As 2024 ends, we would like to take a moment to reflect on the past year and share some of the work we’ve done at Salud por Derecho. It’s been a busy year full of challenges in the fight for the right to health for all people, no matter where they live.
One of our main focuses, this year, has been advocating for equitable access to medicines. We’ve been pushing for greater transparency in drug pricing, evaluations, and contracts between public institutions and pharmaceutical companies. We’ve also spoken out against high and unjustified drug prices, excessive monopolies, and corporate practices that hinder access to life-saving treatments, such as lenacapavir. This drug has the potential to transform the fight against HIV/AIDS (in fact, it was just named breakthrough of the year by Science magazine), and we discussed it extensively at the International AIDS Conference in Munich.
In June, we published a new report on the impact of climate change on health, another of our priorities this year. In it, we called for more ambitious climate policies to mitigate its effects, emphasizing that caring for the planet is inseparable from caring for our health. This led to our campaign “No me va a dar tiempo“. If you haven’t seen it yet, we encourage you to have a look.
We also closely followed the various milestones in the approval process of the new European directive on air quality, working both at the European and national levels to ensure that the final version of the standard was as ambitious as possible and aligned with WHO recommendations.
Another important area of our work this year has been highlighting the impact of migration policies on the migrants’ health. In a report published in October, we analyzed the serious physical and mental consequences that these people suffer and can persist for years. We also denounced the setbacks of the new Migration and Asylum Pact, even though in a meeting with the Prime Minister, where we urged him to ensure that its upcoming implementation in Spain will respect human rights.
This is just a brief overview of our work this year. If you’d like to learn more, please visit our website.
We’re already gearing up for 2025, and we’ll continue working towards a fair and universal global health system. We wish you happy holidays and a happy 2025, full of health, hope, and justice. Thank you for your continued support!
Warm regards,
The Salud por Derecho team
