The World Health Organization: Cornerstone of Peace

Parran, Thomas; Boudreau, Frank G.

doi:10.2105/ajph.36.11.1267

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…WHO's constitutional inaugural was on 22 July 1946, when representatives of 61 states, of which 51 were members of the newly established United Nations, signed the Constitution of the World Health Organization in New York at the concluding session of the International Health Conference (Calderone, 1947). Participants of this solidary Conference, assembled within a year of the end of the Second World War, apparently got along so well with each other that virtually no disagreement on the essentials occurred (Parran and Boudreau, 1946). That the Organization was established with international consent only in 1946 but not earlier was telling.. Serious attempts to establish an international health organisation had been made since the late 19th and early 20th century with the creation of the International Sanitary Bureau (later renamed the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau) in Washington, DC in 1902; the Office international d'Hygiène publique (OIHP) in Paris in 1907; and the League of Nations Health Organization (LNHO) in Geneva in 1920, all of which operated independent of each other (Birn et al ., 2018).…”

Section: Constitutional Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is also the United Nation's first specialised agency and remains one of its largest (Youde, 2018). At its signing by 61 states in 1946, the Constitution of the WHO was hailed by the United States Surgeon General to be ‘a Magna Carta for world health’, ‘a great ideological victory’ and ‘an international declaration of the rights of man to health’ (Parran and Boudreau, 1946: 1267). In bold terms, the Constitution erected the WHO as the ‘premier global health leader’ (Gostin, 2014: 104), and ‘a normative institution with extraordinary powers’ (Gostin et al ., 2015: 855), destined to fulfil a threefold purpose as normative leader, agreement facilitator and information disseminator (Youde, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The constitutional economics of the World Health Organization

2020

HEPL

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This paper brings a constitutional economics perspective to bear on the World Health Organization (WHO), the flagship United Nations intergovernmental health organisation, which is obligated by its Constitution to achieve ‘the highest possible level of health’ for the world's peoples. The WHO has in the seven decades of its existence used its formidable legislative powers only sparingly. It has been widely chided for being weak in regional coordination and unresponsive to transnational emergencies like the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014–2016. In 2020, it found itself at the centre of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the middle of the Sino-American geopolitical tug-of-war. This paper traces the discordance between the Constitution's stated purposes and the actual track record of the WHO not back to its organisational culture nor to weak leadership but to the design of the Constitution itself. It analytically distinguishes the Constitution's expressive from its instrumental halves, and shows that, whilst the former embodies a ‘constitutional moment’ of international health solidarity right after the Second World War, the latter embodies a reserved and limited delegation from member-states that are jealous of their sovereignty.

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Section: Constitutional Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The constitutional economics of the World Health Organization

2020

HEPL

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“…The United Nations, acting with an Interim Commission, formed WHO and established the World Health Assembly and Executive Board as its governing bodies at an International Health Conference in New York in 1946 (Parran and Boudreau 1946; Siddiqui 1995; Iriye 2002). WHO became fully operational after the First World Health Assembly in June 1948 in Geneva, at the Palais des Nations – site of its newly established headquarters (Chisholm 1948; WHO 1958).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting the health of Europeans in a rapidly changing world: a historical study of the implementation of World Health Organisation policies by the Nursing and Midwifery Unit, European Regional Office, 1970–2003

Hallett

Wagner

2011

Nursing Inquiry

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Promoting the health of Europeans in a rapidly changing world: a historical study of the implementation of World Health Organisation policies by the Nursing and Midwifery Unit, European Regional Office, 1970-2003 The World Health Organisation (WHO) was inaugurated in 1948. Formed in a period of post-war devastation, WHO aimed to develop and meet goals that would rebuild the health of shattered populations. The historical study reported here examined the work of the Nursing and Midwifery Unit (NMU) of WHO's European Regional Office during the later part of the twentieth century. The study examined archive sources lodged at the NMU archive. The sources included manuscripts relating to important NMU initiatives, reports and papers published by WHO, and a range of secondary sources. The study identified three main driving forces in the work of the NMU of the European Regional Office of WHO. One of the strongest of these was a drive to develop and promote the nursing profession within the countries of the European Region. The second was the promulgation and implementation of the positive public health strategies of WHO, particularly its '38 Targets for Health for All by the Year 2000'. The third focussed on securing equity across the European continent and on promoting the development of the nursing professions in poorer and less-developed countries. The study concludes that the nursing professions in European states grew in strength and influence, and that the health of populations improved throughout the continent between 1970 and 2003. It discusses the extent to which the role of the NMU in these advances may have been significant.

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Chapter VIII: Health Education

Rugen¹

1949

Review of Educational Research

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The World Health Organization: Cornerstone of Peace

Cited by 4 publications

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The constitutional economics of the World Health Organization

The constitutional economics of the World Health Organization

Promoting the health of Europeans in a rapidly changing world: a historical study of the implementation of World Health Organisation policies by the Nursing and Midwifery Unit, European Regional Office, 1970–2003

Chapter VIII: Health Education

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