UN High-Level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases and the Promotion of Mental Health report

October 6, 2025

Prevention of Noncommunicable Disease and mental health

25 September 2025 10:00-18:00
United Nations Headquarters
Conference Room -1

Tsuyoshi Akiyama

Meeting Memo

Meetings of this kind have been held at the United Nations in 2011, 2014, 2018, and this year. The next meeting is scheduled for 2031. The term “mental health” was included in the meeting title for the first time.

In the opening remarks, the Director-General of the WHO emphasized the importance of mental health.

Representatives of nations or a group of nations, often prime ministers or ministers of health, deliver a series of 3–5-minute statements. Although the speeches were short, I could understand the situation and orientation of each nation.

It was heartening to hear that some statements, for example, from Algeria, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chad, Congo, Côte d’ Ivoire, Cuba, Estonia, Ethiopia, EU, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Malawi, Mali, Marshall Islands, Moldova, Mozambique, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Pacific Island nations, Panama, Portugal, Qatar, Senegal, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Timor, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay, explicitly mentioned the importance of mental health.

I missed including a number of nations above, since the chair did not pronounce the country of the presenter clearly, or sometimes did not mention the name. I did not expect this. Surprisingly, the interpretation quality was not superb.

Many nations supported the political declaration of noncommunicable diseases. A few countries opposed this due to political conflicts.

Closing segments

Due to the opposition of a few countries, including the USA and Argentina, the political declaration could not be adopted unanimously at this assembly. However, since an overwhelming majority supported it, the declaration was submitted to the UN General Assembly for a vote.

Lesson learned

Through attending this meeting, I understood

1. There are differences among various nations, but there are also shared concerns.
2. Many nations acknowledge the importance of mental health issues.
3. The WFMH should reinvigorate its participation in WHO/UN meetings to learn about global developments and explore the possibility of collaborating with the WHO/UN and various nations to improve global mental health.