A resolution to encourage breast-feeding was expected to be approved quickly and easily by the hundreds of government delegates who gathered this spring in Geneva for the United Nations-affiliated World Health Assembl
Based
on decades of research, the resolution says that mother’s milk is
healthiest for children and countries should strive to limit the
inaccurate or misleading marketing of breast milk substitutes.
Then the United States delegation, embracing the interests of infant formula manufacturers, upended the deliberations.
American
officials sought to water down the resolution by removing language that
called on governments to “protect, promote and support breast-feeding”
and another passage that called on policymakers to restrict the
promotion of food products that many experts say can have deleterious
effects on young children.
When that failed, they turned to
threats, according to diplomats and government officials who took part
in the discussions. Ecuador, which had planned to introduce the measure,
was the first to find itself in the cross hairs.
The
Americans were blunt: If Ecuador refused to drop the resolution,
Washington would unleash punishing trade measures and withdraw crucial
military aid. The Ecuadorean government quickly acquiesced.
Note EU-Digest: These
kind of actions, which include bullying and threats by the US Trump
Administration, must not only be condoned, but can not be accepted by
the international community as a whole.
