Violence, particularly against women and children, must be eliminated with the help of all stakeholders, which includes pharmacists, the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) told the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, today (27 May).

FIP explained to ministers from around the world that community pharmacists, as conveniently accessible and easily approachable sources of advice, offer a place where victims of violence can be helped to take the first steps to reporting violence. We also highlighted the fact that since the majority of pharmacists are women, victims of violence — who are often women — are likely to find it easier to talk to these health care professionals. We gave examples of actions that pharmacists in Germany and Spain have been taking to raise awareness of this serious issue, and noted that in many countries pharmacists are required to report suspected cases of child abuse.

This issue was among 10 that FIP made statements on at the 69^th World Health Assembly (WHA69) this week, including two on behalf of the World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA). The statements can be accessed below:

• Framework of engagement with non-State actors (Agenda item 11.3; FIP on behalf of WHPA)
• Draft global action plan on violence (Agenda item 12.3)
• Non-communicable diseases (Agenda item 12.4)
• Action on ageing and health (Agenda item 13.4)
• Antimicrobial resistance (Agenda item 14.4)
• Response in severe, large scale emergencies (Agenda item 14.6)
• Promoting the health of migrants  (Agenda item 14.7)
• Health workforce and services (Agenda item 16.1)
• Substandard/spurious/falsely-labelled/falsified/counterfeit medical products (Agenda item 16.3; FIP on behalf of WHPA)
• Global shortages of medicines (Agenda item 16.4)

Recordings from the assembly are being livestreamed here: www.who.int/mediacentre/events/2016/wha69/webstreaming/en/