Jakarta Declaration on Leading Health Promotion into the 21st Century, 1997

The Fourth International Conference on Health Promotion: New Players for a New Era -Leading Health Promotion into the 21st Century, meeting in Jakarta from 21 to 25 July 1997, had come at a critical moment in the development of international strategies for health. As noted at the time: “It is almost 20 years since the World Health Organizations Member States made an ambitious commitment to a global strategy for Health for All and the principles of primary health care through the Declaration of Alma-Ata. It is 11 years since the First International Conference on Health Promotion was held in Ottawa, Canada. That Conference resulted in proclamation of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, which has been a source of guidance and inspiration for health promotion since that time. Subsequent international conferences and meetings have further clarified the relevance and meaning of key strategies in health promotion, including healthy public policy (Adelaide, Australia, 1988), and supportive environments for health (Sundsvall, Sweden, 1991). The Fourth International Conference on Health Promotion is the first to be held in a developing country, and the first to involve the private sector in supporting health promotion. It has provided an opportunity to reflect on what has been learned about effective health promotion, to re-examine the determinants of health, and to identify the directions and strategies that must be adopted to address the challenges of promoting health in the 21st century. The participants in the Jakarta Conference hereby present this Declaration on action for health promotion into the next century.”

Source: http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/previous/jakarta/declaration/en/

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, 1992

The Convention was adopted on 22 March 1989 by the Conference of Plenipotentiaries in Basel, Switzerland, in response to a public outcry following the discovery, in the 1980s, in Africa and other parts of the developing world of deposits of toxic wastes imported from abroad. Awakening environmental awareness and corresponding tightening of environmental regulations in the industrialized world in the 1970s and 1980s had led to increasing public resistance to the disposal of hazardous wastes–in accordance with what became known as the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome–and to an escalation of disposal costs. This in turn led some operators to seek cheap disposal options for hazardous wastes in Eastern Europe and the developing world, where environmental awareness was much less developed and regulations and enforcement mechanisms were lacking. It was against this background that the Basel Convention was negotiated in the late 1980s, and its thrust at the time of its adoption was to combat the “toxic trade”, as it was termed. The Convention entered into force in 1992.
Source: http://www.basel.int/TheConvention/Overview/tabid/1271/Default.aspx
See PDF of the document at: http://www.basel.int/Portals/4/Basel%20Convention/docs/text/BaselConventionText-e.pdf

Global Call for Action around the 30th Anniversary of the Alma Ata Declaration, 2000

The People’s Health Movement (PHM) issued the Global Call for Action around the thirtieth anniversary of the Declaration of Alma-Ata, as the role of the United Nations’ organizations, including the World Health Organization, has been increasingly marginalized.
Source: http://www.phmovement.org/en/node/867

The Doha Declaration on the Trips Agreement and Public Health, 2001

In 2001, WTO Members adopted a special Ministerial Declaration at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha to clarify ambiguities between the need for governments to apply the principles of public health and the terms of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). In particular, concerns had been growing that patent rules might restrict access to affordable medicines for populations in developing countries in their efforts to control diseases of public health importance, including HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. The Declaration responds to the concerns of developing countries about the obstacles they faced when seeking to implement measures to promote access to affordable medicines in the interest of public health in general, without limitation to certain diseases. While acknowledging the role of intellectual property protection "for the development of new medicines", the Declaration specifically recognizes concerns about its effects on prices. The Doha Declaration affirms that "the TRIPS Agreement does not and should not prevent Members from taking measures to protect public health". In this regard, the Doha Declaration enshrines the principles WHO has publicly advocated and advanced over the years, namely the re-affirmation of the right of WTO Members to make full use of the safeguard provisions of the TRIPS Agreement in order to protect public health and enhance access to medicines for poor countries. The Doha Declaration refers to several aspects of TRIPS, including the right to grant compulsory licenses and the freedom to determine the grounds upon which licences are granted, the right to determine what constitutes a national emergency and circumstances of extreme urgency, and the freedom to establish the regime of exhaustion of intellectual property rights.

Source: http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/policy/doha_declaration/en/index.html
See PDF of the document at: http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/policy/tripshealth.pdf

NASSAU DECLARATION ON HEALTH 2001: The Health of the Region is the Wealth of the Region

Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community under the Nassau Declaration 2001 committed to the following:
1. Implement initiatives and targets to achieve an improved health status of the Caribbean populations within the next five years, emphasizing leadership, strategic planning, management, implementation and resource mobilisation in the context of health sector reform processes that are underway.
2. Build on current regional and sub-regional initiatives and seek to establish a series of networks, each with specific roles and responsibilities, in a coordinated regional structure that can respond to the needs of the ordinary Caribbean citizen and designed to ensure equity in access to quality preventive and care regimes.
3. Implement the Caribbean Co-operation in Health (CCH) Phase II as the framework under which all regional and sub-regional, national and institutional sector plans for health would be considered.
4. Ensure that the CCH II Secretariat, which is to be jointly administered, by CARICOM and PAHO be made operational by relying on the regional and sub-regional institutions to lead on several issues and provide the services required by Member States and to that end these institutions will be reviewed to determine their adequacy, competitiveness and strategic advantages for the Region; and ensuring that the Pan-Caribbean Partnership on HIV/AIDS established in March 2001 provide a model with its primary mandate to mobilize resources for the implementation of the Regional Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS.
5. Enhance, within the context of the CSME, areas related to the collective effort by all Caribbean countries for joint representation to exert a greater influence on decision making in the international arena which will favour the Region's interests;
6. Support the approaches to promotion and prevention, as a responsibility, in relation to security of our assets; treatment of those persons as an investment in the preservation of our human capital - a cost benefit strategy for sustaining productivity and services, and a human rights obligation.
7. Give priority to institutional strengthening of the CCH II Secretariat and recognize that the sustainability of the Community’s efforts will require attention to the involvement of civil society and the other specialized stakeholders.
Source: http://www.caricom.org/jsp/community/chronic_non_communicable_diseases/tenets_nassau_declaration.jsp
Source of Declaration: http://www.caricom.org/jsp/communications/meetings_statements/nassau_declaration_on_health.jsp
 

Moscow Declaration on Prison Health as Part of Public Health, 2003

The delegates present at the joint World Health Organization/Russian Federation International Meeting on Prison Health and Public Health, held in Moscow on 23 and 24 October 2003, took as the basis of their discussions the fundamental international standards relating to the need for a close link between public health and the provision of health care to those in prison.
Source: http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/health-determinants/prisons-and-health/publications/moscow-declaration-on-prison-health-as-part-of-public-health
See PDF of the document at: http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/98971/E94242.pdf

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, 2003

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international agreement which aims to ensure the safe handling, transport and use of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology that may have adverse effects on biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health. It was adopted on 29 January 2000 and entered into force on 11 September 2003.
Source: http://bch.cbd.int/protocol/background/
See the text of the Cartagena Protocol at: http://bch.cbd.int/protocol/text/
 

Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health (CIPIH), 2003

The Commission was established by the World Health Assembly in 2003: “…to collect data and proposals from the different actors involved and produce an analysis of intellectual property rights, innovation, and public health, including the question of appropriate funding and incentive mechanisms for the creation of new medicines and other products against diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries…” Intellectual property rights are important for innovation relevant to public health and are one factor in determining access to medicines. But neither innovation nor access depend on just intellectual property rights. The work of the Commission focuses on the intersections between intellectual property rights, innovation and public health.
Source: http://www.who.int/intellectualproperty/en/
See PDF of the document at: http://www.who.int/intellectualproperty/documents/thereport/ENPublicHealthReport.pdf

 

Oslo Ministerial Declaration – global health: a pressing foreign policy issue of our time, 2007

Under their initiative on Global Health and Foreign Policy, launched in September 2006 in New York, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, France, Indonesia, Norway, Senegal, South Africa and Thailand issued the following statement in Oslo on 20 March 2007:
“In today’s era of globalisation and interdependence there is an urgent need to broaden the scope of foreign policy. Together, we face a number of pressing challenges that require concerted responses and collaborative efforts. We must encourage new ideas, seek and develop new partnerships and mechanisms, and create new paradigms of cooperation.
We believe that health is one of the most important, yet still broadly neglected, long-term foreign policy issues of our time. Life and health are our most precious assets. There is a growing awareness that investment in health is fundamental to economic growth and development. It is generally acknowledged that threats to health may compromise a country’s stability and security.
We believe that health as a foreign policy issue needs a stronger strategic focus on the international agenda. We have therefore agreed to make “impact on health” a point of departure and a defining lens that each of our countries will use to examine key elements of foreign policy and development strategies, and to engage in a dialogue on how to deal with policy options from this perspective”. (See Declaration for more).
Source: http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/ud/aktuelt/taler_artikler/utenriksministeren/2007/lancet.html?id=466469
 

The Kampala Declaration and Agenda for Global Action, 2008


The Kampala Declaration and Agenda for Global Action were endorsed as the first-ever Global Forum on Human Resources for Health held on 2-7 March 2008. The document calls for higher commitment by governments and development partners to human resources for health, and for acceleration of negotiations for a global code of practice for international recruitment of health personnel, providing an overarching global framework for priority actions relating to the health workforce.
Source: http://www.who.int/workforcealliance/knowledge/resources/kampala_declaration/en/
See PDF of the document at: http://www.who.int/workforcealliance/Kampala%20Declaration%20and%20Agenda%20web%20file.%20FINAL.pdf

 

UN General Assembly Resolution 63/33 on Global Health and Foreign Policy, 2009

On 26 November 2009, the General Assembly adopted resolution 63/33 on global health and foreign policy, in which it recognized the close relationship between and interdependence of foreign policy and global health; urged Member States to consider health issues in the formulation of foreign policy; and stressed the importance of achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals. The Assembly requested that the Secretary-General, in close collaboration with the Director-General of the World Health Organization and in consultation with Member States, submit to the Assembly at its sixty-fourth session, in 2009, a comprehensive report, with recommendations, on challenges, activities and initiatives related to foreign policy and global health, taking into account the outcome of the annual ministerial review held by the Economic and Social Council in 2009.
Source: http://www.who.int/trade/Foreignpolicyandhealth/en/index.html
See PDF of the document at: http://www.who.int/trade/events/UNGA_RESOLUTION_GHFP_63_33.pdf
 

Ministerial Declaration on Global Public Health, 2009

At the 2009 High-level Segment in Geneva, the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopted its Ministerial Declaration on the theme of the third Annual Ministerial Review (AMR), "Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to global public health". At the time, ECOSOC President Sylvie Lucas said that the Ministerial Declaration contains concrete measures to advance the realization of the global public health goals. The Ministerial Declaration on Global Public Health announced a comprehensive agenda for governments, UN agencies, and global civil society on global health, which was later negotiated by UN Member States.
Source: http://www.un.org/en/ecosoc/about/
See PDF of the document at: http://www.un.org/en/ecosoc/julyhls/pdf09/ministerial_declaration-2009.pdf

From Kampala to Bangkok: Reviewing Progress, Renewing Commitments, 2011


Participants at the Second Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, held in Bangkok, 27- 29 January 2011, adopted the Outcome Statement which reiterate the principles of the Kampala Declaration and the Code as instruments for alignment and accountability at global, regional, national and local levels, and call upon all stakeholders to accelerate implementation in a comprehensive manner. The task set was to take the momentum from Bangkok out into the wider world: to move together, from commitment into action, to translate resolution into results, and ensure that every person, whoever they are and wherever they live, has access to a health worker.
Source: http://www.who.int/workforcealliance/knowledge/resources/bkkoutcome/en/index.html
See PDF of the document at: http://www.who.int/workforcealliance/forum/2011/Outcomestatement.pdf
 

Beijing Declaration of the BRICS Health Ministers’ Meeting, 2011

The Health Ministers of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa (BRICS), met in Beijing, China, for the First BRICS Health Ministers’ Meeting on 11 July 2011, to discuss and coordinate positions on issues of common interest as well as to identify areas for cooperation in public health. The BRICS Ministers of Health issued the related Beijing Declaration.

Source: http://www.cfr.org/global-health/brics-health-ministers-meeting----beijing-declaration/p25620
See the text of the BRICS Health Ministers’ Meeting-Beijing Declaration at:  http://keionline.org/node/1183

 

Protecting the Right to Health through action on the Social Determinants of Health - A Declaration by Public Interest Civil Society Organisations and Social Movements, 2011


This Declaration by public interest Civil Society Organisations and Social Movements, noted urgently required actions by member states and the WHO on these key areas:
• Implement equity-based social protection systems and maintain and develop effective publicly provided and publicly financed health systems that address the social, economic, environmental and behavioural determinants of health with a particular focus on reducing health inequities.
• Use progressive taxation, wealth taxes and the elimination of tax evasion to finance action on the social determinants of health.
• Recognise explicitly the clout of finance capital, its dominance of the global economy, and the origins and consequences of its periodic collapses.
Source: http://www.phmovement.org/en/node/6243
See PDF of the document at: http://www.phmovement.org/sites/www.phmovement.org/files/AlternativeCivilSocietyDeclaration20Sep.pdf
 

Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health, 2011

The WHO convened a global conference between 19-21 October 2011 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to build support for the implementation of action on social determinants of health. The conference brought together over 1,000 participants representing 125 Member States and a diverse group of stakeholders. On 21 October, 2011 participating Member States adopted the Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health.
Source: http://www.who.int/sdhconference/en/
See PDF of the document at: http://www.who.int/sdhconference/declaration/Rio_political_declaration.pdf
 

First Global Ministerial Conference on Healthy Lifestyles and Noncommunicable Disease Control, Moscow, 2011
 
The conference was a key milestone in the international campaign to curb the impacts of cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and chronic lung diseases. It was jointly organized by the Russian Federation and WHO, and took place on 28-29 April 2011, Moscow, the Russian Federation. The aim of the conference was to support Member States develop and strengthen policies and programmes on healthy lifestyles and NCD prevention. These efforts are based on the Global strategy for the prevention and control of NCDs and its action plan, which include multisectoral and innovative approaches in prevention and care.
Source: http://www.who.int/nmh/events/moscow_ncds_2011/en/
See PDF of the Moscow Declaration at: http://www.who.int/nmh/events/moscow_ncds_2011/conference_documents/moscow_declaration_en.pdf
 

1st Peoples Declaration in response to the UNFCCC COP 17, Global Climate and Health Summit in Durban, South Africa, 2011

The first Peoples Declaration in response to the UNFCCC COP 17, “The Protecting Public Health From Climate Change – A Global Call to Action”, was launched in Durban, South Africa on December 4, 2011. Having convened at the first Global Climate and Health Summit in Durban, South Africa, leading healthcare providers, professionals and organizations, acknowledged that the health impacts of climate change, such as the spread of vector-borne diseases, and the consequences of heat waves, droughts and extreme weather events are already being felt around the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where more people die as a consequence of climate change than anywhere else. They expressed profound concern that as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise unabated, dangerous climate change will magnify existing health crises, deepening and broadening the global burden of disease. This will in turn raise health care costs worldwide, while undermining and overwhelming public health infrastructure everywhere. The overwhelming burden will fall on the most vulnerable–those living in poor countries, who have contributed least to greenhouse gas emissions. They asserted that what is good for the climate is good for health, and that an equitable resolution to climate change will result in major health benefits worldwide. Given the gravity and urgency of the situation—and the opportunity to promote public health by addressing climate change—they called on colleagues in public health organizations, health professional associations, hospitals, health systems and ministries of health around the world to endorse their Call to Action, and take concerted action.
Source: http://www.psychology.org.au/
See PDF of the 1st Peoples Declaration at: http://www.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/Durban_Global_Climate_and_Health_Call_to_Action_Final%202011.pdf

2nd Peoples Declaration in response to the UNFCCC COP 17, Global Climate and Health Summit in Durban, South Africa, 2011

The second Peoples Declaration in response to the UNFCCC COP 17, the “Declaration of the Indigenous Peoples of the World to the UNFCCC COP 17 – 2011”, issued on December 7, was a product of the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change, Durban, South Africa, December 2, 2011. The Indigenous Peoples of the world, united in the face of the climate crisis and the lack of political will of the States, especially the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, demanded the immediate adoption of legally binding agreements with shared but differentiated responsibilities, to halt global warming and to define alternative models of development in harmony with Mother Earth. For decades, Indigenous Peoples have warned that climate change confirms that the harmonic relationship between humans and Mother Earth has been ruptured, endangering the future of humanity in its entirety. The whole model of civilization that began 500 years ago with the pillaging of the natural resources for profit and the accumulation of capital, is in crisis. The alternative is to change the system, not the climate, based on a new paradigm for civilization, Living Well with harmony between the peoples and Mother Earth.
Source: http://www.forestpeoples.org
and see PDF of the 2nd Peoples Declaration at: http://www.forestpeoples.org/topics/un-framework-convention-climate-change-unfccc/publication/2011/declaration-indigenous-peoples
 

Nightingale Declaration for A Healthy World -


The Declaration is a cornerstone under an emerging longer-term global campaign for "Mobilizing Public Opinion for the Health of Nations” that is required to achieve our eventual goal of "achieving a healthy World by 2020”, the Bicentennial of Nightingale's birth. This global public awareness campaign is becoming multi-faceted—involving the United Nations and UN Member States, the worldwide media, in all of its forms as well as global civil society—including "nurses and concerned citizens.” This “Nightingale Declaration for a Healthy World” is a key component of this growing global campaign. The Nightingale Declaration has so far been signed by signatories from 106 countries.
Source: http://www.nightingaledeclaration.net/the-declaration
 

The World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA), Addis Ababa Declaration, 2012


At the conclusion of the 13th World Congress on Public Health, held 22 – 27 April 2012 in Addis Abeba (Ethiopia), the WFPHA issued the: Addis Ababa Declaration, a call on Global Health Equity, a call to act on closing some of the critical gaps in global health and well-being…
“…….This includes working across sectors and disciplines and in true partnership with communities to:
1. Promote and attain social justice and equity in health by acting through a ‘Social Determinants of Health’ approach;
2. Accelerate the attainment of national and international development goals by building and redistributing resources to strengthen international, national and local capacity and leadership in public health;
3. Ensure that better context-specific, comprehensive and equitable targets covering universal health coverage and health for all are integrated into and made more visible within the MDGs as soon as possible;
4. Enhance and strengthen, both numerically and in capability, the public health workforce, in addition to developing new and effective strategies to retain qualified health professionals;
5. Combat fraud and corruption, as these are major determinants of health that affect all, but especially the poor and vulnerable;
6. Recognize physical and mental disabilities and injury prevention as critical components of a public health approach to health equity; and,
7. Fulfill their financial pledges in respect of the MDGs and to, in addition, fulfill their pledges with respect to the Paris Declaration and to the political declarations on Non-Communicable Diseases and the Social Determinants of Health……”
Source: http://www.wfpha.org/
See PDF of the document at: http://www.wfpha.org/tl_files/doc/about/Addis_Declaration.pdf