WHA72 – 12.8 Global Strategy for women, children and adolescent health

THE WORLD MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, INC.
L’ASSOCIATION MEDICALE MONDIALE, INC
ASOCIACION MEDICA MUNDIAL, INC
Centre International de Bureaux FEIN : 13-2566243
Immeuble A «Keynes» Website : www.wma.net Postal Address :
13, chemin du Levant Telephone : (33) 4 50 40 75 75 Boîte Postale 63
01210 FERNEY-VOLTAIRE Fax : (33) 4 50 40 59 37 01210 FERNEY-VOLTAIRE Cedex
France E-mail address : wma@wma.net France
72nd
World Health Assembly
12.8 Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016–2030)
Distinguished Delegates,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the World Medical Association (WMA), which
represents 9 million physicians around the world.
We welcome WHO’s report underlining the persistence of gender inequalities and structural
barriers in accessing health worldwide for women, children and adolescents worldwide. Amongst
the equally important issues raised in the report, we would like to emphasize the following:
1. 200 million women and girls alive today have undergone female genital mutilation. FGM
constitute an unacceptable form of violence perpetuated on young women and girls. The WMA
is firmly opposed to the medicalization of FGM and considers participation of physicians in
those practices as a grave breach of medical ethics and human rights standards. We call on
WHO and Member States to involve physicians in the prevention of FGM as we believe that
they play a key role in educating their patients.
2. Cervical cancer still afflicts over thousands of women worldwide, despite being a vaccine-
preventable disease. We call on member States to ensure adequate funding and programs for
education of physicians about HPV and associated diseases, HPV vaccination and routine
cervical cancer screening.
3. Amongst the hundreds of thousands maternal and new-born deaths still occurring today, many
could have been avoided with proper access to health care and information. We welcome
WHO’s efforts in launching a global handbook on family planning to address the barriers for
contraception use and to family planning education. We would also like to encourage Member
States to provide accessible information regarding maternal and child health. The maternal and
child health handbook (MCH), or equivalents, constitute an important tool to improve continuity
of care and benefit health promotion for mothers, neonates and children.
Thank you