ENGLISH VERSION
PETITION AGAINST THE BAN ON THE PRODUCTION AND USE OF ARTEMISIA PLANTS AND
OTHER MEDICINAL PLANTS FOR HERBAL TEA IN AFRICA AND THE WORLD BY GRASSROOT
COMMUNITIES
We are actors of development in the rural world, humanitarian structures,
church volunteers, researchers and resource persons of social and
solidarity enterprises to accompany poor and disadvantaged communities on
techniques and good agricultural practices for harvesting and manufacturing
plant products and promoting grandmothers' recipes. We are mobilizing to
express our dissatisfaction with the ban on the cultivation and use of
Artemisia plants in herbal teas for the preventive and curative care of
malaria and other medicinal plants for the well-being of rural, peri-urban
and low-income or poor urban communities in developing countries.
- Considering the importance of the declaration of ALMA ATA in 1978;
- Considering that the flagrant inequalities in the health situation of
peoples both between developed and developing countries and within
countries are politically, socially and economically unacceptable and are
therefore a matter of common concern to all countries ;
- Considering that indigenous peoples of African countries and of the world
in their cultural traditions since the dawn of time have used traditional
and complementary medicine (TM/MC) for their primary health care needs and
well-being;
- Considering the WHO strategy document for traditional medicine for 2014 -
2023;
- Considering point 7 of the WHO strategy document 2014 - 2023 for the
integration of traditional and complementary medicine into health systems;
- Considering the 2002 WHO report which states that 80% of the populations
in sub-Saharan Africa use traditional medicine for their primary health
care needs;
- Considering that almost all rural, lake and peri-urban households in
developing countries live on less than a dollar a day and do not have the
subsequent financial resources to buy medicines from the pharmacy;
- Considering that the prohibition of ancestral practices of primary health
care will lead to the disappearance of the cultural, gastronomic and health
identity of the indigenous peoples of Africa and the world and jeopardizes
human rights in Africa and in the world;
- Considering that the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health in
its report published in August 2008 in Geneva mentions that for action in
the health sector it is necessary to improve daily life, i.e. the
conditions in which people are born, grow up, live, work and age;
- Considering SDGs 3 and 4 and universal health coverage in Africa and the
world;
- Considering the remarkable work of Anamed International in capacity
building of natural health practitioners in Africa and the world;
- Considering the capacity building activities of traditional medicine
practitioners and the promotion of traditional herbal medicines supported