Ukraine war, pandemic push colour WHO meet
Geneva, Switzerland - The ‘devastating’ Ukraine war loomed large on Sunday as the World Health Organization opened its main annual assembly, threatening to overshadow efforts on other health crises and a reform push aimed at preventing future pandemics.
“The consequences of this war are devastating, to health, to populations, to health facilities and to health personnel,” French President Emmanuel Macron told the UN health agency’s 75th World Health Assembly.
In a video address, he called on all member states to support a resolution to be presented by Ukraine and discussed by the assembly on Tuesday, which harshly condemns Russia’s invasion, especially its more than 200 attacks on healthcare, including hospitals and ambulances, in Ukraine. “Health must never be a target,” Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset told the assembly at an opening ceremony featuring interventions from five presidents and a number of government ministers.
The resolution will also voice alarm at the ‘health emergency in Ukraine’, and highlight the dire impacts beyond its borders, including how disrupted grain exports are deepening a global food security crisis.
But while Russia has been shunned and pushed out of other international bodies over its invasion, no such sanctions are foreseen at the World Health Assembly.
“There’s not a call to kick them out,” a Western diplomat told AFP, acknowledging the sanctions permitted under WHO rules are ‘very weak’.
The assembly, due to run through Saturday, marks the first time the WHO is convening its 194 member states for their first largely in-person gathering since COVID-19 surfaced in late 2019.
Second term for Tedros
The Ukraine conflict is far from the only health emergency up for discussion this week, with decisions expected on a range of important issues, including on reforms towards strengthening pandemic preparedness.
“This meeting is a historic opportunity to strengthen universal architecture for security and health,” Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader Corona told the assembly.
Among the decisions expected at the assembly is the reappointment of WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to a second five-year term.
His first term was turbulent, as he helped steer the global response to the pandemic and grappled with other crises, including a sexual abuse scandal involving WHO staff in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But while the former Ethiopian health minister has faced criticism, he has received broad backing and is running unopposed, guaranteeing him a second term.
Several leaders speaking on Sunday hailed Tedros, with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta saying he showed ‘exemplary leadership and commitment during one of the most challenging periods’ the organisation has gone through.
There will be no shortage of challenges going forward, with the COVID-19 pandemic still raging and demands for dramatic reforms of the entire global health system to help avert similar threats going forward.
And new health menaces already loom, including hepatitis of mysterious origin that has made children in many countries ill, and swelling numbers of monkeypox cases far from Central and West Africa where the disease is normally concentrated.
The World Health Assembly due to run through Saturday, marks the first time the WHO is convening its 194 member states for their first largely in-person gathering since COVID-19 surfaced in late 2019