Press
Release No.2002-69
UNESCO TO RECEIVE THE 2002 SIBI AWARD
FOR ITS WORK IN THE FIELD OF BIOETHICS
Paris, September 27 - On October
4, UNESCO will receive the SIBI award in Gijón, Spain,
which the Sociedad Internacional de Bioética (SIBI) bestows
every two years upon an individual, a group or an entity whose
research, publications or teaching has made significant contributions
to the field of bioethics.
The Sociedad Internacional de Bioética
will hand out the 2002 SIBI award, consisting of a medal and a
diploma, during the closing ceremony of the second World Conference
on Bioethics, which will take place in Gijón from September
30 to October 4. The Assistant Director-General for Social and
Human Sciences, Pierre Sané, will accept the award on behalf
of UNESCO.
This is the second time that the
Sociedad Internacional de Bioética has awarded the prize.
The first laureate, in 2000, was Professor Van Rensselaer Potter,
to whom we owe the term "bioethics". This year, the
SIBI's scientific committee unanimously voted to give UNESCO the
honour for its "continuing and universal work in favour of
bioethical values", especially for the Universal Declaration
on the Human Genome and Human Rights, the first international
instrument in this field.
The Gijón-based SIBI was
set up in 1996 on a proposal by Marcelo Palacios, a former member
of the Spanish parliament, and a member of the Council of Europe's
Parliamentary Assembly. That same year, the Council of Europe
decided to open for signature in Oviedo (Asturias) its Convention
for the Protection Human Rights and Dignity in the Applications
of Biology and Medicine, known as the Convention of Asturias.
The aim of the SIBI is to promote
reflection, analysis and debate on bioethical issues. One of its
main tasks is to disseminate the Asturias Bioethics Convention.
The SIBI is legally, economically and administratively managed
by the same-named foundation.
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