La Déclaration universelle sur la bioéthique et les droits de l'homme : une vision du bien commun dans un contexte mondial de pluralité et de diversité culturelle?

In October 2005 the General Assembly of UNESCO adopted the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. This declaration was produced by the International Bioethics Committee in consultation with the Intergovernmental Bioethics Committee, Member States, Interagency Committee of the United Nations, governmental and non governmental organisations, national bioethics committees and many actors involved in bioethics. This declaration had been preceded by two other declarations adopted in 1997 and 2003: The Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights and the International Declaration on Human Genetic Data.  The ethical questions posed by the scientific and technological developments and globalization had prompted the organization to prepare normative instruments susceptible of being endorsed and used by all nations, especially developing ones. Being the only global organization with a specific mandate in ethics UNESCO wanted to give its Member States a normative framework that could help them in the formulation of their legislations and guidelines. Having been involved in that process as the Chair of the International Bioethics Committee, we asked ourselves this question: In the context of globalization, is it possible to have a bioethics based on a universal common good vision that could take into account cultural diversity and pluralism? The example of the elaboration of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights? Common good is a concept that is often mentioned without any specific definition. It appeared to us that it would be interesting to trace back its history and conception and to develop a conceptual framework that would serve after to study and find the meaning given to its basic concepts in the elaboration of the declaration.  The first chapter of this work present the context and the problematic. The second chapter present a review of the literature, and the conceptual framework. The third chapter presents the theoretical perspective, the methodology and the data that have been analysed. The fourth chapter offers a detailed analysis of the different steps and the different versions of the declaration by looking at what was said about the concepts included in the conceptual framework. The fifth chapter presents the scope and the limits of the declaration and the sixth chapter offers a conclusion.  We conclude that the declaration in going through a process of deliberation, consultation and pragmatic consensus offers a text that presents a renewed universal vision of the common good susceptible to take into account cultural diversity and pluralism, thus offering an instrument that can be used by all nations in different contexts its text being flexible and adaptable at the global level. That declaration offers a general framework of principles able to be used by all nations, specially the developing ones, in a globalized context because its flexible architecture and its willingness to not categorize the principles but to use them complementarily, presents us with a text that can be adaptable at the global level. This work will contribute to the enrichment of the thinking of international organizations involved in bioethics. It will also provide some ideas to the researchers in political sciences and laws when they are looking at new models of governance and at new ways of building legislations and norms, or at ways of facing human rights new challenges.

Keyphrases: Justice, Unesco, Bioethics, Justice, Common good, Solidarity, Autonomy, Responsibility, Globalization, Cultural diversity, Equity, Unesco