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Ostrava Declaration

The Sixth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO), was held in Ostrava on June 13-15, 2017. At the end of the conference, delegates signed the Ostrava Declaration. This document will guide the governments of European countries in the next six years to take steps to improve the environment and the health of the population.

The Declaration sets out the WHO agenda focused on the impact of the environment on health, which is currently applied at lower levels, to individual states and regions, from which specific tasks arise.

The Ostrava Declaration contains a total of 18 points summarizing the starting situation, describing the policy objectives, tools and mechanisms to achieve the above. The section dealing with specific issues affecting the quality of life of citizens includes seven major objectives for improving the environment, health and sustainable development:

1. Improving indoor and outdoor air quality for all, as one of the most important environmental risk factors in the Region, through actions to meet the values of the WHO air quality guidelines in a continuous process of improvement.
2. Ensuring universal, equitable and sustainable access to safe drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene for all and in all settings, while promoting integrated management of water resources and reuse of safely treated wastewater, where appropriate.
3. Minimizing the adverse effects of chemicals on human health and the environment by: replacing hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives, including non-chemical ones; reducing the exposure of vulnerable groups to hazardous chemicals, particularly during the early stages of human development; strengthening capacities for risk assessment and research to secure a better understanding of human exposure to chemicals and the associated burden of disease; and applying the precautionary principle where appropriate.
4. Preventing and eliminating the adverse environmental and health effects, costs and inequalities related to waste management and contaminated sites, by advancing towards the elimination of uncontrolled and illegal waste disposal and trafficking, and sound management of waste and contaminated sites in the context of transition to a circular economy.
5. Strenghtening adaptive capacity and resilience to health risks related to climate change and supporting measures to mitigate climate change and achieve health co-benefits in line with the Paris Agreement.
6. Supporting the efforts of European cities and regions to become healthier and more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable through an integrated, smart and health-promoting approach to urban and spatial planning, mobility management, the implementation of effective and coherent policies across multiple levels of governance, stronger accountability mechanisms and the exchange of experience and best practices in line with the shared vision established by the New Urban Agenda.
7. Building the environmental sustainability of health systems, and reducing their environmental impacts through such means as efficiency in the use of energy and resources, sound management of medical products and chemicals throughout their life-cycle and reduced pollution through safely managed waste and wastewater, without prejudice to the sanitary mission of health services.

Complete declaraton in english here.