Excellences,
Mesdames et messieurs,
Chers amis,
I would like to thank the European Commission, as well as the French National Consultative Ethics Council (CCNE), for your collaboration in organizing this meeting at UNESCO.
Promoting the ethical advancement of science and technology is one of the core functions of UNESCO. In recent years, we have applied this mandate to such frontier fields of science as genetic engineering, neuro technologies and artificial intelligence. Nowadays, these emerging and converging technologies are at the centre of discussions world-wide, as their impact will depend on the way humanity frames it and masters it. It is, therefore, essential to do it right from the outset.
In this effort, we know the central role that the national ethics and bioethics committees play in safeguarding human rights and shaping the technologies to contribute to human goals.
The Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, adopted by UNESCO in 2005, remains a seminal normative instrument in bioethics at the global level, calling governments to establish, promote and support independent, multidisciplinary and pluralist ethics committees. It also gives us the mandate to build national capacities in this domain.
Thus, we have been supporting Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, and the Arab region, to establish and re-enforce their national bioethics infrastructures in line with the Assisting Bioethics Committees project.
I am delighted to see that today, you are playing a critical role around the world, assessing the relevant ethical, legal, scientific and social issues, providing advice to policymakers, monitoring scientific and technological developments, and formulating recommendations and guidelines on issues within the scope of UNESCO’s Declaration. Critically, the committees continue to foster debate, education and public awareness of, and engagement in bioethics.
And today, promoting public awareness is more important than ever. Therefore, bioethics committees are indispensable for our efforts to tackle distrust in science, manifested in such areas as climate change and vaccines. While the reasons behind this phenomenon are complex, we know that deliberate disinformation, misinformation, and fearmongering for political and financial profit has certainly played a major part.
On the positive side, we have seen how the national bioethics committees have taken the initiative to counter this, using the traditional media outlets to voice their evidence-based opinions, and also using social media.
As we are witnessing the emergence of new and converging digital technologies, the National Bioethics Committees are called upon to provide guidance in this domain as well.
I am sure that you are aware of the adoption by acclamation of the UNESCO General Conference last November of the Recommendation on the Ethics of AI – a key global instrument to ensure that AI is trustworthy, human rights-based and sustainable, and conducive to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Recommendation is a ground-breaking instrument. It offers much needed guidance through an equitable blueprint on how to achieve this fragile balance that helps leverage the full transformative potential of AI technologies, without incurring irreversible dilution of the transparency, accountability, privacy and human dignity principles.
The recommendation recognizes that AI is having a fundamental and complex impact on health and social well-being.
In fact, an entire chapter is dedicated to this topic, where Member States are called on to pay particular attention in regulating prediction, detection and treatment solutions for health care in AI applications by ensuring, where necessary, the review of AI systems by an ethical research committee prior to clinical use.
As we work with the Member States to facilitate the implementation of the Recommendation, we will be paying special attention to the health domain, and providing capacity-building for the national ethics institutions.
I am delighted to know that under the roof of UNESCO, for the next two days, you will engage in the debate on digital ethics, ethics and innovation, mental health and the future of ethics in light of emerging technologies.
I wish you productive deliberations.