SECOND HIGH-LEVEL PREPARATORY MEETING TOWARDS THE FIFTH MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH |
| On 22-24 October 2008, the second high-level preparatory meeting towards the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health and the executive session of the European Environment and Health Committee (EEHC) took place in Madrid, Spain. The Second High-Level Meeting addressed the implementation of Regional Priority Goals III and IV from Children's Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe (CEHAPE), adopted by the previous ministerial conference of “Environment and Health” process in Budapest in 2004. The Second High-Level Meeting was preceded by the International Public Health Symposium which provided the opportunity to listen to the most recent research. The major new and debatable issues raised by symposium were endocrine disruptors and the effect of chemicals cocktail. It is not yet clear whether they will get any attention of the Fifth Ministerial Conference in Italy. During the Second High-Level Meeting, the European ECO Forum and the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) organized an NGO session to present experience of NGOs working on CEHAPE’s Regional Priority Goal IV (chemical free environments) in the region. Sonja Haider, WECF, spoke about the “Nesting” project which helps mothers to raise their children minimizing the exposure to hazardous chemicals. Diana Smith, HEAL, presented the Chemical Health Monitor project and the Collaborative on Health and Environment. Iulia Trombitcaia, Eco-Accord, spoke about the work of Eco-Accord and other EECCA NGOs to eliminate stockpiles of obsolete and banned pesticides and address other chemical safety problems in the region, and presented the asbestos project. Emma Anakhasyan, Armenian Women for Health and Healthy Environment NGO, presented the project on monitoring dioxins in breast milk and emphasized the need to support NGO initiatives on human biomonitoring. NGOs developed and distributed Recommendations on RPGIV. During the NGO session, Sascha Gabizon (European ECO Forum/Women in Europe for a Common Future) and Monica Guarinoni (HEAL) presented possible NGO contribution to the ministerial conference. In particular, NGOs proposed to organise:
The dates and place of the Fifth Ministerial Conference in Italy were not fixed during the Madrid meeting. The host country proposed October 2009 in Parma, but it is possible that the conference will be postponed until March 2010. The agreement should be reached next week. The fifth ministerial conference will focus on children’s environmental health as well as new emerging issues, in particular climate change. The preliminary programme for the conference was discussed by the EEHC. A lot of proposals were presented. NGOs looked at the possibilities to be more involved in the sessions on socioeconomic inequities, gender inequities, and on working with new stakeholders but did not manage to clarify these possibilities for the moment. The major outcome of the Fifth Ministerial Conference will be the ministerial declaration. Another major outcome of the Fifth Ministerial Conference could be a strategy on adaptation to climate change in the health sector. The United Kingdom offered to lead the development of the strategy. This strategy may be an annex to the ministerial declaration. The discussion on the future of the Environment and Health process was postponed until the third high-level meeting in April 2009. There was a discussion about NIS/SEE focus of the process with an introductory speech given by the REC CEE. The European ECO Forum clearly spoke in favor of maintaining the focus on the region and making stronger commitments to support and fund activities in NIS states. There will be meetings of NIS governments under coordination of the WHO to make an input to the ministerial conference, with the first meeting on 10-12 November in Kyrgyzstan focused on the health sector. The following events will take place in the preparatory process towards Fifth Ministerial Conference:
The documents of the meeting are available at: http://www.euro.who.int/eprise/main/WHO/Progs/EEHC/meetings/20080523_1 For more information please contact: Sascha Gabizon Iulia Trombitcaia
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