STATE STOOPIDITY
US refuses to back UN declaration on noncommunicable diseases
Isabel Choat in New York
Fri, September 26, 2025
THE GUARDIAN
Robert F Kennedy Jr told UN delegates the declaration ‘pushes destructive gender ideology’.
Fri, September 26, 2025
THE GUARDIAN
Robert F Kennedy Jr told UN delegates the declaration ‘pushes destructive gender ideology’.
Photograph: Francis Chung/UPI/Shutterstock
A new vision for tackling the global noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) crisis has failed to reach consensus at the UN after the US refused to give its support, forcing member states to a vote.
After months of negotiations, the fourth political declaration on NCDs and mental health received overwhelming backing from governments at the UN general assembly on Thursday but was rejected by the US during a speech by Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary.
Addressing the assembly, Kennedy said: “We cannot accept language that pushes destructive gender ideology. Neither can we accept claims of a constitutional or international right to abortion. [The declaration] exceeds the UN’s proper role while ignoring the most pressing health issues, and that’s why the United States will reject it.”
There is no mention of reproductive rights or gender in the declaration except in reference to specific challenges facing women.
Despite the US’s stance, the declaration is expected to be agreed on in the coming weeks. Katie Dain, the chief executive of the NCD Alliance, an NGO, said: “The unity we saw today proves that most governments are ready to take the baton on NCDs.”
The declaration includes new targets to track and accelerate responses to NCDs such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, which cause 43 million deaths a year – 75% of all deaths worldwide. The majority, 80%, are preventable.
It also strongly urges access to affordable medicines and integrates mental health and diseases such as oral and renal conditions.
Health experts criticised the failure to recommend harsher taxes on alcohol, tobacco and sugary drinks. Commitments to such levies were included in an earlier draft but were absent from the final declaration after intense lobbying by tobacco, alcohol and food and drink companies. Sugary drinks are not mentioned at all.
Alison Cox, the policy and advocacy director at the NCD Alliance, said the watered-down declaration had missed an opportunity to reduce consumption of harmful products and raise much-needed funds for healthcare. Only 19 countries are on track to meet a UN goal to reduce by one-third premature mortality from NCDs by 2030 through prevention and treatment.
Cox said: “We thought the moment had come. All the agreement [by governments] about investing in health protection is being lost to the interests of a few industries who are externalising the effects of their products on to economies.”
Alcohol, tobacco and ultra-processed food and drink are key drivers of obesity, a major cause of NCDs. By 2035, 4 billion people will be living with overweight and obesity. A Unicef report published this month found that for the first time more children around the world are obese than underweight, with low- and middle-income countries seeing the fastest rises.
“These countries, where health systems, food systems, social protection systems are fragile, can least afford the problems that arise [from obesity],” Dr Joan Matji, the director of child nutrition and development at Unicef, told the World Obesity Forum in New York this week.
“Everywhere children go – shops, restaurants, schools, sports event, while watching TV or scrolling social media – children are surrounded by ultra-processed foods that are cheap and aggressively marketed. We know UPFs are highly profitable, giving the food industry amazing power and influence.”
Mexico, which first introduced a sugar tax in 2014, plans to increase the levy by 40%, bringing in $3.2bn a year in revenue that will go towards a health fund.
The country is one of the world’s highest consumers of sugary drinks, with devastating consequences for public health: one in three Mexican children are overweight or obese, while diabetes is the nation’s second-leading cause of death, blamed for 100,000 deaths a year.
Speaking at the obesity forum, Ramiro López Elizalde, Mexico’s vice-minister of health, said: “Obesity is the silent epidemic of our time. While [drinks company] executives make decisions on golf courses, millions are connected to a dialysis machine. The defenders of the soda industry say [the soda tax] is only about revenue. They are wrong. We seek to reduce consumption
A new vision for tackling the global noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) crisis has failed to reach consensus at the UN after the US refused to give its support, forcing member states to a vote.
After months of negotiations, the fourth political declaration on NCDs and mental health received overwhelming backing from governments at the UN general assembly on Thursday but was rejected by the US during a speech by Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary.
Addressing the assembly, Kennedy said: “We cannot accept language that pushes destructive gender ideology. Neither can we accept claims of a constitutional or international right to abortion. [The declaration] exceeds the UN’s proper role while ignoring the most pressing health issues, and that’s why the United States will reject it.”
There is no mention of reproductive rights or gender in the declaration except in reference to specific challenges facing women.
Despite the US’s stance, the declaration is expected to be agreed on in the coming weeks. Katie Dain, the chief executive of the NCD Alliance, an NGO, said: “The unity we saw today proves that most governments are ready to take the baton on NCDs.”
The declaration includes new targets to track and accelerate responses to NCDs such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, which cause 43 million deaths a year – 75% of all deaths worldwide. The majority, 80%, are preventable.
It also strongly urges access to affordable medicines and integrates mental health and diseases such as oral and renal conditions.
Health experts criticised the failure to recommend harsher taxes on alcohol, tobacco and sugary drinks. Commitments to such levies were included in an earlier draft but were absent from the final declaration after intense lobbying by tobacco, alcohol and food and drink companies. Sugary drinks are not mentioned at all.
Alison Cox, the policy and advocacy director at the NCD Alliance, said the watered-down declaration had missed an opportunity to reduce consumption of harmful products and raise much-needed funds for healthcare. Only 19 countries are on track to meet a UN goal to reduce by one-third premature mortality from NCDs by 2030 through prevention and treatment.
Cox said: “We thought the moment had come. All the agreement [by governments] about investing in health protection is being lost to the interests of a few industries who are externalising the effects of their products on to economies.”
Alcohol, tobacco and ultra-processed food and drink are key drivers of obesity, a major cause of NCDs. By 2035, 4 billion people will be living with overweight and obesity. A Unicef report published this month found that for the first time more children around the world are obese than underweight, with low- and middle-income countries seeing the fastest rises.
“These countries, where health systems, food systems, social protection systems are fragile, can least afford the problems that arise [from obesity],” Dr Joan Matji, the director of child nutrition and development at Unicef, told the World Obesity Forum in New York this week.
“Everywhere children go – shops, restaurants, schools, sports event, while watching TV or scrolling social media – children are surrounded by ultra-processed foods that are cheap and aggressively marketed. We know UPFs are highly profitable, giving the food industry amazing power and influence.”
Mexico, which first introduced a sugar tax in 2014, plans to increase the levy by 40%, bringing in $3.2bn a year in revenue that will go towards a health fund.
The country is one of the world’s highest consumers of sugary drinks, with devastating consequences for public health: one in three Mexican children are overweight or obese, while diabetes is the nation’s second-leading cause of death, blamed for 100,000 deaths a year.
Speaking at the obesity forum, Ramiro López Elizalde, Mexico’s vice-minister of health, said: “Obesity is the silent epidemic of our time. While [drinks company] executives make decisions on golf courses, millions are connected to a dialysis machine. The defenders of the soda industry say [the soda tax] is only about revenue. They are wrong. We seek to reduce consumption
US objects to UN's political declaration on non-communicable diseases, Kennedy says
Sriparna Roy and Christy Santhosh
Thu, September 25, 2025
REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing on President Donald Trump's 2026 health care agenda on Capitol Hill in Washington,D.C.
(Reuters) -The United States has objected to the United Nations' political declaration on non-communicable diseases, with U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saying on Thursday it ignored the most pressing health issues.
"The United States will walk away from the declaration, but we will never walk away from the world or our commitment to end chronic disease," he said at a U.N. General Assembly session.
The declaration, which is expected to be adopted at the ongoing high-level meeting of world leaders in New York, aims to set an ambitious roadmap through 2030 and beyond for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases and for promoting mental health and well-being.
Kennedy said the declaration was filled with controversy and contained "provisions about everything from taxes to oppressive management" from international bodies.
He also criticized the U.N.'s approach as attempting both "too little and too much" and said it was misdirected.
"It exceeds the U.N.'s proper role while ignoring the most pressing health issues, and that's why the United States will reject it," he added, without specifying what those health issues were.
The U.N. did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.
Kennedy called on the international community to come together to combat the "scourge" of ultra-processed food. He said U.S. President Donald Trump wanted to lead the effort globally against such foods and the medical and physical illness associated with it.
"Ultra-processed food is driving chronic disease," said Kennedy, who has launched a sweeping campaign to curb ultra-processed foods in the U.S., and pushed for clearer labeling and removal of additives such as synthetic food dyes.
Kennedy also criticized the World Health Organization, saying it cannot claim credibility or leadership until it undergoes radical reform. Trump started the year-long process to withdraw the U.S. from the WHO with an executive order on his first day in office in January.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy and Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Nia Williams)
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