Flash response: A message to re-elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
A message to newly re-elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF):
As you begin your next term, it is critical that Canada live up to its international obligations and provide a principled response to the world’s most pressing humanitarian crises: from armed conflicts and massive humanitarian needs in places like Afghanistan, Yemen and Central African Republic, to the continuing threat of the COVID-19 pandemic and other diseases, to record-high levels of displacement around the world as people flee violence, unrest and climate disasters in their home countries.
MSF’s role is to save lives, reduce suffering, and restore dignity – but finding solutions to the underlying crises that drive these needs is the responsibility of governments like yours, who have the political power necessary to find solutions, prevent atrocities and ensure that international humanitarian law is upheld.
We call upon you to prioritize three actions:
- 1) Stand up for people affected by crises and who seek asylum across borders by advocating for states to uphold their humanitarian responsibilities under international law.
- 2) Recognize and act on the health and humanitarian impacts of climate change by investing in the health infrastructure and response capacity of global regions that are most vulnerable to environmental change and climate disasters.
- 3) Address the deep global inequity in access to COVID-19 vaccines – which were largely paid for with public money from places including Canada – by demanding more from the pharmaceutical companies who now control access to them. Concrete actions you can take to build a more equitable pharmaceutical system during COVID-19 and beyond can be found here.
There is no time to wait. We have high expectations of your government, and look forward to working with you in the coming years.
