Version 1997
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L’ASSOCIATION MEDICALE MONDIALE, INC ASOCIACION MEDICA MUNDIAL. INC
THE WORLD MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, INC.
B. P. 63 – 01212 FERNEY-VOLTAIRE Cedex, France
28, avenue des Alpes· 01210 FERNEY-VOLTAIRE, France
Telephone: 0450407575
Fax : 04 50 40 59 37
November 1997
Cable Address:
WOMEDAS, Ferney-Voltaire
20.4/97
Original: English
WORLD MEDICAL ASSOCIATION RESOLUTION
ON THE
PROHIBITION OF ACCESS OF WOMEN TO HEALTH CARE
AND THE .
PROHIBITION OF PRACTICE BY FEMALE DOCTORS IN AFGHANISTAN
Adopted by the 49th WMA General Assembly
Aooptecrbym841rn1″VVWIA’GIDTehr(~Shq;r IIUIY
Hamburg, Germany, November 1997
PREAMBLE
-For years women.and girls in Afghanistanuhave been suffering increasing violations
of their human rights; In 1996 a general prohibition was introduced on practice by
women, which affected more than 40,000 women. Human rights organisations call
this a “human rights catastrophe” for the women in Afghanistan. Women are
completely excluded from social Ute, girls’ schools are closed, women students have
been expelled from universities, and women and girls are stoned .in the street.
According to information from the United Nations on the human rights situation in
Afghanistan (February, 1996) the prohibition on practice affects first of all women
working in the educational and health sectors. In particular temale doctors and
nurses were prevented from exercising their profession. Although the health sector
was on the brink of collapse under these restrictions, they have been eased only
slightly. Without access to female doctors female patients and their children have no
access to health care. Some female doctors have been allowed now to exercise their
profession, but in general only under strict and unacceptable supervision (US
Department of State, Afghanistan Report on Human Rights Practices for 1996,
January 1997).
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RECOMMENDATION
2 20.4/97
Therefore, the World Medical Association urges its national member associations to
insist and call on their governments:
• to condemn roundly the serious violations of the basic human rights of women
in Afghanistan; and,
• to take worldwide action aimed at restoring the fundamental human rights of
women and removing the provision prohibiting women from practising their
profession.
• to insist on the rights of women to adequate medical care across the whole
range of medical and surgical services, inclUding acute, subacute and ongoing
treatment.
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