Manager of the Office of Sponsored Research, UWI, Mona and Attorney-At-Law Cheryl Brown will be the Jamaican representative at the 5th annual meeting of the Intergovernmental Bioethics Committee (IGBC) of UNESCO, making Jamaica the first English Speaking Caribbean country to have a representative at any IGBC meeting. Ms. Brown has been invited to attend this meeting as an observer from July 19-20 in Paris by the Director General of the Jamaica National Commission for UNESCO. The University of the West Indies, Mona following on a request from the Caribbean Research Ethics Initiative (CREI), has agreed to sponsor Ms. Brown to attend such a meeting.

This invitation is of significance in light of the vacancies on the IGBC which will arise in a few months time. Presently no Caribbean country is a member of this Body and Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago will present their candidacies for membership on this body at the next General Conference of UNESCO scheduled for October 16- November 3, 2007 in Paris.

The IGBC was created in 1998 and consists of 36 Member States elected by UNESCO’s General Conference. The IGBC informs the International Bioethics Committee (IBC) of its work and opinions in achieving agreement on the elements of a Universal Declaration on specific topics. The most recent Universal Declaration is the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights.