Annan proposes global forum to address biotechnology's benefits
22 Nov '06
2 min read
The United Nations is well placed to coordinate a global forum on biotechnology so that its benefits can be expanded for all and its potentially catastrophic risks can be managed and mitigated, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.
In a speech at St. Gallen University in Switzerland, where he accepted the Max Schmidheiny Freedom Prize, Mr. Annan said extraordinary progress in all the life sciences, but especially biotechnology, “has opened up some of the most promising avenues in history towards improving the human condition,” from developing new vaccines to finding fresh ways to protect the environment.
But he said the “galloping advance” made by biotechnology is outpacing efforts to regulate or at least regularize the system for conducting research and using technology.
As such, a global forum for debate, comprising representatives of industry, science, public health, governments and the general public, is necessary “to work out a common programme, built from the bottom up,” the Secretary-General said.
The United Nations, with its universal membership, range of partnerships, and capacity for outreach, “has the ability to bring the wide range of relevant participants to the table, and to keep them there.”
Mr. Annan said existing and future technologies should be made more widely available to reduce global inequities and promote economic growth as well as human health and food security.
The risks inherent in biotechnology, either from negligence or deliberate misuse, could also be dealt with by way of a range of measures, from voluntary codes of conduct to legally binding systems and regulatory bodies to oversee sensitive research.
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