The Final Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion can be read at:
www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/6gchp/bangkok_charter/en/index.html

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: UN News Centre: New charter for health promotion in globalized
world adopted at UN conference
(11 August 2005) 
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=15365&Cr=health&Cr1=
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New charter for health promotion in globalized world adopted at UN conference
http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/6gchp/en/index.html

With life expectancy rates differing by up to nearly 50 years between
countries and more than 20 years within the same country, concerted
efforts to close the health gap gained new momentum today under a charter
for health promotion in a globalized world adopted at a United
Nations-sponsored conference in Bangkok, Thailand.

Endorsed by 700 participants from more than 100 countries at the 6th
Global on Health Promotion, co-hosted by the UN World Health Organization
and the Thai Health Ministry, the Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion
identifies major actions needed to address the determinants of health by
engaging the many actors and stakeholders critical to achieving health for
all.

“It is not inevitable that there should be a spread of life expectancy of
48 years among countries and 20 years or more within countries. A
burgeoning volume of research identifies social factors at the root of
much of these inequalities in health,” Professor Michael Marmot, Chairman
of WHO's Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, told the
gathering.

The challenge of the Bangkok Charter has been to determine how best to
respond to the many global changes and trends that are critically
affecting health and well-being and how to evolve health promotion
strategies to address these inequalities and to be more relevant to the
demands of the new millennium.

It highlights the growing double burden of communicable and chronic
diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes, and the
health effects of globalization such as widening inequities, rapid
urbanization and the degradation of environments.

The Charter calls for policy coherence, investment and partnering across
governments, international organizations, civil society and the private
sector to work towards four key commitments. These include ensuring that
health promotion is central to the global development agenda, that it is a
core responsibility of all governments and part of good corporate
practice, as well as a focus of community and civil society actions.

It was developed through open consultation involving participants from a
wide range of groups and organizations around the globe and builds on the
Ottawa Charter of 1986 establishing the core principles of Health
Promotion which seek to identify the root causes, or determinants, of
health.

These are social and economic factors determining health status such as
income, education, profession, working conditions, mental status, which in
turn can affect risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, eating
habits and physical inactivity.
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To read the full Bangkok charter as it was presented in the final form, see:
www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/6gchp/bangkok_charter/en/index.html
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