Manager of the Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) at The UWI, Mona and Attorney-At-Law, Cheryl Brown has been invited by the President of Azerbaijan to attend meetings of the International Bioethics Committee (IBC) being held in Baku, Azerbaijan from May 28-June 4, 2011.  She is the only Caribbean representative who will attend this meeting. The International Bioethics Committee (IBC) is a body of 36 independent experts that follows progress in the life sciences and its applications in order to ensure respect for human dignity and freedom.

Ms. Brown and the 35 other IBC members will be finalising reports on Cloning, Traditional Medicine and its ethical implications as well as Human Vulnerability and Personal Integrity. These reports will be presented at a joint meeting of the Inter-Governmental Bioethics Committee (IGBC) and the IBC in UNESCO, Paris in October.

The IBC was created by UNESCO in 1993 and provides the only global forum for reflection in bioethics. The IBC's 36 members are appointed by UNESCO’s Director to serve in their personal capacities for four-year terms. The selection is made taking into account cultural diversity, balanced geographical representation and nominations from States of qualified specialists in the life sciences and in the social and human sciences, including law, human rights, philosophy, education and communication.

Prior to her appointment to the IBC she was Jamaica’s Representative to the Inter-Governmental Bioethics Committee (IGBC) since 2007.  This is the first time any representative from the Anglo-phone Caribbean has been on the Committee.  She is also the second Jamaican to serve on the prestigious IBC world body after Judge Patrick Robinson who served two terms from 1996 to 2005.