Phoenix Zones Initiative 2022 Annual Report

ADVANCING HEALTH THROUGH JUSTICE
Throughout the year, PZI worked to ensure that
international, national, and local policies abide
by principles that advance the right to health
and protect people, animals, and the
environment from exploitation—especially in
publicly funded activities such as food policy,
medical research, public health priorities, and
international development.
Working in coalition with international
partners, PZI fought to influence change—from
our groundbreaking expert panel in May and
our training program in November, to key
publications and speaking engagements
throughout the year outlining why and how we
need to center ecological justice and the right
to health, to our work with UN bodies to
influence international policy such as the
sound implementation of the Sustainable
Development Goals and the global adoption of
a pandemic prevention treaty.
In testimony to UN bodies and member
states, PZI continued to highlight the need to
stop ecosystem degradation, habitat loss and
fragmentation, biodiversity loss,
encroachment into wildlife habitats, the
commercial trade in wild animals, and
intensive animal farming—all of which
increase the risk of emerging infectious
disease outbreaks and harm human and
animal health in other ways.
PZI also provided resources to inform faculty,
students, and the public, and to enable them
to better advocate for change. And PZI
continued to engage with medical, public
health, and legal professionals via invited
talks to encourage them to show leadership
using a Just One Health approach.
PZI’s open letter from the medical and public
health community to the World Health
Organization on the need for a justice-centered
pandemic prevention treaty garnered the
support of more than 100 leaders from some
of the largest and most influential public health
organizations. PZI’s president, Dr. Hope
Ferdowsian, highlighted the letter in testimony
to the World Health Organization. PZI also
welcomed a conceptual zero draft of a legally
binding pandemic prevention instrument that
reflected many of the elements PZI has
advanced. And we continue to fight for an even
better treaty.
It will soon be a year since I became aware of
Phoenix Zones Initiative (PZI) and in that time,
they've grown to become my favorite organization …
Protecting the vulnerable and interdependency are
their clarion calls. There have been two four-week
seminars regarding this [issue]; each was attended
by people actively working in this field; I felt
welcomed at these forums and thus experienced PZI
walking the Just One Health talk with its emphasis
on inclusivity, rights, and justice.
~ Risa Mandell
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