13th UN Inter-Agency Committee on Bioethics (UNIACB)

Strasbourg, 25 March 2014

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a real pleasure and honour to welcome you today at the Council of Europe and to open this 13th meeting of the UN Inter Agency Committee on Bioethics.

We are here to deal with developments in biology, medicine and technology which are advancing at great speed. They are source of improvements and great expectations and hopes, in particular for human health, but also raise human rights challenges. Scientific progress is to be promoted, but we must remain vigilant with regard to the protection of human rights and address possible negative implications for the dignity and integrity of human beings.

As an example, innovations in recent years in the biomedical field result increasingly from the convergence of developments in different domains, including nanotechnology, cognitive science and information technology. As a result of this convergence, there appears to be an increasing interaction between the life sciences and the engineering sciences. This raises new ethical challenges and possibly leads to discussion on the new form of governance as highlighted in the conclusions of a study prepared by the Rathenau Instituut (NL) at the request of the Council of Europe and which is about to be published.

Ethics and governance of converging technologies is on our agenda, and I am certain that there will be an interesting discussion on this issue with a view to possible collaboration.

You will also be discussing prenatal sex selection, an issue on which the Committee on Bioethics has been mandated to conduct a comparative study and consider, where appropriate, the preparation of guidelines and good practices in this field.

The UNFPA, WHO, UNESCO in particular have already worked in this domain and we are very pleased that there will be a dedicated session including a video conference later in the day so that we can exchange information on current work and profit from their experience to consider possible activities and cooperation to address this very sensitive problem.

All these issues are global issues. Close international cooperation is particularly important to address them. International co-operation is not limited to co-operation between States, it also means between international organisations. This has always been an integral part of the working methods of the Council of Europe. Since the beginning of our work in bioethics, the European Commission, UNESCO, WHO, as well as the OECD, have been invited to participate in the work of our intergovernmental Committee on Bioethics. We are very interested in building on and expanding this cooperation.

I would like to encourage us all to look for more opportunities for such joint activities. We need to promote scientific and technological advances finding new ways to protect and improve our health, without undermining and neglecting the respect for dignity and integrity of human beings. 

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have now to attend another meeting with the Secretary General and therefore, unfortunately, it will be not possible for me to participate in your work. But I am looking forward with great interest to the results of your debates.

I wish you a very fruitful meeting.

Thank you.