The 63rd session of the World Health Assembly is taking place in Geneva until 21 May 2010. At this session, the Health Assembly will discuss a number of public health issues, including:

• implementation of the International Health Regulations (2005);
• monitoring of the achievement of the health-related Millennium Development Goals;
• strategies to reduce the harmful use of alcohol; and 
• counterfeit medical products. 

The Health Assembly will also discuss the program budget, administration and management matters of the World Health Organization (WHO).

How the World Health Asembly works

WHO was established 62 years ago to promote health and ease the burden of disease worldwide. The Organization takes direction for its goals and priorities from the 193 Member States it is designed to serve. Each year, senior health officials from all these Member States come to Geneva to participate in the World Health Assembly. It is at the Health Assembly that WHO's work is reviewed, new goals are set, and new tasks assigned.

The 63rd World Health Assembly this year has a long and complex list of health challenges and responses to review.

The process at the annual World Health Assembly

At the Health Assembly two main types of meeting are held, each with a different purpose:

• Committees meet to debate technical and health matters (Committee A), and financial and management issues (Committee B), and approve the texts of resolutions, which are then submitted to the plenary meeting.
• Plenary is the meeting of all delegates to the World Health Assembly. The Health Assembly meets in plenary several times in order to listen to reports and adopt the resolutions transmitted by the committees. The Director-General and Member States also address the delegates at the plenary.

In addition, technical briefings are organized separately on specific public health topics to present new developments in the area, provide a forum for debate and to allow for information sharing.

For more information, visit WHO's web site.