26 June - 1 July 1999, Budapest, Hungary

             The Conference was organised by UNESCO (one of the specialised agencies of UN with its headquarters located in Paris) and ICSU - the International Council of Scientific Unions - established in 1931 in Brussels as an international non-governmental and non-profit scientific organisation (with its quarters located also in Paris). In 1998 ICSU changed its name to the International Council for Science, but it kept its well-known acronym ICSU and the logo. ICSU’s membership comprises 95 multidisciplinary national bodies, scientific research councils or national science academies and 25 International Scientific Unions. It is the world’s most prestigious international scientific organisation, and, therefore, for the past several years IUPESM has been trying to achieve the status of a full membership, although it has already been among the 28 Scientific Associates. The organisers have invited two representatives from IUPESM to attend the Conference. Mostly due to geographical reasons these representatives were Mr Nandor Richter of Hungary, Founding Member of the World Academy of Biomedical Technology (an UNESCO based organisation) and Past Vice-President of IUPESM (1988-1991), and Oskar A. Chomicki of Poland, Vice-President of IOMP.

            All the plenary sessions of the World Conference were held in the Budapest Convention Centre, others at various other buildings.  Over 2,500 participants attended the Conference from all over the world (delegations from 142 countries numbered between 1 to 30 persons). The participants were provided with free lunches, telephone cards and were allowed to travel in Budapest by public transport free of charge.

            The main topics of the Conference, called Forums, were (1) Science: Achievements, Shortcomings and Challenges, (2) Science and Society, and (3) Towards a New Commitment. 

            For the IUPESM representatives the most important meeting was that of the Non-Governmental Organisations Consultation held on June 27-28 at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. For us the only way to submit recommendation for inclusion in the Declaration and the Frame of Actions was at the NGO meeting. The revised draft documents, presented by the rapporteur were accepted by consensus at the closing session of the conference. Time for discussion was not available.  One of IUPESM representatives (Oskar Chomicki) was allowed 15 minutes to present the structure and activities of the IUPESM before a group of some 30 delegates of  29 NGO organisations, and both representatives submitted the following new paragraph to the NGO recommendation: 

            “ Health related sciences - medical sciences and health related technological sciences, such as medical physics and biomedical engineering are of the greatest importance as a response to human needs. A balanced development and application of these sciences are key factors in health improvement the world over. Emphasis should be put on preventive health technologies with particular reference to the existing needs in developing countries. Governments and international organisations should increasingly rely upon the experience in this field [gained] by some international organisations such as IUPESM” 

            This paragraph was subsequently edited by NGO rapporteurs, and in the version given below was included in a set of six draft recommendations presented by the NGO to the General Meeting: 

            “Health related sciences are of the greatest importance as a response to human needs. A balanced development and application of these sciences, to be inclusive of all groups, are key factors in health improvement the world over. Emphasis should be put on preventive health technologies with particular reference to the existing needs. Governments and international organisations should increasingly rely upon the experience in this field of the relevant international scientific organisations and relevant NGO”. 

            It can easily be seen that two vital points in the IUPESM paragraph were, unfortunately, omitted, namely those of “medical physics and biomedical engineering” and “such as IUPESM”. Nevertheless, although the final draft version of the “DECLARATION ON SCIENCE AND THE USE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE”, the most important document issued at the Conference, did not retain the above formulation it had one sentence in the Preamble, which vaguely resembled the suggestion made by the IUPESM representatives. It read: “We seek collaboration across all the fields of scientific endeavour, i.e. the natural sciences such as the physical, earth and biological sciences, the biomedical and engineering sciences...” These documents can be downloaded from the website: http://www.unesco.org/science/wcs 

            One may say that it is better to have something than nothing... What should be emphasised is that the Conference in its toto did not concern itself much with bio-medicine, and, for example, apart from the above few words, the Declaration did not mention any medical problems at all. Just to show the atmosphere and the philosophy of the conference we include a few sentences from the opening speech of Prof. Arber, President of ICSU: 

            “ The represented disciplines englobe all of natural sciences and range from mathematics and astronomy to specialized fields of the life sciences and include of course physics, chemistry and the earth sciences. Please note that this roughly corresponds to the definition given to science in the context of our World Conference on Science. Most of what is commonly understood under humanities, social sciences, clinical medicine and engineering is thus not part of our debate on science per se, although some important segment of these fields of knowledge are essential in the evaluation of the impact of science and its application on society”. The organisers and participants, since they wanted to gain respect for science, and/or make it more popular in their respective societies, especially in the Developing Countries, and wanted to introduce science into the 21^st century in all countries the world over, were mostly interested in general problems concerning humankind such as poverty (with suggestions by the representatives of some African countries that part of their debts be transformed into financial assistance for research), or  the historical imbalance in the participation of men and women in all science-related activities, or  ethics in scientific endeavour. There were also some rather unusual recommendations like those put forward by one of the founders of the Indian Green Revolution who suggested that poverty should be eliminated by introducing Internet to Indian villages; he himself initiated this programme in 20 small villages with an annual income of $ 25! 

            Among the most important 28 conclusions drawn and adopted were those which proclaimed the importance of  (1) Science for knowledge; knowledge for progress, (2) Science for peace, (3) Science for development, and (4) Science in society and science for society.  Several dozen researchers and scientific organisers spent several dozen hours on formulating  these points in detail with the aim of presenting them to the respective governmental bodies and NGO organisations for implementation. 

            The general feeling was that in practice the World Conference on Science would not be able to  change dramatically the world’s current situation in science, especially  in the emerging and developing countries, mostly because of the widespread shortage in financial resources which, as everybody pointed out, are absolutely indispensable for research and scientific education. Both UNESCO and ICSU were very clear in this respect: no big money may be forthcoming from these two organisations. This statement may have a bearing on the IUPESM’s hopes for financial assistance in the future. Higher status and wider recognition on the part of the scientific community are two most important benefits to be gained from joining ICSU. 

Oskar A. Chomicki and Nandor Richter– IUPESM representatives to the World Science Congress