Ramallah – In line with national efforts to support and promote the stability of Palestinians on their land through improving health services, a coalition of Palestinian civil society organizations (MIFTAH, ARIJ, AMAN) recently launched a campaign entitled, “Right to Health (R2H)”.

This campaign was launched after the aforementioned institutions prepared the necessary reports to assess the availability of services offered to citizens, especially in isolated residential areas known as “Area C.” The reports included government revenue analysis and identified government spending priorities, which contribute to improving services in the social sector in general and the health sector in particular. The reports provide evidence and killer facts that support relevant parties to advocate towards better access to health services for citizens in isolated and marginalized areas.

The campaign addresses facts and figures, most significantly pertaining to the weakness of health services, especially in Area C and in regards to tax exemptions granted to big corporates of up to NIS50 million annually. Hence, the campaign R2H presented solutions for the government to benefit from these exemptions by redirecting the money to the benefit of the Ministry of Health to improve health services.

Furthermore, the reports pointed out that the Ministry of Health suffers from a shortage of nurses and midwives in Palestine by 33% and that only 4% of the medical staff serves nearly 720,000 citizens living in rural areas.

The R2H campaign seeks to increase the budget allocations of the Ministry of Health to reinsure the right of all citizens to health care in accordance to the international Human rights treaties and conventions, in addition the R2H campaign contributes to shedding light on means for implementation of the 2017-2022 national policies agenda which includes “Comprehensive and quality health care available to all.”

The R2H campaign is expected to mobilize citizens’ to pressure the Ministry of Finance and Planning to increasing government’s expenditures on health programs and services that target citizens in marginalized areas, therefore improving their access to better health care through providing sufficient medial staff, equipment and medicines.