A/HRC/19/73 complication of these diseases.135 The 2010 First WHO Report on Neglected Tropical Disease “Working to Overcome the Global Impact of Neglected Tropical Disease” also omits noma.136 According to Alexander Fieger, this reflects the lack of a good monitoring system for noma, and the lack of interest for this affliction from public health policymakers both in less privileged countries where noma is prevalent and world institutions like WHO and the World Bank.137 62. MSF has recently undertaken an investigation into the medical humanitarian issues surrounding noma. It concluded that this disease is “more than neglected, it is ignored and is concerned by the low level of awareness, funding and the lack of global oversight. Besides ensuring that there is an ongoing high level expertise for the detection and treatment of noma in its malnutrition projects, MSF is planning to examine how it can work towards the goal that noma gets more recognition as a neglected disease by WHO and other global health actors.”138 63. Noma is ignored by Government funding and has escaped the interest of major human rights or humanitarian NGOs. Across the board, the actors consulted during the drafting process agreed that more needs to be done in the fight against noma – starting with policies aimed at eliminating poverty and reducing malnutrition – and that States and relevant specialized agencies ought to assume responsibility. 64. In its statement on the Advisory Committee‟s preliminary study, the Winds of Hope Foundation, the main funder of the WHO Regional Noma Programme in Africa, declares: “A clear statement from the United Nations Human Rights Council would be a powerful catalyst to raise awareness among political authorities and other international organisations about the fight against this neglected and deadly disease of poverty. This would encourage Governments to implement the practical measures that could really make a difference.”139 65. In its submission on the preliminary study, WHO expresses its “hopes that the study may help generate increased interest and support from Member States to WHO to address noma and to strengthen its mandate in this regard. Such support could help ensure, as is recommended in the study, that the program has a global mandate, independent of the geographical location it is led from”. 140 IV. Conclusions and recommendations 66. The present study has reiterated the importance of socioeconomic conditions into which children are born and in which they grow up and live in influencing their opportunity to be healthy. The reduction of malnutrition and childhood diseases cannot be dissociated from the elimination of extreme poverty and its direct consequences: stigmatization, discrimination and exclusion. As imperatives flowing from human rights law obligations: 135 136 137 138 139 140 20 Enwonwu, “Ruminations”, p. 43. WHO, Geneva, 2008. Fieger, “An estimation”, p. 405. Communication with J. Tong, MSF, A. Slavuckij, Deputy Medical Director for Operations, MSF. Statement of Winds of Hope Foundation, 8 December 2011. Submission by the WHO, 25 November 2011.