Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health

About the Forum

The Healthy Planet Forum was conducted in parallel with the 4th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, ’The Future for Our Children’, June 22-25, 2004, in Budapest, Hungary.

The REC Country Office Hungary acted as focal point all along the over one year preparation phase and as host organisation during the Forum.

The Forum was a very colourful, multinational and multicultural event - with a very limited budget, but enormous voluntary ‘civil efforts’ - that generated a vast amount of ‘added value’ to the environment and health ministerial agenda.

The Hungarian Minister of Health Mihaly Kokeny, Minister of Environment Miklos Persanyi and the Executive director of the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Marta Bonifert, addressed the Forum participants on the opening plenary. The Commissioner, Margot Wallstrom had a successful meeting with the Forum participants on the closing plenary - and many other ministerial delegates visited the Forum venue.

Result
Declarations
From the Forum: NGO Brussels Statement

From the ministerial conference: WHO Budapest Declaration, CEHAPE – Children’s Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe, Youth Declaration

Participants
(See participant list section for details)
497 registered participants from 49 countries were present in total turnover during the 4 days of the Healthy Planet Forum. In precise figures: 337 persons submitted registration forms in advance via email. 209 of these arrived to Budapest and “checked in” and spent some time on the Forum venue (62%). Additionally 288 persons registered at the reception – and many visitors just came without any registration.

Events and evaluation
(See the ‘Forum Events’ page for details - and please send more!)
4 plenary sessions, 36 workshops and over 15 exhibitions and ad-hoc events took place in the eight properly equipped meeting rooms and the exhibition spaces. Thanks for sponsorship of the Hungarian Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Environment and Water.

The workshops covered the whole spectrum of environment and health issues; indoor and outdoor air quality, noise, access to safe water and sanitation, environmental justice, nuclear waste, GMOs, chemicals, education, overpopulation – just some highlights of the Forum.

The scope was very wide, the interests were very diverse and every single topic had a room. Next time this should be differently: some extremely interesting and valuable workshops received a less attention than deserved. Now we know that fewer rooms with more focused, tighter agenda may work better - taking into consideration that the Forum not a stand-alone gathering but a parallel event to a Ministerial Conference, that diverts the audience.

Last, but not least: the Forum was meant to be the gathering place of the Civil Society that ensures transparent and meaningful participation of the Civil Society in the Ministerial conference. Some may have felt that the 3 kilometres between those on the Ministerial Conference and the Forum participants’ was not really a ‘physical’ distance… Still, we do hope that by next time the official and the civil side will be closer in both meaning, and Budapest was and important milestone towards the real cooperation and progress.