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The Rio de Janeiro Declaration
July 1 2000

Present Situation

  1. Obesity is a chronic pandemic disease which has high economic and social costs, and decreases life expectancy and quality of the life for all ages, particularly affecting those with low incomes across Latin America. 
  2. It affects the individual, but its effects extend to families, communities and the whole of society.
  3. Unhealthy eating patterns and reduced physical activity levels are the main factors leading to overweight and obesity.
  4. In addition to its psychological and physiological impact, obesity has an economic and social impact through lower earnings and increased health costs.
  5. It constitutes the most important underlying global factor causing disease and death . 


In accordance with the above, we as members of the Federacion Latinoamericana de Sociedades de Obesidad (FLASO) and the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF), at the Cumbre Latino-Americana de Peso Saludable (Latin American Summit on Healthy Weight) emphasize the importance of the Latin American consensus on obesity and call upon the governments of the region to:

  1. Recognize that obesity is a chronic disease and a serious public health problem.
  2. Introduce improved programmes for health education, prevention, detection and treatment.
  3. Modify environmental risk factors in accordance with the recommendations of the

    4. Latin American Obesity Consensus 1998.
  4. Include obesity in the list of diseases requiring priority mandatory treatment within health systems.
  5. Support the development of improved capabilities within health professions for prevention and integrated management of obesity.
  6. Stimulate further basic, epidemiological and clinical research.
  7. Raise public awareness of this resolution emphasizing the need for concerted action at all levels and from all sectors of society.
We call upon the Pan American Health Organization’s executive to convey these recommendations for discussion and approval by its member countries. We also ask PAHO to provide technical co-operation to implement these actions.

The undersigned recognize the extent of the cooperation between the scientific societies and the Brazilian and Argentine health authorities. 

We call upon the representatives of health ministries at this meeting to transmit these recommendations to their respective govenments.