Press Releases

6 October 2010

EIPR Holds a Roundtable to Discuss a Book on Health Reform

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) held on 5 October at its headquarters a roundtable discussion that brought together a gathering of pioneering experts, activists and professionals in the area of the right to health to discuss the book "Getting Health Reform Right: A Guide To Improving Performance And Equity". The book is co-authored by a group of prominent experts in health policy and was translated into Arabic by Dr. Ahmed Zaki with an introduction by Dr.

1 October 2010

After U.N. Summit, Human Rights Council Reaffirms Commitment to Human Rights Approach to Tackling Maternal Deaths

10.01.10 - (PRESS RELEASE) Yesterday, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a second groundbreaking resolution reaffirming that pregnancy-related deaths and injuries are a human rights issue and calling on U.N. member states to redouble their efforts and integrate human rights in their policies and programs to eliminate preventable maternal mortality and morbidity.
 

30 September 2010

Court of Urgent Affairs Declares it has no Jurisdiction in the Drug Pricing Case... Ministry Seeks to Draw Out Litigation, Clings to a Pricing System That Harms Citizens

The fourth circuit of the Cairo Court of Urgent Affairs ruled today that it had no jurisdiction to hear a motion against a ruling suspending work under a new drug pricing system. The motion (no. 2246/2010) for an injunction to suspend implementation of the ruling issued by the Court of Administrative Justice was filed by the Minister of Health earlier this month.  

3 August 2010

EIPR: Opening up All Jobs to those with Hepatitis C is a Positive Step against Discrimination but it is Not Enough

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) welcomed today Minister of Health Decree 371/2010 prohibiting discrimination against people with hepatitis C and upholding their right to work.

7 July 2010

EIPR: The Sick are Paying the Price of Government’s Failure to Marshal Resources for State-Funded Treatment

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) expressed its alarm at Minister of Health Decree 290/2010, which sets new limits on state-funded medical treatment. The EIPR said that the ministry is making the sick bear the cost of the government’s failure to arrange resources for state-funded treatment.

21 June 2010

CRR, ACPD, and EIPR Applaud 108 Countries' Call for U.N. to Address Maternal Deaths and Disabilities as Human Rights Issue

The Center for Reproductive Rights, Action Canada Population and Development (ACPD), and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) praised a group of United Nations Human Rights Council member states and observer states for calling on the U.N. to address pregnancy-related deaths and injuries around the world as a human rights issue. In a joint statement, 108 states acknowledged a recent study by the U.N.

10 June 2010

Pharmaceutical Companies Intervene in Support of the Government in the Drug Pricing Case... EIPR: price reductions for 40 drugs are not a result of the new pricing system; the minister’s decree is in the interest of business

On Monday, 7 June 2010, the Supreme Administrative Court heard the appeal filed by the Ministry of Health challenging a ruling from a lower court suspending work under the new drug pricing system. If implemented, the system established by Decree 373/2009 would have lead to a sharp increase in drug prices.

19 May 2010

Protest outside Parliament to Demand Increased Health Spending

The Committee for the Defense of the Right to Health, a coalition of activists and organizations including the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, and the Doctors Without Rights Committee, organized a protest yesterday, Thursday 18 May, in front of the People’s Assembly to protest the meager health allocations in the 2010-11 state budget. Health spending in the budget accounts for 4.9% of total public expenditure and 1.4% of the GDP.

27 April 2010

Court of Administrative Justice Suspends New Drug-Pricing System… EIPR: the Ruling Stops the Violation of Citizens’ Right to Health & Life and The Government Must Implement It Immediately

The Court of Administrative Justice today issued a ruling suspending work under the new drug-pricing system, which tied drug prices in Egypt with global prices. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) filed an urgent lawsuit (no. 2457/64) on 22 October 2009 asking the court to suspend Health Minister Decree 373/2009, which would have entailed substantial price hikes for many kinds of drugs.

30 March 2010

Limiting State-Funded Treatment to Six Illnesses Threatens Patients’ Lives...Minister’s Office and Specialized Medical Councils: We Know Nothing About this Decree

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights warned today that the lives of patients receiving treatment at state expense were under threat after the state-owned al-Ahram reported yesterday, 29 March, that the Minister of Health had issued a decree to limit state-funded treatment to six illnesses: cancer, heart disease, diabetes, high-blood pressure, renal failure, and Hepatitis C patients receiving interferon.