French President Jacques Chirac and more than 100 cancer experts, officials, patients and advocacy groups from around the world signed a historic charter on Friday, February 3rd, 2000, to forge global partnerships to fight the disease.

The 10-point Charter of Paris Against Cancer is an international initiative to mobilise efforts and investments to empower cancer sufferers, guarantee their human rights and improve treatment worldwide.

"The fight against cancer is one of the great challenges of our century, a challenge that transcends frontiers," Chirac said during the signing ceremony at the Elysee Palace.

President Chirac
with Joel's book.

He gave his full backing to the initiative, which marked the end of the first World Summit Against Cancer.

"I hope it will receive the widest possible support on the part of the medical and scientific community, and of everyone all over the world, and that it may thus help to beat back cancer faster," Chirac added.

Earlier U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, a patron of the two-day summit, pledged her support to the charter.

"Cancer is a global disease that requires global solutions," she said in a taped message from Washington. "By signing the Charter of Paris you are bringing us one step closer to a day when our children will have to turn to the history books to learn about a disease called cancer."

The two-day conference was the brainchild of a French and an American oncologist who realised an international initiative was needed to defeat the disease, which kills six million people each year and is expected to overtake heart disease as the world's leading killer.

Without increased efforts to curb cancer, the World Health Organisation estimates it will claim 10 million lives a year by 2020 and infect 20 million people annually.

The charter is designed to help bridge the gap in what scientists know about cancer and what is being done to defeat it.

Last Updated 24 July 2004