Statement by the South Centre to the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly
Agenda Item 13.9: Global strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health
26 May 2025
We support the implementation of the Global Strategy 2016 – 2030, with increased and sustained financing, towards meeting the health needs and realizing the rights of all women, children and adolescents.
Key interventions include expanding immunization coverage, promoting breastfeeding, improving nutrition, advancing gender equality, and advancing sexual and reproductive health information and services for women and adolescents.
We strongly support the resolution regulating the digital marketing of breast-milk substitutes.
Education & Learning and the Global Digital Compact
by Kishore Singh
The Global Digital Compact, annexed to the Pact for the Future, adopted by the international community at the United Nations Summit of the Future in September 2024, is an ambitious move by the international community to leverage digital technologies for attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It embodies a series of decisions with political commitments for action, with a cautious approach, which relate ipso facto to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, with a focus on skills development.
Salient features of the Global Digital Compact, notably, a human-centric approach to the life cycle of digital and emerging technologies, along with human oversight of technology, treating digital as a common good, the importance accorded to “equitable digital environment for all” and the need for common frameworks and standards for digital public infrastructure and services, etc., have far reaching implications for education and learning.
As a follow up to the Global Digital Compact, it is incumbent upon governments to recalibrate education and learning. This can stimulate policy measures for National Skills Development Strategies. In tune with the principles and policy directions in the Global Digital Compact, this can go a long way in tackling some key issues and challenges with which the education system is beset today. The creation of an equitable learning environment, envisaged by the Global Digital Compact, can be pivotal for bridging a deeply entrenched digital divide. The principle of making the digital subservient to a public good can be a bulwark against forces of privatisation and reverse the trend of flourishing ‘edu-business’, reinforced by ‘edu-tech’. This is invaluable for preserving education and learning as a public good. Similarly, it would be salutary if pursuant to the human-centric approach to technologies embraced by the Global Digital Compact, the risks that digital technologies carry, their pitfalls and perils and their dehumanizing consequences in education are fully addressed. While fostering a humanistic mission of education and learning, such action measures necessitate setting limits to digital technologies which are supplanting the education system.
High expectations placed by governments on international cooperation and multistate partnerships, especially for financial and technical support to developing countries, call for a prudent stance, bearing in mind a rather discouraging experience in this respect.
The challenges in operationalizing the Global Digital Compact are formidable. They require resolute action by governments for living up to their commitments, supported by necessary resources and robust public policies based upon the norms and principles established by the Compact.
South Centre Statement at the Expert Conversation on Human Rights in the Life Cycle of Renewable Energy and Critical Minerals
21 May 2025
This expert conversation organized by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change in collaboration with the Geneva Environment Network will build on a call for inputs which was issued in December 2024 in order to inform the thematic report of the UN Special Rapporteur to the United Nations General Assembly 80th session. This conversation will gather all interested experts including from Member States, UN agencies, civil society organizations, Indigenous Peoples, peasants, academia and the private sector to participate in this conversation.
South-South Cooperation to Address Health Challenges in the Caribbean. The Role of Medical Cooperation
Side Event organized by the South Centre and the Republic of Cuba during the World Health Assembly 2025
Date and Time: 20th May 2025, 6:00 – 7:30pm
Venue: South Centre (IEV II Conference Centre, Ground Floor, room Rhin, Chemin de Balexert 7/9, 1219 Geneva)
Within the framework of the World Health Assembly 2025, this side event, organized by Cuba, will bring together distinguished Ministers of Health from the Caribbean and Latin America to exchange experiences on the current challenges facing their health systems and the solutions implemented through South-South cooperation.
The panel will focus on how to strengthen South-South collaboration in the health sector, with the aim of building more resilient, equitable, and sustainable health systems in the Caribbean region.
This session will explore how collaboration between Caribbean and Latin American countries has contributed to strengthening regional health systems. Successful initiatives in medical training, professional exchange, and technical assistance will be highlighted. Additionally, innovative medical cooperation strategies that have improved access to and quality of health services for the most vulnerable populations will be discussed, consolidating an exemplary model of solidarity and mutual support.
The event will be conducted in Spanish with simultaneous interpretation into English.
Cross-Border Enforcement of Copyright: A Special Emphasis on Court Decisions and Arbitral Awards
By Hany Salem
In today’s digitally interconnected world, copyright infringement frequently crosses national borders, presenting complex legal challenges for effective enforcement of intellectual property rights in general, and copyright in particular. This paper examines the challenges associated with cross-border copyright enforcement, particularly the critical role of Private International Law (PIL) in the recognition and enforcement of foreign court decisions and arbitral awards. Although foundational treaties such as the Berne Convention, the TRIPS Agreement, and the WIPO Copyright Treaty establish essential principles of international copyright protection, they offer very limited guidance on resolving procedural and jurisdictional issues that arise in cross-border Copyright disputes.
The analysis contends that the territorial nature of copyright law, compounded by fragmented and insufficiently developed PIL frameworks, creates legal uncertainty and inefficiency for rightsholders to secure effective remedies. To address these shortcomings, the study underscores the need for a more coherent and harmonized international PIL approach. It further explores the potential of soft law instruments – particularly the 2020 Kyoto Guidelines – as a constructive step toward resolving PIL issues related to international copyright disputes. By narrowing the gap between domestic legal systems and international enforcement mechanisms, these developments could significantly enhance legal predictability and access to justice in the global digital environment.
Scaling Up the Health Response to Climate Change: Highlights from the World Health Organization Executive Board’s 156th Meeting on the Global Action Plan on Climate Change and Health
By Bianca Carvalho
The Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO), during its 156th meeting held from 3-11 February 2025, discussed a draft Global Action Plan on Climate Change and Health (2025 – 2028) (EB156/40). This policy brief explains the content of the draft Global Action Plan and summarises the feedback provided by Member States during the Executive Board meeting.
Member States at the 156th WHO Executive Board meeting made recommendations for the Global Action Plan, including to ensure that equity remains central, to foster collaboration across sectors, and to enhance support mechanisms—both technical and financial—for developing countries addressing the intersection of climate change and health challenges. Member States also called for more consultations before the draft Global Action Plan is considered for adoption at the 78th World Health Assembly in May 2025.
Statement of the Executive Director of the South Centre, Dr. Carlos Correa, at the NAM Health Ministers’ Meeting on the sidelines of the 78th World Health Assembly (May 19-27, 2025)
The decisions to be made at the 78th World Health Assembly will have direct implications not only for national health systems, but also for the very architecture of international cooperation in health. Read the statement by the Executive Director of the South Centre, Dr. Carlos Correa, at the NAM Health Ministers’ Meeting on the sidelines of the 78th WHA.
Leaving the WHO? The US Just Shot Itself in the Foot
By Germán Velásquez
At the start of his second term, United States president Donald Trump has again announced that the US will formally leave the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2025. Leaving the WHO is a financial blow to the Organization, as many have pointed out, but it is much more than that. Trump’s decision to abandon WHO is counterproductive and puts at risk the capacity of the organization to perform its role as the global health agency. The WHO has been central to responding to global health emergencies for more than seven decades. Its work in the fight against diseases such as smallpox, polio, Ebola and HIV/AIDS, or the binding international convention against tobacco use, has saved millions of lives.
The US’ withdrawal from WHO will have a serious impact on various aspects of global health, and the US will itself be directly affected. WHO members should unite to strengthen the WHO and counteract this decision by the current US Administration.
Statement of President Mbeki under the Council Agenda Item 5
8 May 2025
Pres. Thabo Mbeki, Chair of the South Centre Board, thanked the Centre for continuing to work for the adoption of frameworks, rules & policies that promote the common interest of the Global South. He also called on Member States to address structural asymmetries & support efforts to achieve SDGs, as well as to ensure the Centre’s sustainability. In commemoration of the South Centre’s 30th anniversary this year, he also expressed that the Centre is proud to have preserved the values and have worked hard to make a reality the visions and aspirations of the founders of the Centre, led by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, one of the great leaders of the Global South.
The South Centre is seeking to fill a consultancy position to support its activities in the area of tackling antimicrobial resistance in developing countries.
The Consultant will be engaged on a full or part-time basis by the South Centre under a Special Service Agreement (SSA) for a period of 6 months.
The place of assignment is Geneva, Switzerland, or from a remote location.
Global Digital Compact: Charting a New Era in Digital Governance?
By Aishwarya Narayanan
The Global Digital Compact, adopted during the Summit of the Future in September 2024, is the first truly multilateral instrument which addresses issues relating to global digital governance in a comprehensive and systematic manner. While this is a remarkable step forward in terms of increasing representation, enhancing coordination and addressing fragmentation in digital governance, consensus was difficult to achieve and there remains considerable confusion around its interplay with existing initiatives and mechanisms within the United Nations system. Despite implementation efforts already being underway, its true impact and potential to bridge digital divides will only be revealed in the time to come.
