On 17 November 2025, the world comes together for World Cervical Cancer Elimination Day, the first official global day devoted to ending a cancer — designated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Health Assembly.
This milestone builds on the historic 2020 commitment, when 194 countries endorsed WHO’s Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer.
This year’s theme — “Act Now: Eliminate Cervical Cancer” — highlights the urgent need to expand access to HPV vaccination, high-performance screening, and timely treatment, keeping the world on track to reach WHO’s 90-70-90 targets by 2030. These efforts are essential for saving lives and advancing women’s health, equity, and universal health coverage.
Here are voices from people and organizations around the world, sharing their messages and actions for cervical cancer elimination:
“In commemoration of the Cervical Cancer Elimination Day of Action on November 17, we held a teal ribbon ceremony at Medicaid Cancer Foundation.
As vice chair of the National Taskforce on Cervical Cancer Elimination (NTF-CCE), along with many other esteemed experts, we recently launched a comprehensive national cervical cancer screening guideline, which now needs to be adopted and funded at all levels of governments, engage industry stakeholders, and disseminated widely.”
Union for International Cancer Control (UICC):
“Today marks the first official World Cervical Cancer Elimination Day!
With only five years left to achieve the elimination goals set out in the World Health Organization’s Global Strategy, recent analyses show encouraging but uneven progress.”
“The Kazakhstan Cancer Society joins the global movement to eliminate cervical cancer — a preventable and treatable disease when detected early.
In Kazakhstan, more than 2,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year. It remains one of the most common cancers among women, and every prevented case represents a preserved life and future.”
“We are honored to welcome the World Health Organization Headquarters team from Geneva to Rwanda as we jointly kicked off the new district-wide screening campaign in Nyarugenge.”
“Thank you to TogetHER for Health for your diligence on sharing annual perspectives on the funding landscape for high burden countries as they work towards the ambition to eliminate cervical cancer.”
“Elimination is within reach in Australia, yet Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women continue to be disproportionately affected by cervical cancer.
We were privileged to be joined by Associate Professor Megan Smith, University of Sydney, to present new research exploring the potential impact that scaling up screening could have on expediting cervical cancer elimination in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.”
“Two Countries, One Goal: Eliminating Cervical Cancer Ahead of WHO’s Global Targets
We were honored to welcome Ambassador Karin Tegmark Wisell, the Swedish Ambassador of Global Health, to our women’s cancer screening program in Rwanda.
Sweden aims to eliminate cervical cancer by 2027, and Rwanda is pursuing the same ambition through Mission 2027.”
“I am proud to support the World Health Organization Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative, a global commitment to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem within a generation. The goal is achievable only if we continue to invest, scale up, and ensure equitable access.
No woman should die from a disease we can prevent and cure.”
“Today, the world marks the first official World Cervical Cancer Elimination Day — a World Health Day created because of the collective leadership, passion, and action of communities, countries, survivors, youth, and partners everywhere.
This year’s theme, Act Now: Eliminate Cervical Cancer, reminds us that elimination is not a distant goal — it’s a choice we make through the actions we take today.”
“Today, Nov 17th 2025 is the inaugural World Day of Action on Cervical Cancer Elimination!
Thanks to Minister Mark Butler for opening our annual conference, Eliminating Cervical Cancer (ECC), run by our NHMRC Centre for Cervical Cancer Control, C4.”
Association of European Cancer Leagues:
“Eliminating cervical cancer is no longer a distant dream.
In 2022 alone, nearly 14,000 women in Europe lost their lives to cervical cancer. Thanks to ongoing efforts in HPV vaccination and screening, we are getting closer to a future in which women do not have to die of this disease.”
“Glad to report the significant progress made in developing the European recommendations on cervical cancer screening as part of the European Commission Initiative on Cervical Cancer (ECI-CvC) being led by IARC in collaboration with JRC, Ispra.”
European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO):
“ESGO and ESGO ENGAGe are proud to support WHO in the worldwide strategy to eliminate this preventable disease.”
“We are the only generation in history with a vaccine that can not just reduce, but eliminate, a cancer. And we are still watching politics, inequity, and complacency get in the way.”