The assembly is the decision-making body of the World Health Organization, a United Nations global health agency with a sprawling mandate. “War is a health issue,” Simon Manley, Britain’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, said. Ukraine’s successful vote at the World Health Assembly, the top global health event of the year, may not carry with it immediate repercussions for Russia. However, it pointed to references in the WHO constitution that allowed the stripping of voting rights and other rights and benefits. The suspension of a member’s voting rights would be extremely unusual, though not unprecedented: The WHO stripped South Africa of its voting rights in 1964 after it codified its apartheid policy of racial segregation.

Source: Washington Post May 27, 2022 09:31 UTC