The top of the World Well being Group (WHO) stated on Monday he would “welcome constructive dialogue” with the US Authorities over the choice made by President Donald Trump to withdraw.
President Trump’s government order of 20 January is regrettable “and we hope the US will rethink,” stated WHO Director-Basic Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a speech to the group’s government board.
The WHO chief stated he would welcome the chance “to protect and strengthen the historic relationship between WHO and the US.”
Pushing again on the rationale specified by the manager order, Tedros stated WHO had applied the deepest and most wide-ranging reforms in its historical past over the previous seven years.
The US is the most important donor by far to the company, accounting for round 14 per cent of its $6.9 billion price range, based on newest WHO figures.
Addressing the US criticism that it’s paying an excessive amount of in comparison with different international locations, Tedros stated decreasing reliance on the US and others who pay essentially the most was a “crucial ingredient of our long-term plan to broaden our donor base.”
COVID file
Third, he rejected the accusation that WHO had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic:
“From the second we picked up the primary alerts of ‘viral pneumonia’ in Wuhan, we requested for extra info, activated our emergency incident administration system, alerted the world, convened world consultants, and revealed complete steerage for international locations on find out how to defend their populations and well being methods – all earlier than the primary loss of life from this new illness was reported in China on the eleventh of January 2020.”
Tedros additionally addressed the allegation that WHO lacks independence from “inappropriate political affect” by some Member States: “WHO is neutral and exists to serve all international locations and all individuals,” he stated.
“Our Member States ask us for a lot of issues, and we all the time attempt to assist as a lot as we are able to. However when what they ask shouldn’t be supported by scientific proof or is opposite to our mission to help world well being, we are saying no, politely.”
A 3rd of ladies expertise bodily or sexual violence: Rights consultants
Roughly one in three girls is subjected to bodily or sexual violence, and 800 girls and ladies proceed to die daily from preventable causes throughout being pregnant and childbirth, a high impartial rights panel assembly heard on Monday.
Addressing the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination In opposition to Girls (CEDAW) on the UN in Geneva, Andrea Ori from the UN human rights workplace, OHCHR, stated that the world is “nonetheless far” from reaching the objective of gender parity.
“The worldwide panorama has modified,” she informed the CEDAW session.
Backlash towards equal rights
“We’re witnessing a backlash towards girls’s human rights and gender equality, particularly towards girls’s sexual and reproductive well being rights – with a rise in assaults towards abortion suppliers, shrinking civic house for ladies human rights defenders, and decreased funding.”
Mr. Ori famous that 2025 marks 30 years for the reason that common adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Motion for making certain girls’s human rights and reaching gender equality world wide.
It stays the case, nonetheless, that sexual violence towards girls and ladies continues for use as a tactic of warfare in quite a few conflicts, the UN human rights official stated, whereas solely 26 per cent of parliamentarians on the earth are girls and solely round three in 10 girls have managerial roles at work.
One much less for the highway: Time Europe lower down on booze consumption, WHO warns
The UN World Well being Group (WHO) urged Nordic international locations on Monday to maintain a lid on alcohol gross sales, or threat reversing the constructive influence of strict rules put in place years in the past.
For many years, governments in Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Faroe Islands have restricted supermarkets and personal retailers from promoting stronger alcoholic drinks.
This coverage has resulted in among the lowest alcohol consumption ranges within the European Union – which against this is the booziest area globally, with ingesting habits “largely unchanged” for over 10 years, WHO stated.
Free market pressures
The Nordic mannequin is now in danger nonetheless, from legislative initiatives within the area that sign a possible shift towards privatization of alcohol gross sales, warned WHO’s Dr. Carina Ferreira-Borges.
In Sweden, as an illustration, a courtroom is listening to a problem to the Authorities’s unique rights to on-line gross sales of alcohol, whereas proposed legal guidelines would allow gross sales of alcoholic drinks in farm outlets.
Dr Ferreira-Borges defined that Nordic international locations’ alcohol controls – that contain rising taxes and elevating costs, limiting availability and limiting promoting – have decreased alcohol-related harms.
These span from “liver illness, cancers and cardiovascular situations, to accidents and drownings”, she insisted.
