USA versus most world: Will human right to health and gender equality take primacy?
SHOBHA SHUKLA - CNS
It was shocking to see that United States of America (USA) took a position against most other nations and went ahead to torpedo the draft political declaration that was about to be adopted with consensus at the 80th United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and Mental Health.
Due to USA's position (against most other countries globally at the 80th UNGA High-Level Meeting on NCDs), it is likely that the Political Declaration might go up for a vote in the first week of October this year.
I was there at UNGA High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on NCDs in 2018, UNHLM on TB in 2018, UNHLM on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in 2024, adoption of SDGs or Agenda 2030 at the UNGA 2015, and most recently, I was also the Lead Discussant for SDG-3 (health and wellbeing) at the 2025 United Nations intergovernmental High-Level Political Forum at the UN headquarters. UNHLM on NCDs were also held at UNGAs in 2014, 2018 and 2023. After interventions by several countries, all countries had adopted political declarations (or other agreements) with consensus.
Debate is welcome, necessary and healthy but when it is not grounded on human rights or based on science- and evidence, then it becomes deeply worrying because vast majority of the world is suffering due to the failing (and Global North heavy) multilateralism between Global North and Global South and historical plunder of resources by the richer nations (and people) from rest of the world and humanity.
USA government leader Robert Kennedy Junior (often referred to for his anti-vaccination stance) said that he will not support taxes on unhealthy products. Raising taxes on unhealthy products like tobacco products has a strong body of scientific evidence to have saved lives. Raising taxes give more resources to the governments to advance public health as well as make unhealthy products out-of-reach for many. There are a battery of measures that must be clamped to protect our people from unhealthy products.
But USA is the home country to most of the major corporations that are profiteering from unhealthy and/or deadly products, such as tobacco products (for example, biggest tobacco company PMI), sugary and sweetened drinks (such as, Coca Cola and Pepsi), fast food industries (like McDonalds, etc), and Big Oil! There is a proven deadly link between climate and health too.
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