WHO doctor to stand down

The head of the World Health Organisation, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, said today she had decided not to stand for a second term in office.

“My decision to complete my work as director-general at the end of my current term reflects the fact that I have had leading positions in political and public office for nearly 30 years, and would be 69 at the end of a second term,” Brundtland said in a statement issued in Geneva.

Brundtland’s five year term of office expires in July 2003, and the new director-general will be elected by the World Health Assembly - the WHO’s governing body - next May.

Brundtland, a medical doctor and public health specialist, became Norway’s first woman prime minister in 1981 and served four terms, during which she gained international standing as an environmentalist and champion of women’s rights.