UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology to meet in Malaysia from 16 to 19 June

Paris, 4 June

• ©: UNESCO/Niamh Burke
• Genoscope, Centre for Genetic Research

The sixth ordinary session of the UNESCO World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) will be held in Kuala Lumpur* (Malaysia) from 16 to 19 June. It will examine reports the COMEST is to publish about science ethics and the ethical implications of climate change.

Pierre Sané, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO for Social and Human Sciences, will open the session on 16 June at 10.00 a.m., in the presence of Maximus Ongkili, the Malaysian Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation. A roundtable will then focus on research-policy linkages in science ethics. The afternoon of 16 June (2.30 p.m.) and the morning of 17 June (9.00 a.m.) will deal with science ethics: Alain Pompidou, Chairperson of COMEST, will present the draft report on the subject and a debate will follow. A roundtable will then be dedicated to the ethics of energy technologies in Asia and the Pacific.

The afternoon of 17 June and the morning of 18 June will be devoted to the ethical implications of climate change, starting with the presentation of a draft report by Johan Hattingh, Rapporteur of COMEST. A session about the ethics of nanotechnology will then lay the ground for a study of developments since 2007 when the COMEST adopted recommendations on the subject. Participants will also focus on environmental ethics teaching and the conclusions of the Youth Forum on environmental ethics, a side event of the session.

The COMEST session will be open to the public from 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. on 16 June and all day on 17 June and 18 June.

Several regional conferences will be held alongside the COMEST meeting: On 15 June, a joint conference of the International Science, Technology and Innovation Centre for South-South Cooperation (ISTIC) and UNESCO will focus on the importance of teaching ethics at university. And on 19 June, a UNESCO-Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) conference will be devoted to the use and management of resources affecting humans and the environment.

Created in 1998 to respond to the ethical challenges raised by scientific and technological progress, the COMEST, numbers 18 experts appointed in their personal capacity by the Director-General of UNESCO, as well as 11 ex-officio members representing the international scientific programmes of the Organization, the International Bioethics Committee (IBC), the Intergovernmental Bioethics Committee (IGBC) and international scientific associations.

* Hotel Eastin, Petaling Jaya, Selangor

• Author(s):UNESCOPRESS
• Source:Media Advisory N°2009-36
• 05-06-2009