Update of the Seventy-fourth World Health Assembly – May 29, 2021

The health sector plays a major role in documenting the extent of the problem of violence against children; providing and monitoring access to prevention and providing services to mitigate the consequences of exposure to violence.

The new resolution lists a series of actions that governments and the WHO Secretariat should take in cooperation with other stakeholders to ensure the health and well-being of children.

Each year, about 1 billion children are affected by physical, sexual or psychological violence, suffer injuries, disability and death, as well as the negative impact of witnessing violence between parents or carers. With immediate and lifelong detrimental consequences for individuals and families, violence against children undermines investment in health and education and erodes the productive capacity of future generations. COVID-related home stay measures highlighted children’s vulnerability to violence in family settings.

The new resolution calls on states to step up the implementation of two WHO-led technical packages, INSPIRE: Seven strategies to stop violence against children and RESPECT FOR WOMEN: A framework for preventing violence against women,, developed to help countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to stop violence against children (SDG 16.2) and violence against women and girls (SDG 5.2).

The first ever Global Status Report on the Prevention of Violence against Children 2020 measured the progress of countries in preventing and responding to violence against children. The report highlighted significant achievements at the global, regional and national levels, while emphasizing the urgent need to accelerate prevention efforts if the SDG’s goals are to stop at stopping violence. The resolution calls on the WHO Secretariat to prepare a second and third global report on the status of violence against children in 2025 and 2030.

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Addressing social determinants of health

The aim of this resolution is to reduce the obvious health inequalities recently highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with stronger action to combat social determinants that play such a prominent role in defining people’s ability to live healthy lives.

This includes the conditions in which people live, as well as their access to power, money, and resources, including health care. They are often driven by discrimination and persecution, such as racism, sexism, classicism and war. And they affect every aspect of health.

Children from the poorest households in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are twice as likely to die before their fifth birthday than children from the richest households. People in rich countries live 16 years longer than those in poor ones.

The World Health Assembly adopted resolutions on social determinants of health in 2009 (following the report of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health) and 2012 (following the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health and the Riya Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health).

The social and health inequalities discovered by COVID-19 have led to a renewed interest by Member States in the work of the WHO on social determinants of health and in this new resolution.

The resolution aims to strengthen global and domestic action on social determinants of health; reduce health inequalities by involving all sectors in taking concrete action to improve living conditions and reduce social inequalities; and improve the monitoring of social determinants and health inequalities. The resolution outlines actions to be taken by governments, civil society, international organizations, intergovernmental organizations, the private sector and the WHO Secretariat, including ongoing efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and future recovery efforts.

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