76th World Health Assembly

About the Seventy-sixth World Health Assembly (WHA76)

The Seventy-sixth World Health Assembly (WHA76) – the decision-making body of the World Health Organization meeting annually in Geneva – kicked off on Sunday 21 May 2023 after the now traditional Walk the Talk: Health for All Challenge healthy kickstart event. Held this year under the theme ‘WHO at 75: Saving lives, driving health for all ‘, WHA76 offers an occasion to address environmental health issues, and will conclude on 30 May 2023.

One of the most awaited topics to be addressed is the impact of chemicals, waste, and pollution on human health. A draft resolution on this topic is tabled by Peru, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Monaco, Switzerland, Uruguay and the European Union and its Member States (contacts Bernardo Roca-Rey Ross & Vanessa Aliaga of Peru), and will soon be available on the WHA76 portal. The draft resolution includes notes and references to various ongoing negotiations as well as UN Environment Assembly and Human Rights Council resolutions. Among these:

• Plastic pollution and the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in charge of developing a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution | Scaling-up work on plastics and health. Indeed its impacts are not given adequate attention as stated by WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during the Geneva Day held at the World Economic Forum 2023.

• The Strategic Approach and sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020 (SAICM) and the inter-sessional work of the International Conference on Chemicals Management.
  
• State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals | Update of the UNEP report to be prepared prior to the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly, in line with the resolution UNEA 5/7.
• Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working Group to establish a Science-Policy Panel to contribute further to the sound management of chemicals and waste and to prevent pollution | Contribute to the work of OEWG, and explore the full range of options for the future involvement of WHO for the consideration at the next WHA.
  
• Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC) | Promote broad engagement and coordination of relevant intergovernmental organizations, further strengthening international cooperation and multi-sectoral engagement in the sound management of chemicals and waste.
  

GEN @ World Health Assembly

The Impact of Chemicals, Waste, and Pollution on Human Health

25 May 2023 | 8:00 – 9:00 CEST | Palais des Nations & Online | Webex

Environment @ World Health Assembly

WHA76 will host a number of side events and a series of strategic roundtables where the environment will feature predominantly. These include:

• Climate Change: Health leadership for the greatest threat of our times | 22 May 2023, 12:30-14:00 CEST
• The World Together: Member State-led processes to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (Strategic Roundtable) | 22 May 2023, 13:00–14:30 CEST
• Protecting and investing in the health and care workforce: An action-oriented agenda for the second half of the SDG (Strategic Roundtable) | 23 May 2023, 13:00–14:30 CEST
• The role of the Health Community in Climate Action: taking stock and moving forward (Strategic Roundtable) | 24 May 2023, 13:00–14:30 CEST
• Renewed partnerships for global health | 24 May 2023, 17:00–20:30 CEST
• Ending TB by 2030: Universal access to care, multisectoral collaboration, and innovations to accelerate progress and combat antimicrobial resistance (Strategic Roundtable) |  25 May 2023, 13:00–14:30 CEST
• Breathing Life with Clean Air Action: Civil Society Drives Change | 25 May 2023, 13:00–15:00 CEST
• New Investments to Build Climate Resilient Communities | 25 May 2023, 14:00-18:00 CEST
• Energizing Health: Building Resilient  and Sustainable Health Infrastructure for the Future, | 25 May 2023, 18:00 CEST

On the sidelines of the WHA, the World Climate Foundation and the Geneva Health Forum (GHF) will host the World Resilience Summit 2023: Partnerships to Prevent Future of Pandemics. The Summit will launch a public-private dialogue and engage actors across climate, biodiversity, and health, aligned with the One Health approach, bringing together key stakeholders and decision-makers from both public and private sectors for pandemic prevention beyond the health sector for the first time. → Find more information on the program, the panelists, and the evening reception of the event taking place on 24 May from 15:30 to 20:00 CEST at Campus Biotech.

The World Health Assembly events timetable and locations agenda is regularly updated and available on the WHA portal, the WHO dedicated webpages, and the UN Foundation dedicated webpage.

Links

• Seventy-sixth World Health Assembly
• The impact of chemicals, waste and pollution on human health (A76/A/CONF./2) | Draft resolution tabled by Peru, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Monaco, Switzerland, Uruguay and the European Union and its Member States
• Plastics and Human Health | Plastics and the Environment Series
• World Resilience Summit 2023: Partnerships to Prevent Future of Pandemics
• International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM) | SAICM
• Sound management of chemicals and waste (UNEP/EA.5/Res.7) | 7 March 2022
• Developing a Global Science-Policy Panel on Chemicals, Waste and Pollution Prevention
• The Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC)