Address to the 61st World Health Assembly

WHO Address to the 61st World Health Assembly: "Address to the 61st World Health Assembly
Dr Halfdan Mahler
Former Director-General of WHO

Distinguished audience,
My remarks will focus on 'Why Alma-Ata in 1978 and Whither the Health for All Vision and Primary Health Care Strategy'.
Milan Kundera wrote in one of his books: 'The struggle against human oppression is the struggle between memory and forgetfulness.' So allow me to remind all of us today, of the transcendental beauty and significance of the definition of health in WHO's Constitution: 'Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.'
This definition is immediately followed by: 'The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.' Most importantly, the very first constitutional function of WHO reads: 'To act as the directing and coordinating authority on international health work.' Please do note that the Constitution says 'the' and not 'a' directing and coordinating authority.
So please, allow this old man in front of you to insist that unless we all become partisans in renewed local and global battles for social and economic equity in the spirit of distributive justice, we shall indeed betray the future of our children and grandchildren.
My memory tells me that the World Health Assembly had this in mind when, in 1977, it decided that the main social target for governments and WHO in the coming decades should be the attainment of what is known as 'Health for All'."/.../