WHO Keynote by Rev Desmond Tutu

[Guest guest]

Sixty-first

World Health Assembly

20 May 2008

Address

by Reverend Desmond Mpilo Tutu

Archbishop

Emeritus, Cape Town, and Nobel Prize Laureate

Thank you Mr

President for that thoughtful introduction. Director-General Margaret Chan and

Deputy Director-General Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, your Excellencies, honourable

health ministers and delegates from around the world:

It is a very

great honour to have been invited to address this august Health Assembly

especially in the year when you mark the anniversary of the founding of WHO 60

years ago. The World Health Organization is the world’s health agency and

guardian of the right to the highest attainable level of health for all people.

Thank you. I am overwhelmed. It is an auspicious year since it is also the 60th

anniversary of the signing of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As

it happens it is also the 30th anniversary of your own Alma Ata Declaration on

Primary Health Care and the 7th anniversary of the Abuja Declaration pledging

15% of the national budget to be earmarked for health by African Heads of

State.

Thus there

is no shortage of significant subjects about which we could confer together. I

received a letter from Consumers International that urged me to raise the issue

of childhood obesity. They claim that worldwide 22% of all children under 5

years old are overweight. I have an embarrassment of riches. But as I have

mulled over a possible topic, it struck me quite forcibly that in many ways it

would in fact be somewhat presumptuous of me to talk to you about health issues

when you are the professionals and have a plethora of experts you could call on

who would have the specific data relating to your area of interest.

I thought it

would be less so and more appropriate if I were to speak in the area of my own

competence – the spiritual, the religious or ethical sphere. I would be likely

to speak with a bit more confidence and perhaps a modicum of authority.

Reflecting

again on your history and Constitution, the fullness of the right to health is

still incomplete. Health not only encompasses the physical, mental and social

wellbeing, but must be inclusive of spiritual wellbeing. Let me explain:

State of the world

I have a

favourite book of cartoons by the late Mel Calman of the London Observer

newspaper entitled, “My God”. One shows God somewhat nonplussed and saying, “Oh

dear, I think I have lost my copy of the Divine Plan!” Looking at the state of

the world we might be forgiven for wondering if God ever had a plan at all.

There are devastating floods in one part and destructive droughts in other

parts. Couldn’t God have organised things better so that there was enough water

for all? Then there are all the man-made disasters of tyranny and oppression,

an endless doleful catalogue of woe. There are the long lines of bedraggled

refugees from natural and man-made disasters. We have the casualties of racism,

ethnic strife and xenophobia and staring us in the face is the looming catastrophe

of climate change and ecological degradation signaled by tsunamis, cyclones and

hurricanes.

And you

would be particularly aware of the devastation caused by disease – TB, malaria,

HIV/AIDS, river blindness, polio, cholera, infant mortality, maternal illnesses,

many fuelled by poverty – children dying of easily preventable diseases if they

could but get the inexpensive vaccination/inoculation; many illnesses resulting

from a lack of clean water, proper sanitation and decent housing. There is also

evil when we refuse or become immobilized by bureaucracies or corruption to

provide the needed remedy to heal the nations. We must never forget that as

government leaders, we have a calling to dispel ignorance, restore justice and

defend liberty. We have this calling to ensure peace and build good health.

Much disease and heartbreak is preventable if governments had the political

will – the 15% Now campaign seeks to urge African Heads of State to honour

their pledges and so prevent unnecessary deaths of 8 million of their citizens.

Then there

are those leaders playing havoc with the well-being, the health of their

people. In these places, even the children are enlisted into ranks of soldiers.

Likewise, parents watch helplessly as their children succumb, either because

medication is rendered useless because of lack of electricity and so of

refrigeration, or they are held up at check points and may fail to reach the

hospital in time, if at all. Beloved, health cannot be de-linked or separated

from the killing effects of living under the bonds of terror, oppression and

tyranny.

The times

are thoroughly out of joint. Evil is real and rampant. In our Truth and

Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, we were devastated by the stories of

atrocities committed. “We gave him drugged coffee and shot him in the head.

Then we burned his body. It takes 7-8 hours for this to happen and so we had a

barbecue and drank beer.” You wondered what could have happened to the humanity

of those perpetrators that they could sink so low. We realized of course that

it bore witness to the fact that you and I, all of us, have this horrendous

capacity for evil. Those who supported Hitler did not have horns and tails.

They were human beings like you and me, often even prominent, respected members

of their communities. Yes, we all have the capacity to sink so low.

But

wonderfully, that turned out not to be the whole story, nor indeed the most

important part of the story. Wonderfully, exhilaratingly, there was another, a

glorious side. We witnessed extraordinary exhibitions of magnanimity as victims

of the most ghastly atrocities, people who should have been consumed by

bitterness and a lust for revenge, we witnessed how they spoke words of

forgiveness, of generosity to their tormentors and we realized then that, yes,

we have a capacity for evil, but, wonderfully, exhilaratingly, as I said

before, we have this amazing capacity for good.

Early this

year we visited Darfur – the descriptions do not tell half the story of the

awfulness that we found there. We had a meeting with the internally displaced

people and staggeringly they could laugh – what an amazing example of the

resilience of the human spirit in the face of daunting conditions. The Muslim

men wore white costumes – and they were spotless. It all testified to the

wonder of the human spirit, the capacity to laugh, to cling to dignity and self

respect, to refuse to see oneself as a victim, or to be pitied as one.

And then we

were impressed by another feature of that depressing landscape – the wonder of

the remarkable humanitarian workers. These were citizens of different lands

most of whom could have led safe and comfortable lives in their homelands. But

no, here they were, some retuning more than once in this bleak place, so

utterly insecure, where they ran the risk of being abducted and woe betide the

victim if it was a woman – running the gauntlet of sexual violation and worse.

And yet here

they were as they were to be found in so many other parts of the world which

was hurting either through natural or manmade disaster. There they were with an

amazing dedication and commitment making you feel proud to be a human being.

And many of those you represent are found in this glorious company of

humanitarian workers as doctors, nurses, ambulance workers – Wow, what a

fantastic array of goodness, of compassion, of caring – continuing the Divine

project of healing a broken and wounded world; making whole that which is

alienated and hurting.

All of you

in the healing enterprise are God’s collaborators in making this a better world

– more compassionate, gentler, more caring, and more sharing. In the tradition

of Abraham there is a notion that God deliberately made the world imperfect so

that God could enlist us all in the business of making the world perfect.

When we were

fighting against the viciousness of apartheid, we helped to sustain the morale

and the hope of our people in what seemed an unequal struggle by reminding them

that ours was a moral universe, that there was no way in which wrong, evil, injustice,

oppression could ever have the last world. This was God’s world and God was in

charge. Sometimes you wanted to whisper in God’s ear, “God, we know you are in

charge – but why don’t you make it more obvious?”

Yes, wrong,

evil will not have the last word. Goodness, compassion, love, justice,

laughter, caring -- these are what will prevail, will triumph over their

ghastly counterparts. Tyrants, dictators, perpetrators of injustice and

oppression may strut about the stage as if they were invincible cocks of the

walk. But as sure as anything, they will get their come-uppance; they will bite

the dust ignominiously. That is the verdict of history – the tyrants, the

depots, the upholders of apartheid, etc. etc. – where are they now? No, we will

not gloat.

I have

sometimes imagined that when God looks down at the mess we have made of things,

that God might wonder, “What ever got into me to create that lot?” and God

weeps. And then God looks again at you and all those others who want to help

God change this world to make it a better world and, hey, a smile begins to

break over God’s face like the sun shining through the rain and God says, “Ja,

that is why I created them, they are vindicating me.” And a little angel, have

you seen a little angel? Goes and wipes the tears from God’s eyes.

And God

says, “Please help me – please help me to realize my dream; that all my

children will know that they are sisters and brothers, members of one family,

the human family, God’s family – please help me, help me!”

The right to health

It is

evident from generations of witness that there is no situation that cannot be

transformed. There is no person who is hopeless, that is without a hope and a

remedy. There is no set of circumstances that cannot be turned about by human

beings and their natural capacity for love. It is essential that the world see

such ideas are put into action through the promises of the WHO, on behalf of

all people, communities and nations. For we need each other to become truly

free, to become human, and enjoy the spiritual well-being of our creation in

relationship to God and each other.

When we

review the right to health, we cannot help but notice that its global scope

contains the hopes and aspirations of all the peoples of the world. It also

calls upon the WHO to guard and guide the nations – the Member States, as you

call them – protecting their citizens and guaranteeing the right to health for

all people. It is a sacred and solemn covenant – a promise, if you would – that

you are called upon to undertake. Let me thank you for your tenacious

commitment and what this means in the lives of the more than 6 billion

residents of this planet.

It is a

godly coincidence that nearby the World Council of Churches (WCC) is also

celebrating its 60th year. Together WHO and WCC share a common mission to the

world, protecting and restoring body, mind, and spirit. It is important that

this is also the 40th anniversary of the Christian Medical Commission, whose

values and experience in primary health care, informed and shaped the 1974 WHO

Guidelines for Primary Health Care, which were reaffirmed at Alma Ata.

You see, we

– faith and health – have been together a very long time. Health is not only

freedom from suffering and illness, but according to your Constitution: “Health

is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely

the absence of disease or infirmity.” These words enshrine the fundamental

reason you are here and suggest something of what we share in our commitment to

the world, together. Perhaps it would be good for us to include the recognition

that there is an intrinsic relationship between God and humankind, which can be

acknowledged as “spiritual well-being”? Perhaps one day this notion of

well-being can be included in the WHO definition of health?

Conclusion

You are the

guardians of the dream of " Health for " All " . You have the

opportunity and responsibility to lead the world into a healthy place. You are

the enactors of justice: justice in the distribution of a country's wealth for

health; justice to meet the Millennium Development Goals; justice to save the

lives of your people and enable them to prosper and build healthy nations! God

is watching. The people are waiting. You are commissioned to go to wipe the

tears away from all faces and bring forth lives filled with strength, and

purpose which will make for peace. God bless you. God bless WHO. And thank you.

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