Paris, May 9 {No.2000-45} - In a letter to Yoshiro Mori, the Prime Minister of Japan, who will preside over the G-8 Summit scheduled to be held in Okinawa in July, UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura has requested that the G-8 issue a statement reasserting the principle of the free availability of human genome data to the world scientific community for the benefit of all humanity.

The Director-General reaffirmed today in a statement that he considers it "both important and urgent that the international community as a whole should ensure free access to raw fundamental data on the human genome on the basis of the ethical principles set forth in the Universal Declaration of the Human Genome and Human Rights adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO at its 29th session on 11 November 1997 and endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly by resolution A/RES/53/152 at its 53rd session in 1998."

Mr Matsuura further stated: "This principle would indeed guide research and its application while ensuring respect for human dignity and human rights", adding that this position concurs with that of the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO (IBC), chaired by Professor Ryuichi Ida.

In letters to the President of France, the President of the United States of America and to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mr Matsuura welcomed the concern voiced recently by these leaders, all members of the G-8, that human genome data should be available to all scientists.

On February 28, during a visit to the Netherlands, President Jacques Chirac of France publicly expressed his wish that, in order to prevent any risk of appropriation of the human genome, an ethical framework for the dissemination and use of the results of genetic research should be established. On March 14, 2000, US President Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, issued a joint statement expressing their conviction that human genome sequence data should be made freely available to the world scientific community and that discoveries from the human genome should be used to advance human health.

"These statements uphold the very principles as those set forth in the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights," Mr Matsuura said.