ince its founding in 1945, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has been a leading convener and advocate for the natural and social sciences and the humanities. Every year since 2001, on 10 November, UNESCO’s World Science Day reminds us of the importance of science for sustainable development and peace. This year’s theme, “Science for Global Understand...

In the late 1987, I began discussion on the education of hydrologists with Dr S. Dumitrescu, Director of the Division of Water Sciences of UNESCO. Our concern is reflected in the following two excerpts from the related correspondence: ".... There has been a growing awareness that hydrology as a geophysical science is making slow progress and has no solid foundations. A major (or perhaps the maj...

In 1993 I went to a UNESCO/CROP conference in Paris organised around the theme: Economic Growth and its Significance for Poverty Reduction. The conference participants were an unusual blend of academic disciplines with historians, sociologists, economists, psychologists and political scientists, with a range of perspectives from Marxist to New Right. They came from countries at all stages of ec...

The principle of respect for human dignity plays a crucial role in the emerging global norms relating to bioethics, in particular in the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. This instrument, which is a legal, not merely an ethical document, can be regarded as an extension of international human rights law into the field of biomedicine. Although the Declaration does not ex...

UNESCO's Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005) was drawn up by an independent panel of experts (the International Bioethics Committee) and negotiated by member states. UNESCO aimed for a participatory and transparent drafting process, holding national and regional consultations and seeking the views of various interest groups, including religious and spiritual ones. Further...