78th World Health Assembly in Geneva, 19-27 May 2025

The Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly was held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 19–27 May 2025. The theme of this year’s Health Assembly was: One World for Health.  Professor Julia Downing, CEO of ICPCN attended the WHA to advocate for children in need of palliative care and their families.

The World Health Assembly is the decision-making body of WHO. It is attended by delegations from all WHO Member States and focuses on a specific health agenda prepared by the Executive Board. In addition to the main programme of the WHA, side events are held on a wide range of topics related to the main agenda, official side events being held at the Palais du Nations and other events being held across the city. As ICPCN is still awaiting official relations with the World Health Organization we were grateful to be able to  attend as part of the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) delegation alongside a delegation from the International Hospice and Palliative Care Association (IAHPC). Members of the WHPCA and IAHPC delegation were able to present interventions (statements) during the main WHA discussions – aimed at ensuring that palliative care is included in relevant discussions and resolutions. For example, agenda item 13.9 addressed the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health and we prepared a statement to be presented about ensuring that palliative care is integrated throughout the strategy in order to reduce the suffering of children and their families.

ICPCN was involved in three side events, co-sponsoring an event held at the UICC office from 16.30-19.00 on Wednesday 21^st May. This side event was organised by Team Humanity and UICC and was “A new Horizon of Hope: Galvanizing Global Momentum to improve access and availability to essential medicines with newly released WHO guidelines, WISH report and new global initiatives.” There were a wide range of co-sponsors, including ICPCN and discussions focused around the soon to be released WHO guidelines for access to controlled medicines, and the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) report on palliative care. The side event was followed by a preview screening of a powerful film ‘The Dignity of Breath’ produced by Oriella Films.  This thought-provoking film explores a holistic and scientific way of dealing with pain, illness and dying, taking us on a journey through the lives of people facing life-threatening illnesses, often at the end of life, supported by compassionate palliative care professionals.  The film reflects on what it means to be human while highlighting the importance of compassionate care and advocating for palliative care as a human right – helping people live with dignity and meaning until their last breath.  Dignity of Breath – view a clip

The second side event was on “Accelerating Progress on Universal Access to Palliative Care: Learning from Country Experiences.” Held from 6-8pm on Thursday 22^nd May at the Nations Business Centre. It aimed to deepen understanding of the burden of serious health-related suffering and share countries’ experiences of increasing access to palliative care as well as to discuss actionable strategies for non-communicable diseases and integrating palliative care into primary care and other existing programmes. The session was organised by the Qatar Foundation, the Worldwide Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance, the Permanent mission of the Slovak Republic to the United Nations officer and other international organisations in Geneva. Again, there was a range of co-sponsors, including ICPCN and other key palliative care stakeholders. Opening remarks came from the World Health Organization, following which case studies were shared from the Philippines and Georgia. We then heard from Prof Richard Harding on what we can learn from the WISH report, followed by a panel discussion on how we can increase access to children’s palliative care from ICPCN. Closing remarks were from the Head of the secretariat for the UN NCT Task Force.

The final side event was held on Friday 23^rd May held at the Palais des Nations from 12.30-13.40. This side event was on “Balanced national policies for controlled medicines to ensure access and safety.” The focus of the side event was to launch the new WHO guideline on balanced national controlled medicines policies to ensure medical access and safety. The rapid communication was launched with the full guidelines being published in the next couple of months. The purpose of the guidelines is to assist WHO Member States and their partners in developing and implementing national policies on controlled medicines to ensure their accessibility, availability and affordability for medical and scientific uses and to minimize the risk of harm arising from non-medical use. The guideline addresses policies for groups (of all ages, from neonates to older people) affected by conditions in which the use of controlled medicines is deemed to be medically appropriate according to evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. It is anticipated that these guidelines will help reduce inequities in access to controlled medicines around the world and help get these medicines to the people who need them.