UNESCO Traditional Medicine - A kind of medicine as traditional practitioners

Traditional medicine lies at the crossroads of

two different types of skills, values and

responsibilities. It is a kind of medicine, as traditional practitioners – to use the terms of the 1978

Declaration of Alma Ata – must be included as health workers who are called upon “to respond to

the expressed health needs of the community”, in

the same way as physicians, nurses, midwives,

auxiliaries and community workers, on the basis of suitable training. At the same time, traditional

medicine – as is explicit in the definition adopt

ed by the World Health Organization – aims to

perform the task of maintaining health as well as the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or

treatment of physical and mental illness, usin

g knowledge, skills, and practices based on “the

theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures”. As set out in Article 27 of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural

life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to

share in scientific advancement and its benefits.”