Press release
Eastern Mediterranean/Arab States Regional Summit of National Ethics & Bioethics Committees
The Global Summit of National Ethics Committees, held once every two years, brings together national ethics committees -NECs ( i.e.:bodies with a recognised national role in providing bioethics advice or decision) from around the world to share their thoughts and experiences in relation to bioethical issues. It serves as an international forum for exchange of views and debate on bioethical issues of common global interest, therefore contributing both to common understanding and consensus building between nations as well as assisting those nations developing their national bioethical framework and guidelines.
At the 11th Global Summit (Berlin, March 2016), the participants proposed holding Regional Summits between the Global Summits to discuss bioethical issues that are relevant to particular regions. The first regional Summit was thus organized in Oman in close collaboration with the Omani National Bioethics Committee (NBC), UNESCO and WHO and hosted at the Sultan Qaboos University.
Against this backdrop, a second Regional Summit of NECs was jointly organized by UNESCO Beirut and Cairo Offices and WHO in Cairo, on 15-16 December 2019 to further explore a regional approach in policy process and knowledge sharing in promoting ethics in the region, prior to the 13th Global Summit to be held in Portugal in 2020.
The regional summit specifically aimed to foster development of NECs in the Eastern Mediterranean/Arab States region and establish an effective mechanism of regional harmonization and cooperation to address emerging issued related to bioethics. The meeting gathered around 30 participants who are National Ethics / Bioethics Committees representatives; regional and international experts in bioethics, disaster ethics, law, and theology; regional representatives of WHO; UNESCO Chairs in Bioethics; and representatives of academic institutions from the region.
In his speech, UNESCO Cairo鈥檚 Director Dr Ghaith Fariz stated: 鈥淚s everything feasible ethically admissible? Is it permissible to use any instrument for the whole range of its possible applications? The answer is no. Over the years, 91麻豆国产精品自拍 confirmed its standard-setting role in bioethics, in particular through its Universal Declaration on the Bioethics and Human Rights adopted unanimously by the General Conference in 2005鈥. He added: 鈥淩apid technological advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as other advancing technologies such as robotics, cloud computing and Internet, are transforming disciplines, economies and industries, and challenging ideas about what it means to be human. AI has enormous potential for social good and promoting the achievement of the SDGs if it develops in a way that benefits humanity, respects global norms and standards, and is anchored in peace and development. As follow up to UNESCO鈥檚 40th General Conference held in November 2019, we shall start the consultations to produce a new standard-setting instrument that takes into consideration the challenges raised by AI鈥.
UNESCO Beirut's Programme Specialist for Social and Human Sciences, Dr Seiko Sugita, then shared the video intervention of Professor Peter Paul Vanbeek, the chair of the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge (COMEST), on "Artificial Intelligence" , and called for a strong regional participation in the consultation process for the drafting of a normative instrument in 2020.
The two-day regional summit provided a platform where participants reviewed past progress in NECs and reflected on current actions and future goals in order to generate a list of prioritized recommendations for a short to medium-term operational strategy. This strategy will allow EMRO and UNESCO to proactively develop guidance and potential capacity building activities on the inputs provided during the meeting.
