I posted this a short while ago. Check out the update below….
Change usually comes about as a result of some kind of movement – people and organisations working together and campaigning to bring it about. An important principle in movements like this is one of ‘solidarity’ – standing by each other if someone’s in trouble. It’s especially important as movements for change often have to challenge powerful forces and vested interests.
Health Poverty Action is part of a global movement called the People’s Health Movement. A respected and well-loved activist called Dr Binayak Sen has been sentenced to life imprisonment as a result of his work by a court in Chhattisgarh (in central India). Dr Binayak Sen is a paediatrician. He worked with indigenous and other marginalised groups to help them improve their health – much as Health Poverty Action does around the world. He is a defender of human rights, and criticised the actions of the Chhattisgarh government in relation to the poor, and its policy of establishing a local armed militia. He was subsequently arrested on a charge of sedition and conspiracy, and despite lack of evidence was sentenced to life imprisonment on Christmas Eve 2010.
Cries for Dr Binayak Sen’s release, and condemnation of his treatment, have come from all over the world, including Amnesty International, who have declared him a prisoner of conscience and consider the charges against him to be baseless and politically motivated.
Health Poverty Action does not currently work in India, but we know of Dr Binayak Sen’s work through our place in the People’s Health Movement, and know him to be deeply caring human being, and an extremely effective advocate alongside and on bahalf of the poor. We add our voice to the call for his release.
Dr Binayak Sen chose to listen to marginalised people those in power had turned a deaf ear to. Now we all have the chance to do the same for him.
To contact the organisers email:
releasebinayaksennow@googlemail.com
UPDATE: April 2011
Dr Binayak Sen has been granted bail!! The court acknowledged the lack of evidence against him. THANK YOU TO ALL WHO REMEMBERED HIM!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI9h_ePczEg
Happy faces!
