Asia Pacific

PSI and its affiliates in the health sector across the world joined in marking March 1, as global Zero Discrimination Day. The day has been set aside since 2014 to raise awareness on the need to roll back all forms of discrimination in access to health services, particularly for persons living with HIV.

PSI affiliate the New Zealand Public Service Association (NZPSA), along with other NZ unions representing nurses, doctors, allied health professionals, cleaners, administration staff and paramedics have united under the banner “Yes We Care”. They will tour the country in the lead up to their national election.

On February 17, joining the worldwide protests for the reinstatement of health workers Joseph S. Tamba and George Poe Williams, President and General Secretary of NAHWAL, respectively, Maria Castaneda on behalf of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East delivered a letter to the Ambassador Jeremiah C. Suluneth.

On 30 January, the All Sindh Lady Health Workers and Employees Association, PSI and Workers Education and Research Organisation organised a public meeting in Karachi on "Socio Economic Impacts of Delayed Wages on LHWs and their families" and "Sexual Harassment of Lady Health Workers on the Job and Field" to share the findings of two studies to be published very soon.

Trade unions in Indonesia turned to the Constitutional Court to examine a 2009 law on electricity designed to promote privatisation and market-based rules. While the Court’s decision agrees with the union’s stand, it appears to allow private sector participation under certain conditions.

For some years now, the PSI, along with 50 other civil society organisations, has participated in an international campaign to persuade the UN to formally agree that “the right to peace is a condition for a democratic and equitable order”. On 19 December 2016, the United Nations General Assembly finally approved Resolution 71/189, adopting the Declaration on the Right to Peace proposed by the Human Rights Council.