The WHO Adopts 10-Year Action Plan for Workers' Health
From Trade Unions in Geneva: May 22, 2007
The World Health Organisation (WHO) today adopted a ten-year plan of action for 'Workers Health' that has been promoted by a coalition which brought trade unions together with international occupational and public health organizations.
The breakthrough came this afternoon at the international World Health Assembly when WHO member States voted for a resolution that calls on them to devise national implementation plans "in collaboration with workers, employers and their organizations", and to "strengthen collaboration with the ILO to stimulate joint regional and country efforts on workers' health."
The General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) responded by indicating his support to work with the WHO in promoting the health and well being of workers world-wide. "I believe the time is right for strengthening the WHO's actions on occupational health, and linking them to public health and environmental protection", he said.
In an earlier statement, Barbara Hatcher, Secretary General of the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA), informed the WHO Assembly that, "During this past year, we have joined the ITUC and the International Commission of Occupational Health (ICOH) to support the action plan for workers' health."
The three organizations came together in the lead-up to 28 April 2007 International Commemoration Day (ICD) for Dead and Injured Workers to lobby Health Ministers to support the Plan which includes provisions to combat occupational cancers, engage in a campaign for the elimination of asbestos-related diseases, and to strengthen enforcement measures. It also calls for the involvement of workers, trade unions, health professionals and others in implementation, with a focus on the needs of health workers involved in the provision of services, and on the need to provide access to services to working people all around the world.
Trade unionists say that the Plan is also unique because its provides for linkages to employment, capacity building, training, poverty and sustainable development issues which provide extensive opportunity for increased collaboration between their organizations and the WHO in the ongoing fight against HIV/AIDS, as well for links to their work in other fora dealing with occupational health and safety.
Trade union efforts in this area are part of a process that began with an Assembly on Environment and Sustainable Development co-hosted in Nairobi, Kenya in January 2006 by UNEP and trade union organisations. Amongst other outcomes, that Assembly adopted a resolution calling on the UNEP, ILO and WHO to work together to link "occupational health to environmental and public health policy, while raising standards for occupational health and safety."
Preliminary meetings last week between the coalition partners and the WHO Secretariat produced a schedule of meetings for initial consultations, as well as revealing a high degree of openness for collaborative planning and implementation over the next decade.
In addition to these deliberations, trade unions last week delivered a letter to each country's Health delegation at the WHO requesting their assistance in ongoing efforts to convince the G8 to establish a high level working group, as well as to work with UNAIDS to provide monitoring and reporting mechanisms that would puts arms and legs to promises on HIV/AIDS that have been made by G8 member countries.
Lucien Royer
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC)
15, Rue Laperouse - 75016 Paris, France
Tel (331) 5537 3737 Fax 4754 9828
royer@tuac.org
| 