World Health Day 2021, April 7

Statement by Volkan Bozkir, President of 75th Session of the General Assembly, on World Health Day 2021, April 7th.

When COVID-19 brought the world to a standstill, most of us took to our homes for safety and comfort.
For millions of health and care workers, this was a luxury they could not afford.
These frontline workers stood and faced the unknown to help those who needed it most. They helped protect the scared, the confused, and the lonely.
We owe so much to the millions who risked their lives for the greater good.
We owe them gratitude.
We owe them recognition.
And we owe them support and the assurance of decent work environments, free from violence, stigma, and harassment, and equipped with the tools and resources needed to save lives.
2021 has been designated the International Year of Health and Care Workers.
As we mark World Health Day 2021, let us join together in celebrating – and supporting – the nurses and doctors, the midwives and EMTs, and all of the others who helped us feel safer and healthier.
And let us show them real, tangible support. As the World Health Organization has called for, let us work together to Protect, Invest, Together, so that our heroes are never forced to stand the line without the support and defences they need.

Thank you.

Five actions for World Health Day 2021;

The way forward: a fairer, healthier world,

World Health Day 2021 marks the start of WHO’s year-long campaign to place health equity centre stage of world attention. The campaign is timely, as it starts amid the colossal global effort to turn the tide on COVID-19, not least through international cooperation. Past global crises, such as in the aftermath of the Great Depression and the Second World War, triggered dramatic transformation in our societies, leading to wide-ranging improvements in health and social systems and reductions in inequalities. Those were deliberate choices made by global leaders at the time. We need such deliberate choices for the greater good again today. Our vision for World Health Day is to build afairer and healthier world, together. Prevailing over the pandemic can be the start of a new global compact that tackles poverty and health inequities, invests in health and wellbeing, promotes more equitable sharing of our resources, improves food security and nutrition, and finally turns the tide on climate change. Working together, we can build a healthier, greener, fairer world for all.

CAMPAIGN:

 This World Health Day, we urge everyone to join our campaign to make health equity areality through fairer, greener and healthiercommunities and economies.