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UNESCO’s Activities in Ethics

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Abstract

UNESCO is an intergovernmental organization with 193 Member States. It is concerned with a broad range of issues regarding education, science and culture. It is the only UN organisation with a mandate in science. Since 1993 it is addressing ethics of science and technology, with special emphasis on bioethics. One major objective of the ethics programme is the development of international normative standards. This is particularly important since many Member States only have a limited infrastructure in bioethics, lacking expertise, educational programs, bioethics committees and legal frameworks. UNESCO has recently adopted the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. The focus of current activities is now on implementation of this Declaration. Three activities are discussed that aim at improving and reinforcing the ethics infrastructure in relation to science and technology: the Global Ethics Observatory, the Ethics Education Programme and the Assisting Bioethics Committees project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Ethics of Science and Technology, UNESCO, 1, rue Miollis, 75015, Paris, France

    Henk A. M. J. ten Have

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  1. Henk A. M. J. ten Have
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Correspondence to Henk A. M. J. ten Have.

Additional information

This paper is submitted for a special issue based on the International Conference The advancement of science and the dilemma of dual use, Warsaw, 9–10 November 2007.

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ten Have, H.A.M.J. UNESCO’s Activities in Ethics. Sci Eng Ethics 16, 7–15 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-009-9161-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-009-9161-2

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