Tag: World Health Organisation;
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Trump: the war on breastfeeding
The New York Times reports that US officials threatened to unleash trade sanctions and withdraw military aid from Ecuador unless it withdrew a resolution at May’s World Health Assembly calling on governments to “protect, promote and support breast-feeding”. The article is worth reading in its entirety. As the father of a currently breastfeeding infant, I…
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A Foundation for a smoke-free world…funded by a cigarette multinational: more smoke and mirrors?
The Swiss like butter on both sides of their toast. Headquartered in Lausanne, half an hour’s train ride from the World Health Organisation in Geneva, you’ll find the headquarters of the world’s most profitable tobacco company, Philip Morris International (PMI). Makers of Marlboro and other global brands. A few years ago, at the end of…
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Dr David Nabarro, WHO D-G candidate, on a sugar tax
The World Health Organisation may be in for interesting times if Dr David Nabarro becomes the next Director-General. Only three candidates are now in the contest. Two of them were Commissioners of the WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity: Dr Nabarro, from the UK, and Dr Sania Nishtar, from Pakistan (who was Co-Chair of the…
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Advancing the Right to Health: the Vital Role of Law
More than 20 years ago, Chris Reynolds, an Australian pioneer in our understanding of public health law, wrote that: “law is a powerful tool, as potent as any of the medical technologies available to treat disease”, and yet “our understanding of the potential of [public health law]…to help…citizens to lead longer and healthier lives, is…
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UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel: a bold vision for improving access to essential medicines, or a “deep disappointment”?
The UN Secretary General’s High-level Panel on Access to Medicines published its final report on 14 September 2016. It took just two days for the US State Department to dismiss the report in a strongly-worded rebuke. The Panel’s recommendations cover a wide area, including countries’ use of the flexibilities contained in TRIPS [the World Trade…
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WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity presents final report and recommendations
The World Health Organisation’s Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity, appointed by WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan in 2014, has now formally presented its final report. The Commission was co-chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, the Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of New Zealand, and Dr Sania Nishtar, the founder and President of Heartfile, a…
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Is your summer barbeque under fire? Chewing over the evidence on meat and cancer, and digesting the implications for regulation
The report We’ve now had a few weeks to chew over the latest report linking food and cancer. Only this time it wasn’t a puff-piece in your Sunday newspaper, but an extremely comprehensive report from IARC, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer. After a systematic review, IARC’s findings on the links…
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World Health Organisation publishes new report on overweight, obesity, diabetes and the law
Posted by Jenny Kaldor and Roger Magnusson This is the view when you look out the front gates of the World Health Organisation’s regional headquarters in Manila. A few blocks away, in the processed food aisles of the supermarket, parents are encouraged to purchase “nutrition power for kids”. The Western Pacific Region, which includes Australia,…
Sydney Health Law 