Library / Updates / The 16th World Health Assembly closes with no agreement on a Global Strategy on Alcohol
The 16th World Health Assembly closes with no agreement on a Global Strategy on Alcohol
Geneva 23 May. In spite of support from many countries, a resolution for a global strategy to diminish harmful alcohol use failed to go through, after opposition from alcohol-producing lands, with Cuba being a notable example.
After lengthy discussions on public-health problems caused by the harmful use of alcohol, the WHO Assembly failed to reach an agreement and agreed that this issue will be discussed again in the WHO Executive Board meeting, to be held in January 2008.
The proposed resolution for a global strategy was supported by a group of 40 countries, including many European and African countries and the Moslem countries. It was however opposed by the Caribbean countries such as Cuba[1], the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, concerned that alcohol restrictions would affect their production and trade in rum, where sugar production also plays a role. In recent years, restrictions have come from WHO on both sugar and tobacco – two important commodities in these lands.
For more information:
Article by Øystein Bakke from Forut
http://forut.custompublish.com/index.php?id=520801&cat=76188
http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA60/A60_63-en.pdf
http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA60/A60_14-en.pdf
[1]
The rum industry is the fifth most important source of revenue in Cuba.