The fourth intergovernmental preparatory meeting on the health and environment process will take place in Malta on 25-26 March, 2004.
On the agenda will be discussions around the Children’s Environment and Health Action Plan (also known as CEHAPE) and whether or not a Table of Actions should be annexed to the ministerial document.
The CEHAPE contains four Regional Priority Goals that address four areas in which the highest burden of disease for children exists. This includes:
Access to clean water and sanitation
Indoor and outdoor air quality
Accidents and lack of physical exercise
Chemicals
Also, the draft Conference Declaration will be further negotiated. Some specific paragraphs include:
the environment and health information system
the precautionary principle
housing
extreme weather events and the public health response
situation in the NIS countries
Participation from non-governmental and non-profit making sector
For the health NGOs, Genon Jensen from the European Public Health Alliance will participate, along with two EPHA advisors:
Paul De Raeve (Standing Committee of European Nurses)
Joanne Vincenten (European Child Safety Alliance)
For the environmental NGOs, European ECO-FOrum will have three participants
Sascha Gabizon (Women in Europe for a Common Future)
Victoria Elias (Eco Accord, Moscow)
Martin Hojsik (Greenpeace, Slovak Republic)
The draft Ministerial Declaration and draft CEHAPE can be found at the end of this article.
Next steps
Comments from health and environmental NGOs should be sent by March 22 to:
HEALTH NGOs (genon@epha.org)
ENVIRONMENT NGOs (sascha@wecf.org)
