Panel Discussion at the Sidelines of the World Health Summit 2025
Tuesday, 14.10.2025 10:00 – 14:00
Venue: Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Simon Bolivar Saal, Potsdamer Str. 33, 10785 Berlin
Disruption and continuity sometimes occur simultaneously. This is very much the case when it comes to the state of global health in 2025. In many ways, the reduction in funding for global health programs and institutions in the wake of many countries‘ withdrawal from development aid—led by the US—is having a terrible impact on the health of people worldwide. An additional 600 deaths from AIDS per day is clear evidence that, for the global far right, not everyone is entitled to human rights such as the right to health. That is disruption.
The flip side of the coin is how societies deal with these attacks on the right to health. Here, there is a great deal of continuity. Already, 65% of health systems in Africa and Asia are privatized, and with the sudden funding gap, private companies are eagerly seeking new business opportunities. The promise of universal access to healthcare made by multilateral institutions and welfare states has never sounded so hollow to many as it does today.
For this reason, it is important that we put fingers in the wounds of global health in these days and discuss how the right to health is being threatened by both neoliberalism and right-wing extremism.
Program
09:30 Arrival, Coffee
10:00 Welcome note // Tsafrir Cohen, medico international
10:15 Key note: Health as a Battleground for the Far Right // Sophie Harman, Queen Mary University
11:00 Coffee Break
11:15 Panel: The War on Empathy and the Abolition of Health as a Social Right with Nadja Rakowitz (vdää*), Alexandrina Iovita (Global Fund) and Felix Stein (University of Amsterdam), Moderator: Victoria Saint (University Bielefeld)
13:00 Light Lunch
NO REGISTRATION NEEDED. In-person event only.
The conference hall is only accessible via stairs. If you need support with this, please let us know and we will find a solution.
