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NP "Equal Right To Life" was granted special consultative status with the UN Council

04.09.2013

The Russian public organization, non-profit partnership Equal Right to Life received special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). This status was granted to the partnership at the recent session of the Council in Geneva. Participation in the Council of one of the leading Russian non-governmental organizations in the field of cancer control will allow the UN, in particular, spread our Russian positive experience to other states with a similar level of the healthcare development; on the other hand, the Equal Right to Life will have an opportunity to base its activities on the latest international expertise in the field of improving access to innovative methods of cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The Equal Right to Life received special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council thanks to its expertise in the field of cancer control and its weight in the international professional community. The partnership, having working for almost 10 years, initiated a number of projects that have had a significant impact on increasing both the public awareness about cancer and the access to up-to-date diagnosis and treatment in Russia. The partnership's expertise has already been time and again valued at the global level: for example, in 2011 and 2012 the Equal Right to Life were invited to participate in the UN General Assembly sessions on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, where the partnership was the only organization representing Russia; at the end of 2012 the expert group (Global Task Force) of Harvard University (USA) entered into Collaborative Agreement on the strategic cooperation with the partnership. In addition, in September 2012 at the VII Congress of oncologists and radiologists of CIS, the Anticancer Association of CIS was established, and the Equal Right to Life was unanimously elected as its coordination center.
The invitation for the partnership to participate in the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations is connected with the formation of the social group at the UN on issues of non-communicable diseases. According to experts, these diseases (this group include cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, lung diseases, etc.) cause 60-70% of deaths worldwide. The priority goal for the international community is to reduce the mortality due to these diseases, first of all by increasing the availability of innovative methods of diagnosis and treatment. UN Political Declaration on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases explains that in order to effectively control these diseases, multi-sectoral approach must be implemented, where economic, legal, scientific resources of the adjacent sectors of the economy and public administration are mobilized to solve problems of health care.
"The consultative status will allow us to more actively present the results of our work at leading international organizations such as the UN, WHO, global and regional economic forums, as well as have access to the most balanced international expertise," said Dmitry Borisov, executive director of Equal Right to Life and Chairman of the Public Council for the Protection of Patients' Rights at Roszdravnadzor Administration in Moscow and Moscow Region, candidate of biological sciences Dmitry Borisov. "The Russian health care today is the sphere of major challenges, but even greater opportunities, if we look at it from a position of constructive international cooperation. The clear evaluation of a problem and the development of possible scenarios to solve it comprise an important process of increasing economic and political attractiveness of the country. The possibility to use international experience in this process of is a significant advantage. Of course, the procedure of receiving the consultative status with the UN ECOSOC was a challenge for us, and we sincerely appreciate all the support and assistance provided by the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The trust placed in us by the UN, is a recognition at high-level of all the efforts a great number of people indifferent to the future of their country make every day helping us to address this urgent social problem".
Roman Grishenin, Deputy Director of the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund, underlined that, among all, the demonstration of country's attractiveness from the point of view that one can live a long, interesting and safe life here is the important element in creating a positive image of the country. "The opportunity to live a long life is one of the key elements of the social reputation of a country at the international level. Accordingly, the attractiveness of a country is largely depends on the physical accessibility and affordability of health care," said Roman Grishenin. "The Soviet system of health care, which we largely inherited, was characterized by fairness and high quality of public health care. Unfortunately, much has been lost. The Equal Right to Life is now struggling for return of these positions. I respect the partnership – there are not many of those who are trying to go beyond targeted assistance to patients, but to achieve fundamental changes to the system. This means that the partnership initiatives are helping thousands of people."
In the near future representatives of the non-profit partnership Equal Right to Life will take part in UN ECOSOC events on the problems of non-communicable diseases.

Non-profit partnership "Equal Right to Life"
NP "Equal Right to Life" was created in 2006, by initiative of the country’s leading oncologists. Its mission is to attract the attention of all the strata of Russian society to the problems associated with prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.  The message of the “Equal Right to Life” program is the equality of rights of Russian patients and Russian clinical oncologists to the information about advances in the world’s oncology, and equal opportunities to use state-of-the-art methods of diagnostics and treatment of cancer. NP “Equal Right to Life” carries out its activities in more than a hundred of Russian cities in three main areas: Modernization of material and technical resources of Russian medical institutions for cancer care (supply of modern equipment and consumables); educational events for Russian oncologists at leading Russian and foreign hospitals; promotion of healthy lifestyles, prevention and early diagnosis of cancer in the population (the program for early diagnosis of cancer “Cancer Wanted”, youth cancer prevention project “Cancer Wanted School”) – in collaboration with the interregional public movement “Movement Against Cancer”. On May 20, 2013, after the review of the expert report on the activities in the sphere of cancer control, the Committee on NGOs of the UN ECOSOC has granted NP "Equal Right to Life" the Special Consultative Status. The website of NP "Equal Right to Life": www.ravnoepravo.ru.