Chair,
I take the word on behalf of the Nordic countries Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway, the Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and also on behalf of the Netherlands.
We commend the secretariat for the excellent work done with the global status report on violence prevention, which together with the resolution adopted by the World Health Assembly in May last year provides an sound basis for the production of a good, targeted action plan.
We believe the resolution provides the necessary guidance for the action plan in terms of approach and scope. A particularly important point in our view is the need to ensure that the Health Sector response to violence is well integrated into a comprehensive effort that encompasses multiple sectors.
Regarding the process for developing the action plan, we would like to make two points.
Firstly, the resolution provides the necessary political guidance from member states for that process, both on the matter of the scope of the plan and on other issues. The resolution was a difficult process, and the compromise it represents must remain the basis for our work, without any reopening of difficult issues.
Secondly, where such a clear political mandate exists, the process of developing an action plan ought to be a technical process informed by the best available evidence. , and should also be as resource efficient as possible.
In view of this, the process described in the report seems to us to be overly elaborate. In particular, we think it is neither appropriate nor efficient to submit a draft global strategy for the consideration of the regional committees, both in this specific instance and as a general principle. While we welcome the opportunity for the RCs to give input to the process, we would prefer a method of involvement similar to that used for the AMR action plan in 2014. We request the secretariat to review and reconsider the proposed process for the development of the action plan, and to implement a resource-efficient process that emphasises a technical basis.
Finally, chair, we would like to express our support for the proposal by GRUA in their intervention, for the action plan to have a menu of options of policies and actions, that can be further refined or adapted at regional or national levels, according to circumstances.
Thank you.