WHO Suppresses Critical Debate
The following article
is reproduced from Baby Milk Action's Update 27 newsletter
(May 2000). Links to letters related to this article are given
afterwards.
(Also see the report
WHO
Accused of Stifling Debate about Infant Feeding in the British
Medical Journal 20 May 2000)
Events at the WHO/UNICEF
Technical Consultation on Infant and Young Child Feeding in
Geneva in March 2000 raised concerns about whether, and to what
extent, the push for "private-public partnerships" affects policies
and prevents open and transparent debate.
Before the meeting,
some background papers, which had been prepared by invited experts,
were radically censored by WHO. Critical reflection on corporate
behaviour relating to marketing and policy making was removed.
In addition invited experts were told that they could not discuss
the issue of the appropriate age of complementary feeding.
This caused so much
concern that twenty of the experts signed a statement for inclusion
in the official record: "The Technical Consultants who
have gathered here in Geneva to assist WHO and UNICEF believe
that it is essential for the strategic plan for the first decade
of the new millenium which will result from our work, to reflect
the current scientific evidence and refer to the recommended
duration of exclusive breastfeeding as about six months. Such
guidance...will significantly improve the survival and the health
and development of all the world's infants and children."
Over the past 4 years,
WHO representatives have made statements advocating complementary
feeding at 4-6 months at meetings of Codex (the body that sets
world food standards) in contradiction with scientific evidence
and with the 1994 WHA Resolution which cites Ôabout six months.
' Industry has used WHO's statements to push for a 4-6 months
global standard and to defend their promotion of early complementary
feeding. The next Codex meeting is in June.
| Following
these events WHO has revised its submission to Codex
Alimentarius - the body that sets world food standards,
proposing new wording for the Codex Standard on cereal-based
babyfoods: "by phrasing it positively - and to
call attention to the importance of not promoting infant
foods for use at too early an age: The label shall clearly
state that the product is recommended for use from the
age of about 6 months and not before 4 months."
WHO has also said that it will submit a report of all
the published literature to the Cochrane Library for
endorsement in November 2000. This will be peer reviewed
and submitted to a small expert committee for final
endorsement. |
Letters of complaint sent to WHO
Technical Consultants statement
on recommended duration of exclusive breastfeeding
Ellen Sokol's letter about changes
to her paper on Implementation of the International Code
Judith Richter's letter about
changes to her paper on Globalisation and Infant Feeding
|
