Canada Votes Against Healthcare for Palestinians at WHO Assembly

Canada voted last week against a set of recommendations calling on the international community to support access to healthcare for Palestinians, Canadian media reported. 

The vote took place during a World Health Assembly (WHA) session on May 25. The WHA is a yearly meeting of World Health Organization (WHO) member states, held annually in Geneva to determine the policies of the WHO for the following year.

Delegations attending the WHA were asked to vote on the recommendations of a report on the state of Palestinian healthcare, which documented 235 attacks against health care workers and facilities in the occupied territories in 2021 that injured over 100 health workers. The WHO has already confirmed 58 attacks on health workers and facilities since the beginning of the year, which caused at least one death and 47 injuries.

In its final recommendations, the report called on Israel to end its denial of healthcare to Palestinians in occupied territories, to allow Palestinians to travel to seek healthcare, and to refrain from targeting healthcare workers.

Canada was in a group of 14 countries – including Israel and the US – that voted “no” to the recommendations. 83 states voted in favour, and 39 abstained. At the same meeting, Canada later co-sponsored a resolution condemning Russian attacks on healthcare in Ukraine.

The theme of this year’s WHA was “Health for peace, peace for health”.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share buttons above or below. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.