Enfermería

International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes

World Health Organization Geneva 1981

ISBN 92 4 154160 1 World Health Organization 1981 Publications of the World Health Organization enjoy copyright protection in accordance with the provisions of Protocol 2 of the Universal Copyright Convention. For rights of reproduction or translation of WHO publications, in part or in toto,application should be made to the Office of Publications, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. The World Health Organization welcomes such applications. The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of anycountry, territory, city of area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

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Contents

Introduction International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes Annex 1. Resolutions of the Executive Board at its sixty-seventh session and of the Thirty-fourth World Health Assembly on the on the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milkSubstitutes Resolution of the Thirty-third World Health Assembly on infant and young child feeding Excerpts from the introductory statement by the Representative of the Executive Board to the Thirty-fourth World Health Assembly on the subject of the draft international code of marketing of breast-milk substitutes

Annex 2.

Annex 3.

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Introduction

THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) and theUnited Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) have for many years emphasized the importance of maintaining the practice of breast-feeding—and of reviving the practice where it is in decline—as a way to improve the health and nutrition of infants and young children. Efforts to promote breast-feeding and to overcome problems that might discourage it are a part of the overall nutrition and maternal andchild health programmes of both organizations and are a key element of primary health care as a means of achieving health for all by the year 2000. A variety of factors influence the prevalence and duration of breast-feeding. The Twenty-seventh World Health Assembly, in 1974, noted the general decline in breast-feeding in many parts of the world, related to sociocultural and other factors includingthe promotion of manufactured breast-milk substitutes, and urged "Member countries to review sales promotion activities on baby foods to introduce appropriate remedial measures, including advertisement codes and legislation where necessary".1 The issue was taken up again by the Thirty-first World Health Assembly in May 1978. Among its recommendations were that Member States should give priority topreventing malnutrition in infants and young children by, inter alia, supporting and promoting breast-feeding, taking legislative and social action to facilitate breast-feeding by working mothers, and "regulating inappropriate sales promotion of infant foods that can be used to replace breast milk".2 Interest in the problems connected with infant and young child feeding and emphasis on theimportance of breast-feeding in helping to overcome them have, of course, extended well beyond WHO and UNICEF. Governments, nongovernmental organizations, professional associations, scientists, and manufacturers of infant foods have also called for action to be taken on a world scale as one step towards improving the health of infants and young children. In the latter part of 1978,WHO and UNICEFannounced their intention of organizing jointly a meeting on infant and young child feeding, within their existing programmes, to try to make the most effective use of this groundswell of opinion. After thorough consideration on how to ensure the fullest participation, the meeting was convened in Geneva from 9 to 12 October 1979 and was attended by some 150 representatives of governments, organizations...