The Resolution on Strengthening Rehabilitation in the Health System of the World Health Assembly - also a voluntary commitment by Germany

The World Health Assembly ("WHA") is the sovereign body of the World Health Organization of the United Nations ("WHO") and thus the supreme decision-maker. It consists of delegates from all 194 member states. In addition to electing the Secretariat, it also regularly discusses and adopts resolutions on important health issues, which are initiated by individual member states and prepared as draft resolutions by the WHO Executive Board (34 member states, elected in a rotation system). Like the resolutions of the UN General Assembly, the resolutions of the WHA are not legally binding. They do, however, have a highly normative and calling character, especially if they have been adopted by a large majority or unanimously. This also applies to the resolution on strengthening rehabilitation in health systems adopted by the WHA on May 27, 2023 ("Strengthening Rehabilitation in Health Systems"; WHO Document EB 152(10) [1]), which the German delegation also approved and thus"adopted" for itself. The resolutions of the WHA generally follow a uniform pattern, in which the background, the frame of reference and the problem situation are first described, followed by the demands on the member states, an invitation to cooperation by civil society organizations and the demands on the Director-General of the WHO.