering claim holders to demand needed changes from duty bearers. Nutrition is a perfect port of entry for that. Equity, social justice and people’s empowerment in a human rights sense is what really will make a difference.
There is no alternative but to deal with nutrition problems as indivisibly linked to social, political and environmental problems. We need to address them as such. The question is: are we all prepared to do that? The answer, in my view, decides whether we are part of the solution or part of the problem. Travelling and living in different parts of the world has reinforced my conviction that we need to get down from our academic ivory towers, and need to change the curricula of our young and upcoming colleagues, to give them the tools to act in such a context. To me, public health nutrition cannot be anything but that.
[/themify_box]
">Claudio Schuftan Dr MDProf. Ram Puniyani[/caption]
