Update 61

Update 61, "The role of Europe in sustainable development" - now available online

Sustainable development captures the complex relationship between human beings and their environment. It demonstrates that achieving progress could - and should - mean aiming for a better quality of life rather than targeting greater economic growth alone.
In this issue:
Click on the title to get to the corresponding article.
On the brink of a healthier future?
WHO’s vision for Rio +10
Yasmin van Schirnding, World Health Organization
What role for Europe?
Interview: Jan (...)

On the brink of a healthier future?

This year just might produce a vision of a global system in which "development" is seen in terms of achievements in environmental and social justice as well as economic growth. The World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) to be held in August in Johannesburg creates an opportunity for "a coalition for responsible prosperity", according to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Many hope that Europe, as one of the two most powerful players at the event, will play a key role in that (...)

WHO’s vision for Rio + 10

The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) provides an unprecedented opportunity to show the importance of health in the development process according to Dr Yasmin von Schirnding, Coordinator for WSSD, World Health Organization, Geneva.
Health is recognised as a key goal of sustainable development in the first principle of the Rio Declaration, which states that: "Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive (...)

What role for Europe?

With a home-grown commitment to "sustainable development", the wealthy countries of the European Union are in an ideal position to show leadership at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg later this year - and to ensure that real change takes place afterwards.
Jan Pronk, Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment in the Netherlands, is playing an important role in the preparatory process for the Summit, including chairing the panel on poverty and (...)

European women champion health

Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF) are responsible for European women’s input for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). Here, Marie Kranendonk, Helen Lynn and Elizabeth Danielyan (WECF president, health working group co-ordinator for Western Europe, and health working group co-ordinator for Central and Eastern Europe respectively) describe their perspectives on health.
How can the crucial importance of health be strengthened in the debate in Johannesburg?
Helen (...)

The case for integrating health into Article 6 of the EC treaty

Gaudenz Silberschmidt of the International Society of Doctors for the Environment believes changes should be made to the European Community Treaty to ensure health has a higher profile in the achievement of sustainable development at the European level. He calls for "Health Integration" so that health considerations would be given the same status as environmental protection in all areas of EU policy making.
"Sustainable development" appears at the beginning of Article 2 of the Treaty (...)

Resources on health and sustainable development

The Rio to Johannesburg process
Agenda 21, adopted at the UNCED meeting held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 3 to 14 June 1992, is available at http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/agenda21.htm
United Nation’s site for the World Summit on Sustainable Development to be held in Johannesburg 26 August - 4 September 2002 is at http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/flat/riomajorgroups.htm
It includes:
the preparatory committee report on health and sustainable development prepared by WHO and a report of the (...)

Spanish presidency: three top priorities

The Spanish Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs, Celia Villalobos Talero, presented the Presidency’s priorities on Health and Consumer Protection on 4 February 2002. The public health programme, the blood directive and a common understanding on tobacco are urgent issues.
Minister Villalobos began her speech to the European Parliament’s Environment Committee in February by highlighting the fact that the Spanish Presidency "places special importance on all those matters concerning the (...)

Direct-To-Consumer Advertising - for or against?

The European Parliament has begun to consider proposals from the Commission to allow industry to disseminate information on prescription drugs directly to the consumer. This move could risk leading to Direct-to-Consumer Advertising in Europe. In response, Health Action international-Europe (HAI Europe) and EPHA organised a seminar in Brussels on January 10 to discuss the question of: "Providing Prescription Medicine Information to Consumers: Is there a role for Direct-to-Consumer (...)