WORKING ON HUMAN RIGHTS

 CRC Session 80: January/February 2019
From January 14 to February 1, 2019, the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) held its 80^th Session in Geneva.
 
The CRC Committee reviewed the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 6 countries: Bahrain, Belgium, Guinea, Italy, Japan, Syrian Arab Republic. IBFAN submitted 3 alternative reports on the situation of infant and young child feeding in Bahrain, Belgium and Italy. Furthermore, direct advocacy during the session allowed the Committee members to address relevant questions on the status of IYCF policies to the other countries under review.
 
In its Concluding Observations, the CRC Committee referred specifically to breastfeeding for five out of six countries under review. Breastfeeding was mentioned in the concluding observations to all countries with the exception of the Syrian Arab Republic. As a general recommendation on IYCF rates, the CRC Committee recommended Belgium, Italy and Japan to invest in measures to improve the exclusive breastfeeding rates at six months.
 
Read the full post-session report here

CRC Session 81: May/June 2019
From May 13 to May 31, 2019, the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) held its 81^st Session in Geneva.
 
The committee elected Luis Ernesto Pederna Reyna as the new chairperson, and welcomed four new members: Bragi Gudbrandsson, Philip Jaffé, Faith Marshall-Harris and Aïssatou Sidikou.
The CRC Committee reviewed the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 6 countries: Tonga, Malta, Singapore, Côte d’Ivoire, Cabo Verde and Botswana. IBFAN submitted two alternative reports on the situation of infant and young child feeding in Malta and Singapore. Direct advocacy during the session allowed the Committee members to address relevant questions on the status of IYCF policies to the other countries under review.
 
In its Concluding Observations, the CRC Committee referred specifically to breastfeeding for all countries under review with the exception of Cote  d’Ivoire. The recent National Policy and Action Plan on Breastfeeding (2015-2020) of Malta was welcomed, while Tonga, Singapore and Botswana were invited to develop a national programme for the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding. Implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes was recommended to Tonga, Malta and Singapore.
 
Read the full post session report: here
 
GIFA at the meeting with the new CRC Chair
On June 13^th 2019, Child Rights Connect organized a roundtable, to which IBFAN-GIFA took part, with the Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: Luis Ernesto Pederna Reyna. It was the opportunity for the Mr. Pederna to present the main topics that the Committee will have to deal with during his term. These include: ensuring that all the sessions can take place, the treaty body strengthening process, the simplified reporting procedure and how to improve the pre-session. It was also the opportunity for Civil Society’ Organizations to raise some questions or concerns, such as the prioritization of some issues over others or the necessity to bring a gender perspective into the work of the CRC.

GLOBAL HEALTH GOVERNANCE

IBFAN’s advocacy at the 144^th Session of the WHO’s Executive Board

The 144th Session of WHO’s Executive Board was held in Geneva from the 24th of January to the 1st of February 2019. A delegation from IBFAN attended the meeting and delivered statements on several agenda items. In fact, even though 2019 is not a reporting year for maternal, infant and young child nutrition, nor for women’s and children’s health, there are still important areas of interest for IBFAN, such as emergency preparedness and response, climate change, NCDs or WHO’s Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors. Optimal IYCF practices, implementation of the Code and WHA Resolutions with their provisions on conflicts of interest touch all these areas and IBFAN delivered the following statements:
Item 5.5 Universal Health Coverage – Primary Health Care
Item 5.6 Health, Environment and Climate Change
Item 5.8 Anti-Microbial Resistance
Item 5.8 Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases
Item 7.3 Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors
 
Read EB144 official documents here.
Watch the Live webcasts here.
Read Baby Milk Action’s updates on EB144 here.

72nd World Health Assembly: May 2019
The 72^nd World Health Assembly was held between 20-28 May 2019. This year was not a reporting year on Infant and Young Child Feeding, but IBFAN’s four representatives were there to ensure that breastfeeding protection, promotion and support would be mentioned while continuing to warn WHO on conflict of interests as well as the risks it is taking with the partnership approach.
 
IBFAN delivered oral statements on the following items (click to see more):

• Agenda Item 11.2 – WHO’s work in health emergencies
• Agenda Item 11.5 – Universal Health Coverage
• Agenda Item 11.6 – Health, Environment and Climate Change
• Agenda Item 11.8 – Anti Microbial Resistance
• Agenda Item 11.8 – Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases

NetCode meeting (10-12 April 2019)
In April, the fourth meeting of the Global Network on the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes (NetCode) took place. IBFAN was represented by Joo Kean Yeong (IBFAN ICDC), Dr. Ghada Sayed (IBFAN Arab World) and Fédora Bernard (IBFAN-GIFA). The meeting lasted for four days and had the following topics on the agenda: (1) Country-level progress on Code monitoring, (in Ecuador, Russia, South Africa, Philippines, Myanmar and EMRO region) (2) Ramping up support to countries (3) Understanding and implementing the Code (4) Global efforts to address marketing of breastmilk substitutes; (5) Emerging issues relevant to the Context of Code implementation; (6) Netcode Operations and revisiting its objectives.

Revised Draft of the legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises
While the 5^th session of the Intergovernmental will take place in Geneva next October, the revised draft was issued at the beginning of July 2019. IBFAN-GIFA will keep working in close collaboration with the Treaty Alliance on this issue.

Green Feeding
In May, on the occasion of the World Health Assembly, IBFAN - GIFA and WBTi published the document  "Green Feeding for Climate Action from birth." It includes ten key messages which underline the fact that breastfeeding is a natural gesture that contributes to sustainable nutrition, safeguards the health of mothers, children and Mother Earth. When we strengthen greed feeding practices by protecting and supporting mothers and breastfeeding, we are also protecting our air, water and land. Contrary to breastmilk substitutes, breastfeeding does not have a negative impact on the environment: there is no waste of resources, no pollution, no risk of contaminants, and it can contribute to lesser health related expenses.  Check out the documents here:

• Green Feeding Worldwide 2019 in English, 20 pages (May 22, 2019)
• Green Feeding Key messages 2019 in English, 2 pages (May 22/June 21, 2019)
• Green Feeding References and Resources 2019, 5 pages (May 22, 2019)
• Green Feeding Trailer, 2 pages (June 21, 2019)
• Green Feeding Messages Clés 2019 en français, 2 pages (3 juin 2019)
• Green Feeding Canada in English, 10 pages (June 20, 2019)

MARCHEZ ET MANGEZ MALIN! PROJECT FOR CHILD OBESITY PREVENTION IN THE CANTON OF GENEVA

Following MMMs lock frames, IBFAN-GIFA engages in many different activities in the Breastfeeding promotion field. Networking is a very important part of the daily work of the MMM project:

Lecture for Nutrition students at the Haute Ecole de Santé
In April, GIFA was again assuring a lecture for Nutrition students at HEdS (Haute Ecole de Santé) Genève on the importance of Breastfeeding and the reason and the scope of the International Code. This is a way to raise awareness in futur dieticians and nutrition professionals about conflict of interest in the (baby-)food market.

MMM Roundtable meeting
Our roundtable who gathered in 2017 and 2018 is now an active platform for sharing breastfeeding information and events. GIFA wrote a "Newsletter MMM" (in French) to our partners in June. The next roundtable meeting is scheduled in November.

Meeting with the Canton and preparation of advocacy documents
Another important meeting took place in May, in which GIFA had the opportunity to present its advocacy work to two head officers of the Canton in charge of Prevention and Nutrition. The current contract ends in 2020, and so we prepared an advocacy document about the importance of Breastfeeding, based on latest research and arguments in order to continue Geneva's action and investment in promoting and protecting Breastfeeding.

SAVE THE DATE

• 1-7 August: World Breastfeeding Week 
• 9-27 September: 82nd Session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child
• 14-21 September: Celebration of the World Breastfeeding Week in Switzerland
• 30 September - 18 October: 66th Session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• 12 October 2019: IBFAN 40th anniversary!!
• 14 - 18 October 2019: Fifth Session of the Open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises
• 21 October - 8 November 2019: 74th Session of the Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women
• 11-15 November 2019: 3rd Breastfeeding Conference in Rio de Janeiro
• 20th November 2019: 30th anniversary of the Committee on the Rights of the Child