[Trends in the utilization of internet for facilitating transparent and more active stakeholder participation in the Codex process in several countries].
Codex standards have become the benchmarks against which national food safety control measures and regulations are evaluated within the legal parameters of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements. For this reason, high-level representation at meetings of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, it's related committees and ad hoc intergovernmental task forces continue to be a priority for many governments. Opportunities broaden for stakeholder input towards the development of government positions for all Codex work through the national Codex website. Some countries utilize a national Codex website as an effective communication tool between the national Codex Contact Point (CCP) and stakeholders. In this regard, stockholder participation in the national Codex preparation process is insufficient in Japan. One of the reasons for this could be the lack of information on Codex and the insufficient understanding of the work of Codex among Japanese stakeholders. To overcome these problems, more active and effective utilization of the Japanese Codex webpage should be considered. In this paper, we show analyses of recent trends of the information on Codex available from national Codex websites from six countries in order to identify the needs to establish a similar Japanese Codex website and possible contents of the site. The six websites of the national CCPs analyzed are regularly updated and utilized for the means of active information interchange between national CCPs and stakeholders, for example, providing basic general information on Codex, including its purpose, structure and meeting schedule, posting Codex working documents open for comment, and the Terms of Reference, key issues under discussion, and delegation reports of the previous sessions. Consequently, stakeholders interested in the paper could submit their comments to the delegate of the country whose contact details are made available on the website. This is one of the examples of active stakeholder participation. By establishing a similar communication system in Japan between the National Codex Contact Point and stakeholders, a more active stakeholder participation in the national codex process could be achieved. The web site could be used to provide information on the issues under discussion in each Committee and summaries of the Codex working documents circulated for the comments and their potential implications in Japan.
Toyofuku
Hajime
H
toyofuku@nihs.go.jp
Kubota
Kunihiro
K
Morikawa
Kaoru
K
D003257:Consumer Product Safety / Q000592:standards*; D005502:Food / Q000592:standards*; D007391:International Cooperation; D020407:Internet / Q000639:trends*; D007564:Japan; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000639:trends*