Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine supports call to get #KidsOffNauru [Media Release]
Over the last few days, countless peak medical organisations, including ASLM, have joined the Australian Medical Association and called for the PM to get #KidsOffNauru.
Stephen Penman, ASLM’s Executive Director says, “It would be near impossible to live in this country and be unaware of the abuse of human rights that has been taking place in our name in recent years, as a result of the Australian Government’s policy of sending people seeking asylum who arrive by boat to Nauru or to Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
Irrespective of our individual political views, we likely all stand united in agreeing that prolonged and indefinite detention causing enormous human suffering, inhumane treatment, and grossly inadequate access to healthcare, remains unconscionable.
We call on the Prime Minister to demonstrate leadership and on the Australian Government to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Australia was a founding signatory, to urgently get #KidsOffNauru and to provide for their now critical healthcare needs in Australia.
We also respectfully ask our members and supporters, if they have not already, to urgently sign this important letter, due to be delivered to Scott Morrison’s office on Monday 15 October.
Together, we can show our government how strongly the health community rejects inhumane treatment of asylum seekers and refugees, and that we strongly support the call to bring the children and their families detained on Nauru to health and safety in Australia.”
Medical doctors and medical students can sign the letter here.
Allied health practitioners and others can sign the letter here.
More information
About ASLM
The Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine (ASLM) is a multidisciplinary society working towards improved prevention, management, and treatment of chronic, complex and lifestyle-related conditions. ‘Lifestyle-related’ includes environmental, societal, behavioural and other factors. ASLM members include GPs and medical specialists, allied health practitioners, public health physicians, educators, scientists and researchers.
Together, we advocate for a multidisciplinary, multi-system approach to the chronic and lifestyle-related disease problem, and for a comprehensive understanding of health and wellbeing, that is, not just the absence of disease, but for vibrant health with meaning and purpose, for health equity, social justice, corporate responsibility and environmental sustainability.
