WHO Europe is the main intergovernmental organisation for action on all health matters in the region and at the time was particularly influential among the governments of the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia through its regional headquarters in Copenhagen. Building on the achievements of the OSI funded project ICPS began to work closely with WHO Europe and its partners in the Health in Prison Project (HiPP) to bring a concern for prison health issues into the mainstream of WHO thinking. A group of senior WHO officials, led by Dr Haik Nikogosian, Head of the WHO Unit for promoting Lifestyle, Environment and Development, which had the lead role in promoting prison health care within WHO Europe visited ICPS to discuss the best options for ensuring that all public health initiatives would always took account of prison health issues. It was agreed that the annual WHO HiPP meeting would be held in Moscow in 2003, the first time that it ventured beyond Western Europe. A further planning meeting took place in the WHO regional offices in Copenhagen in April 2003 and was attended by most of the OSI/ICPS project steering group. At the meeting WHO announced its intention to establish a new task force on prison health with funding from the Dutch government. WHO indicated that members of the OSI project steering group would be invited to join this task force and it was agreed that the WHO task force would in due course take over the work of the OSI steering group.
Throughout 2003 ICPS devoted considerable time and effort to assisting WHO with preparations for the HiPP conference in Moscow. The WHO conference on Prison and Public Health took place in Moscow in October 2003 and was opened by Ms Karelova, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. Keynote addresses were given by the Russian Deputy Minister of Health and Dr Roberto Bertollini, the responsible Director in WHO Europe. At the conclusion of the conference a draft WHO consensus statement on prison and public health was approved. This was the first time that WHO Europe had agreed a declaration on prison health stressing the need for close links or integration between public health services and prison health services. The statement was addressed to all member governments of WHO Europe and called on them to bring their prison and public health services closer together. It made clear that harm reduction should become the guiding principle in dealing with the prevention of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. It also noted the effect that poor prison conditions can have on health and called on member governments to improve the living conditions in their prisons. This groundbreaking statement, which is frequently referred to as The Moscow Declaration on Prison Health as Part of Public Health, can be accessed below.