World Health Organization (WHO)

The World Health Assembly (WHA), the supreme decision and policy-making body of the WHO taking place in Geneva annually, reviews the current attainments and ongoing activities of the WHO, confirms the pressing matters, sets the next objectives, and settles on new tasks. The 2016 WHA held its sixty-ninth session on 23–8 May. Twenty-five resolutions on various public health and hygiene matters were adopted at this session. This report reviews the activities of the WHO that are relevant to the issues of international environmental law and policy directly and indirectly, mainly through examining the related resolutions passed at the sixty-ninth WHA. At the sixty-ninth WHA, the resolution entitled the WHO framework of engagement with non-state actors (FENSA) was adopted (WHA69.10). This framework is intended to be the normative basis of engagement between the WHO and non-state actors with significant roles in the international community for the promotion of global health, such as non-governmental organizations, private sector entities, philanthropic foundations, and academic institutions. In FENSA, the principles of WHO engagement with non-state actors are confirmed (Article 5), as are the benefits (Article 6) and risks (Article 7) of engagement. FENSA will be reviewed continuously in the forthcoming WHAs and is expected to be the basis to improve more cooperative and effective works between the WHO and non-state actors for global public health tasks.