History was in the making when ten international health freedom organizations from four countries launched the World Health Freedom Assembly! The launch happened September 29-30, 2006, at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. A motion to launch a long term Assembly was made after two days of deliberations by the 10 organizations in the presence of 20 additional Advisory Organizations supportive of health freedom. In addition to the motion to launch, all of the Voting and Advisory groups worked together during the two day event to draft and endorse an International Declaration of Health Freedom and resolutions. All organizations and individuals in attendance for the gathering had the opportunity to sign the original Declaration document.
During the Assembly deliberations the Assembly developed a short list of current health freedom issues for discussion that were of great concern in their various countries. One issue was taken up at this first gathering. That issue was a controversial USA national bill entitled the “Dietary Supplement and Non-Prescription Drug Consumer Protection Act”, commonly known as the “AER bill”, or the Adverse Events Reporting bill. The Assembly passed a resolution to oppose this bill. Other issues that members offered for future discussions, in order of priority, included: the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America harmonization language; the Trilateral Cooperation Charter between USA, Mexico, and Canada; a modified Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act that could be adopted by other countries; Codex Alimentarius; and EU Food Supplements Directive.
The new World Assembly is now meeting monthly by conference call to discuss formal organizational structure and health freedom issues. Seven additional organizations from five countries that were unable to attend the US gathering have been invited to be founding members of the World Health Freedom Assembly. The group is planning to gather in 2007 outside of the USA to begin to discuss strategies for the long term protection of health freedom, how to support and endorse each other’s efforts already in progress in the various countries, and ways to share knowledge and use the power of a unified voice to strengthen the voice of health freedom globally.