Doctors Reform Society of Australia
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Speech given by President Fidel Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, at the session marking the 50th anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the Palace of Nations, Geneva, Switzerland on May 14 1998, Year of the 40th Anniversary of the Decisive Battles of the Liberation War (Translation of the transcript of the Council of State).

"Excellencies, WHO authorities, Distinguished delegations:

Honour to the World Health Organization, which along with UNICEF has helped save the lives of hundreds of millions of children and millions mothers; which has alleviated the suffering and saved several million more human beings from death!

These two institutions, along with FAO, UNDP, UNCTAD,WFP, the Fund for Population Activities, UNESCO and others, so heavily criticised by those who wish to wipe the noble ideas that inspired the creation of the United Nations from the face of the earth, have contributed decisively to the forging of a universal consciousness regarding the grave problems in the world today and the great challenges which face us.

If the world economy, according to the calculations of prestigious analysts, grew sixfold and production of goods and services went from less than five trillion to over 29 trillion dollars between 1950 and 1997, why do 12 million children under the age of five still die every year, which amounts to 33,000 per day, the vast majority of whom could have been saved?

There has never been any place in the world, any genocide, any war in which so many people have been killed per minute, per hour and per day, as those who are killed by hunger and poverty on our planet, 53 years after the creation of the United Nations....

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			This page was last updated on 10th February, 2003.
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