PHM-Exch> [PHM NEWS] WHA: Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases’

[Claudio Schuftan]

Statement by Medicus Mundi International
to the 67th session of the World Health Assembly
on agenda item 13.1 ‘Follow up to the Political Declaration of the
High-level Meeting of the General
Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases’
delivered by Mariska Meurs
Thank you, Chair, for the opportunity to address the Assembly on behalf of
Medicus Mundi International
and the People’s Health Movement.
The control of NCDs is dependent on addressing their structural and social
determinants including through
national and global policies that constrain the tobacco, alcohol, food and
beverages industries, from
promoting their products in ways that are damaging to public health.
A major barrier to adopting such policies lies in the power of these
industries to influence governments and
the decisions adopted by WHO in advising governments. The history of the
Code of Marketing of Breast
Milk Substitutes testifies to the weakness of voluntary codes but there is
continuing talk of multistakeholder
collaboration rather than binding regulation to control the marketing of
alcohol and junk food
and beverages.
The policy space for effective regulatory strategies is shrinking rapidly.
Bilateral and plurilateral trade and
investment treaties, which include onerous investor state dispute
settlement provisions, are becoming
powerful tools for TNCs to challenge measures designed to protect public
health.
In the current Australian case, the plain packaging of cigarettes is facing
a challenge from industry under a
bilateral investment treaty and also from a number of countries in the WTO.
The threat of such legal
challenges can undermine governments’ willingness to implement much needed
health policies through
“regulatory chill”. We urge WHO to ensure that the proposed Inter Agency
Taskforce be mandated to
address trade and investment issues and to ensure that such measures are
not allowed to prevent necessary
regulation for public health.
We urge the WHO and Member States to address risks of improper influence
from the involvement of
pharmaceutical companies in setting standards and norms for diagnosis and
treatment of NCDs; and in the
prominence of business groups and the industry in coalitions tasked to
tackle NCDs.
Thank you
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