UN Resolution on Diabetes a reality

Only six months after the ‘Unite for Diabetes’ campaign was launched, the General Assembly of the United Nations has by consensus adopted the resolution.  World Diabetes Day, 14 November, will be designated as an official UN-observed day, starting from 2007.

The resolution, which was adopted on Wednesday the 20th of December 2006 in New York, notes that strengthening public health is critical to achieving internationally agreed development goals and it recognizes that “diabetes is a chronic, debilitating and costly disease associated with severe complications, which poses severe risks for families, Member States and the entire world and serious challenges to the achievement of internationally agreed development goals including the Millennium Development Goals".

 “ The invitation to National Governments to develop plans and policies for diabetes prevention and care based on sustainable development of their health care systems, will have a significance impact for the Foundations mission and will strengthen our case of using diabetes as the entry point to develop an NCD strategy”, explains Dr Anil Kapur, Managing Director of the WDF.

Unite for Diabetes campaign

The World Diabetes Foundation was one of the first partners to support and endorse the Unite for Diabetes campaign aiming for a United Nations Resolution on diabetes. To support the awareness part of this campaign the WDF, IDF and NN Film Solutions joined forces to produce a 7 minute film highlighting the key messages and essence of the campaign.

"The real beneficiaries of the Resolution will be people living with diabetes, their families and many more at risk. Passing the UN Resolution, while monumental for the diabetes world, is just the first step. A phase will now begin to celebrate the passage of the Resolution and mark the first UN-observed World Diabetes Day on November 14, 2007. It is IDF’s goal to reach 1 billion people with awareness messaging about diabetes care and prevention," said Professor Martin Silink, President of IDF and leader of the Unite for Diabetes campaign.

Despite its alarming human toll, claiming as many lives as HIV/AIDS, there is an extraordinary lack of awareness of the global scale of the diabetes threat. The ‘Unite for Diabetes’ campaign aimed to gain support from governments for a United Nations Resolution on diabetes in order to raise awareness of the disease and improve diabetes care globally.

UN Resolution document(pdf)

Unite for Diabetes campaign website