A nine-member World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC) delegation led by Dr. Anthony Metcalfe, WFC president, attended the World Health Organization's 58th annual World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, May 16-20, 2005.
The following delegates joined Dr. Metcalfe as WFC representatives at this year's assembly:
- Dr. Rand Baird - Chair, WFC Health-for-All Committee
- Mr. David Chapman-Smith - WFC Secretary-General
- Mr. Edward Leonard - World Congress of Chiropractic Students
- David O'Byron - Executive Director, Association of Chiropractic Colleges
- Dr. Sira Borges - Past President, Brazilian Chiropractors' Association
- Dr. Michel Tetrault - Chiropractic Diplomatic Corps (associate member)
- Dr. Ernst Anrig - Cleveland College of Chiropractic Board of Directors
- Mrs. Huldy Anrig
WFC delegates attended several major sessions and committee hearings, in addition to meetings with WHO officials and various health ministers.
The primary function of the World Health Assembly, attended by delegations from all of the WHO's 192 member states, is to determine the policies of the WHO. As such, the annual assembly is one of the most important international public health events of the year.
Over 2,000 health ministers and their delegations, representing virtually every country in the world, attended the 2005 assembly. The featured plenary session speaker in the Palais Des Nations (site of the United Nations Office at Geneva) on opening day was Bill Gates, of Microsoft Corporation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Mr. Gates pledged several hundred million dollars to the WHO to help fight infectious disease threats around the world.
The WFC has been in official relations with the World Health Organization as a nongovernmental organization (NGO) since 1997.
